Todhri Letter Ei

Todhri’s Albanian e letter appears in historical charts as the open-e form.

An Albanian-language survey dates the earliest written evidence for the Todhri letter ei to an entry dated 1 June 1780 in the Popa family codex, a handwritten book. The script is traditionally attributed to Theodhor Haxhifilipi, and the survey reports use into the 1930s. Its later Unicode encoding marks digital standardization, not the script’s historical beginning.

Todhri was devised to write Albanian in and around Elbasan. Surviving examples include hand-copied biblical texts and a catechism (a book of Christian teaching); historical accounts also describe merchant letters and account books. Scholars disagree about its roots: Johann Georg von Hahn linked it to Phoenician writing, while later work emphasizes influence from Greek and Roman cursive handwriting—quick, flowing handwriting. Todhri was one of several locally created Albanian scripts, alongside those of Berat and Elbasan. Studies report some parallels with Berat and distinguish Todhri from Elbasan.

Why does Unicode call it “Ei”?

“Ei” labels Todhri’s open-e form; it is not a second reading.

Unicode’s Todhri naming convention uses EI for modern Albanian e and E for ë. The historical chart maps 𐗉 to von Hahn’s open-e form, so “Ei” identifies the letter’s category rather than telling you to read two vowel sounds.

The Todhri letter ei has a canonical equivalent: 𐗒 followed by ◌̇, the combining dot above. Unicode treats that sequence as the same letter, and software may store either form.

The letter needs a font that includes Todhri. As of 2026, the Noto project lists Noto Serif Todhri; an app without a Todhri-capable font may show a missing-glyph box.