What 𐎜 means
It marks the Ugaritic glottal catch before u. Aleph is the brief closure in the throat that acts as a consonant. This form is conventionally transliterated ʾu; it can also represent a long u and an o-like vowel.
The script most likely developed locally at Ugarit, at the site now called Ras Shamra, by adapting an existing alphabet to cuneiform: wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay. Tablets from the 14th to early 12th century BCE include contracts and lists, letters, school exercises, legal and ritual texts, and literature.
Ugaritic's letter order closely parallels Phoenician and other Semitic alphabets, evidence of a shared scribal tradition; that does not make 𐎜 a Phoenician letter. Some Ugaritic signs, including this one, also appear in occasional Hurrian texts.
How do I type 𐎜?
Enter U1039C with a Unicode-aware input method. A Ugaritic keyboard layout also works; a Latin u key by itself enters a different character.
Different fonts can draw Ugaritic signs with noticeably different outlines. If a font cannot display this sign, the text still contains 𐎜.
A scholarly historical sign used in Ugaritic texts and in some Hurrian writing.
Reading it as a plain Latin U drops the glottal catch.
Part of the collection
Who writes 𐎜
Loading…
Related characters
2
Questions people ask
1Why does 𐎜 show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the Ugaritic block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.
More like this
10
Collections with 𐎜
1
How to type or find 𐎜
- Also called
- ʾu
- Search it as
- 𐎜 · Ugaritic U · Ugaritic aleph · Ugaritic cuneiform · Ugaritic alphabet
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𐎜\1039CCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.