What ꕄ means
It writes one Vai syllable; read it in Vai text.
Vai is a syllabary: each sign writes a spoken syllable. Momolu Duwalu Bukele developed it in Liberia in the 1830s to write Vai; he later said a dream inspired it. Vai writers used it for letters and records; a surviving manuscript dates to 1834.
The Book of Ndole, an early Vai text, sometimes spells one syllable with several signs. The standard syllabary appeared in 1962. Mende Kikakui, a separate syllabary for Mende in Sierra Leone, developed around 1917 and was likely influenced by Vai.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1Why does ꕄ show as a box?
The font or renderer lacks a Vai glyph. A Vai-supporting font supplies its visible shape.
How to type ꕄ
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType A544, then Alt+X to get ꕄ.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “vai syllable nggi”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType a544, then Enter or Space.
HTML
ꕄCSS
\A544Desktop Unicode input
Word/Outlook: type A544, then Alt+X. Linux GTK: press Ctrl+Shift+U, type a544, then Enter.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
ꕄ
HTML hex
ꕄ
CSS content
content: "\A544";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%EA%95%84
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.