Zanabazar Square Letter Cha

Use Unicode hex input or a Zanabazar Square keyboard. In an app that accepts Unicode hex, enter 11A11; the Keyman Zanabazar Square layout is another option. 𑨑 uses a supplementary-plane code point, outside Unicode’s first group of characters, so keyboard support and font support are separate.

The script is attributed to Zanabazar, a Mongolian Buddhist scholar, but its exact creation date is unsettled. It predates Soyombo, a script dated to 1686. A surviving biography of Zanabazar was written in this script, documenting Buddhist literary use without establishing when the script began. A 2015 Unicode proposal records 𑨑 in manuscripts and secondary sources while noting its omission from traditional charts.

It was designed for Mongolian, Tibetan, and Sanskrit. Its consonant-and-vowel structure fits Tibetan and Sanskrit more directly than traditional Mongolian writing.

How is Zanabazar Square cha read?

There is no single reading across all languages. This is a consonant in an abugida, a script where consonants carry a default vowel. The Unicode proposal links it to Tibetan letter ཆ, conventionally transliterated cha. That label names a Tibetan correspondence; it is not an English pronunciation guide.

A vowel sign changes the default vowel; the virama 𑨴 removes it, leaving a bare consonant in Sanskrit or Tibetan. The same Zanabazar Square repertoire has different sound mappings in Mongolian, Tibetan, and Sanskrit material.

The script draws on Tibetan writing and the Indic/Brahmi abugida tradition. Phags-pa, an earlier vertical square script, sits in the same historical setting; Zanabazar Square is its horizontal counterpart.