U+0656 "ٖ" Arabic Subscript Alef Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
ٖ
U+0656 "ٖ" Arabic Subscript Alef is a diacritical mark used in the Arabic script to represent a small alif written below a consonant, primarily in Qur'anic and classical texts to indicate a long vowel sound ā or to clarify orthographic conventions where the alif is not fully written as a standalone letter. It functions as a phonetic and grammatical sign, often appearing in words where the long vowel is implied but not graphically realized by a regular alif, helping preserve precise pronunciation and recitation standards.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+0656 |
| Version Added | 4.0 |
| Name | Arabic Subscript Alef |
| Block | Arabic |
| General Category | Nonspacing Mark |
| Canonical Combining Class | Below |
| Bidirectional Class | Nonspacing Mark |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ٖ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ٖ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xD9 0x96 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x0656 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x00000656 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u0656 |