U+083A "࠺" Samaritan Punctuation Zaef Unicode Character

Unicode Version 17.0

U+083A "࠺" Samaritan Punctuation Zaef is a diacritical mark used in the Samaritan script, an ancient writing system derived from the Hebrew alphabet and employed primarily for liturgical and religious texts by the Samaritan community. This specific punctuation symbol functions as a type of accent or intonation indicator, guiding the reader in the proper vocalization and phrasing of passages during recitation or prayer. It appears as a small, curved or hook-like character placed above or near the consonant letters, contributing to the precise oral tradition that has preserved Samaritan pronunciation over centuries. The Zaef, like other Samaritan punctuation marks, is integral to the correct chanting and interpretation of the Samaritan Pentateuch, distinguishing it from other Semitic scripts that rely on different systems of vowel and stress notation.

General Properties

Code Point U+083A
Version Added 5.2
Name Samaritan Punctuation Zaef
Block Samaritan
General Category Other Punctuation
Canonical Combining Class Not Reordered
Bidirectional Class Right To Left

Encodings

HTML Decimal Encoding ࠺
HTML Hex Encoding ࠺
UTF-8 Encoding 0xE0 0xA0 0xBA
UTF-16 Encoding 0x083A
UTF-32 Encoding 0x0000083A
C/C++/Java Escape \u083a

Unicode Properties

NFC Quick Check Yes
NFD Quick Check Yes
NFKC Quick Check Yes
NFKD Quick Check Yes
Numeric Type None
Numeric Value NaN
Line Break Alphabetic
Script Samaritan
Script Extensions Samaritan
Indic Syllabic Category Other
Terminal Punctuation Yes
Vertical Orientation Rotated
Grapheme Base Yes
Grapheme Cluster Break Other
Word Break Other
Sentence Break Other