U+08BC "ࢼ" Arabic Letter African Qaf Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
U+08BC "ࢼ" Arabic Letter African Qaf is a distinct letter used in the extended Arabic script for certain African languages, most notably in the writing systems of Hausa, Fulfulde, and Kanuri, where it represents a voiceless uvular plosive [q] sound, similar to the standard Arabic qaf but with a unique shape to distinguish it from other regional variants. It was added to the Unicode Standard in version 8.0 in 2015 as part of the Arabic Extended-A block to support the orthographic needs of these West African languages, ensuring proper digital representation for texts and educational materials without conflating it with other Arabic letters. This character helps maintain linguistic precision and cultural identity in writing systems that rely on the Arabic script but have adapted it to their own phonological requirements.
General Properties
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding |
ࢼ |
| HTML Hex Encoding |
ࢼ |
| UTF-8 Encoding |
0xE0 0xA2 0xBC |
| UTF-16 Encoding |
0x08BC |
| UTF-32 Encoding |
0x000008BC |
| C/C++/Java Escape |
\u08bc |
Unicode Properties