U+0B85 "அ" Tamil Letter A Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
அ
U+0B85 "அ" Tamil Letter A is the first character in the Tamil script, representing the independent vowel sound /a/ as in the English word "about" and serves as the foundational vowel for forming many other Tamil characters and syllables. This letter is a core component of the Tamil abugida, where it appears as the initial vowel in the alphabet and is used to denote the default inherent vowel when combined with consonants. Unlike some other scripts, "அ" is written as a standalone circular or elliptical symbol with a distinctive opening, and it is essential for writing native Tamil words as well as loanwords.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+0B85 |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Tamil Letter A |
| Block | Tamil |
| General Category | Other Letter |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Left To Right |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | அ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | அ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE0 0xAE 0x85 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x0B85 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x00000B85 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u0b85 |