U+1240 "ቀ" Ethiopic Syllable Qa Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
ቀ
U+1240 "ቀ" Ethiopic Syllable Qa is the written symbol representing the syllable "qa" in the Ge'ez script, which is used for classical Ethiopic and modern languages like Amharic and Tigrinya. This character belongs to a complex syllabary system where each base consonant form is modified by diacritic or shape changes to indicate different vowels, and "ቀ" specifically begins the qaf family of consonants, characterized by a distinctive horizontal bar across its top and a looped tail. As a fundamental building block in Ethiopic writing, it appears in liturgical texts, modern literature, and digital communication, bridging centuries of Ethiopian and Eritrean cultural heritage with contemporary typography.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+1240 |
| Version Added | 3.0 |
| Name | Ethiopic Syllable Qa |
| Block | Ethiopic |
| General Category | Other Letter |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Left To Right |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ቀ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ቀ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE1 0x89 0x80 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x1240 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x00001240 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u1240 |