U+12A0 "አ" Ethiopic Syllable Glottal A Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
አ
U+12A0 "አ" Ethiopic Syllable Glottal A is a fundamental symbol in the Geʽez script, representing the glottal stop sound combined with the vowel "a". It serves as the first character in the traditional ordering of the Ethiopic syllabary and is used in languages such as Amharic, Tigrinya, and Geʽez itself. This character is part of the Unicode Ethiopic block, enabling its digital representation across modern computing platforms while preserving its cultural and linguistic significance in written communication throughout the Horn of Africa region.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+12A0 |
| Version Added | 3.0 |
| Name | Ethiopic Syllable Glottal A |
| Block | Ethiopic |
| General Category | Other Letter |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Left To Right |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | አ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | አ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE1 0x8A 0xA0 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x12A0 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x000012A0 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u12a0 |