ግዕዝ
(Ethiopic)
The Ethiopic Alphabet
By Dr. Aberra Molla (በዶ/ር
ኣበራ ሞላ)
Ethiopia
has its own
ancient alphabet. According to the beliefs of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church, Ethiopic or Geez is one of the ancient alphabets and languages.
The first human to use the alphabet is believed to be Henoch of the Old
Testament. Henoch supposedly wrote the Book of Henoch in Ethiopic around
c. 3350 BC.
In the Ethiopian Orthodox view, the
Book of Enoch
(መጽሓፈ ሄኖክ) was written in Ethiopic by
Enoch, considered
the oldest book in any human language. The original forms of the letters
themselves were said to have been invented by the even earlier ancestral
figure,
Henos.
History
Ethiopic is an
ebugida meaning that each symbol represents a consonant and vowel
combination. The symbols are organized into classes and orders of
similar symbols, which are associated with similar sounds. The symbols
are organized on the basis of both the consonant and the vowel. Ethiopic
is written left to right across the page. These Ethiopic characters have
evolved over time from more ancient forms.
There is
archeological evidence that the proto-Geez
alphabet existed before the 9th century BC especially during
the
D`mt (ደኣማት)
Kingdom in Northern Ethiopia. The ancient character set existed as the
Heleheme series having only a first order. The first and last
syllographs of Geez, He
(ሀ)
to Pe
(ፐ)
are
relatively the same in Ancient Egypt as the first and last main
Hieroglyphs. The order of the Geez system has remained the same for
roughly 3000 years. Some believe that the first character set was an
ebugida.
Others even claim
that the classic Ethiopic with its seven vowel expansions was in
existence before 3000 BC. Still others claim that Ethiopic is a Sabean
alphabet. It is thought by some that it was during the Axumite Kingdom
of around 340 AD that the alphabet gained the vowel forms and started to
be written from left to right.
Each character
has its own numeric value.
(From:
The Comparative Origin and Usage of the Ge’ez writing
system of Ethiopia, 2001)
Languages
Translation of
Bible books into Ethiopic, the ancient Semitic language, contributed to
the development of the syllabic alphabet. Gradually, the Geez language
started to lose its prominence and now remains primarily as a liturgical
language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Around the 13th
century AD, Amharic became the dominant language. As a result, more
characters were added to Geez primarily through the influence of the
Hamitic languages. In the 1800's the Bible was translated to Amharic and
later to Tigrigna and Oromo languages. Since then Ethiopic has added
more characters as more languages began using it.
Ethiopic, an
abjad
abugida
syllabary,
has been in use by numerous
languages
of Ethiopia
such as
Agew,
Amharic,
Bilen,
Geez,
Harari,
Me'en,
Sebat Bet Gurage,
Silte,
Tigre
and
Tigrigna.
The Bible, complete or in part, has also been
published in Ethiopic in most of the above
languages and others such as
Gedeo,
Hadiya,
Kembata,
Oromo,
Sidamo
and
Welayta
languages since 1513.
Character Sets
The Ethiopic character set has numerous subsets
with their own character sets. It includes the
Geez language set.
The most commonly used Geez is the Amharic
alphabet. The picture above is Amharic
characters and numerals without the "V" series.
Apart from this "Classic" set that was
popularized by Tesfa Gebresellassie Printing
Press since 1917 E.C., there is now an "Abridged"
(Haddis / ሃዲስ) Amharic set.
Syllables
Syllables have their own names.
Symbols
Numerals
The digits have their own names. An example is
available at:
http://www.ethiopic.com/ETHIOPIC/numerals.htm
Notation
Pronunciation
Ethiopic is a
syllabic alphabet and each character represents a separate sound.
However, there are a few characters that represent the same series of
sound.
The characters
are related in three dimensions.
I. The first order characters have simple or the basic character shapes.
II. The other
order characters have dashes, circles, etc. additions in almost a
uniform pattern for orders.
III. The pattern
of the sound of the characters is the same within an order.
ሀ
HE - as in hurt
ሁ
HU - as in hood
ሂ
HI - as in hit
ሃ
HA - as in hat
ሄ
HIE - as in hen
ህ
H - the "h" sound as in dahlia
ሆ
HO - as in hot
ሇ
HWO - as in whole
Some Ethiopic
users have drifted from these basic dimensions and problems have crept
in to the usage of two groups of first order characters. Characters
involved in this error are "ሀ", "ሐ", "ኀ", "አ" and "ዐ" as these glyphs
erroneously share the sound with their respective fourth order form
varieties. Ethiopic characters do not share sound across orders and thus
"ሀ" and "ሃ" as well as "አ" and "ኣ" do not share the same sound. First
order phenomes are expressed by opening the mouth only slightly while
fourth order phemones are relatively more explosive requiring more
opening of the mouth. The true sound of the Geez "አ" is "EA" as in
"earth". "ኧ" is "EWA" It is most likely confusion with the wrong usage
of "ሀ" as "HA" (instead of "HE" or "ኸ") that forced Unicode to refer to
"ሃ" as "HAA" to differentiate it from "ሃ" or "HA". It is because "ሀ" and
"ኸ" share the same "HE" sound that "ሃ" and "ኻ" share the "HA" sound or
"ሆ" and "ኾ" share the "HO" sound.
Another example
is the wrong spelling of "Abeba" as "Ababa" probably on the assumption
that "በ" should be spelt as "ba" if the spelling of "ሀ" is "ha". The
right spelling of "Addis Abeba" is "ኣዲስ ኣበባ" in Amharic and "Addis Abeba"
in English. This is also the way I knew it in my geography lessons. This
misspelling has also metastasized and an instance is "Asmera" spelt as
"Asmara". In the near future Ethiopic will take advantage of speech and
character recognition. This is thus the time to tackle the
misunderstanding and rectify the Amharic and English errors, at least
for the new smaller sets and digitized documents.
The Ethiopic Glyphs:
The glyphs are
very close to the Latin alphabet in shape and size. The set consists of
syllables, numerals, symbols and notation marks. There are typefaces,
but no capitalization.
|
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
120 |
ሀ |
ሁ |
ሂ |
ሃ |
ሄ |
ህ |
ሆ |
ሇ |
ለ |
ሉ |
ሊ |
ላ |
ሌ |
ል |
ሎ |
ሏ |
121 |
ሐ |
ሑ |
ሒ |
ሓ |
ሔ |
ሕ |
ሖ |
ሗ |
መ |
ሙ |
ሚ |
ማ |
ሜ |
ም |
ሞ |
ሟ |
122 |
ሠ |
ሡ |
ሢ |
ሣ |
ሤ |
ሥ |
ሦ |
ሧ |
ረ |
ሩ |
ሪ |
ራ |
ሬ |
ር |
ሮ |
ሯ |
123 |
ሰ |
ሱ |
ሲ |
ሳ |
ሴ |
ስ |
ሶ |
ሷ |
ሸ |
ሹ |
ሺ |
ሻ |
ሼ |
ሽ |
ሾ |
ሿ |
124 |
ቀ |
ቁ |
ቂ |
ቃ |
ቄ |
ቅ |
ቆ |
ቇ |
ቈ |
|
ቍ |
ቋ |
ቌ |
ቊ |
|
|
125 |
ቐ |
ቑ |
ቒ |
ቓ |
ቔ |
ቕ |
ቖ |
|
ቘ |
|
ቝ |
ቛ |
ቜ |
ቚ |
|
|
126 |
በ |
ቡ |
ቢ |
ባ |
ቤ |
ብ |
ቦ |
ቧ |
ቨ |
ቩ |
ቪ |
ቫ |
ቬ |
ቭ |
ቮ |
ቯ |
127 |
ተ |
ቱ |
ቲ |
ታ |
ቴ |
ት |
ቶ |
ቷ |
ቸ |
ቹ |
ቺ |
ቻ |
ቼ |
ች |
ቾ |
ቿ |
128 |
ኀ |
ኁ |
ኂ |
ኃ |
ኄ |
ኅ |
ኆ |
ኇ |
ኈ |
|
ኊ |
ኋ |
ኌ |
ኍ |
|
|
129 |
ነ |
ኑ |
ኒ |
ና |
ኔ |
ን |
ኖ |
ኗ |
ኘ |
ኙ |
ኚ |
ኛ |
ኜ |
ኝ |
ኞ |
ኟ |
12A |
አ |
ኡ |
ኢ |
ኣ |
ኤ |
እ |
ኦ |
ኧ |
ከ |
ኩ |
ኪ |
ካ |
ኬ |
ክ |
ኮ |
ኯ |
12B |
ኰ |
|
ኲ |
ኳ |
ኴ |
ኵ |
|
|
ኸ |
ኹ |
ኺ |
ኻ |
ኼ |
ኽ |
ኾ |
|
12C |
ዀ |
|
ዂ |
ዃ |
ዄ |
ዅ |
|
|
ወ |
ዉ |
ዊ |
ዋ |
ዌ |
ው |
ዎ |
|
12D |
ዐ |
ዑ |
ዒ |
ዓ |
ዔ |
ዕ |
ዖ |
|
ዘ |
ዙ |
ዚ |
ዛ |
ዜ |
ዝ |
ዞ |
ዟ |
12E |
ዠ |
ዡ |
ዢ |
ዣ |
ዤ |
ዥ |
ዦ |
ዧ |
የ |
ዩ |
ዪ |
ያ |
ዬ |
ይ |
ዮ |
ዯ |
12F |
ደ |
ዱ |
ዲ |
ዳ |
ዴ |
ድ |
ዶ |
ዷ |
ዸ |
ዹ |
ዺ |
ዻ |
ዼ |
ዽ |
ዾ |
ዿ |
130 |
ጀ |
ጁ |
ጂ |
ጃ |
ጄ |
ጅ |
ጆ |
ጇ |
ገ |
ጉ |
ጊ |
ጋ |
ጌ |
ግ |
ጎ |
ጏ |
131 |
ጐ |
|
ጒ |
ጓ |
ጔ |
ጕ |
|
|
ጘ |
ጙ |
ጚ |
ጛ |
ጜ |
ጝ |
ጞ |
ጟ |
132 |
ጠ |
ጡ |
ጢ |
ጣ |
ጤ |
ጥ |
ጦ |
ጧ |
ጨ |
ጩ |
ጪ |
ጫ |
ጬ |
ጭ |
ጮ |
ጯ |
133 |
ጰ |
ጱ |
ጲ |
ጳ |
ጴ |
ጵ |
ጶ |
ጷ |
ጸ |
ጹ |
ጺ |
ጻ |
ጼ |
ጽ |
ጾ |
ጿ |
134 |
ፀ |
ፁ |
ፂ |
ፃ |
ፄ |
ፅ |
ፆ |
ፇ |
ፈ |
ፉ |
ፊ |
ፋ |
ፌ |
ፍ |
ፎ |
ፏ |
135 |
ፐ |
ፑ |
ፒ |
ፓ |
ፔ |
ፕ |
ፖ |
ፗ |
ፙ |
ፘ |
ፚ |
፟ |
|
|
|
|
136 |
፠ |
፡ |
። |
፣ |
፤ |
፥ |
፦ |
፧ |
፨ |
፩ |
፪ |
፫ |
፬ |
፭ |
፮ |
፯ |
137 |
፰ |
፱ |
፲ |
፳ |
፴ |
፵ |
፶ |
፷ |
፸ |
፹ |
፺ |
፻ |
፼ |
|
|
|
138 |
ᎀ |
ᎁ |
ᎂ |
ᎃ |
ᎄ |
ᎅ |
ᎆ |
ᎇ |
ᎈ |
ᎉ |
ᎊ |
ᎋ |
ᎌ |
ᎍ |
ᎎ |
ᎏ |
139 |
᎐ |
᎑ |
᎒ |
᎓ |
᎔ |
᎕ |
᎖ |
᎗ |
᎘ |
᎙ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2D8 |
ⶀ |
ⶁ |
ⶂ |
ⶃ |
ⶄ |
ⶅ |
ⶆ |
ⶇ |
ⶈ |
ⶉ |
ⶊ |
ⶋ |
ⶌ |
ⶍ |
ⶎ |
ⶏ |
2D9 |
ⶐ |
ⶑ |
ⶒ |
ⶓ |
ⶔ |
ⶕ |
ⶖ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2DA |
ⶠ |
ⶡ |
ⶢ |
ⶣ |
ⶤ |
ⶥ |
ⶦ |
|
ⶨ |
ⶩ |
ⶪ |
ⶫ |
ⶬ |
ⶭ |
ⶮ |
|
2DB |
ⶰ |
ⶱ |
ⶲ |
ⶳ |
ⶴ |
ⶵ |
ⶶ |
|
ⶸ |
ⶹ |
ⶺ |
ⶻ |
ⶼ |
ⶽ |
ⶾ |
|
2DC |
ⷀ |
ⷁ |
ⷂ |
ⷃ |
ⷄ |
ⷅ |
ⷆ |
|
ⷈ |
ⷉ |
ⷊ |
ⷋ |
ⷌ |
ⷍ |
ⷎ |
|
2DD |
ⷐ |
ⷑ |
ⷒ |
ⷓ |
ⷔ |
ⷕ |
ⷖ |
|
ⷘ |
ⷙ |
ⷚ |
ⷛ |
ⷜ |
ⷝ |
ⷞ |
|
The Ethiopic Character Set, 2002
ግዕዝ
ethiopic.com ኣበራ ሞላ 8/30/08 |
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The Sorting Order
Ethiopian
Multiplication
The Ethiopic
Printing Press
The introduction
of the printing press around 1900 encouraged the proliferation of books.
Books and newspapers were printed using type-setting technology.
Type-setting provided a fairly faithful reproduction of the Ethiopic
characters, which prior to the introduction of the printing press, were
written by hand. Type-setting is similar to utilizing the "a", "b",
"c"...characters except for the use of the "ሀ", "ሁ', "ሂ"... characters.
Ethiopic
Computerization
With the advent
of computer technology, it became possible to efficiently produce
printed documents having Ethiopic characters without the use of the a
printing press.
Dr, Aberra Molla
developed a method of rendering a greater variety of Ethiopic characters
in the 80's. A single Ethiopic or Geez set was distributed on character
sets equivalent to more than eight English character sets. Dr. Molla's
method included using the function keys to alter the font in which a
default character is rendered. The different fonts indicated, by
convention, that different character orders were specified. Two new
layouts were presented to go along with his novel use of the computer.
One was close to the Amharic typewriter layout while the characters were
Ethiopic. The other was somewhat similar to the Ethiopic character sound
of the English keyboard characters. The first Ethiopic publisher for DOS
with which Ethiopic was computerized was released in 1987 as
ModEth.
In 1993 the concept was moved to
EthioWord,
an add-on to Microsoft Word for Windows.
The Amharic
character set has some redundant series with similar sound. These
redundant characters were assigned to the symbol keys until they were
recently moved to the vowel keys. Each of the more than 564 glyphs are
typed with no more than two keystrokes. The set includes Latin
characters and novel
glyphs.
The Amharic Typewriter
In 1714, Henry Mill
obtained a patent, number 395, in Britain for a machine he
invented that appears to have been similar to a typewriter.
http://www.todayinsci.com/M/Mill_Henry/MillHenryPatents.htm
The machine
continued to be improved and became invaluable and Emperor
Menelik received one. Ethiopians soon realized the need to have
a similar machine for the Amharic alphabet and numerous studies
and meetings followed for decades. Since the large number of the
Amharic characters made it impossible to fit the characters on
the keys of the English typewriter, attempts revolved around
cutting down the glyph numbers. One proposal involved keeping the
first order characters only and replacing the other orders with
a few characters to be used like vowels just like the Latin
system. Another one was to modify the shapes of the characters
into a uniform pattern so that the vowel forms look alike and
can be changed to their orders by ligating small parts to the
first order improved glyphs. Ethiopian scholars, officials and
authors that worked on these projects close to a century include
Emperor Menelik, Ato Alemu Haile Mariam, Ato Areaya Birru, Dr.
Aleme Worq, Aleka Kidane Wold Kifle, Blata Mersie Hazen Wolde
Kirkos, Leaul Ras Imru, At Million Neqniq, Ato Haddis
Alemayehu, Ato Abebe Reta, Ato Zewdie Gebre Mariam, Ato Seifu
Feleke, Ato Samuel Terefe, Blata Wolde Giorgis, Engineer Ayana
Birru, Dr. Abreham Demoz, Ato Tekle Mariam Fantaye, Dr. Amsalu
Akllilu, Ato Leaul Seged Alemayehu, Meto Aleqa Yigezu Bisrat,
Ato Fantu Bekele and Ato Amanuel Abreham.
The issue remained
unresolved while Ayana Birru came up with an incomplete Amharic
set by creating a method whereby characters were created by
ligating small parts to glyphs on printing by addition of
smaller parts. These incomplete and weird characters did rescue
the Amharic characters, even though they were not Amharic, by
maintaining uniformity. Recently these fake parts have even been
computerized to incomplete Amharic typewriter sets by dozens of
individuals who were replacing an ASCII set with some characters
and character parts. In spite of all these, attempts to
modify the English typewriter print head for Amharic by ligation
methods failed while reducing the character numbers or modifying
the glyph shapes was equally hopeless and never materialized. Fortunately, these Amharic typewriter
glyphs and their difficult typing methods have become obsolete
because Ethiopic was computerized by Dr. Aberra Molla and that
revolutionized the Geez script. As a result, the long and hard unsuccessful
struggles by Ethiopians to use the English typewriter that
ultimately became the computer keyboard for use with Amharic
became a reality in the 80's and surpassed the imagination of the previous
generations of Ethiopians by accommodating more characters
and many languages that use the Geez alphabet.
It should be noted
that Ethiopic skipped the typewriter and jumped from the
printing press technology to the computer age bypassing the
typewriter as even the Amharic typewriter never typed the
Amharic alphabet. See
http://www.ethiopic.com/advances.htm
Unicode
In 1983 the ASCII character
set with its 16 by 8 or 128 spots for glyphs was increased to 16 by 16
to accommodate the extended Latin characters. By 1990 Unicode increased
the set to 16 by 16 by 16 and Ethiopic was one of the alphabets to get
its own assignment. While Dr. Aberra Molla was suggesting the assignment
of about 480 code points for Ethiopic, the typewriter crew convinced
Unicode and demanded less than 100, something similar to the spots
used by the Amharic typewriter. By the time Unicode woke up, there was
not enough spots to put all the Geez characters in one area and Unicode
was forced to break up the single Ethiopic into three.
Novel Glyphs
The Ethiopic
Keyboard
Ethiopic
has over 47 primary characters. It looks like the 47 keys of the
computer were custom-made for Ethiopic a few decades ago. The
glyph assignments can be moved around. An
example is shown below.
Ethiopic Typing
Amharic
or Ethiopic did not have any typing method until computerized by
Dr. Aberra Molla.
An
example for Amharic is GeezEdit, available at:
http://freetyping.geezedit.com. This novel technology is
protected by pending patents.
Ethiopic Search
An
example for Amharic is available at:
http://freetyping.geezedit.com and
http://www.ethiopic.com/How_to_Google_Amharic-ENGLISH.htm
Another first for Amharic is Yahoo and Bing search at
http://www.ethiopic.com/yahoo_and_bing_in_amharic_English.htm.
Ethiopic Names and
Numbers
An
example is available at:
http://www.ethiopic.com/Ethiopic_Names_and_Numbers.htm
Ethiopic Errors
Lexicons
-----
References
Gabriella
F. Scelta,
The Comparative Origin and Usage of the Ge’ez Writing System of Ethiopia
(2001)
Computer Writing and Printing Using Ethiopian and Universal
Alphabets, 1990
Dr. Aberra Molla
http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/wg2/docs/n1846.pdf
Renne, P.J.
(2004)
Ancient Numerals and Mathematics
Engineer Ayana Birru
ክንፈ ሚካኤል፤
ስለ
አማርኛ ፊደል መሻሻል የተደረጉ ጥናቶች መዘርዝር፣ ሚያዝያ ፪ ቀን ፳፻፩ዓ.ም. ሜልበርን፣
ኦስትረሊያ
Kings and Queens of Ethiopia 4470 BCE to 1930 A.D.
Under construction
1/7/08
9/2/09
9/18/11
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