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GFF Ethiopic

The Geʾez Frontier Foundation Keyboard for the Ethiopic Orthographies of Eritrean and Ethiopian Languages

Introduction

This is an Ethiopic (Modern Geʾez) languages mnemonic input method. It requires a font supporting Ethiopic script under the Unicode 14 standard. The keyboard uses a phono-grapho “mnemonic” approach and is designed for the US English QWERTY keyboard. This means that the keyboard is designed to be intuitive and natural with respect to the sounds available in the English language via the standard English keyboard (known as QWERTY). The keyboard also supports some mnemonic mappings from non-English letters found on European keyboards.

A more complete typing manual is provided as a PDF file with this distribution.

Typing Letters

The keyboard provides mappings to allow all Ethiopic letters, punctuation, numerals, and special marks defined in the Unicode standard to be typed with relative ease. In total, some 523 symbols. No single language requires every available letter, thus this keyboard is not optimal for any particular language. Using a language-specific keyboard will be a better option if you do not have a multilingual typing need. Using a language-spefic keyboard will avoid the possibility of accidentally typing Basketto letters, for example, if your document language is only Amharic.

Special Notes:

  • The keyboard prioritizes typing the letters in active use by some language, aka “Modern Geʾez” over the letters believed to be no longer in use by any language, aka “Legacy Geʾez”. The Modern Geʾez letters will accordingly be a little easier to type.
  • Apostrophe, ' , is a terminator following a ሳድስ (6th form) letter. For example: mel'ak becomes መልኣክ , melak becomes መላክ .

Modern Geʾez

 ቤተሰብካዕብሣልስግዕዝራብዕኃምስሳድስሳብዕዘመደ፡ግዕዝዘመደ፡ካዕብዘመደ፡ሣልስዘመደ፡ራብዕዘመደ፡ኃምስ 
ቤተሰብKey+[eE]+[uU]+[iI]+[aA]+[iI][eE] +[oO]+[uU][eE]+[uU][iI]+[uU][aA]+[uU][iI][eE]+[uU][uU] 
ሆይh     h
ላዊ[lL]    l
ሐውትH𞟨𞟩𞟪𞟫ħ
𞟠-ሐውትHH𞟠𞟡𞟢𞟣𞟤𞟥𞟦    
ማይ[mM]𞟭𞟮m
ሠውትss    s
ርእስ[rR]    r
ሳትs    s
ሻ-ሳት[xX]    ʃ
ቃፍq
ቓ-ቃፍQʁ
ቤት[bB]𞟳𞟴b
ቨ-ቤት[vV]    v
ታውt    t
ቻ-ታውc    ʧ
ኀርምhhh
ነሐስn    n
ኘ-ነሐስN    ɲ
አልፍ 
a

u

i

aa

ie

e

o
   
ee
 ʔ
ካፍkk
ኻ-ካፍKx
ወዌ[wW]     w
ዐይን 
A

Au/
U

Ai/
I

Aa

Aie
Ie

Ae
E

Ao
O
     ʕ
ዘይz    z
ዠ-ዘይZ    ʒ
የመን[yY]     y
ድንትd    d
ጀ-ድንት[jJ]    ʤ
ገምልgg
ጘ-ገምልGŋ
ጠይትT    
ጨ-ጠይትC    ʧʼ
ጰይትP    
ጸደይS    
ፀጳSS     
አፍ[fF]𞟻𞟼f
ፕሳp𞟽𞟾p
  +u+i+a+eɨ/-+o+ʷə+ʷu+ʷi+ʷa+ʷeIPA

Legacy Geʾez

 ቤተሰብካዕብሣልስግዕዝራብዕኃምስሳድስሳብዕሳምንዘመደ፡ግዕዝዘመደ፡ካዕብዘመደ፡ሣልስዘመደ፡ራብዕዘመደ፡ኃምስዘመደ፡ያ 
ቤተሰብKey+[eE]+[uU]+[iI]+[aA]+[iI][eE] +[oO]+[oO][oO]+[uU][eE]+[uU][iI][iI]+[uU][aA]+[uU][iI][iI][eE]+[uU][uU]+Y 
ሆይh              h
ላዊ[lL]              l
ማይ[mM]           m
ርእስ[rR]            r
ሳትs             s
ꬃ-ሳትsss        ts
ሻ-ሳት[xX]             š
ⶣ-ሳት[xX][xX]       ʂ
ቃፍq             q
ⷃ-ቃፍQ       ḳʸ
ቤት[bB]           b
ታውc             t
ቻ-ታውc             č
ⶫ-ታውcc       
ኀርምhh             ŋ
ነሐስn             n
ኘ-ነሐስN             ñ
አልፍ              ʔ
ካፍk             k
ⷋ-ካፍkk       
ⷓ-ካፍKK       
ወዌ[wW]             w
ዘይZ             z
ꬑ-ዘይzz        dz
ⶰ-ዘይZ       ʐ
የመን[yY]             y
ድንትd             d
ዸ-ድንትD      
ꬉ-ድንትDD        ɗ
ጀ-ድንት[jJ]             ǧ
ገምልg             g
ⷘ-ገምልgg       
ጠይትT             
ጨ-ጠይትC             č̣
ⶸ-ጠይትCC       
ꬠ-ጠይትCCC       tʂʼ
ꬨ-ጸደይSSS       ɓ
ጰይትP             
ፀጳSS             
አፍ[fF]           f
ፕሳp           p
  +u+i+a+eɨ/-+o+ʷə+ʷu+ʷi+ʷa+ʷe+ijaIPA

Modern Gurage Shapes

Modern Gurage uses some letter shapes that modify the traditional Geʾez shapes used by other languages. Both can be typed, but priority is given to the Geʾez shapes. In these cases when two shapes are available, the Gurage shape can be typed by adding an extra vowel as shown in the table below:

Geʾez Shape
qui

quie

quu

kui

kuie

kuu

gui

guie

guu
Modern Gurage Shape 𞟰
quii
𞟱
quiie
𞟲
quuu
𞟵
kuii
𞟶
kuiie
𞟷
kuuu
𞟸
guii
𞟹
guiie
𞟺
guuu

Consonant and Vowel Marks

Dots can be added above letters to indicate a stressed vowel or consonant using “CTRL + .”. For example:

አባ CTRL .   ⇒   አባ፞ (“abaa”, “a” is stressed)
አባ፞ CTRL .   ⇒   አባ፟ (“abba”, “b” is stressed)
አባ፟ CTRL .   ⇒   አባ፝ (“abbaa”, “b” and “a” are stressed)

Punctuation

Ethiopic Punctuation

Keystrokes ,::,,;;;:-:+:#??
Punctuation

Period, ‘.’ may also be used to enter ‘።’. When a number follows ‘፡’, ‘፣’ and ‘።’ they will change back to their Latin form automatically. For example:

123፣456 ⇒ 123,456
12።50 ⇒ 12.50
12፡50 ⇒ 12:50

Keyboard Punctuation

All regular punctuation on your keyboard remains available. Most punctuation can be typed with a single keystroke as usual. Those used to input Ethiopic symbols can be entered by hitting the punctuation key two or more times until it appears.

Typing Numerals

Ethiopic Numerals

Keystrokes #1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9
Numeral
Keystrokes #10#20#30#40#50#60#70#80#90
Numeral
Keystrokes #100#1000#10000
Numeral ፲፻

Numeral composition will continue as 0s are entered up to ፼፼ (100,000,000).

Typing Zaima Qirts (የዜማ፡ቅርጽ፡)

  ይዘትኅጺር፡ርክርክርክርክቁርጥደረትድፋትጭረትቅናትሒደትደረት፡ሒደት
Keystrokes _1_2_3_4_5_6_7_8_9_0
Qurts

When typing ‘_’ the following menu will appear:

[1᎐2᎓3᎒4᎙5᎑6᎔7᎖8᎕9᎗0᎘] Type the number that corresponds to the qirts that you want and it will appear and the menu close.



License

This keyboard is copyright © Geʾez Frontier Foundation, 2023. It is distributed under the MIT free software license:

The MIT License (MIT)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

All Documentation Versions

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