Geʽez Braille

Geʽez Braille Amharic Braille
Script type	alphabet
Print basis	Geʽez alphabet
Languages	Amharic; possibly also Tigrinya, Tigre, etc.
Related scripts
Parent systems	Braille English Braille Geʽez Braille

Geʽez Braille is a collection of braille alphabets for the Ethiopian languages that are written in Geʽez script in print. Letter values are mostly in line with international usage. At least the Amharic language is supported; presumably the extended letters needed for Tigrinya, Tigre and possibly other Ethiopian languages supported as well, but if so that is not recorded in available references.

Amharic alphabet

Amharic Braille is arguably an abugida like the print Geʽez script, but the inherent vowel is epenthetic ə /ɨ/ rather than a /ɐ/. Syllabic letters in ə are the ones used for the consonant itself. Thus the graphic base consonant letter is used for the simple phonemic consonant, as in a true alphabet, with any ə vowel often predictable.

The photograph of the syllabic chart at right shows a blank cell ⟨⠀⟩ being used for the inherent vowel ə. This is perhaps an artefact of the presentation; UNESCO (2013) shows that is simply not written.

Amharic Braille alphabet

-ä	-u	-i	-a	-e	-o	-wa
h ሀ	l ለ	ḥ ሐ	m መ	ś ሠ	r ረ	s ሰ
š ሸ	ḳ ቀ	b በ	t ተ	č ቸ	ḫ ኀ	n ነ
ñ ኘ	ʾ አ	k ከ	x ኸ	w ወ	ʿ ዐ	z ዘ
ž ዠ	y የ	d ደ	ǧ ጀ	g ገ	ṭ ጠ	č̣ ጨ
p̣ ጰ	ṣ ጸ	ṣ́ ፀ	f ፈ	p ፐ	v ቨ

⟨ə⟩ is not the default vowel in print Amharic, which is instead ⟨ä⟩ (braille ⠢). For most consonants, a is the only vowel that can occur in a Cw- syllable, so -wa has its own letter: ⠭. CwV and CyV syllables other than ⠭ -wa are written with medial ⠺ w and ⠽ y:

Amharic syllables

⠛⠢	⠛⠥	⠛⠊	⠛⠁	⠛⠑	⠛	⠛⠕
ገ gä	ጉ gu	ጊ gi	ጋ ga	ጌ ge	ግ gə	ጎ go
⠛⠺⠢		⠛⠺⠊	⠛⠭	⠛⠺⠑	⠛⠺⠥
ጐ gwä		ጒ gwi	ጓ gwa	ጔ gwe	ጕ gwə

Note that -wə is written ⠺⠥ as if it were -wu, a sequence that does not occur in print.

Numbers

Ethiopic digits do not follow the international pattern. They are also circumfixed with ⠁ ... ⠆:

፩	1	⠁⠁⠆	፲	10	⠁⠅⠆
፪	2	⠁⠉⠆	፳	20	⠁⠅⠉⠆
፫	3	⠁⠒⠆	፴	30	⠁⠅⠒⠆
፬	4	⠁⠤⠆	፵	40	⠁⠅⠤⠆
፭	5	⠁⠑⠆	፶	50	⠁⠅⠑⠆
፮	6	⠁⠢⠆	፷	60	⠁⠅⠢⠆
፯	7	⠁⠊⠆	፸	70	⠁⠅⠊⠆
፰	8	⠁⠔⠆	፹	80	⠁⠅⠔⠆
፱	9	⠁⠃⠆	፺	90	⠁⠅⠃⠆
፲	10	⠁⠅⠆	፻	100	⠁⠋⠁⠆

Western numbers are marked with ⠼ as in other braille alphabets.

Punctuation

Native punctuation is as follows:

Print	፡	።	፣	፤	፦	፧	᎐
Braille

The last is yizet, one of several interlinear tone marks.

There is also Western punctuation:

Print	?	!	...	-	—	/	*
Braille

Print	« ... »	‹ ... ›	( ... )	[ ... ]
Braille	...	...	...	...

References

• Ethiopic Braille at Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind, Addis Ababa