Misplaced Pages

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; perhaps the extended letters needed for Tigrinya, Tigre and possibly other Ethiopian languages are supported as well, but if so that is not recorded in available references.

Amharic alphabet

Amharic Braille may be an abugida like the print Geʽez script, but the inherent vowel is epenthetic ə /ɨ/ rather than a /ɐ/. The same letter is used for syllables ending in the vowel ə as for the bare consonant. Other syllables are written with this letter plus a second letter for the vowel. Thus the system is very close to a true alphabet, with any inherent ə vowel often but evidently not always predictable.

The photograph of the syllabic chart at right shows a blank cell ⟨⠀⟩ being used for the inherent vowel ə. That 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:

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

Tigrinya and Tigrean alphabets

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (October 2024)

Numbers

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

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

1. Unesco (2013), World Braille Usage, 3rd ed.
2. The source has ፻ 100 ⠁⠋⠁⠅.

• French-ordered braille alphabets
• Amharic language