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Geʽez Braille

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

Geʽez Braille is a collection of braille alphabets for the Ethiopian languages that are written in Geʽez script in print.[citation needed] 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

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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.[1]

Amharic Braille alphabet
⠢ (braille pattern dots-26)
⠥ (braille pattern dots-136)
-u
⠊ (braille pattern dots-24)
-i
⠁ (braille pattern dots-1)
-a
⠑ (braille pattern dots-15)
-e
⠕ (braille pattern dots-135)
-o
⠭ (braille pattern dots-1346)
-wa
⠓ (braille pattern dots-125)
h ሀ
⠇ (braille pattern dots-123)
l ለ
⠣ (braille pattern dots-126)
ḥ ሐ
⠍ (braille pattern dots-134)
m መ
⠎ (braille pattern dots-234)
ś ሠ
⠗ (braille pattern dots-1235)
r ረ
⠹ (braille pattern dots-1456)
s ሰ
⠩ (braille pattern dots-146)
š ሸ
⠟ (braille pattern dots-12345)
ḳ ቀ
⠃ (braille pattern dots-12)
b በ
⠞ (braille pattern dots-2345)
t ተ
⠡ (braille pattern dots-16)
č ቸ
⠱ (braille pattern dots-156)
ḫ ኀ
⠝ (braille pattern dots-1345)
n ነ
⠬ (braille pattern dots-346)
ñ ኘ
⠷ (braille pattern dots-12356)
ʾ አ
⠅ (braille pattern dots-13)
k ከ
⠦ (braille pattern dots-236)
x ኸ
⠺ (braille pattern dots-2456)
w ወ
⠳ (braille pattern dots-1256)
ʿ ዐ
⠵ (braille pattern dots-1356)
z ዘ
⠴ (braille pattern dots-356)
ž ዠ
⠽ (braille pattern dots-13456)
y የ
⠙ (braille pattern dots-145)
d ደ
⠚ (braille pattern dots-245)
ǧ ጀ
⠛ (braille pattern dots-1245)
g ገ
⠾ (braille pattern dots-23456)
ṭ ጠ
⠉ (braille pattern dots-14)
č̣ ጨ
⠖ (braille pattern dots-235)
p̣ ጰ
⠮ (braille pattern dots-2346)
ṣ ጸ
⠯ (braille pattern dots-12346)
ṣ́ ፀ
⠋ (braille pattern dots-124)
f ፈ
⠏ (braille pattern dots-1234)
p ፐ
⠧ (braille pattern dots-1236)
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
gu gi ga ge go
gwä gwi gwa gwe gwə

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

Tigrinya and Tigrean alphabets

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Numbers

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

1 10
2 20
3 30
4 40
5 50
6 60
7 70
8 80
9 90
10 100 [2]

Western numbers are marked with as in other braille alphabets.

Punctuation

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Native punctuation is as follows:

Print
Braille ⠠ (braille pattern dots-6)⠄ (braille pattern dots-3) ⠲ (braille pattern dots-256) ⠂ (braille pattern dots-2) ⠆ (braille pattern dots-23) ⠒ (braille pattern dots-25) ⠦ (braille pattern dots-236) ⠐ (braille pattern dots-5)

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

There is also Western punctuation:

Print ? ! ... - / *
Braille ⠦ (braille pattern dots-236) ⠖ (braille pattern dots-235) ⠄ (braille pattern dots-3)⠄ (braille pattern dots-3)⠄ (braille pattern dots-3) ⠒ (braille pattern dots-25)⠒ (braille pattern dots-25) ⠤ (braille pattern dots-36)⠤ (braille pattern dots-36) ⠐ (braille pattern dots-5)⠂ (braille pattern dots-2) ⠔ (braille pattern dots-35)⠔ (braille pattern dots-35)
Print « ... » ‹ ... › ( ... ) [ ... ]
Braille ⠦ (braille pattern dots-236)...⠴ (braille pattern dots-356) ⠠ (braille pattern dots-6)⠦ (braille pattern dots-236)...⠴ (braille pattern dots-356)⠄ (braille pattern dots-3) ⠶ (braille pattern dots-2356)...⠶ (braille pattern dots-2356) ⠠ (braille pattern dots-6)⠶ (braille pattern dots-2356)...⠶ (braille pattern dots-2356)⠄ (braille pattern dots-3)

References

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