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GFF Geʾez Manuscripts

The Geʾez Frontier Foundation Keyboard for Geʾez Manuscripts

EMUFI project logo

Introduction

This is a Geʾez (ግዕዝ, ISO-639-2 gez) language mnemonic input method. They keyboard is designed to work with the EMUFI project’s “Geʾez Manuscript Zemen” font (v1.2) which in turn provides numerous punctuation, numerals, and letter forms found in manuscripts but not yet available under the Unicode standard.

In essence, this is the GFF Geʾez Keyboard with the added ability to type over 1,000 additional symbols found in Geʾez manuscripts. See the typing manual for a detailed review of how to type these additional symbols. See the basic manual for instructions on typing basic Geʾez letters, punctuation and numbers.

The following section is a summary review of the advanced typing, the pdf manual covers typing in full detail.

Numeral Variations

The specialized numerals can be entered by typing a regular number followed by the “Tab” key. Each number will have a selection “menu” available. Menus appear on screen in list within square brackets [ ] and an index number. Type the number that corresponds to the desired numeral form to select it. For example:

The table below depicts the typing of available numeral forms using the regular numeral ፩ as an example. The initial “menu” that appear (as seen in Step 1 above) is presented vertically as a simplification:

The complete set of available numeral forms appear in the following table:

Punctuation & Marks

In the same way that a TAB is used to reveal menus for the numbers, it can similarly be used with punctuation marks. The index number will appear in a different style, for example:

and are special cases where a rubricated style has become the default appearance (typed with ‘::’ and ‘;’ respectively). In these cases, the modern style (። and ፤) becomes the first option. Available punctuation:


A number of the punctuation marks can be extended with a combining “stylus drag” mark by typing “-” (minus) following the punctuation mark:

Rubricated full stop chaining is possible using the special joiner mark, , which is available in the “=” symbols menu:

Ligatures

Ligatures may be typed by entering the individual letters followed by a “@”. For example, with the “Geʾez Manuscript Zemen” font selected:

Variants

Variants can be typed in the same way as ligatures:

Anqetse Haleita Bēt Markers

Similar to the ligatures, Bēt marks can be entered by typing the letter sequence followed by “=”. For example:

Marginal Markers

Marginalia are entered identically as with Bēt:

Zaima Qirts

The extended qirts may be entered by typing one of the regular basic notes followed by the TAB key, then selection of the desired complex qirts from the “menu” that appears. The “menu” based composition works just as it did for numbers and punctuation. Most marks will have for several menu levels. For example:

Viewed another way, the selection process for typing is depicted in this tabular view:

Extending Hidets

Some hidets can be extended by typing a “-” (minus) sign following the mark, for example:

Typing Letters

Only the letters used in the Geʾez language may be typed with this keyboard (i.e. no extra letters for Amharic, Tigrinya, etc. are typeable). To type additional Ethiopic letters used by other languages, please download a keyboard for the language needed or the language-neutral keyboard that supports composition of all Ethiopic symbols found in Unicode 14.

Special Notes:

  • Apostrophe, ' , is a terminator following a ሳድስ (6th form) letter. For example: mel'ak becomes መልአክ , melak becomes መላክ .
  • The keystroke of ‘x’ is added for the ‘ኀ’ family in agreement with classic Geʾez phonology and modern transliteration conventions.
  • The keystroke of ‘D’ is added for the ‘ፀ’ family in agreement with classic Geʾez phonology.
 ቤተሰብካዕብሣልስግዕዝራብዕኃምስሳድስሳብዕዘመደ፡ግዕዝዘመደ፡ካዕብዘመደ፡ሣልስዘመደ፡ራብዕዘመደ፡ኃምስ 
ቤተሰብKey+e+u+i+a+ie +o+ue+uu+ui+ua+uie 
ሆይhሀሁሂሃሄህሆኈኍኊኋኌh
ላዊ[lL]ለሉሊላሌልሎ   ሏ l
ሐውትHሐሑሒሓሔሕሖ   ሗ ħ
ማይ[mM]መሙሚማሜምሞ   ሟ m
ሠውትssሠሡሢሣሤሥሦ   ሧ ɬ
ርእስ[rR]ረሩሪራሬርሮ   ሯ r
ሳትsሰሱሲሳሴስሶ   ሷ s
ቃፍ[qQ]ቀቁቂቃቄቅቆቈቍቊቋቌkʼ
ቤት[bB]በቡቢባቤብቦ   ቧ b
ታውtተቱቲታቴትቶ   ቷ t
ኀርም[xX],hhኀኁኂኃኄኅኆኈኍኊኋኌx
ነሐስ[nN]ነኑኒናኔንኖ   ኗ n
አልፍ አ
a		ኡ
u		ኢ
i		ኣ
aa		ኤ
ie		እ
e		ኦ
o		     ʔ
ካፍ[kK]ከኩኪካኬክኮኰኵኲኳኴk
ወዌ[wW]ወዉዊዋዌውዎ     w
ዐይን ዐ
A		ዑ
Au /
U		ዒ
Ai /
I		ዓ
Aa		ዔ
Aie /
Ie		ዕ
Ae /
E		ዖ
Ao /
O		     ʕ
ዘይ[zZ]ዘዙዚዛዜዝዞ   ዟ z
የመን[yY]የዩዪያዬይዮ     y
ድንትdደዱዲዳዴድዶ   ዷ d
ገምል[gG]ገጉጊጋጌግጎጐጕጒጓጔg
ጠይትTጠጡጢጣጤጥጦ   ጧ tʼ
ጰይትPጰጱጲጳጴጵጶ   ጷ pʼ
ጸደይSጸጹጺጻጼጽጾ   ጿ sʼ
ፀጳD,SSፀፁፂፃፄፅፆ     dʼ
አፍ[fF]ፈፉፊፋፌፍፎ   ፏ f
ፕሳpፐፑፒፓፔፕፖ   ፗ p
  +ə+u+i+a+eɨ/-+o+ʷə+ʷu+ʷi+ʷa+ʷeIPA

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 123456789
Numeral ፩፪፫፬፭፮፯፰፱
Keystrokes 102030405060708090
Numeral ፲፳፴፵፶፷፸፹፺
Keystrokes 100100010000
Numeral ፻፲፻፼

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

Latin Digits

Western numbers may be typed with a ‘#’ mark followed by the desired digit 1-9.

Keystrokes #1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9
Digit 123456789

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, 2022-2023. 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.

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