Geʽez Braille

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 Amharic 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.

Script type

alphabet

Print basis

Geʽez script

LanguagesAmharic; possibly also Tigrinya, Tigre, etc.

Parent systems

Braille

English Braille
- Geʽez Braille

Quick facts Geʽez Braille Amharic Braille, Script type ...

Geʽez Braille Amharic Braille

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

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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.^[1]

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 combination that does not occur in print.

Tigrinya and Tigrean alphabets

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	⠁⠋⠁⠆^[2]