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Ethiopic
Dr. ABERRA MOLLA
______________________
“…for computerizing Ethiopic and
revolutionizing the Geez script” reads the award given to Dr.
Aberra Molla in 1990 by the
Ethiopian Research Council.
Dr Aberra's Interview with the Voice of America Amharic Program, 06-27-89
about the First Ethiopic Software Real
ሰኔ ፲፰ ቀን ፲፱፻፹፩ ዓ.ም.
Dr. Aberra's Interview with the Voice of America Amharic
Program, 06-27-89 about the First Ethiopic Software Windows
ሰኔ ፲፰ ቀን ፲፱፻፹፩ ዓ.ም.
___________
Dr. Aberra Molla (ዶ/ር ኣበራ ሞላ) was
introduced to computers in 1976, during the punch card era, when
he was a post–doctoral
Clinical Science student at Colorado State University. Dr.
Aberra, the pioneer of Ethiopic computerization, is a visionary
who recognized the power of computers and its potential and was
ahead of his time. Since 1982 or over the last 25 years, he has
been and is still working with Ethiopic, the Ethiopian alphabet.
It took a while for the computer to have
enough memory to accommodate Geez.
Though IBM has increased the character set from 16 by 8 to 16 by
16 by 1983, the power of the computer as well as software and
printers was limited to working with a few fonts and that was
barely sufficient for Ethiopic prior to 1984. Dr. Aberra
computerized Ethiopic for the fist time by giving a spot for
each and every glyph. With the help of his son, Brook, it took a
year to make one set of Geez screen and printer fonts in 1986.
This was accomplished by systematically spreading the more than
400 Ethiopic glyphs on eight character sets. The first Ethiopic
character set and word processor was released in 1987, though
that was not the year of the invention. See one of the eight
sets below in his Microsoft DOS ModEth font of the classic
publisher that, for the first time, moved Ethiopic from the
printing press to the computer.
Of course, the fonts
alone were not useful in DOS and required simple and
novel typing methods, keyboards and overlays for his double
sets.

(Font 1 of 10 Ethiopian-English Layout in Shifted Position)

(ModEth Font 5)
An example of one of his criteria was the assignment of
the most commonly used characters to the “A” to “Z” keys. In the
English-Ethiopian keyboard, the A, B, D, F, G, H, J, K. L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, W, Y and Z QWERTY keys were
assigned to the equivalent Ethiopic characters
አ, በ, ደ, ፈ, ገ, ሀ, ጀ, ከ, ለ, መ, ነ, ፐ, ቀ,
ረ, ሰ, ተ, ወ, የ and ዘ
respectively
making it simple
for Ethiopians to type without the overlay. (There
are Ethiopians who still use the version of the set released for
Windows)

(Font 4 of 10 English-Ethiopian Layout in Default Position)

Examples of
his accomplishments are pending patents and recognition in 1990
by the Ethiopian Research Council for computerizing Ethiopic and
revolutionizing the Geez script.
Dr. Aberra
is not only a writer, an inventor, a
scientist and a married father of three engineers, but also the father
of Ethiopic computing who successfully single-handedly defended the
alphabet from numerous detractors for decades. Without his
effort even Unicode, that expanded the computer character set to
16 by 16 by 16, in 1990, would have been mislead to standardize
the fake and incomplete Amharic typewriter glyphs as Amharic or Ethiopic.
Without his effort, Unicode would not have included the minority
Ethiopic Agew/Bilen and Guragie glyphs in 2002, characters that
were there by then in Aberra’s sets for over a decade.

The
pictures below shows some Geez glyphs not yet included in
Unicode.

Check out Ethiopic.com for more details about his legendary and continuing
contributions in this one area.
Click here for the veterinary
surgeon
References:
http://www.ethiopic.com
Science and Technology - DOCTOR ABERRA MOLLA - Ethiopian
Millennium
የኢትዮጵያ ሳይንስና
ቴክኖሎጂ ኮሚሽን
1990 Ethiopic U.S.A. Pending Patent
The
Ethiopic Computer Keyboard Keys Overlays
Ethiopic Computerization
ግዕዝ በኮምፕዩተር
Advances Made by
Ethiopians in the Computer Technology (1991)
The Amharic Typewriter Font
(Fake Amharic)
Unicode and Fake Ethiopic (1992)
በኮምፕዩተር የግዕዝ
የፊደል ገበታ
Ethiopic Alphabet Names
The Ethiopic Computer Keys
ምልክቶች
Symbols
Hehu
ስመ ኣሃዝ
Aleqa Kidane Wolde Kifle's Amharic Typewriter Character Set
Character
Assassination
Ethiopic
Numeral Names
አቡጊዳ Ebugida
The
Ethiopian Abegede Numerals
The Incomplete Unicode Ethiopic (1996)
The Ethiopic
Computer Keyboard (1995)
The Language of Electronic Commerce
Ethiopic References [Dr. Abera Mola]
Ethiopic Oromiffa, Saho and Guragie in ModEth
Ethiopic Glyphs in ModEth
Ethiopic Glyph Variants
Ethiopic Agew/Bilen, Guragie, Tigre and Tigrigna in ModEth
Engineer
Ayana Birru
Ethiopic Extended
Ethiopic Supplement
The
Ethiopic Alphabet
Ethiopian Plant Names
Ethiopian
Language Names and Maps
የኢትዮጵያ ቋንቋዎች ፲፱፻፺፪
Disease Names in
Amharic
Ethiopian Millennium Served Up Knowledge Buffet
Abstracts
Wikipedia 2008 Aberra Molla
Amharic Wikipedia
Dr. Aberra Molla ዶ/ር ኣበራ ሞላ
ማስታወሻ፣ ዶ/ር ኣበራ ሞላ፣ ሮዝ መጽሔት 3፡22-23 2002 ዓ.ም.
Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Bionity.com Encyclopedia
Notable Veterinarians - 2007
Ethiopic Extensions http://www.ethiopic.com
__________
Ethiopian Review Magazine - About Ethiopic Computerization
by Dr. Aberra Molla, 1991.
Dr. Alemu
Beeftu - Acknowledgement in his book typeset and published
with ModEth, 1991
Dr. Alemu
Beeftu - Acknowledgement in his book typeset and published
with ModEth, 1993
Dr.
Leykun Birhanu - Acknowledgement in his book typeset and
published with EthioWord, 1995
Dr. Leykun Birhanu -
Acknowledgement in his book typeset and published with
EthioWord, 1995.
Dr. Tim
Carmichael - On EthioWord by Dr. Aberra Molla, 1997
Newbie Question on Multilingual Typing
Professor
Luc Devroye - Very Interesting, 2001
Dr.
Leykun Birhanu - Acknowledgement in his book typeset and
published with EthioWord, 2001
Dr. Bekele Molla - Amharic Language, 2002
Dr.
Damtew Teferra - Windows in Amharic, 2004
Dr. Abebe
Kebede - Ethiopic Keyboard, 2006.
Abesha Care
- Ethiopic Innovation, 2008
አማርኛ ኣከታተብ
Amharic Typing Help
_________________
Acknowledgement
Interviews
1992 with Endale Getahun of Ethiopian Cultural Television, Denver,
CO.
እናስተዋውቅዎ Interview in Amharic, 2008
September, 2007, Millennium.com with Befekir Kebede, Melbourne, Australia
ዶ/ር አበራ ሞላ
ነሓሴ ፲፱፻፺፱ ቃለ መጠይቅ ከበፍቅር
ከበደ፣ ሜልበርን፣ ኣውስትሬልያ
Dr.
Aberra Molla,
Ethiopian of the Millennium Nominee for Computerizing
Ethiopic, etc. - August, 2007
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
Doctor Aberra Molla
ዶ/ር ኣበራ ሞላ September, 2007
Aberra_Molla_Rose_3_Meskerem_2002.pdf
Links
GeezEdit Links
NES-Global
Ethiopian American Forum
Google Search in Amharic with the Free Online GeezEdit Press
Release
Google Search in Amharic and English - ENGLISH Ethiopic.com
How to Google in Amharic
Google Search in Amharic and English - AMHARIC
በነፃው ግዕዝኤዲት ገጽ በጉግል ዓማርኛ
መፈለጊያ ዜናዊ መግለጫ
በነፃው ግዕዝኤዲት ገጽ በጉግል ዓማርኛ
መፈለጊያ
Ethiopian Observer
Free Press GeezEdit
ዶ/ር አበራ ሞላ አማርኛ
Ethiopian Scientists
Editorial Team
Amharic Phrasebook
Good Morning Ethiopia
Dr. Abebe Kebede
Ethio Emma
እየሱስ ዶት ኮም
Another Breakthrough Invention By Dr. Aberra
Molla
Eyesus.com
Ethiomedia
Ethiopian Scientific and Academic Network (ESAN)
Amharic: Literature In Amharic
Amharic language : Translation Companies
ኢንተርኔት ፍለጋ ጉግል በአማርኛና እንግሊዝኛ
Google Search in Amharic and English Alphabets
ስለ ግዕዝኤዲት ዜናዊ መግለጫ
ፌስቡክ ብትግርኛ
Ethiopian Review
GeezEdit
ቋንቋና ንፍለጦን ንጠቐመሉን
GeezEdit Online Testimonials
GeezEdit Amharic Typing Help
ግዕዝኤዲት ኣከታተብ
Ethiopic
Typing
Amharic Typewriter
Font
Font
Designers
Ethiopic Names and Numbers
የግዕዝ ስምና ኣኃዝ
MegaWriter
Free Press 3: Ethiopic Names and Numbers ስምና ኣኃዝ መግለጫ
Amharic and English
Pictures
Aberra
with HIM and Visitors

Ethiopian Millennium.com
ModEth Advertisement 1993
ModEth Ethiopic Font 1988
Ethiopic Keyboard Overlay (1988-89)
ModEth Screen and Printout
Examples
Acknowledgement by Dr. Alemu Beeftu, 1991
ModEth Dot
Matrix Printout, 1989
Ethiopic Zero in ModEth
GeezEdit Trademark

Patents
Dr. Aberra Molla | ዶ/ር
ኣበራ
ሞላ
Patent Number
4,501,816 Molla, February 26, 1985.
Dr. Aberra Molla | ዶ/ር
ኣበራ
ሞላ
Patent Number
2,127,963 B Molla, 16 October, 1985.
Dr. Aberra Molla | ዶ/ር
ኣበራ
ሞላ
United States Pending Patent, 1990
Dr. Aberra Molla | ዶ/ር
ኣበራ
ሞላ
United States Pending Patent
Products
ModEth, Ethiopian Word Processor ሞዴት፤ የኢትዮጵያ ቃላት
ማተሚያ

ModEth Screen 1988
ModEth Copyright
ModEth Keyboard
(Ethiopian-English Layout)
EthioScaler
EthioWord
ኢትዮወርድ
GeezEdit
GeezEdit Trademark

EthioCyber
EthioConvert

Patent Pending Ethiopic Invention
Online GeezEdit ግዕዝኤዲት

Amharic
Search
Android የእጅ ስልክ
Amharic
Cell Phone
Ethiopic Character Entry Invention
EthioSuite
Geezedit.com
Publications
Forums
AAU
Alumni Forum
_________________
Under construction
5/5/07 Updated
1/15/11
8/21/11
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