ETHIOPIC

TECHNOLOGY

ETHIOPIC COMPUTERIZATION

One of the ancient heritages Ethiopia contributed to the world is the Ethiopic alphabet and its writing method. Ethiopians have been using their own alphabet, numerals and symbols for millennia. Ethiopic has also managed to take advantage of printing press and the typewriter.

During the last decade, many countries have started using the computer for writing and other purposes. A few years ago the Amharic (Ethiopian) typewriter (የዓማርኛ የጽሑፍ መኪና) typing method, that was developed to use fake and ligated characters by modifying the English typewriter, has been computerized. Modifying the English typewriter print head for typing Ethiopic and computerizing this technology is an excellent work. However, though the fake characters created by ligating character parts located on different keys have spared us from using handwriting, the characters are incomplete and not proportional and the typing method is difficult. On the other hand, the ancient as well as the modern Ethiopic handwritten and the printing press characters are independent solitary glyphs and thus not ligated. For instance, the typewriter "ላ" glyph is concocted by adding a vertical bar on the right leg of the "ለ" character while the Ethiopic "ላ" character is an independent character with a short left leg. The length of the right legs of the Ethiopic "ለ" and "ላ" characters is equal.

Recently, an Ethiopian, Dr. Aberra Molla, for the first time invented a breakthrough computerized method of typing and printing each and every one of the Ethiopic characters. As a result of this invention it is no longer necessary to use incomplete and ligated fake characters or reduced glyphs to fit the technology. Instead, Ethiopic as well as Ethiopia hereafter can take advantage of the technology to fulfill their needs. The novel method is fast and simple and each glyph is typed with no more than two keystrokes. For instance, the "ዊ" character is typed by striking "W" and "F3" or "W" and "Comma" or "W" and "3" or "W" and "I" etc. keys. The screen/print character is the independent "ዊ" character and not the "ዋ" character with a "_" or underscore ligated to it. This novel method has become a shortcut for Ethiopic and Ethiopian usage to adapt the various computerized technologies. An Ethiopian word publisher software package that utilizes this technology has been released as "ModEth" (ሞዴት) for the IBM PC and compatible computers and many have been using it in various Ethiopian languages with the Amharic, Tigre, Oromo and Guragie Ethiopic alphabet.

This (Amharic) document was typed and typeset with the ModEth software, a standard ten point font of its Shewa (ሸዋ) scalable typeface and a LaserJet III H-P printer. For more information the phone number of the company, Ethiopian Computers & Software, (የኢትዮጵያ ኮምፕዩተሮችና ሶፍትዌር) is (303) 972-2186. The address is 9781 W. Fremont Pl., Littleton, Colorado 80123-4102, U.S.A.w

The Amharic article, on how Dr. Aberra Molla computerized Ethiopic was published in the Ethiopian Review magazine of January, 1991.  

Amharic
Amharic

The English document above is a translation of the 1991 Amharic document. The graphics below is a picture of page 25 of the Ethiopian Review magazine Amharic article.

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