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Ge'ez Braille is the
braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...
alphabet for all
Ethiopic languages. Letter values are mostly in line with
international usage.
Alphabet
Ge'ez Braille is a consonant–vowel alphabet, not an
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
like the print
Ge'ez script. However, because the alphabetic chart (right) is organized by syllable rather than by letter, the vowels, which do not occur alone, are given first in the chart below, then the consonants are listed in Ge'ez order.
The syllabic chart at right shows a blank cell being used for the vowel . This is perhaps an artefact of the presentation; UNESCO (2013) shows it as a zero vowel that is simply not written.
[Unesco (2013)]
World Braille Usage
3rd ed.
is not the default vowel in print Amharic, which is instead (braille ). For example, el + vowel is written ለ ''lä'', ሉ ''lu'', ሊ ''li'', ላ ''la'', ሌ ''le'', ል ''lə'', ሎ ''lo'', ሏ ''lwa''.
CwV and CyV other than Cwa are written with medial ''w'' and ''y'': 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 Cwə is written as if it were Cwu, a sequence which does not occur in
Ethiopic languages.
Numbers
Ethiopic digits do not follow the international pattern. They are also
circumfix
A circumfix (abbreviated ) (also confix or ambifix) is an affix which has two parts, one placed at the start of a word, and the other at the end. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, attached at t ...
ed with ... :
The form of 100 suggests that the prefix may occur before each digit, while the suffix occurs only at the end of the number.
Western numbers are marked with as in other braille alphabets.
Punctuation
Native punctuation is as follows:
The last is a 'tonal mark'.
There is also Western punctuation:
References
Ethiopic Brailleat Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind, Addis Ababa
{{Braille
French-ordered braille alphabets
Amharic language