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Re: [westasianconlangs] TECH: Unicode



> I'm sending a test to see if the server and your browsers / mail clients
support
> Ethiopian syllabary encoded in Unicode.
> These four characters should be read as a.maa.re.nyaa
> አማርኛ

After installing an Ethiopian font, I can see these characters,
although the quallity is not good
when such complex characters are displayed
in the same same size as Latin letters.

Similarly, the vocalised Hebrew letters
are in normal size hardly readable,
because there is no space between the letter and the point,
and so "sheva" can look like "hiriq".

Here is a list of Gedeh names of letters,
written with Hebrew letters and Central European Latin letters:

אֶלְפֶבְיֶתֻ־גֶדְחִם
9elpebjetu_Gedhim

1 אֶלְפֻם elpum "ox"
2 בֶיְתֻם bejtum "house"
3 גֶמְלֻם gemlum "throwstick"
- גֿ g`
4 דֶלֻם delum "door"
- דֿ d`
5 ה h
6 ו w "hook?"
7 זֶיְנֻם zejnum "mace?"
8 ח x
9 ט ţ
- טֿ ţ`
10 יֶדֻם jedum "hand"
20 כֶפֻּם keppum "palm"
-- כֿ k`
30 לֶמְדֻם lemdum "ox-goad"
40 מֶאֻם me'um "water"
50 נֶוְנֻם newnum "fish"
60 סֶמְכֻם semkum "support?"
-- ס׳ ś
70 עֶיְנֻם ‎6ejnum "eye"
80 פֻם pum "mouth"
90 צ c (ş)
-- צ׳ ć
100 ק q "monkey?"
200 רֶאְשֻם re'šum "head"
300 שֶנֻּם šennum "tooth"
400 תֶוֻּם tewwum "mark"
--- תֿ t`

The Gedeh orthography differs from the Hebrew orthography
in following items:
1) The point "sin dot" is not placed on the letter "shin",
but on the letter "samekh",  and also on the letter "tsadi".
2) Because the point "sin dot" is small and hardly readable
(and chiefly because browsers do not allow to place it
on any letter other than "shin"),
Gedeh uses bigger mark looking like "geresh"
(standalone "punctuation geresh" (1523) rather than
combining "accent geresh" (1436),
because some browsers do not support accents).
3) Because there is no "sin dot" on the letter "shin",
also the "shin dot" is omitted.
4) Unlike Hebrew, which marks stops with weak "dagesh"
and leaves fricatives unmarked,
Gedeh marks fricatives with "rafe" and leaves stops unmarked.
So every "dagesh" in Gedeh means the doubling of the letter.
5) Unlike Hebrew with six pairs b/v, p/f, d/D, t/T, g/G and k/x,
Gedeh has one extra pair ţ/ţ`,
whereas b` and p` occurs only in foreign names.

In Gedeh texts written with Latin letters,
the equivalent of "rafe" is "grave"
(instead of the underline commonly used in transliteration)
and the equivalent of "sin dot" or "geresh" is "acute".
The emphatic sounds are marked by "cedilla"
(instead of the "dot bellow" commonly used in transliteration).
The apostrophe is omitted in initial position,
but at the begin of the sentences and names,
a special letter "capital apostrophe" (looking like the cipher 9) is used.
Another special letter is "6ejnum" or "closed h" (looking like the cipher
6);
its capital form "closed H" looks like the cipher 8.

      P.A.