[Up | Appendix A] [Next | Page 2]

Ethiopic Glyphs Variants


Known Variants

The following are a list of known variants for the letters coded in Appendix A of the present proposal. The variants here exhibit features differing significantly enough from their better known primary form that they could be mistaken for different consonant classes or imply a less common syllabic form. Font and stylistically different glyphs are not discussed. Glyph variants do not require unique code points as they serve no functionally unique purpose quantitative text. For variant series only the first order letter is present to minimize the image mass of the hypertext.


ETHIOPIC COMMA : 1363

The old style (pre and early 20th century) ETHIOPIC COMMA will be treated as a glyph variant for the present day descendent. The two are functionally equivalent in text [13] :

  was formerly  


ETHIOPIC PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR : 1368

In hand written liturgical practices still in use in the present day the 7 dot ETHIOPIC PARAGRAPH SEPERATOR may be rendered with 9 dots where the appearance is some what like the 4 dot ETHIOPIC FULL STOP interlaced with 5 red dots as shown:

  is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE HHAA : 1213

A variant of HHA may be found in historical texts and more commonly in hand written manuscripts [11] :

  is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE HHO : 1216

A variant of HHO may be found in historical texts and more commonly in hand written manuscripts [11] :

  is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE MWA : 121F

Two variants of MWA found in older texts of the present century are presented below [5, 7, 8, 9] :

  is also     is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE MW/MWU : (NOT CODED)

Two glyphs are given in the Leslau text for MW (spoken as MWU regionally). The calligrapher is believed to have changed preferences during composition of the document. A sample of the first of the two variants is found on page 57, the second on page 72. [6] :

  is also  


ETHIOPCIC SYLLABLE MYA : 1358

A variant of MYA given in prominent texts on Amharic is given below. It is not known in what regions and dialects of Amharic the character is used. No word samples are available. Further information on the use of the character is sought. Note that a MWA variant is also used for MYA here. [5, 7, 8, 9] :

  is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE RWA : 122F

A variant of RWA found in older texts of the present century is presented below [5, 7, 8, 9] :

  is also     is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE RYA : 1359

A variant of RYA given in prominent texts on Amharic is given below. It is not known in what regions and dialects of Amharic the character is used. No word samples are available. Further information on the use of the character is sought. Note that the popular RWA variant is also used for RYA here. [4, 5, 8, 9] :

  is also  


ETHIOPIC SERIES VA : 1268 - 126F

Seven variant glyphs are known for the protoform of the VAE series. The Ge'ez (first) order is presented below [11] :

 series is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE NWA : 1297

A variant of NWA found in older texts of the present century is presented below [5, 7, 8, 9] :

  is also  


ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE NYWA : 129F

A variant of NYWA found in older texts of the present century is presented below [5, 7, 8, 9] :

  is also  


[Up | Appendix A] [Next | Page 2]