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Appendix B

RENDERING ETHIOPIC SCRIPT AT KEY ENTRY LEVEL

1. Each character in the Ethiopic Script cannot be represented on a Latin keyboard since the number of characters exceeds that of the keys available from the keyboard. Thus, an input method is required to map the Latin key(s) entered onto a corresponding Ethiopic character.

At entry level all of the syllables, except the Sixth Order (Sadiss-bate) syllables, are treated as "Sixth Order+Ethiopic Vowel" pairs and each pair is mapped to the appropriately coded character. (The Sixth Order consonant letters do not require a vowel key and can be treated as they are.) Such treatment may also be applied to serve transliteration purposes.

2. The Sixth Order (Sadiss-bate) letters are shown in the key mapping table following the table below. The set of Orders and and their recommended compose sequences (see also Appendix A) are as shown:

English Name      Traditional Name   Compose Sequence      Column in Ethiopic Table

First  Order      Ge'ez-bate                +e                       1
Second Order      Ka'b-bate                 +u                       2
Third  Order      Salise-bate               +i                       3 
Fourth Order      Rab'-bate                 +a                       4
Fifth  Order      Hamiss-bate               +E                       5
Sixth  Order      Sadiss-bate            (default)#                  6
Seventh Order     Sab'-bate                 +o                       7

Labiovelar Extended Forms

Eighth Order      Ge'ez-Dikala-bate         +We                      1
Ninth  Order      Ka'b-Dikala-bate          +Wu / +W                 2
Tenth  Order      Salise-Dikala-bate        +Wi                      3
Eleventh Order    Rab'-Dikala-bate          +Wa                      4   [ or 8th* ]
Twelth Order      Hamiss-Dikala-bate        +WE                      5


# though the sixth order is the default ' (apostrope) is a recommended
  input terminator for the syllable.  The application of a terminator becomes
  important for syllable series who's sixth form requires a compose sequence
  described shortly. 

* for consonant series with only 8 forms.

ETHIOPIC SCRIPT KEYBOARD LAYOUT

The Ethiopic keyboard layout features the Sixth Order (Sadiss-bate) characters, Ethiopic punctuation marks, Latin punctuation marks, and Latin numbers. A one-to-one mapping to the Latin keyboard layout is applied and leaves none of the Sixth Order letters unassigned. Ethiopic numbers are treated independently of Latin numbers, but mapped to Latin numbers as needed. The pipe, ``|'', in the table indicates the mapping is made to the corresponding Latin uppercase character.

KEYBOARD LAYOUT (Ethiopic script keyboard layout with respect to Latin-1)

HEX NAME                         ETHIOPIC KEYBOARD LAYOUT

0020   SPACE                    = 1360 ETHIOPIC SPACE
                                | 1361 ETHIOPIC WORDSPACE
0021   EXCLAMATION MARK        <=
0022   QUOTATION MARK          <=
0023   NUMBER SIGN             <=
0024   DOLLAR SIGN             <=
0025   PERCENT SIGN            <=
0026   AMPERSAND               <=
0027   APOSTROPHE              <=
0028   LEFT PARENTHESIS        <=
0029   RIGHT PARENTHESIS       <=
002A   ASTERISK                <=
002B   PLUS SIGN               <=
002C   COMMA                    = 1363 ETHIOPIC COMMA
002D   HYPHEN-MINUS            <=
002E   PERIOD                   = 1362 ETHIOPIC PERIOD
002F   SOLIDUS                 <=
0030   DIGIT ZERO              <=
0031   DIGIT ONE                = 1369 ETHIOPIC DIGIT ONE
0032   DIGIT TWO                = 136A ETHIOPIC DIGIT TWO
0033   DIGIT THREE              = 136B ETHIOPIC DIGIT THREE
0034   DIGIT FOUR               = 136C ETHIOPIC DIGIT FOUR
0035   DIGIT FIVE               = 136D ETHIOPIC DIGIT FIVE
0036   DIGIT SIX                = 136E ETHIOPIC DIGIT SIX
0037   DIGIT SEVEN              = 136F ETHIOPIC DIGIT SEVEN
0038   DIGIT EIGHT              = 1370 ETHIOPIC DIGIT EIGHT
0039   DIGIT NINE               = 1371 ETHIOPIC DIGIT NINE
003A   COLON                    = 1365 ETHIOPIC COLON
003B   SEMICOLON                = 1365 ETHIOPIC SEMICOLON
003C   LESS THAN               <= 
003D   EQUAL                   <=
003E   GREATER THAN            <=
003F   QUESTION MARK            = FDFF ETHIOPIC STYLIZED QUESTION MARK
0040   AT                      <=
005C   REVERSE SOLIDUS         <=
005D   RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET    <=
005E   CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT       <=
005F   LOW LINE                <=
0060   GRAVE ACCENT            <=
0061   LATIN SMALL LETTER A     = 12A3 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL AA
                                | 12A3 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL AA
0062   LATIN SMALL LETTER B     = 1260 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE BE
                                | 1260 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE BE
0063   LATIN SMALL LETTER C     = 1278 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE CE
                                | 1328 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE CHE
0064   LATIN SMALL LETTER D     = 12F0 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE DHE
                                | 12F8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE DDHE
0065   LATIN SMALL LETTER E     = 12A0 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  A
                                | 12A4 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  EE
0066   LATIN SMALL LETTER F     = 1348 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE FE
                                | 1348 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE FE
0067   LATIN SMALL LETTER G     = 1308 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE GE
                                | 1318 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE GGE
0068   LATIN SMALL LETTER H     = 1200 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE HE
                                | 1220 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE HHE
0069   LATIN SMALL LETTER I     = 12A2 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  I
                                | 12A5 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  E 
006A   LATIN SMALL LETTER J     = 1300 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE JE
                                | 1300 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE JE
006B   LATIN SMALL LETTER K     = 12A8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE KE
                                | 12B8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE KXE
006C   LATIN SMALL LETTER L     = 1210 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE LE
                                | 1210 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE LE
006D   LATIN SMALL LETTER M     = 1218 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE ME
                                | 1218 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE ME
006E   LATIN SMALL LETTER N     = 1290 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE NE
                                | 1298 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE NYE
006F   LATIN SMALL LETTER O     = 12A6 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  O
                                | 12A6 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  O
0070   LATIN SMALL LETTER P     = 1350 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE PE
                                | 1330 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE PHE
0071   LATIN SMALL LETTER Q     = 1240 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE QE
                                | 1250 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE QH
0072   LATIN SMALL LETTER R     = 1228 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE RE
                                | 1228 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE RE
0073   LATIN SMALL LETTER S     = 1230 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE SE
                                | 1338 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE TSE
0074   LATIN SMALL LETTER T     = 1270 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE TE
                                | 1320 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE THE
0075   LATIN SMALL LETTER U     = 12A1 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  U
                                | 12A1 ETHIOPIC GLOTTAL  U
0076   LATIN SMALL LETTER V     = 1268 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE VE
                                | 1268 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE VE
0077   LATIN SMALL LETTER W     = 12C8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE WE
                                | 12C8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE WE
0078   LATIN SMALL LETTER X     = 1238 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE SHE
                                | 125D ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE XKE
0079   LATIN SMALL LETTER Y     = 12E8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE YE
                                | 12E8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE YE
007A   LATIN SMALL LETTER Z     = 12D8 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE ZE
                                | 12E0 ETHIOPIC SYLLABLE ZHE
007B   LEFT CURLY BRACKET      <=
007C   VERTICAL LINE           <=
007D   RIGHT CURLY BRACKET     <=
007E   TILDE                   <=

INPUT OF ADDITIONAL ETHIOPIC TEXT ELEMENTS

Letters
Do to the excess of Ethiopic consonant classes with respect to that available from common Latin keyboards, there are some number of letters that do not have direct key mappings and so compose sequences are required. The majority of these letters are homophonic equivalent classes (or series sharing some other relation to a logical Latin counterpart) occurring less frequently in writing practices. The input of the sixth form entry points of these series is recommended as follows:

ETHIOPIC SADISS SYLLABLE            LATIN COMPOSE SEQUENCE

    U+1225 SZE                               ss
    U+1285 XE                                hh
    U+1345 TZE                               SS
    U+1385 QQE                               qq
    U+1395 KKE                               kk
    U+13B5 GYE                               gg

Likewise, pharyngeal vowels would then be entered through a double strike of their glottal counterpart's key mapping. SERA transcription sequences are also recommended. See also SERA-IM.

Punctuation
Both Ethiopic and European punctuations are important in Ethiopic writing. Both should be readily available to the document composer, the Ethiopic being the default. A simple and satisfactory input method to render the keyboard's native punctuation is to provide the native punctuation following a double-strike of the shared keymap. E.g. striking comma renders Ethiopic comma, a second keystrike of comma replaces Ethiopic Comma with European comma and the character input terminates.

Punctuation that does not have a direct functional mapping unto the European, such as Ethiopic Preface Colon and Paragraph Separator, are recommended to be input following their SERA transcription value.

Numerals
It is recommended that the more frequently occurring Arabic numerals be the default in an Ethiopic input method. A toggle key, such as F1 or Alt-F1, etc., would then be employed to go between Arabic and Ethiopic numerals.