THE GE’EZ FIDEL AND THE
MILLENNIUM
By
Mathza
I have two objectives
for writing this brief piece. The first is to draw attention of the
Ge’ez fidel (script) in relation to the celebration of the Ethiopian
2000 Millennium. I have no idea if there is a program related to the
fidel. If none it should be formulated and implemented before the end of
the year 2000. After all as an important feature that characterizes
Ethiopia
and its people, this unique script in black
Africa
deserves to shine during the Millennium celebrations. Contributions to
answers to questions and observations and suggestions in this writing
could serve among the inputs to the program.
The observations and
suggestions on the fidel below are from a layman in the script and
Ethiopic languages. I have no doubt that the linguists and those who
designed the Ge’ez software have considered these among many other
possibilities and changes. My second objective in writing this brief
piece is, therefore, to prompt Ethiopian linguists and Ge’ez software
designers to educate us about the history and development of the fidel
and its incorporation in the cyber world. For example, what is the
origin of the fidel? How does it relate to other Semetic scripts? What
did the original fidel look like? When were the vowels added? How did
the fidel expand to its present form, apparently, accommodating many new
sounds? How many groups were and are involved in developing software for
the fidel? At what stage is the development of the soft ware? Has a
standardized software been agreed upon?
Observations
Of the 33 consonants
and their syllables
in the fidel some of them appear to be duplications. These are
shown in bold faced italics here below and in the fidel
at the end of this presentation:
1.
ሀ,
ሐ,
ኀ, ሠ, ሰ, ዐ, አ,
ጸ
and ፀ
and their syllables
of which ሐ,
ኀ, ሠ
or ሰ,
ዐ,
ጸ or
ፀ seem
not to be needed in Amharic.
2.
The same goes with ኀ, ሠ or
ሰ and
ጸ
or
ፀ and their
syllables in Tigrigna.
3.
ሐ
and ዐ and their syllables
are used in Tigrigna.
4.
In Tigrigna, unlike in
Amharic, the consonants ሀ,
ሐ and
ዐ have sounds
different from the corresponding ሃ,
ሓ and
ዓ.
5.
The special letters
presented below (additional to the 33 consonants and their syllables)
are cumbersome and unnecessarily complicate the fidel.
ኳ
ጓ ቋ ኋ
Suggestions
1.
The consonants ኀ,
ሠ
or
ሰ
and
ጸ or
ፀ and their
syllables could be
done away with provided there are no other languages using
them—including those which have adopted and will be expected to adopt
the fidel. Of course, any one of these could be designated to
accommodate sounds in other languages that are not available in the
fidel.
2.
Some letters,
especially when printed in small characters, could be confused with
letters having similar structures. ሰ
and
ለ and
ዐ
and
ፀ fall in this
category. In view of this, ሠ
may be preferred to ሰ
and
ጸ to
ፀ.
3.
The special letters can
be written by combining the relevant ‘huletbet’ or ‘sidistbet’
letters with ዋ.
For instance, ሏ can be written as ሉዋ or ልዋ.
Getting rid of the 21
letters in 1 and the 21 special letters in 3 could cut down the number
of letters in the fidel by 42. Similar and/or other combinations for the
16 odd letters shown below (excluding
those in the fourth column already included in the special letters)
could reduce the bulky Fidel by 58 or by over 21%.
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The Ge’ez Fidel (Script)
