Abyssinica SIL is a TrueType font with smart font capabilities added using OpenType and Graphite font technologies. The Ethiopic script does not require much rendering except for some combining marks for gemination and vowel length. However, there are some glyph variations for the Ethiopic script. Some applications let the user control certain features such as Character Variants to turn on the rendering of variant characters. However, at this point, most applications do not make use of those features so another solution is needed to show the variant characters. TypeTuner creates tuned fonts that use the variant glyph in place of the standard glyph. TypeTuner also provides the ability to turn on support for the Sebat Bet Gurage and Gumuz languages variants.

See Using Font Features. Although that page is not targeted at Ethiopic support, it does provide a comprehensive list of applications that make full use of the OpenType and Graphite font technologies.

Advanced typographic capabilities

This font supports various advanced typographic capabilities using the Graphite and OpenType font technologies.

  • Auto placement of diacritics (one level only) on Ethiopic syllables only (not on Latin characters)
  • Kerning of almost 200 pairs of Ethiopic syllables
  • OpenType Character Variants or Graphite features (alternately-designed glyphs are also provided for a number of characters for use in particular contexts)
  • OpenType and Graphite support for the Sebat Bet Gurage [sgw] and Gumuz [guk] languages

These capabilities are available in any application that supports the Graphite technology. They are also available via the OpenType technology, though this requires applications that provide a sufficient level of support for OpenType Character Variant features.

A sample of diacritic placement and kerning is shown below:

Abyssinica SIL Sample - Diacritic placement and Kerning
Abyssinica SIL Sample – Diacritic placement and Kerning

This page uses web fonts (WOFF2) to demonstrate font features and should display correctly in all modern browsers. For a more concise example of how to use Abyssinica SIL as a web font see Abyssinica SIL Webfont Example. For detailed information see Using SIL Fonts on Web Pages.

If this document is not displaying correctly a PDF version is also provided in the documentation/pdf folder of the release package.

Customizing with TypeTuner

For applications that do not make use of Graphite or the OpenType Stylistic Sets feature, you can now download fonts customized with the variant glyphs you choose. Read the Font Features page, visit TypeTuner Web, then to choose the variants and download your font.

Complete feature list

There are some Ethiopic character shape differences in different Ethiopian languages. These can be accessed by using Graphite features, OpenType Character Variants, or language support for Sebat Bet Gurage and Gumuz languages. The documents below can be downloaded in order to see all the user-selectable font features that are available in the font. The feature names, feature ids, settings and examples are provided.

Test rendering engine choice

Here is a simple test to see if Graphite is working in your browser. If it is, the following will say “RenderingGraphite”. If your browser does not support Graphite it should say “RenderingOpentype”. Firefox is currently the only browser that supports Graphite. See the instructions on how to enable Graphite in Firefox.

Check RenderingUnknown

Language

Affects: U+124A, U+124D, U+1298..U+129F, U+12B2, U+12B5, U+12C2, U+12C5, U+1312, U+1313, U+1315, U+1381, U+1385, U+138D

Language Sample Feature setting
default ቊ ቍ ኘ ኙ ኚ ኛ ኜ ኝ ኞ ኟ ኲ ኵ ዂ ዅ ጒ ጓ ጕ ᎁ ᎅ ᎍ
Sebat Bet Gurage (sgw) ቊ ቍ ኘ ኙ ኚ ኛ ኜ ኝ ኞ ኟ ኲ ኵ ዂ ዅ ጒ ጓ ጕ ᎁ ᎅ ᎍ lang=sgw
Gumuz (guk) ቊ ቍ ኘ ኙ ኚ ኛ ኜ ኝ ኞ ኟ ኲ ኵ ዂ ዅ ጒ ጓ ጕ ᎁ ᎅ ᎍ lang=guk

Character variants

Punctuation

Feature Sample Feature setting
Ethiopic-style ! $ % * + / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = ? ¡ © « ² ³ ¹ » × ‘ ’ “ ” ‹ › ⁰ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ € cv01=0
Latin-style ! $ % * + / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = ? ¡ © « ² ³ ¹ » × ‘ ’ “ ” ‹ › ⁰ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ € cv01=1

Ethiopic digits

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ፩ ፪፫ ፫፬፭ ፺፻፼፻፼፩፼፩፪ cv02=0
Connected ፩ ፪፫ ፫፬፭ ፺፻፼፻፼፩፼፩፪ cv02=1

mwa alternates

Affects: U+121F

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv04=0
Alternate-1 ሟ¹ cv04=1
Alternate-2 ሟ² cv04=2

rwa alternate

Affects: U+122F

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv05=0
Alternate ሯ² cv05=1

xoa alternate

Affects: U+1287

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv17=0
Alternate cv17=1

xwa alternates

Affects: U+1288..U+128D

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ኈ ኊ ኋ ኌ ኍ cv18=0
Handwriting ኈ ኊ ኋ ኌ ኍ cv18=1

nwa alternate

Affects: U+1297

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv19=0
Alternate ኗ¹ cv19=1

nya alternates

Affects: U+1298..U+129E

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ኘ ኙ ኚ ኛ ኜ ኝ ኞ cv20=0
Disconnected ኘ ኙ ኚ ኛ ኜ ኝ ኞ³ cv20=1

nywa alternates

Affects: U+129F

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv21=0
Disconnected ኟ³ cv21=1
Cohen ኟ² cv21=2

kxwaa alternate

Affects: U+12C3

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv26=0
Alternate ዃ² cv26=1

zha alternates

Affects: U+12E0..U+12E6

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ዠ ዡ ዢ ዣ ዤ ዥ ዦ cv31=0
Cohen ዠ ዡ ዢ ዣ ዤ ዦ⁴ cv31=1
Chaine ዠ ዡዣ ዤ ዥ ዦ cv31=2

dda alternates

Affects: U+12F8..U+12FE

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ዸ ዹ ዺ ዻ ዼ ዽ ዾ cv32=0
Alternate ዸ ዹ ዺ ዻ ዼ ዽ ዾ⁶ cv32=1

gwaa alternates

Affects: U+1313

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv40=0
Sebat Bet ጓ⁷ cv40=1
Alone Stokes ጓ⁸ cv40=2

gga alternates

Affects: U+1318..U+131E

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ጘ ጙ ጚ ጛ ጜ ጝ ጞ cv41=0
Disconnected ጘ ጙ ጚ ጛ ጜ ጝ ጞ⁹ cv41=1

ggwaa alternate

Affects: U+131F

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv42=0
Disconnected ጟ⁹ cv42=1

phe alternate

Affects: U+1335

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv45=0
Alternate ጵ¹⁰ cv45=1

tswa alternate

Affects: U+133F

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv46=0
Alternate cv46=1

fwa alternates

Affects: U+134F

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv48=0
Cohen-1 ፏ¹ cv48=1
Cohen-2 ፏ¹ cv48=2

rya alternate

Affects: U+1358

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv49=0
Alternate ፘ² cv49=1

mya alternate

Affects: U+1359

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv50=0
Alternate ፙ² cv50=1

mwi alternates

Affects: U+1381

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv60=0
Sebat Bet ᎁ⁷ cv60=1
Leslau ᎁ¹¹ cv60=2

mwe alternates

Affects: U+1383

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv61=0
Sebat Bet ᎃ⁷ cv61=1
Leslau ᎃ¹¹ cv61=2

bwe alternate

Affects: U+1387

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv62=0
Alternate ᎇ¹¹ cv62=1

fwee alternate

Affects: U+138A

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv63=0
Alternate ᎊ¹¹ cv63=1

fwe alternate

Affects: U+138B

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv64=0
Alternate ᎋ¹¹ cv64=1

pwe alternate

Affects: U+138F

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard cv65=0
Alternate ᎏ¹¹ cv65=1

ggwa alternates

Affects: U+2D93..U+2D96

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ⶓ ⶔ ⶕ ⶖ cv70=0
Disconnected ⶓ ⶔ ⶕ ⶖ⁹ cv70=1

3rd form alternates

Affects: U+124A U+12B2 U+12C2 U+1312 U+1385 U+138D

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ቊ ኲ ዂ ጒ ᎅ ᎍ cv80=0
Alternate ቊ ኲ ዂ ጒ ᎅ ᎍ⁷ cv80=1

6th form alternates

Affects: U+124D U+12B5 U+12C5 U+1315

Feature Sample Feature setting
Standard ቍ ኵ ዅ ጕ cv85=0
Alternate ቍ ኵ ዅ ጕ⁷ cv85=1

References

Alone, John Philip Herbert Mackenzie. 1946 (Fourth edition). The Alone-Stokes Short Manual of the Amharic Language (with vocabularies). Macmillan and Co. Limited: London.

Chaîne, Marius. 1907. Grammaire éthiopienne. Imprimerie catholique. Beyrouth.

Cohen, Marcel. 1970 Seconde edition. Traité de langue amharique (Abyssinie). Institut d’ethnologie: Paris.

Leslau, Wolf. 1966. Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background. Part 2: Chaha. University of California Publication. Near Eastern Studies, Volume 9. University of California Press: Berkeley

Praetorius, Franz. 1955. Aethiopische Grammatik mit Paradigmen, Litteratur, Chrestomathie und Glossar. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. New York.

¹Chaîne (p 3), Cohen (table 2)
²Cohen (table 2)
³Gumuz language preference
⁴Alone-Stokes, Chaîne (p 3), Cohen (table 1)
⁵Chaîne (p 3)
⁶Archaic Oromo language preference
⁷Sebat Bet language preference
⁸Alone-Stokes (inside back cover)
⁹Bilen language preference
¹⁰Praetorius (p 6)
¹¹Leslau