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Writing Systems Technical Resources

Unicode Status for Ethiopic

In The Unicode Standard, Ethiopic script implementation is discussed in Chapter 19 Africa, UTN 49: A Review of Shifts in Gurage Orthography, and in
UTN 55: Application of the Zero Width Joiner Mark for Selective Ethiopic Ligation.

Blocks

Section titled “Blocks”

Ethiopic script was first encoded in The Unicode Standard version 3.0. Since that time the encoding has undergone a number of modifications; the script is now encoded in the following blocks:

BlocksCharacter RangeAdded in Unicode VersionUnicode Charts
Ethiopic1200..137F3.0U1200
Ethiopic Supplement1380..139F4.1U1380
Ethiopic Extended2D80..2DDF4.1U2D80
Ethiopic Extended-AAB00..AB2F6.0UAB00
Ethiopic Extended-B1E7E0..1E7FF14.0U1E7E0

Characters

Section titled “Characters”

Subsequent to version 3.0, the following characters have been added to the Ethiopic script:

CharactersUnicode VersionDocumentation
12074.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
12474.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
12874.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
12AF4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
12CF4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
12EF4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
130F4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
131F4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
13474.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
135D..135E6.0n3572.pdf/L2/09-050
135F..13604.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
1380..13994.1n2747.pdf/L2/04-143
2D80..2D964.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DA0..2DA64.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DA8..2DAE4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DB0..2DB64.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DB8..2DBE4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DC0..2DC64.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DC8..2DCE4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DD0..2DD64.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
2DD8..2DDE4.1n1846.pdf/L2/04-143
AB01..AB066.0n3572.pdf/L2/09-050
AB09..AB0E6.0n3572.pdf/L2/09-050
AB11..AB166.0n3572.pdf/L2/09-050
AB20..AB266.0n3572.pdf/L2/09-050
AB28..AB2E6.0n3572.pdf/L2/09-050

Documentation refers to ISO Working Group and Unicode proposals

Proposals and documents

Section titled “Proposals and documents”

A number of proposals for its inclusion have been submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee and WG2:

  • 1992-11-25 Unicode Technical Report #1 — Joe Becker (TR1)
  • 1997-01-28 Combined PDAM registration and ballot for FPDAM 10: Ethiopic script — Bruce Paterson (L2/97-003 (not online))
  • 1997-12-01 Report on JTC1/SC2 letter ballot on FPDAM No. 10 to ISO/IEC 10646-1 (Ethiopic Script) — SC2/WG2 (WG2 N1630.doc, L2/97-276 (neither online))
  • 1998-09-11 Proposal to encode Ethiopic Extensions in the BMP of ISO/IEC 10646 (was distributed as L2/98-300) — Ethiopia, Ireland (WG2 N1846, L2/98-300, L2/00-081)
  • 1999-03-31 Ordering labio-velar characters in Ethiopic — John Clews (L2/99-122)
  • 2000-08-25 Proposed glyph fixes for Ethiopic pages in ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000 — Michael Everson (L2/00-282)
  • 2003-08-22 Ethiopic Word Space U+1361 — Mark Davis (L2/03-279)
  • 2003-08-25 UTS #18, U+1361 Comments — Daniel Yacob (L2/03-298)
  • 2004-04-23 Revision of the N1846 Proposal to add Extended Ethiopic to the BMP of the UCS — Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia, Ethiopia (WG2 N2747, L2/04-143)
  • 2004-06-18 Revisions proposed to N2747 (Extended Ethiopic) — Michael Everson, Daniel Yacob (WG2 N2814, L2/04-265)
  • 2007-05-15 PR #96 Comment — Daniel Yacob (L2/07-194)
  • 2009-02-05 Proposal to Encode Additional Ethiopic Characters — Lorna Priest (WG2 N3572, L2/09-050)
  • 2009-04-22 Report to JTC1 Chair and JTC1/SC2 Chair Regarding Resolution 34 on African Languages — Deborah Anderson (WG2 N3641, L2/09-285)
  • 2015-05-02 Proposal to Reclassify Ethiopic Wordspace as a Space Separator (Zs) Symbol — Daniel Yacob (L2/15-148)
  • 2017-08-10 About script names in the code charts — Eduardo Marin Silva (L2/17-293)
    • Recommendations to UTC #153 October 2017 on Script Proposals (L2/17-384) (See point 1.)
    • UTC #153 Minutes (L2/17-362) (See B.14 for decision and action items)
  • 2021-01-11 Modern Gurage Orthography Additions to Ethiopic Script — Fekeda Menuta, Feidu Akmel Gobena, Daniel Yacob (L2/21-037)
    • Recommendations to UTC #166 January 2021 on Script Proposals (L2/21-016) (See point 9.)
    • UTC #166 Minutes (L2/21-009) (See B.1 — 9 for decision and action items)
  • 2022-03-03 Update on implementation status of African scripts — Charles L. Riley (L2/22-073)
    • Recommendations to UTC #171 April 2022 on Script Proposals (L2/22-068) (See point 28.)
    • UTC #171 Minutes (L2/22-061) (See D.1 SECTION 28 for decision and action items)
  • 2022-06-14 Response to PRI 451 — Asmus Freytag (L2/22-114)
    • UTC #172 Minutes (L2/22-121) (See F.3 for decision and action items)
  • 2023-09-08 Update on Usage and Implementation Status of African Scripts — Oreen Yousuf, Charles Riley, Daniel Yacob, Neil Patel, Tim Brookes (L2/23-203)
    • Recommendations to UTC #177 November 2023 on Script Proposals (L2/23-238) (See point C.26.)

Other documents related to Ethiopic and Unicode: