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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.

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

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

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: