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The Amharic keyboard ( ) uses a system where the Amharic sounds are matched to the English letters (a style called phonetic). You can think of how a word sounds in Amharic and then type it out with English. Example: typing selam becomes Because Amharic has more sounds than English we sometimes have to adjust this rule. For example English does not have and the closest similar letter would be t. In this case you should type with capital T: Example: typing TienaysTlN becomes Notice that we used capital N also for and we needed both ie together to make the 5th letter . When the letter you want to type does not appear when you hit the similar sounding key in English, try using the capital next. If typing the capital does not work, then try hitting the key two times: Example: typing sselam becomes Example: typing SSeHey becomes Next, when you need to type the extra letters of Amharic like , , you can do so by typing an extra vowel after a u: Example: typing mua becomes Example: typing guie becomes Finally, we must introduce a special rule for ' (apostrophe). Some words are spelt with a (6th) letter followed by a vowel, like in . We use the apostrophe here to type gebr'iel to make sure we get instead of . Example: typing mel'ak becomes Example: typing m'eeraf becomes We also use the apostrophe for Ethiopic numbers, so '1 becomes and so on. If a ' is needed in your document just type ' twice. This works for other punctuation as well, typing ; once makes and a second time gives English ;. The typing table shows how to type all Amharic letters, numbers and punctuation.
que
qui
quu
hue
hui
huu
lua Hua mua ssua rua sua xua qua bua vua tua cua hua nua Nua
quie
huie
ae kue
kui
kuu
kua
kuie
we A / aaa ze Ze ye de je ge Te Ce Pe Se SSe fe pe
wu Au / uu zu Zu yu du ju gu Tu Cu Pu Su SSu fu pu
wie Aie / iie zie Zie yie die jie gie Tie Cie Pie Sie SSie fie pie ,, '5 '50
w Ae / ee z Z y d j g T C P S SS f p : '6 '60
wo Ao / oo zo Zo yo do jo go gue To Co Po So SSo fo po
zua Zua
gui
guu
guie
'7 '70
'8 '80
'9 '90
Awngi/Blin/Kayla/Kufal/Quara/Qimant/Xamtanga
Ge
Gu
Gi
Ga
Gie
Go
Gue
Guu
Gui
Gua
Guie
Bench
xxe
xxu
xxi
xxa
xxie
xx
xxo
cce
ccu
cci
cca
ccie
cc
cco
ZZe
ZZu
ZZi
ZZa
ZZie
ZZ
ZZo
CCe
CCu
CCi
CCa
CCie
CC
CCo
Geez
_1
_2
_3
_4
_5
_6
_7
_8
_0
Punctuation
:+
:#
Geez numbers can also be typed with the Unicode keyboard without requiring the typing of a ' before a number. This way is a little easier than typing numbers from the Amharic keyboard.
Meen/Mursi/Suri/Dizi
hoa loa moa
roa
soa
xoa
qoa
boa
toa Toa
coa Coa
hhoa
noa
Noa
oa
koa
woa
zoa
yoa
doa
Doa
joa
goa
Poa
SSoa
poa
De
Du
Di
Da
Die
Do
Dua
Sebatbeit
qye
qyu
qye
qye
qye
qye
qyo
kye
kyu
kyi
kya
kyie
ky
kyo
Kye
Kyu
Kyi
Kye
Kyie
Ky
Kyo
gye
gyu
gyi
gya
gyie
gy
gyo
mue
mui
muie
muu
bue
mue
buie
buu
fue
fue
fuie
fuu
pue
pue
puie
puu
Tigrinya
Qe
Qu
Qi
Qa
Qie
Qo
Que
Quu
Qui
Qua
Quie
Kue
Kuu
Kui
Kua
Kuie