[XeTeX] hyphenation in Ethiopian languages

[Gareth Hughes]

Dear Adam,

Line 7 of gloss-amharic.ldf in the polyglossia package has

  hyphennames={amharic,nohyphenation},

which I take to mean that you'll get no hyphenation wherever 'amharic'
is active. The next line is commented out

  %hyphenmins={2,2},

so I presume that some rules were intended (François?). If the rules are
that hyphenation can occur anywhere, I'm sure this would be fairly
easily to implement.

Gareth.

Adam McCollum wrote:
> Dear list members,
> 
> I've recently drawn up a short document in Ge`ez (classical Ethiopic) using
> Polyglossia and I see that the hyphenation is wrong. As some of you know,
> languages that use the Ethiopic script, including Ge`ez and Amharic, place a
> word divider—it looks somewhat like a thick colon—between each word and two
> of these dividers side by side between sentences; see some Amharic examples
> here<http://books.google.com/books?id=r87yh5z66TEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=amharic&hl=en&ei=U7TSTIX-Ds2r8AaT6LxF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=6&ved=0CEwQ6wEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false>.
> That being the case, a word may be broken at any syllable (the script is a
> syllabary, not an alphabet) at the end of a line, but there is nothing
> corresponding to a hyphen. An additional matter of importance is that no
> line should begin with the single or double word divider. How should this be
> fixed?
> 
> Here is a minimal example:
> 
> \documentclass[12pt]{article}
> 
> \usepackage{fontspec}
> \usepackage{polyglossia}
> 
> \setmainlanguage{english}
> \setotherlanguage{amharic}
> 
> \newfontfamily\amharicfont[Script = Ethiopic, Scale = 1.3]{Abyssinica SIL}
> 
> \begin{document}
> 
> \title{Sample in Gǝ`ǝz}
> \maketitle
> 
> \begin{amharic}
> እስመ ፡ አግዚአብሔር ፡ አምላክ ፡ ማእምር ፡ ውእቱ ። እግዚአብሔር ፡ አስተደወ ፡ መንብሮ ። ወአድከመ ፡ ቅሥተ ፡
> ኀያላን ። ወአቅነቶሙ ፡ ኀይለ ፡ ለድኩማን ። ጽጉማን ፡ እክል ፡ ርኅቡ ። ወርኁባን ፡ ጸግቡ ። እስመ ፡ መካን ፡
> ወለደት ፡ ሰብዐተ ፡ ወወለድሰ ፡ ስእነት ፡ ወሊደ ፡ እግዚአብሔር ፡ ይቀትል ፡ ወየሐዩ ። ያወርድኒ ፡ ውስተ ፡ ሲእል
> ፡ ወየዐርግ ። እግዚአብሔር ፡ ያነዲ ፡ ወያብዕል ። ያኀስርሂ ፡ ወያከብር ፡ ዘያነሥኦ ፡ እምድር ፡ ለነዳይ ። ከመ ፡
> ያንብሮ ፡ ምስለ ፡ ዓበይ[ተ] ።
> \end{amharic}
> 
> \end{document}
> 
> With many thanks in advance for the help,
> 
> Adam McCollum, Ph.D.
> Lead Cataloger, Eastern Christian Manuscripts
> Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
> Saint John's University
> P.O. Box 7300
> Collegeville, MN 56321
> 
> (320) 363-2075 (phone)
> (320) 363-3222 (fax)
> www.hmml.org
> 
> 
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-- 
Gareth Hughes
Doctoral candidate in Syriac studies

Department of Eastern Christianity
Oriental Institute
Pusey Lane
Oxford
OX1 2LE