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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