ETHIOPIA: One of the world's oldest living alphabets adapted for modern use in technology

Subject: ETHIOPIA: Old alphabet adapted for modern use in technology
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 07:15:55 -0700

ETHIOPIA: Old alphabet adapted for modern use in technology

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]


ADDIS ABABA, 11 November (IRIN) - One of the world's oldest living
alphabets could make its debut soon on mobile phones, Ethiopian scientists
said on Thursday. In groundbreaking research, the ancient script of
Ethiopic, which dates back to the fourth century, has been adapted so it
can be used for SMS text messaging.

The scientists believe it will open up the digital age to millions of
people in Ethiopia who cannot speak or write English, but use their own
centuries-old alphabet.

Samuel Kinde, who proposed the research, said the breakthrough means rural
farmers can access healthcare via text messaging, e-commerce and banking.

"We are enabling one of humanityís oldest scripts to enter the wireless
age," he told IRIN. "Think of a rural coffee farmer who will be able to
text yield and price information to dealers in the capital and elsewhere
in real time."

The system could also be used by rural farmers to gain vital information
like weather and harvest reports without the need of expensive computers.

"This is an important advance," Assistant Prof Solomon Atnafu said from
the Addis Ababa University computer science department, a key researcher
on the project.

He said that the relatively cheap cost of mobile phones over computers
makes them an ideal tool in helping open up the impoverished country to
the digital revolution.

The researchers, who carried out the work at Addis Ababa University, said
European mobile phone giant, Nokia, has already expressed interest in
their yearlong study.

"There is a significant amount of interest from potential users as well as
from chipset manufacturers," added Dr Samuel, an engineering professor
from the University of California at San Diego.

"The reason why we chose Ethiopic is for the very fact that for SMS and
other wireless applications to succeed in Ethiopia, the local writing
system has to be used," he added. "We felt the majority of users will be
comfortable in writing their own script. The vision also anticipates that
mobile phone systems can indeed be used for more fundamental and
far-reaching purposes in food security, SMS-based telemedicine and
commerce, among other things."

Ethiopic is used for Amharic ñ the national language of Ethiopiaís 70
million people. It has always been a source of pride for Ethiopians. The
nation is the only African country with its own alphabet, which is still
widely used. The script is also used to write the holy Orthodox Christian
script Geíez and is still chanted by priests in incense-filled churches
across the country.

However, it does pose problems for exploiting modern communication
technology because of its ungainly 345 letters compared with 26 in the
Latin alphabet. The scientists have whittled that number down to 210
characters. They then "mapped" a base alphabet of 28 letters onto a
standard handset, with users having to thumb in more keystrokes if they
wanted the additional characters.
[ENDS]

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