Amhara
ingoFonts
An experiment:
a “latin” alphabet modelled on the ethiopian Ge'ez script
decorative exotic foreign neither serif nor sans serif
Cush, Punt, Saba, Aksum, Abyssinia, Ethiopia — the name of this country in Eastern Africa has seen many changes throughout thousands of years of history. Few nations have a similar long history and cultural tradition. Independent as far back as can be remembered, it was one of the “great” kingdoms for a long time. It is also considered the oldest Christian country.
The Ethiopian Ge'ez script was the model for the design of the Amhara. Its characteristic elements can also be recognized in the Amhara.
The Amharic language of Ethiopia and its accompanying script Ge’ez developed from Semitic origins in Arabia. Ge’ez is the only script of Semitic origin which is written from left to right.
Due to a more than 1600 year Christian tradition and the close relationship to the Hellenistic Mediterranean region during late antiquity, there are borrowings from Greek which can be recognized in the Amharic script.
Because Amharic is traditionally written with an broad quill, it shows the typical ductus also characteristic of the uncial scripts of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Typical for the Ethiopian script are the specially emphasized expanded verticals resulting from the horizontal position of the pen. The form which appears most frequently and thus influences the overall picture the most is the open bow at the bottom.
The symmetrical bowl at the transition of the expanded to the light and again expanded determines the appearance of the font considerably.
Typical of Semitic scripts are the many forms of commas, serifs, rings and all kinds of additional “accessories.” In this way there is a wealth of forms in the details which makes it possible to put together the components for European characters.
So for experts in script, the Amhara has
a somewhat sacramental effect.
And, although the individual forms look foreign, the overall picture is strangely familiar.
Amhara was created by transferring the typical Amharic forms to the west European alphabet. Nearly all of the formal characteristics of Ge’ez could be carried over into the lower case letters. In fact, the following characters have even been — of course with another meaning — completely adopted: B C H J M O T W Y Z d e g m n p t u y 2 4 8
All Amharic characters have at least a hint of a stroke from the top left and a small downstroke at the bottom towards the right. To a great extent the attempt was made to retain this direction of movement in the font Amhara.
The lower case characters have a restless appearance (very intentional) and are not fluently legible. In this way the foreign and exotic impression of the African model is still present.
A somewhat simplified, thinner and therefore and therefore more legible version is the Amhara Book. Its shapes and proportions are carefully brought closer to those of Western characters.
Stylistic alternates are available for the letters f g h p t y z as well as the discretionary ligatures Th ch ck ffi ffl, which can be activated separately.
Amhara includes a number of ligatures which dispose of many non-attractive letter combinations: ch ck fa ff fi fl ffl ffi ft gg gt ll st ta th ti tt tu tz.
The European upper case characters are a different story: In contrast to Roman capitals the Amharic characters almost completely do without acute triangular forms.
For the usual square and slanted forms of our letters A E F K M N R V W X Y other solutions had to be found.
In Ge’ez there are quick jagged characters, but only the form Z is transferrable.
So the capitals of Amhara receive a very pleasant, round appearance.
A text in upper case characters of this font makes a calm impression as the same few basic forms are continually found in the diverse characters.
Seldom doeas a text in capitals have this gentle effect.
