[XeTeX] Getting Xetex to create a pdf of text in Amharic

[Gildas Hamel]

* Skriv a reas Amanuel Medhanie (medha001 at umn.edu):
  |>  Hello everyone,
  |>  I am working on a two-sided wedding invitation (for my wedding) where one
  |>  side is in English and the other side is in Amharic. I have the latex code
  |>  written for the English side and I am now working on the Amharic side. I
  |>  found an example tex file (attached) which I am not able to get to compile
  |>  correctly. My hope is that if I can get this example to compile and produce
  |>  a pdf correctly, I will be able to work from this example to create the
  |>  backside of the invitation.
  |>  

For the font, why not simply use:
\newfontfamily\amharicfont[Script = Ethiopic, Scale = 1.3]{Abyssinica SIL}

You could also use the Parallel package? as in:
\usepackage{parallel} % in preamble, then:

\begin{Parallel}[p]{10cm}{10cm} % adjust
  \ParallelLText{}
  \ParallelRText{}
  \ParallelPar
\end{Parallel}

Here is my markup (I don't know how to break the Amharic text properly):

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{parallel}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\pagestyle{empty}
\setmainlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{amharic}
\newfontfamily\amharicfont[Script=Ethiopic, Scale=1.3]{Abyssinica SIL}
\XeTeXlinebreaklocale "en"
\XeTeXlinebreakskip 0pt plus 1pt
\begin{document}
\title{Sample in Gǝ`ǝz}
\maketitle
\begin{Parallel}[p]{10cm}{10cm} \ParallelLText{\textamharic{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]~።}}
  \ParallelRText{Here goes the English text}
  \ParallelPar
\end{Parallel}
\end{document}

Good luck,
--Gildas