[XeTeX] hyphenation in Ethiopian languages

[Adam McCollum]

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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