SERA FAQ

Frequently asked questions about SERA

Last Modified: 1996/12/24

Table of Contents

• 0. Can I Skip the Explanations and Just See The System Please?

• 1. Introduction to SERA
  • 1.1. What is SERA?
  • 1.2. What is Ethiopic?
  • 1.3. What is ASCII?
  • 1.4. What is Transliteration and Transcription?
  • 1.5. What is the need for SERA?
  • 1.6. What is the present version of SERA?
  • 1.7. Is SERA also a typing method and font address system for Fidel?
  • 1.8. Is SERA just for Fidel and Latin?
  • 1.9. What is a ``zone'' of text?

• 2. Consonant and Vowel Assignment
  • 2.1. Why not use ``sh'' for ``x''
  • 2.2. Why not use ``ie'' or ``y'' for ``E''?
  • 2.3. Why are both ``a'' and ``e'' used for the first vowel?
  • 2.4. Why Are Numbers Used With Letters?
  • 2.5. Why Does ``s2'' Come Before ``s'' ?
  • 2.6. How was ``ea'' arrived at for the Aleph-A 8^th vowel?
    
    Or -what happenend to e3?
  • 2.7. Labiovelar, ``W'', Forms
    • 2.7.1. Why is the capital ``W'' used for labiovelar forms?
    • 2.7.2. Why is ``hWa'' used in place of "`hWa" or ``h2Wa''?
    • 2.7.3. Why is ``Wu'' used for the letters I learned were ``W''?
    • 2.7.4. What are all of the duplicate ways to write the Labiovelars?
    • 2.7.5. ``fWE'' is not a letter, why is it acceptable under SERA?
  • 2.8. What is done with the left-over Latin letters?

• 3. Punctuation in SERA
  • 3.1. What is Glyph Mapping?
    • 3.1.1. Functional Mapping
    • 3.1.2. Glyph Mapping
  • 3.2. Latin punctuation in Ethiopic zones
  • 3.3. Ge'ez punctuation in Latin (or other) script zones

• 4. Arabic and Ethiopic Numbers in SERA
  • 4.1. Arabic Numbers
  • 4.2. Ethiopic Numbers

• 5. SERA Escape Sequences
  • 5.1. Bilingual Escapes
  • 5.2. Special Purpose Escapes
  • 5.3. Multilingual Escapes

• 6. Technical Aspects
  • 6.1. Extended Escapes
  • 6.2. HTML and WWW
  • 6.3. Transcription of Extended Labiovelar Characters
  • 6.4. Gemination under SERA
  • 6.5. What if I Wish to Show More Sound for a Sadis Consonant?
  • 6.6. Line Breaks
  • 6.7. When 2 or ` Can Not Be Used For Alternate Characters
  • 6.8. SERA and Sorting
  • 6.9. Writing Comments in SERA Documents

• 7. Other Resources
  • 7.1. Changes In SERA 1997 and a summary
  • 7.2. SERA PostScript Resources (Has 1997 Revisions)
  • 7.3. SERA Applied in Input Methods
  • 7.4. Unicode Table In SERA
  • 7.5. SERA 1994 Paper
  • 7.6. SERA Man Pages
  • 7.7. SERA Table
  • 7.8. Sample Texts
  • 7.9. SERA FAQ in Flat Text