Harari (ሐረሪ)
Harari is a Semitic language from Ethiopia.
ISO 639-1: No language code.
ISO 639-2: No language code.
Proposed ISO 639-3: har
Language codes for Harari written in …
Arabic script: har-Arab
Ethiopic script: har
Latin script: har-Latn
Old Harari used an orthography based on the Arabic script. In the late nineteeth century the Geez/Ethiopic script came into use for Modern Harari. The Harari migrant community in Melbourne, Australia, have set up language schools to teach the Harari language to their children. The local language school has adopted a Latin script orthography to facilitate teaching the Harari language to young children.
Keyboard layouts based on this adopted orthography have been developed to allow the students to type Harari in the Latin script and to learn to type Harrai in the Geez/Ethiopic script. In the future we hope to develop a keyboard layout for the Arabic script orthography for Old Harari. The Arabic script keyboard will be developed to assist in digitising and preserving older Harari manuscripts originally written in the Arabic script.
Harari and computers
Keyboard layouts and mapping files have been developed based on revised Harari orthographies. The following resources have been developed:
Typing in Harari
Two sets of keyboard layouts are available: the Harari unified layouts and the Harari alternative layouts. There are there Unified layouts. The Unified layouts use the Latin orthography as the basis for typing. The keystrokes for typing are the same for all three unified keyboard layouts.
The Unified keyboard layouts were designed to be used by students and teachers familiar with the Latin orthography. The Ethiopic and Arabic versions type exactly the same way as the Latin keyboard layout. Students just need to learn one way to type and they can then type in the Latin, Ethiopic or Arabic orthographies.
There are two alternative layouts for people unfamiliar with the Latin orthography. The Arabi muxxi harfi is based on the standard Arabic 101 keyboard layout. The Sabai muxxi harfi keyboard layout is based on a generic Ethiopic layout.
| Keyboard | Keyman Desktop | Win32 keyboard | MacOS X keyboard |
| Lâtin harfi | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sabai harfi | Yes | No | No |
| Sabai muxxi harfi | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Arabi harfi | Yes | No | No |
| Arabi muxxi harfi | Yes | Yes | Yes |
- Keyman keyboard layouts (Windows)
- Win32 keyboard layouts (Windows)
- MacOS X XML keyboard layouts (MacOS)
Keyboard layouts for Linux are being developed. Harari locales are also under development.
Converting Harari text
- Mapping files to convert between orthographies (Windows)
Discussion group
A discusison group (email list) has been set up to discuss teh Harari langauge, and its use on computers and on the internet. Please go to http://groups.google.com/group/harari-language.
If you are interested in contributing, providing further information, or are aware of errors on this page, please contact the editors.