Creating "Zero" in the Amharic /Ge'ez/Ethiopic Numeric System

Creating "Zero" in the Amharic /Ge'ez/Ethiopic Numeric System
Amdework Mitiku, January 21, 2000 (original project 1996)


1.1. The Amharic/Geez/Ethiopic numeric system
1.2. Why do I spend so much time on "0", when others are doing more tangible things?
2.1. Why is the Amharic/Geez numeric system not involved in today's technology?
2.2. Creating Zero in the Amharic/Geez numeric system
2.2.. Why I choose this symbol?

Creating "Zero" in the Amharic /Ge'ez Numeric System
By Amdework Mitiku, January 21, 2000

A few years ago, I started a project called "Introducing 'zero' in the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system," and I posted the central idea of my project on the Internet, promising to follow this up with an in-depth coverage at a later stage. Ever since I first did this, the response I have been getting has been beyond my wildest expectations. I believe that part of the reason for amount of support I have been able to attract is because I was able to have easy access to people around the world with out leaving my computer desk. However, up to this point, my own response to the feedback has not been as prompt as I would have liked because of time constraints. I believe that the opportune moment I have been waiting for has now arrived, and I am ready to share my ideas with everyone.
The Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system
Like any other widely used language, it is possible to write and read the Amharic/Ge'ez language with out any significant problems. The problem, however, is that the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system does not start from zero. Instead, it starts from the number "one" and goes to infinity. The Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system has specific symbols which correspond to the Arabic numerals "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7","8", and "9". The problem, however, concerns numbers which consist of two or more digits one or more of which may be a "zero".


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The ancient Ethiopians got around this problem by inventing specific symbols for numbers like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 1000. This was an ingenious way of circumventing this problem, but the difficulty with this is that such a system involves more than twenty basic symbols, or roughly twice as many as is the case in the English numeric system. Thus, when a person wants to write any number which has more than one digit, he/she has to use a combination of one or more symbols. For instance, whereas in English "twelve" would be represented by writing "1" followed by "2", in Amharic, this is done by writing the symbol for "10" followed by "2". Likewise, if one wanted to represent "thirty-four" in Amharic, he/she would have to use the symbol for "30", followed by "4", rather than writing "3" followed by "4". Or, if the value in question is, say, "one hundred forty-five", this is represented by writing the symbol for "100" followed by the symbol for "40", followed by the symbol for "5", rather than writing "1" followed by "4" and "5". Thus, in the Amharic numeric system, there is no possibility of denoting zero, decimal or negative values. I think, 3000 years ago, nobody worried about representing "zero," because "0" is empty or null. Even today, it is not readily apparent to the average person why "0" is significant, because it stands for "nothing". In reality, however, "0" is a powerful number, and I believe that today's society is highly dependent on its representation. It is worth pointing out that the significance of "0" during the Roman Empire is not the same as the role it has come to play in the 21st century

Why do I spend so much time on "0", when others are doing more tangible things?

I first started thinking about this concept one afternoon while I was attending a new class called " Digital Electronics". Even though I had taken several classes in electricity and science, the digital electronics concept was new to me, and it was hard to grasp. I remember, that day, the professor had to spend the whole class time just talking about "0" and "1". That was just the start, and I spent all my classes just studying about "1" and "0". I wrote read, heard, counted, deleted, added, subtracted, divided and multiplied these numbers several times. The more I read, the more I liked these two numbers. But one of the most striking things I encountered was when I tried to relate this knowledge to my own language. I discovered that there was no way to apply this marvelous concept to the Amharic/ Ge'ez numeric system, unless I borrowed a symbol for "0" from another language. But that was what exactly I saw in Amharic newspapers, personal letters, magazines and several works of literature.
I hated the idea of borrowing anything from another language, when we could use our own. However this consideration did not stop me from thinking about the possibility of introducing binary digits to the Amharic numeric system. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. But I asked myself how? There was no ready-made answer, except one, which may prove to be unacceptable to some people. The solution which presented itself was to introduce the concept of, and a symbol for, "0" in the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system. Some of us my never think about the existence of "zero" in the Amharic/Ge'ez language, or some might laugh out loud and say
"What the hell is he talking about?" Alternatively, I thought, some may be as intrigued by this concept as I was, and send me some feedback. That was exactly what I got from my family members, friends, coworkers and other people who read and heard about my idea. Even though I got a mixed message, most people supported my idea.
My "Digital Electronics" class was not confined to simply talking about "1" and "0" as an academic exercise, but it was also concerned with the widespread implications of binary digits in today's technological revolution. Given the powerful impact of binary digits, I could not help wondering how long it would be before the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system stopped borrowing numbers form the English language for mathematics, science, engineering, and several other applications. One thing is clear, if there is no "0", there will not be any digital application. So, how can the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system participate in an increasingly digital world?
Well, the answer is simple and logical. I still remember what I learned in my elementary school Amharic course about the nature of language. Language, I was taught, is like a living creature, and it will pass three main stages--it will be born, grow and, if it is not properly nurtured, die. So if we do not act on time, sooner or later, part of our language will "go down to the drain". To be more blunt, unless certain measures are taken, the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system will face its last stage; it will die. So the fate of the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system is in the hands of its users. We are responsible for the creation and destruction of our language. I believe that introducing "0" into the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system will bring our language popularity.
The foregoing discussion focused mainly on the implications of the situation with respect to digital technology. However, while it was the most compelling reason that provided the impetus for this project, it is by no means the only reason. Soon after I came up with the idea, I started reviewing documents which are written in Amharic, including in newspapers, magazines, and personal letters. I even went as far back as my elementary, junior and high school days. I could not remember a single attempt by any one in school to use the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system in mathematics, science or any other courses as a means of expressing numeric value. The classes I took, the papers I read, the prices I saw in markets and shops, the menus that I was shown in restaurants, and several other texts written in Amharic did not use the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system. The only exception to all this has been the fact that Ethiopian calendars tend to use both the Arabic and Ethiopian numeric symbols. But why?
Why is the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system not involved in today's technology?
If you are an Amharic speaker or know about it, you may understand what I am trying to say. The use of the Amharic numeric system is limited to certain areas. One can write days, months, years, page numbers and a few other things using Amharic/Ge'ez numeric symbols, but, it is unimaginable to use this language to add or subtract a single number. Up to this point, as far as I know there is not a single stand-alone symbol that represents mathematical operations in Amharic/Ge'ez language (I am talking about +. -, X and ¸ ). Even if we borrow these mathematical symbols and try to perform any mathematical operations, we will still face another obstacle unless we create something. The problem is that we do not have symbols that can represent numbers which are less than zero, such as 0.5, 0.001, -12, -14.05 and so on. So what is the solution?

Creating Zero in the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system
Well, we need to come up with something that allows us to use this great language in today's computational society. Why should we borrow when we can use our own? That was my central idea, and this gave me the courage to come up with the notion of creating "0" in the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system. What I am saying is that we need to introduce a symbol that represents zero, or "bado" in Amharic.
Having a "0" symbol in our language will make the Amharic numeric system compatible with all languages. Before I came to this project, I talked to several people, including Amharic native speakers. Most of these people did not have any idea about the status of "0" in the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system, although they know the impact of "0" in today's society. Consequently, I got a mixed reaction from each group. Some of the people said that it was not a good idea to alter the language for the sake of technology, while others felt that it was an idea which might save the Amharic numeric system from disappearing.
From the beginning of the project, I did not expect to have full support from everyone. Instead, I opened my door to everybody, and I waited for their reaction and feedback. Thanks to new technology, I was able to reach several people without leaving my computer. I posted my idea in the Internet chat rooms and discussion forums, and I published it at my web site; this was by far the best alternative. I also had face-to-face discussions with several people, and their support and reaction was unbelievable. I think the support and the encouragement that I was getting from these people kept me going. More than 99 percent of the people supported my idea. Some of them even recommended other people who are involved in projects things across the world. However, managing time was a critical issue, especially when a person is doing more than ten projects at one time. I was tied up by other projects, and I could not contact as many people as I would have liked. In the end, by taking the people's input and feedback as well as by using my personal experience, I set myself the task of creating a "zero" or "null" symbol.

Why I choose symbol?

After comparing several promising symbols, I adopted the one which came closest to satisfying the following three criteria: I felt that the symbol I adopt had to be easy to create, easy to remember, and closely related to existing symbols.
If you take out the two horizontal lines from the top and the bottom, the symbol looks like tita(Greek latter) . In most cases, this symbol looks like the symbol used for an "empty set or null". Since "zero" is related to "empty", people will relate the symbol with it and will not find it difficult to remember it in the real world. If you see the symbols for "four" and "nine" in the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system, you will see some resemblance between these characters and the new symbol. "Four" looks an O , with two horizontal strikes, one at the top, and one at the bottom. Likewise, the symbol for "nine" is like q , without a top horizontal strike, or a U with a horizontal strike in the middle. Thus, if you examine the physical characteristics of the Amharic symbols for "4" and "9", you will find many similarities to the symbol I have adopted. By combining the physical characteristics of these two numbers and the logical meaning of the symbol, I came up with my "zero" symbol.
This character is also easy to write. One of the hardest things in the Amharic numeric system is the complexity of forming the characters, compared to the Arabic/English numeric characters. In contrast, writing the new symbol for "zero" will not involve that much complexity. All that a person has to do is draw a circle, draw a horizontal diametrical line, and add two additional horizontal lines, one at the top, and the other at the bottom.
I believe that the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system is a unique treasure for Ethiopians, as well as for the rest of the world, to preserve. I feel that our language is a survivor, and it has endured and developed for the last 3000 years. Hopefully, it will continue for another three millennia or more. By adding this new symbol to the numeric system, I believe that we will enrich the system and bring it in compliance with all other modern numeric systems. This, in turn, will allow it to be compatible with modern science and technology, and will provide the necessary impetus for people to use it more extensively than at the moment. Now, we can use our language in any scientific or mathematical operation. I am confident that a symbol for "zero" will signify a major breakthrough for the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system, and it will allow our system to compete with other languages.
As I am part of this society, I have the responsibility to protect my language from the danger of extinction. Amharic/Ge'ez letters are widely used, and they are not in any danger, but the numeric system is becoming less popular among the new generation. I asked several Ethiopians who consider themselves native speakers of Amharic about the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system, and the responses I obtained were as follows:
People over 40 can read almost all Ge'ez/ Amharic numeric characters, and have few problems on writing. People who are between the age of 30 and 40 are in the middle; more than half of them can read and write the numeric system with minimal error. On the other hand, when I asked people who are between the ages of 20 and 30 to read a these numbers, they did so only with considerable difficulty. Moreover, when I asked them to write any number, the result was disappointing. I found out that some people do not even want to see or talk about these numbers. These numbers are vanishing from the minds of such groups of people. People under 20 were the same as people between 20-30. As I did not expect these people to come up with a better response than the others, I got the result I expected, which was not it was not good.
In my survey I took the geographical location, family, school, culture, religion and other points as factors which contribute to differences in the level of exposure to the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system. For example, I did not expect to get the same answer from someone who took classes in a church school or from someone who was heavily influenced by the traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as from a person who went to a Catholic school. Going to the traditional school called "Kes Timihirt Bet", which is equivalent to a modern preschool, makes a big difference. Many of my contemporaries and I had to pass through this system at an early age, and people who went to these schools perform better than others who did not. My survey took this as a big factor. I never blame any person for not knowing the language as expected, but I blame some others. I think these groups are the one who will take the blame.
I believe that educational institutions bear a major responsibility for failing to promote the Amharic/Ge'ez numeric system assiduously enough. These include schools (from preschool to graduate school), the Ministry of Education, teachers, and those parents who are members of school committees. They are in a position to force these institutions to introduce classes which use our language and indigenous numeric system more extensively. But they did not, and they are still not doing anything. If they teach us, we could use it anywhere we go. However, I have never seen any school which spends a 50-minute class using the Amharic numeric system.
The second blame will go to the Ethiopian media, which includes magazines, newspapers, TV, radio, and books. These groups have not tried hard enough to capture our attention and encourage us to use our language as part of our day-to-day life. In this respect, I wish to thank the editors of Amharic newspapers like "Addis Zemen" and " Yezaryti Ethiopia" for using our indigenous numeric system on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there are many magazines which are published in Amharic, but, lately, it looks like the magazines and newspapers have purged the Amharic numeric system from their computers or printers. All of them are using the English numeric system in documents which are published in Amharic.
Next time I will be back with the second part of this article called " Digitizing the Amharic Language".
Thank you,
Amdework Mitiku
If you have any question about this project and would like to participate please write me at amde@yebbo.com or amdenet@yahoo.com.
Special thanks for those of you who helped me to make my project tangible. Special thanks to Dr. Adamu Walelign for editing my lengthy article and supporting me by giving feedback and his valuable advice.
God Bless You All !
This project is sponsored by
Yebbo Communication Network at www.yebbo.com