Amharic

Introduction

Ethiopian Temple

Ethiopia Map Amharic, also known as Abyssinian, Amarinya, or Amharina, is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is related to Ge'ez, a liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Amharic has close to 20 million speakers worldwide, of which slightly over 17 million live in Ethiopia.

Amharic has been the language of the ruling class of Ethiopia since the end of the 13th century. In the early 17th century, it became the lingua franca of Ethiopia, a multilingual country with over 80 languages (Ethnologue). It was first used in official written documents in the 19th century. Amharic has one of the most extensive literatures of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amharic, with 17 million first- and 4 million second-language speakers, is the official working language of Ethiopia, along with English and Tigrinya. It is used in government, public media, national commerce, and in education up to the seventh grade. It has been the working language of government, the military, and of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church throughout modern times. Many speakers of Amharic also use English, Arabic, Afaan Oromo, and Tigrinya (Ethnologue).

Ethiopian Waterfall

Dialects

Amharic has a variety of local dialects, all of which are mutually intelligible. There are three major dialects: Gondar, Gojjami, and Showa.There are especially marked differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar between the northern Gojjami and the southern Showa dialects. The standard spoken and written language is based on the speech of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Structure

Sound System

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Woman

Ethiopian Man

Ethiopian Woman

Sound system

Vowels

Amharic has seven vowels /i/, /e/, //, /ə/, /a/ /o/, /u/. Vowels can be long or short. Vowel length makes a difference in word meaning.
/ i/ = like the second vowel in roses
/ə/ = like the first vowel in about

Consonants
Amharic has a rich consonant system. Its distinguishing features are presented below:

Consonant clusters do not occur at the beginning of words.
All but two consonants may be geminated (doubled). Gemination makes a difference in word meaning, e.g., alä, 'he said' vs. allä, 'there is.'
A distinguishing feature of consonants in Amharic is the presence of ejective sounds, e.g., /p'/, /t'/, /k'/, //ts'/, /t'/. Ejectives are voiceless consonants pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis that raises air pressure in the mouth, so that the sound is released with a noticeable burst of air.

x	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stops	/p/- /p'/-/b/	.	/t/ - /t'/- /d/	.	.	/k/ - /k'/- /g/	.	/?/
Fricatives	.	/f/	/s/ - /z/	// - //	.	.	/χ/ - //	/h/
Affricates	.	/ts'/		/t/ - /t'/ - /d/	.	.	.	.
Nasals	/m/	.	/n/	.	/ñ/	.	.	.
Laterals	.	.	/l/	.	.	.	.	.
Flap/trill	.	.	/r/	.	.	..	.	.
Approximants	/w/	.	.	.	/y/	.	.	.

// = sh as in shop
// = s as in pleasure
/ts/ = ts in cats
/t/ = ch as in chap
/d/ = j as in joy
/?/ = as similar to the sound in English between the vowels in uh-oh.
/χ/ - // = no equivalents in English

Click here to listen to the Voice of America in Amharic.

Grammar

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Noun phrase
The noun phrase in Amharic is quite straightforward.

Amharic nouns are marked for two genders: masculine and feminine. The feminine gender can also be used to express smallness, e.g. bet-it-u, bet-, 'house' + feminine marker -it- + definite article -u. It can also be used to express intimacy.There are special words that indicate gender for people and animals, e.g., wänd hakim, 'male doctor' and set hakim, 'female doctor;' awra doro, 'rooster' and set doro, 'hen.'
Amharic nouns have two numbers: singular and plural. Plural is marked by the suffix -oc'.
There are four cases: nominative, genitive, accusative, and vocative.
Definiteness is expressed by an article that has a masculine and feminine form in the singular. It follows the noun, as in betitu, 'small house' above.

Verb phrase
Like other Semitic languages, Amharic has a very elaborate verb morphology.

An Amharic verb root usually consists of a set of three to five consonants. Verb forms are derived by applying vowels and suffixes to the roots. A verb form normally has one or more suffixes and prefixes. Sometimes, consonants are geminated (doubled).
Verbs are marked for person, number, and gender.
There are two aspects: imperfect and perfect.
Compound tenses are expressed by means of auxiliary verbs.
There are four moods: indicative, imperative, interrogative, and optative.
Verbs are marked for voice: active and passive.
Verbs are marked for positive and negative.
Verbs agree with their subject and sometimes with the direct or indirect object.
There are at least ten different classes of verbs, each modifying its stem in a number of different ways.

Prepositions and postpositions
Amharic uses both prepositions and postpositions to mark relations in a sentence.

Word order
The typical word order in Amharic is Subject - Object - Verb. All modifiers precede the nouns they modify

Vocabulary

Ethiopian worker

Vocabulary
Amharic vocabulary has been strongly influenced by Arabic and by Cushitic languages, especially Afaan Oromo.

Below are the Amharic numerals 1-10.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
and	hulät	sos	arat	ammst	siddst	säbat	smmnt	zät'äññ	asr

Writing

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Writing

Amharic has been a written language for at least 500 years, and has a fairly sizable written literature.

Amharic is written in a script called fidel (or fidäl which means 'letter), a consonant-based syllabary. It was adapted from Ge'ez, the extinct classical language of Ethiopia. Originally, the script contained only symbols for consonants with no indication of vowels. The latter were added in the 3rd century AD. The script has 33 basic characters, each of which has seven forms depending on which vowel is added to the consonant. It is written horizontally from left to right. An example of the consonant "t" with diacritics indicating vowels is given on the right (from Omniglot)

There is no standardized system for the romanization of Amharic.

Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Amharic. Note that ":" represents a comma, and "::" represents a period.

Transliteration

Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Resources

Click here to find out where Amharic is taught in the United States.
Click here to find learning materials for studying Amharic.

Online resources for the study of Amharic
Omniglot guide to Amharic alphabet
Yamada Language Center Guide for Amharic
UCLA Language Profile for Amharic
Amharic at the University of Florida
Commercial software at AfricanLanguage.com
Languages on the Web: Amharic
Online Amharic Dictionary
Ethnologue report on Amharic
BBC Country Profile: Ethiopia