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Amharic (አማርኛ ’amarəñña)
Spoken in:	Ethiopia
Total speakers:	21 million (17.4 million native)
Genetic classification:	Afro-Asiatic  Semitic   South Semitic    Transversal     Amharic
Official status
Official language of:	Ethiopia
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	am
ISO 639-2:	amh
ISO/DIS 639-3:	amh
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Amharic (አማርኛ ’amarəñña) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. It is the "official working" language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and thus has official status nationwide. It is also the official or working language of several of the states within the federal system, including Amhara and the multi-ethnic Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region. It has been the working language of government, the military, and of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church throughout modern times. Outside Ethiopia, Amharic is the language of some 2.7 million emigrants (notably in Egypt, Israel and Sweden), and is spoken in Eritrea by Eritrean deportees from Ethiopia.

It is written using a writing system called fidel (/fidäl/) or abugida, adapted from the one used for the now-extinct Ge'ez language.

Contents 1 Sounds and orthographies 1.1 Amharic abugida signs ("Fidel" ፊደል) 2 Grammar 2.1 Pronouns 2.2 Nouns 2.2.1 Gender 2.2.1.1 Gender specifiers 2.2.2 Plural 2.2.2.1 Archaic plural forms 2.2.3 Definiteness 2.2.4 Nominalization 2.3 Verbs 2.3.1 Gerund 2.3.1.1 Verbal use 2.3.1.2 Adverbial use 2.4 Adjectives 2.4.1 Formed from nominal patterns 2.4.2 Formed by denominalizing suffixes 2.4.3 With prefix yä 'from' 2.4.4 Adjective Noun complex 3 Amharic translation companies 4 Rastafarians 5 References 6 External links

Sounds and orthographies

Amharic abugida signs ("Fidel" ፊደል)

Please note that this chart is incomplete. Some phonemes can be represented by more than one series of symbols: /'/, /s'/, and /h/ (the latter has four distinct letter forms!). The citation form for each series is the consonant+/ä/ form, i.e. the first column of fidel. You will need a font that supports Ethiopic, such as GF Zemen Unicode, in order to view the fidel.

Non-speakers are often disconcerted or astonished by the remarkable similarity of many of the symbols. This is mitigated somewhat because, like many Semitic languages, Amharic uses triconsonantal roots in its verb morphology. The result of this is that a fluent speaker of Amharic can often decipher written text by observing the consonants, with the vowel variants being supplemental detail.

Chart of Amharic fidels

	ä	u	i	a	e	ə	o
h	ሀ	ሁ	ሂ	ሃ	ሄ	ህ	ሆ
l	ለ	ሉ	ሊ	ላ	ሌ	ል	ሎ
h	ሐ	ሑ	ሒ	ሓ	ሔ	ሕ	ሖ
m	መ	ሙ	ሚ	ማ	ሜ	ም	ሞ
s	ሠ	ሡ	ሢ	ሣ	ሤ	ሥ	ሦ
r	ረ	ሩ	ሪ	ራ	ሬ	ር	ሮ
s	ሰ	ሱ	ሲ	ሳ	ሴ	ስ	ሶ
š	ሸ	ሹ	ሺ	ሻ	ሼ	ሽ	ሾ
q	ቀ	ቁ	ቂ	ቃ	ቄ	ቅ	ቆ
b	በ	ቡ	ቢ	ባ	ቤ	ብ	ቦ
t	ተ	ቱ	ቲ	ታ	ቴ	ት	ቶ
č	ቸ	ቹ	ቺ	ቻ	ቼ	ች	ቾ
h	ኀ	ኁ	ኂ	ኃ	ኄ	ኅ	ኆ
n	ነ	ኑ	ኒ	ና	ኔ	ን	ኖ
ñ	ኘ	ኙ	ኚ	ኛ	ኜ	ኝ	ኞ
(')	አ	ኡ	ኢ	ኣ	ኤ	እ	ኦ
k	ከ	ኩ	ኪ	ካ	ኬ	ክ	ኮ
h	ኸ	ኹ	ኺ	ኻ	ኼ	ኽ	ኾ
w	ወ	ዉ	ዊ	ዋ	ዌ	ው	ዎ
(`)	ዐ	ዑ	ዒ	ዓ	ዔ	ዕ	ዖ
z	ዘ	ዙ	ዚ	ዛ	ዜ	ዝ	ዞ
ž	ዠ	ዡ	ዢ	ዣ	ዤ	ዥ	ዦ
y	የ	ዩ	ዪ	ያ	ዬ	ይ	ዮ
d	ደ	ዱ	ዲ	ዳ	ዴ	ድ	ዶ
ǧ	ጀ	ጁ	ጂ	ጃ	ጄ	ጅ	ጆ
g	ገ	ጉ	ጊ	ጋ	ጌ	ግ	ጎ
t'	ጠ	ጡ	ጢ	ጣ	ጤ	ጥ	ጦ
č'	ጨ	ጩ	ጪ	ጫ	ጬ	ጭ	ጮ
p'	ጰ	ጱ	ጲ	ጳ	ጴ	ጵ	ጶ
s'	ጸ	ጹ	ጺ	ጻ	ጼ	ጽ	ጾ
s'	ፀ	ፁ	ፂ	ፃ	ፄ	ፅ	ፆ
f	ፈ	ፉ	ፊ	ፋ	ፌ	ፍ	ፎ
p	ፐ	ፑ	ፒ	ፓ	ፔ	ፕ	ፖ

Grammar

Pronouns

Nouns

Amharic nouns can be primary or derived. A noun like əgər 'foot, leg' is primary, and a noun like əgr-äɲɲa 'pedestrian' is a derived noun.

Gender

Amharic nouns can have a masculine or feminine gender. There are several ways to express gender. An example is the old suffix -t for feminity. This suffix is no longer productive and is limited to certain patterns and some isolated nouns. Nouns and adjectives ending in -awi usually take the suffix -t to form the feminine form, e.g. ityop':ya-(a)wi 'Ethiopian (m.)' vs. ityop':ya-wi-t 'Ethiopian (f.)'; sämay-awi 'heavenly (m.)' vs. sämay-awi-t 'heavenly (f.)'. This suffix also occurs in nouns and adjective based on the pattern qət(t)ul, e.g. nəgus 'king' vs. nəgəs-t 'queen' and qəddus 'holy (m.)' vs. qəddəs-t 'holy (f.)'.

Some nouns and adjectives take a feminine marker -it: ləğ' 'child, boy' vs. ləğ-it 'girl'; bäg 'sheep, ram' vs. bäg-it 'ewe'; ŝəmagəlle 'senior, elder (m.)' vs. ŝəmagəll-it 'old woman'; t'ot'a 'monkey' vs. t'ot'-it 'monkey (f.)'. Some nouns have this feminine marker without having a masculine opposite, e.g. ŝärär-it 'spider', azur-it 'whirlpool, eddy'. There are, however, also nouns having this -it suffix that are treated as masculine: säraw-it 'army', nägar-it 'big drum'.

The feminine gender is not only used to indicate biological gender, but may also be used to express smallness, e.g. bet-it-u 'the little house' (lit. house-FEM-DEF). The feminine marker can also serve to express tenderness or sympathy.

Gender specifiers

Amharic has special words that can be used to indicate the gender of people and animals. For people, wänd is used for masculinity and set for feminity, e.g. wänd ləğ 'boy', set ləğ 'girl'; wänd hakim 'physician, doctor (m.)', set hakim 'physician, doctor (f.)'. For animals, the words täbat, awra, or wänd (less usual) can be used to indicate masculine gender, and anəst or set to indicate feminine gender. Examples: täbat t'əğa 'calf (m.)'; awra doro 'cock (rooster)'; set doro 'hen'.

Plural

The plural suffix -oc': is used to express plurality of nouns. Some morphophonological alternations occur depending on the final consonant or vowel. For nouns ending in a consonant, plain -oc': is used: bet 'house' becomes bet-oc': 'houses'. For nouns ending in a back vowel (-a, -o, -u), the suffix takes the form -^woc':, e.g. wəŝŝa 'dog', wəŝŝa-^woc': 'dogs'; käbäro 'drum', käbäro-^woc': 'drums'. Nouns that end in a front vowel pluralize using -^woc': or -^yoc':, e.g. s'ähafi 'scholar', s'ähafi-^woc': or s'ähafi-^yoc': 'scholars'. Another possibility for nouns ending in a vowel is to delete the vowel and use plain oc':, as in wəŝŝ-oc': 'dogs'.

Besides using the normal external plural (-oc':), nouns and adjectives can be pluralized by way of reduplicating one of the radicals. For example, wäyzäro 'lady' can take the normal plural, yielding wäyzär-oc':, but wäyzazər 'ladies' is also found.

Some kinship-terms have two plural forms with a slightly different meaning. For example, wändəmm 'brother' can be pluralized as wändəmm-oc': 'brothers' but also as wändəmmam-ac': 'brothers of each other'. Likewise, əhət 'sister' can be pluralized as əhət-oc': ('sisters'), but also as ətəmm-am-ac': 'sisters of each other'.

In compound words, the plural marker is suffixed to the second noun: betä krəstiyan 'church' (lit. house of Christian) becomes betä krəstiyan-oc': 'churches'.

Archaic plural forms

As one of the foremost authorities on the Amharic language, Dr. Amsalu Aklilu, has pointed out, Amharic has inherited a large number of old plural forms directly from Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez). There are two archaic pluralizing strategies, called external and internal plural. The external plural consists of adding the suffix -an (usually masculine) or -at (usually feminine) to the singular form. The internal plural employs vowel quality or apophony to pluralize words, similar to English man vs. men and goose vs. geese. Sometimes combinations of the two systems are found. The archaic plural forms are not productive anymore, which means that they can not be used to form new plurals.

• Examples of the external plural: mämhər 'teacher', mämhər-an; t'äbib 'wise person', t'äbib-an; kahən 'priest', kahən-at.
• Examples of the internal plural: dəngəl 'virgin', dänagəl; hagär 'land', ahəgur.
• Examples of combined systems: nəgus 'king', nägäs-t; kokäb 'star', käwakəb-t.

Definiteness

If a noun is definite or specified, this is expressed by a suffix, the article. In singular forms, this article distinguishes between the male and female gender; in plural forms this distinction is absent. As in the plural, morphophonological alternations occur depending on the final consonant or vowel.

Nominalization

Amharic has various ways to derive nouns from other words or other nouns. One way of nominalizing consists of a form of vowel agreement (similar vowels on similar places) inside the three-radical structures typical of Semitic languages. For example:

• CəCäC: — t'əbäb 'wisdom'; həmäm 'sickness'
• CəCCaC-e: — wəffar-e 'obesity'; c'əkkan-e 'cruelty'
• CəC-ät: — rət'bät 'moistness'; 'əwq-ät 'knowledge'

There are also several nominalizing suffixes.

• -ənna: — 'relation'; krəst-ənna 'Christianity'; sənf-ənna 'laziness'; qes-ənna 'priesthood'.
• -e, suffixed to place name X, yields 'a person born in X': gojjam-e 'someone born in Gojjam'.
• -äɲ:a and -täɲ:a serve to express profession, or some relationship with the base noun: əgr-äɲ:a 'pedestrian' (from əgr 'foot'); bärr-äɲ:a 'gate-keeper' (from bärr 'gate').

Verbs

Gerund

Along with the infinitive and the present participle, the gerund is one of three non-finite verb forms. The infinitive is a nominalized verb, the present participle expresses incomplete action, and the gerund expresses completed action, e.g. ali məsa bälto wädä gäbäya hedä 'Ali, having eaten lunch, went to the market'. There are several usages of the gerund depending on its morpho-syntactic features.

Verbal use

The gerund functions as the head of a subordinate clause (see the example above). There may be more than one gerund in one sentence. The gerund is used to form the following tense forms:

• present perfect nägro -all/näbbär 'He has said'.
• past perfect nägro näbbär 'He had said'.
• possible perfect nägro yəhonall 'He (probably) has said'.

Adverbial use

The gerund can be used as an adverb: alfo alfo yəsəqall 'Sometimes he laughs'. əne dägmo mämt'at əfälləgallähu 'I also want to come'.

Adjectives

Adjectives are words or constructions used to qualify nouns. Adjectives in Amharic can be formed in several ways: they can be based on nominal patterns, or derived from nouns, verbs and other parts of speech. Adjectives can be nominalized by way of suffixing the nominal article (see Nouns above). Amharic has few primary adjectives. Some examples are dägg 'kind, generous', dəda 'mute, dumb, silent', bəc'a 'yellow'.

Formed from nominal patterns

CäCCaC — käbbad 'heavy'; läggas 'generous'

CäC(C)iC — räq'iq 'fine, subtle'; addis 'new'

CäC(C)aCa — säbara 'broken'; t'ämama 'bent, wrinkled'

CəC(C)əC — bələh 'intelligent, smart'; dəbbəq' 'hidden'

CəC(C)uC — kəbur 'worthy, dignified'; t'əqur 'black'; qəddus 'holy'

Formed by denominalizing suffixes

-äɲɲa — hayl-äɲɲa 'powerful' (from hayl 'power'); əwnät-äɲɲa 'true' (from əwnät 'truth')

-täɲɲa — aläm-täɲɲa 'secular' (from aläm 'world'

-awi — ləbb-awi 'intelligent' (from ləbb 'heart'); mədr-awi 'earthly' (from mədr 'earth'); haymanot-awi 'religious' (from haymanot 'religion')

With prefix yä 'from'

yä-kätäma 'urban' (lit. 'from the city'); yä-krəstənna 'Christian' (lit. 'of Christianity'); yä-wəŝät 'wrong' (lit. 'of falsehood')

In the same way, a relative perfectum or imperfectum can be used as an adjective by prefixing yä:

yä-bässälä 'ripe, done' (lit. 'what has been cooked/prepared'); yä-qoyyä 'old' (lit. 'what remained'); yä-mmikkättäl 'following' ('that what is following', from tä-kättälä 'to follow'); yä-mmittay 'visible' (lit. 'what is seen')

Adjective Noun complex

The adjective and the noun together are called the 'adjective noun complex'. In Amharic, the adjective precedes the noun, with the verb last; e.g. kəfu geta 'a bad master'; təlləq bet särra (lit. big house he-built) 'he built a big house'.

If the adjective noun complex is definite, the definite article is suffixed to the adjective and not to the noun, e.g. təlləq-u bet (lit. big-def house) 'the big house'. In a possessive construction, the adjective takes the definite article, and the noun takes the pronominal possessive suffix, e.g. təlləq-u bet-e (lit. big-def house-my) 'my big house'.

When enumerating adjectives using -nna 'and', both adjectives take the definite article: qonğo-wa-nna astäway-wa ləğ mät':ac:' (lit. pretty-def-and intelligent-def girl came) 'the pretty and intelligent girl came'. In the case of an indefinite plural adjective noun complex, the noun is plural and the adjective may be used in singular or in plural from. Thus, 'diligent students' can be rendered təgu tämari^woc: (lit. diligent student-PLUR) or təgu^woc': tämari^woc: (lit. diligent-PLUR student-PLUR).

Amharic translation companies

Because of the rapid growth of Ethiopian communities in Europe and America as well as in Canada several public service organizations started to offer Amharic language translation and interpretation services. Cities like Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Seattle, Washington are some of the cities who are offering Amharic educational materials to Ethiopians.

Rastafarians

Many Rastafarians learn Amharic as a second language because their religion believes it is the original and a sacred language. Various roots reggae musicians including Lincoln Thompson and Misty-in-Roots have written songs in Amharic, thus bringing the sound of this relatively unknown language to a wider audience.

References

• Abraham, Roy Clive (1968) The Principles of Amharic. Occasional Publication / Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. [rewritten version of 'A modern grammar of spoken Amharic', 1941]
• Amsalu Aklilu & Demissie Manahlot (1990) T'iru ye'Amarinnya Dirset 'Indet Yale New! (An Amharic grammar, in Amharic)
• Bennet, M.E. (1978) Stratificational Approaches to Amharic Phonology. PhD thesis, Ann Arbor: Michigan State University.
• Cohen, Marcel (1936) Traité de langue amharique. Paris.
• Leslau, Wolf (1995) Reference Grammar of Amharic. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden.
• Praetorius, Franz (1879) Die amharische Sprache. Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, Halle

External links

• Amharic Translation and Localization service by Ethiotrans.com
• List of free online resources for learners
• Amharic language on Ethnologue
• Amharic Bible at St-Takla.org
• Amharic Language Sample
• Unicode Ethiopic charts (Also Supplemental and Extended)

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