Amharic language

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{{Infobox Language |name=Amharic |nativename=አማርኛ ’amarəñña |states=Ethiopia |speakers=27 million native |familycolor=Afro-Asiatic |fam2=Semitic |fam3=South Semitic |fam4=Ethiopian |fam5=South Ethiopian |nation=Ethiopia |iso1=am|iso2=amh|iso3=amh}}

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 educated Eritreans of the preindependence generation and younger 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 orthography 1.1 Consonant and vowel phonemes 1.2 Amharic abugida signs ("Fidel" ፊደል) 1.3 Gemination 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 orthography

Consonant and vowel phonemes

There is no agreed on way of transliterating Amharic into Roman characters. The Amharic examples in the sections below use one system that is common, though not universal, among linguists specializing in Ethiopian Semitic languages. The Amharic ejectives correspond to the Proto-Semitic "emphatic consonants", usually transcribed with a dot below the letter. The consonant and vowel charts give these symbols in parentheses where they differ from the standard IPA symbols.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Palato-alveolar Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosives	Voiceless	Template:IPA	Template:IPA		Template:IPA	Template:IPA (ʾ)
	Voiced	Template:IPA	Template:IPA		Template:IPA
	Ejective	Template:IPA (p', p̣)	Template:IPA (t', ṭ)		Template:IPA (q, ḳ)
Affricates	Voiceless		Template:IPA(s')	Template:IPA(č)
	Voiced			Template:IPA(ǧ)
	Ejective			Template:IPA (č', č̣)
Fricatives	Voiceless	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA(š)		Template:IPA
	Voiced		Template:IPA	Template:IPA (ž)
Nasals		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA (ñ)
Liquids		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA (y)
Flap/Trill			Template:IPA

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	Template:IPA	Template:IPA(ə)	Template:IPA
Mid	Template:IPA	Template:IPA(ä)	Template:IPA
Low		Template:IPA

Image:Amharic vowel chart.png

Amharic abugida signs ("Fidel" ፊደል)

See also Ge'ez alphabet.

Please note that this chart is incomplete. Some phonemes can be represented by more than one series of symbols: Template:IPA, /s'/, and Template:IPA (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	Template:IPA	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
Template:Semxlit	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
Template:Semxlit	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
Template:Semxlit	ዐ	ዑ	ዒ	ዓ	ዔ	ዕ	ዖ
z	ዘ	ዙ	ዚ	ዛ	ዜ	ዝ	ዞ
Template:Semxlit	ዠ	ዡ	ዢ	ዣ	ዤ	ዥ	ዦ
y	የ	ዩ	ዪ	ያ	ዬ	ይ	ዮ
d	ደ	ዱ	ዲ	ዳ	ዴ	ድ	ዶ
Template:IPA	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

Gemination

As in most other Ethiopian Semitic languages, gemination is contrastive in Amharic. That is, consonant length can distinguish words from one another; for example, alä 'he said', allä 'there is'; Template:IPA 'he hits', Template:IPA 'he is hit'. Gemination is not indicated in Amharic orthography, but since there are relatively few minimal pairs such as these, Amharic readers seem not to find this to be a problem. This property of the writing system is analogous to the vowels of Arabic and Hebrew or the tones of many Bantu languages, which are not normally indicated in writing. The noted Ethiopian novelist Haddis Alemayehu, who was an advocate of Amharic orthography reform, indicated gemination in his novel Template:IPA by placing a dot above the characters whose consonants were geminated, but this practice has not caught on.

Grammar

Pronouns

Nouns

Amharic nouns can be primary or derived. A noun like Template:IPA 'foot, leg' is primary, and a noun like Template:IPA '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 Template:IPA, e.g. Template:IPA 'king' vs. Template:IPA 'queen' and Template:IPA 'holy (m.)' vs. Template:IPA 'holy (f.)'.

Some nouns and adjectives take a feminine marker -it: Template:IPA' 'child, boy' vs. Template:IPA 'girl'; bäg 'sheep, ram' vs. bäg-it 'ewe'; Template:IPA 'senior, elder (m.)' vs. Template:IPA '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. Template:IPA '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 Template:IPA 'boy', set Template:IPA '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 Template:IPA or set to indicate feminine gender. Examples: täbat Template:IPA 'calf (m.)'; awra doro 'cock (rooster)'; set doro 'hen'.

Plural

The plural suffix Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA is used: bet 'house' becomes Template:IPA 'houses'. For nouns ending in a back vowel (-a, -o, -u), the suffix takes the form -^wTemplate:IPA, e.g. Template:IPA 'dog', Template:IPA-^wTemplate:IPA 'dogs'; käbäro 'drum', käbäro-^wTemplate:IPA 'drums'. Nouns that end in a front vowel pluralize using -^wTemplate:IPA or -^yTemplate:IPA, e.g. s'ähafi 'scholar', s'ähafi-^wTemplate:IPA or s'ähafi-^yTemplate:IPA 'scholars'. Another possibility for nouns ending in a vowel is to delete the vowel and use plain Template:IPA, as in Template:IPA 'dogs'.

Besides using the normal external plural (-očč), 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-oTemplate:IPA, but Template:IPA 'ladies' is also found.

Some kinship-terms have two plural forms with a slightly different meaning. For example, Template:IPA 'brother' can be pluralized as Template:IPA 'brothers' but also as Template:IPA 'brothers of each other'. Likewise, Template:IPA 'sister' can be pluralized as Template:IPA ('sisters'), but also as Template:IPA 'sisters of each other'.

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

Archaic plural forms

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: Template:IPA 'teacher', Template:IPA; t'äbib 'wise person', t'äbib-an; Template:IPA 'priest', Template:IPA.
• Examples of the internal plural: Template:IPA 'virgin', Template:IPA; hagär 'land', Template:IPA.
• Examples of combined systems: Template:IPA 'king', nägäs-t; kokäb 'star', Template:IPA.

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:

• Template:IPA: — Template:IPA 'wisdom'; Template:IPA 'sickness'
• Template:IPA: — Template:IPA 'obesity'; Template:IPA 'cruelty'
• Template:IPA: — Template:IPA 'moistness'; Template:IPA 'knowledge'

There are also several nominalizing suffixes.

• Template:IPA: — 'relation'; Template:IPA 'Christianity'; Template:IPA 'laziness'; Template:IPA 'priesthood'.
• -e, suffixed to place name X, yields 'a person born in X': goǧǧam-e 'someone born in Gojjam'.
• Template:IPA and Template:IPA serve to express profession, or some relationship with the base noun: Template:IPA 'pedestrian' (from Template:IPA 'foot'); Template:IPA '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 Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA 'He (probably) has said'.

Adverbial use

The gerund can be used as an adverb: alfo alfo Template:IPA 'Sometimes he laughs'. Template:IPA dägmo mämt'at Template:IPA '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', Template:IPA 'mute, dumb, silent', Template:IPA 'yellow'.

Formed from nominal patterns

CäCCaC — käbbad 'heavy'; läggas 'generous'

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

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

Template:IPA — Template:IPA 'intelligent, smart'; Template:IPA' 'hidden'

Template:IPA — Template:IPA 'worthy, dignified'; Template:IPA 'black'; Template:IPA 'holy'

Formed by denominalizing suffixes

Template:IPA — Template:IPA 'powerful' (from hayl 'power'); Template:IPA 'true' (from Template:IPA 'truth')

Template:IPA — Template:IPA 'secular' (from aläm 'world')

-awi — Template:IPA 'intelligent' (from Template:IPA 'heart'); Template:IPA 'earthly' (from Template:IPA 'earth'); haymanot-awi 'religious' (from haymanot 'religion')

With prefix yä 'from'

yä-kätäma 'urban' (lit. 'from the city'); Template:IPA 'Christian' (lit. 'of Christianity'); Template:IPA '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-mm-ikkättäl 'following' ('that what is following', from tä-kättälä 'to follow'); yä-mm-ittay '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. Template:IPA geta 'a bad master'; Template:IPA 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. Template:IPA 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. Template:IPA bet-e (lit. big-def house-my) 'my big house'.

When enumerating adjectives using -nna 'and', both adjectives take the definite article: Template:IPA astäway-wa Template:IPA mät't'ačč (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 Template:IPA tämari^wočč (lit. diligent student-PLUR) or Template:IPA^wočč tämari^wočč (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 (1973) English-Amharic dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-72264-7
• 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.
• Dawkins, C. H. (¹1960, ²1969) The Fundamentals of Amharic. Addis Ababa.
• Kane, Thomas L. (1990) Amharic-English Dictionary. (2 vols.) Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-02871-8
• Kapeliuk, Olga (1988) Nominalization in Amharic. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden. ISBN 3515045120
• Kapeliuk, Olga (1994) Syntax of the noun in Amharic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3447034068.
• Leslau, Wolf (1976) Concise Amharic Dictionary. (Reissue edition: 1996) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20501-4
• Leslau, Wolf (1995) Reference Grammar of Amharic. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-447-03372-X
• Ludolf, Hiob (1698) Grammatica Linguæ Amharicæ. Frankfort.
• Praetorius, Franz (1879) Die amharische Sprache. Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.

External links

Template:InterWiki

• Online Amharic-English-Amharic dictionary
• 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)
• Voice of America Amharic news broadcasts in Voice of America website
• Christian recordings in Amharic in Global Recordings websiteaf:Amharies

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