Amharic language

Amharic (አማርኛ) is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia, where it is the official language. It is written using an writing system called fidel or abugida adapted from the one used for the now-extinct Ge'ez language.

Table of contents

1 Amharic Phonology
2 Amharic Abugida Symbols ("Fidels" ፊደል)
3 External link

Amharic Phonology

The chart below uses SAMPA symbols where feasible, with the exception that ejectives are marked by '’' (apostrophe/right-single-quote).

Consonants
bilabial dental palatal velar glottal

stops voiceless p t c k 7

voiced b d J g

ejective p’ t’ c’ k’

affricate ts

fricatives voiceless f s S h

voiced z Z

nasals m n ñ

liquids w l j

flap/trill r

Vowels
front central back

high i u

mid e @ o

low E a

Amharic Abugida Symbols ("Fidels" ፊደል)

Please note that this chart is incomplete. Some phonemes have more than one series of possible symbols; only illustrative examples for /k/ and /h/ are shown (the latter has four series!). While the consonants have been grouped by manner of articulation (refer to the phoneme chart above), the vowels are listed in citation order. The citation form for each series is the consonant+/E/ form, i.e. the first column of fidels. You will need a font that supports Ethiopic, such as GF Zemen Unicode (available at ftp://ftp.ethiopic.org/pub/fonts/TrueType/gfzemenu.ttf ), in order to view the fidels.

Europeans 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 upshot of this is that a fluent speaker of Amharic can decipher written text by observing which consonants are noted, with the vowel variants being supplemental detail. (T dmnstrt, "nglsh spkrs cn rd vwllss txt, t!)

Chart of Amharic Fidels
E u i a e @ or
NONE o

p ፐ ቱ ፒ ፓ ፔ ፕ ፖ

t ተ ቱ ቲ ታ ቴ ት ቶ

c ቸ ቹ ቺ ቻ ቼ ች ቾ

k ከ ኩ ኪ ካ ኬ ክ ኮ

ኸ ኹ ኺ ኻ ኼ ኽ ኾ

b በ ቡ ቢ ባ ቤ ብ ቦ

d ደ ዱ ዲ ዳ ዴ ድ ዶ

J ጀ ጁ ጂ ጃ ጄ ጅ ጆ

g ገ ጉ ጊ ጋ ጌ ግ ጎ

p’ ጰ ጱ ጲ ጳ ጴ ጵ ጶ

t’ ጠ ጡ ጢ ጣ ጤ ጥ ጦ

c’ ጨ ጩ ጪ ጫ ጬ ጭ ጮ

k’ ቀ ቁ ቂ ቃ ቄ ቅ ቆ

7 አ ኡ ኢ ኣ ኤ እ ኦ

ts’ ጸ ጹ ጺ ጻ ጼ ጽ ጾ

f ፈ ፉ ፊ ፋ ፌ ፍ ፎ

s ሰ ሱ ሲ ሳ ሴ ስ ሶ

S ሸ ሹ ሺ ሻ ሼ ሽ ሾ

h ሀ ሁ ሂ ሃ ሄ ህ ሆ

ሐ ሑ ሒ ሓ ሔ ሕ ሖ

z ዘ ዙ ዚ ዛ ዜ ዝ ዞ

Z ዠ ዡ ዢ ዣ ዤ ዥ ዦ

m መ ሙ ሚ ማ ሜ ም ሞ

n ነ ኑ ኒ ና ኔ ን ኖ

ñ ኘ ኙ ኚ ኛ ኜ ኝ ኞ

w ወ ዉ ዊ ዋ ዌ ው ዎ

l ለ ሉ ሊ ላ ሌ ል ሎ

j የ ዩ ዪ ያ ዬ ይ ዮ

r ረ ሩ ሪ ራ ሬ ር ሮ