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Not to be confused with Aramaic
Amharic
አማርኛ (Amarəñña)
Amharic script, fidäl, from Ge'ez script
Pronunciation
IPA:[amarɨɲːa]ⓘ
Native to
Ethiopia
Ethnicity
31 million Amhara (2020)[1]
Speakers
L1: 35 million (2020)[1] L2: 25 million (2019)[1] Total:
60 million (2019–2020)[1]
Language family
Afro-Asiatic
Semitic
West Semitic
South Semitic
Ethiopic
South
Transversal South
Amharic–Argobba
Amharic
Writing system
Geʽez script (Amharic syllabary) Ge'ez Braille
Signed forms
Signed Amharic[2]
Official status
Official language in
Ethiopia[3]
Regulated by
Imperial Academy (former)
Language codes
ISO 639-1
am
ISO 639-2
amh
ISO 639-3
amh
Glottolog
amha1245
Linguasphere
12-ACB-a
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Amharic (/æmˈhærɪk/am-HARR-ik[4][5][6] or /ɑːmˈhɑːrɪk/ahm-HAR-ik;[7] native name: አማርኛ, romanized: Amarəñña, IPA:[amarɨɲːa]ⓘ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other populations residing in major cities and towns in Ethiopia.[8]
The language serves as the official working language of the Ethiopian federal government, and is also the official or working language of several of Ethiopia's federal regions.[9] As of 2020, it has over 33,700,000 mother-tongue speakers and more than 25,100,000 second language speakers in 2019, making the total number of speakers over 58,800,000.[1][10] Amharic is the largest, most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, and the second most spoken mother-tongue in Ethiopia (after Oromo). Amharic is also the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world (after Arabic).[11][12]
Amharic is written left-to-right using a system that grew out of the Geʽez script.[13] The segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units is called an abugida (አቡጊዳ).[14] The graphemes are called fidäl (ፊደል), which means "script", "alphabet", "letter", or "character".
There is no universally agreed-upon Romanization of Amharic into Latin script. The Amharic examples in the sections below use one system that is common among linguists specializing in Ethiopian Semitic languages.
^ abcdeAmharic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^Morgan, Mike (9 April 2010). "Complexities of Ethiopian Sign Language Contact Phenomena & Implications for AAU". L'Alliance française et le Centre Français des Études Éthiopiennes. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
^Shaban, Abdurahman. "One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages". Africa News. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
^Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh; Collins English Dictionary (2003), Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary (2010)
^"Amharic". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^"Amharic". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
^"Amharic". dictionary.com. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
^Meyer, Ronny (2011). "The Role of Amharic as a National Language and an African lingua franca". In Stefan Weninger (ed.). The Semitic Languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1212–1220.
^Gebremichael, M. (2011). Federalism and conflict management in Ethiopia: case study of Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State (PhD). United Kingdom: University of Bradford. hdl:10454/5388.
^Shaik Johny Basha; Duggineni Veeraiah; Boddu Venkat Charan; Wiltrud Sahithi Yeddu; Devalla Ganesh Babu (2023). "Detection and Comparative Analysis of Handwritten Words of Amharic Language to English using CNN-Based Frameworks". 2023 International Conference on Inventive Computation Technologies (ICICT). pp. 422–427. doi:10.1109/ICICT57646.2023.10134103. ISBN 979-8-3503-9849-6. S2CID 259028086.
^Amharic at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^"The world factbook". cia.gov. 2 March 2022.
^Adugna, Gabe. "Research: Language Learning – Amharic: Home". library.bu.edu. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
^"Amharic alphabet, pronunciation and language". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
Not to be confused with Aramaic Amharic (/æmˈhærɪk/ am-HARR-ik or /ɑːmˈhɑːrɪk/ ahm-HAR-ik; native name: አማርኛ, romanized: Amarəñña, IPA: [amarɨɲːa] ) is...
Amharas (Amharic: አማራ, romanized: Āmara; Ge'ez: ዐምሐራ, romanized: ʾÄməḥära) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group which is indigenous to Ethiopia, traditionally...
spoken by the Oromo, and Somali, spoken by the Somalis; the latter includes Amharic, spoken by the Amhara, and Tigrinya, spoken by the Tigrayans. Together...
speakers as of 2019, including around 25,100,000 second language speakers, Amharic is the most widely spoken of the group, the most widely spoken language...
there appeared translations of the Bible into Amharic. The first translation of the Bible into Amharic was by Abu Rumi in the early 19th century. In the...
alphabetical list of notable musicians using Amharic vocals in their musical compositions. The Amharic language is predominantly used in Ethiopia. Contents: ...
with Ethiopia. In 1958, it was replaced by the Southern Ethiopic language Amharic prior to its annexation.[whose?] Upon Eritrea's independence in 1991, Tigrinya...
The following is an alphabetical list of Amharic writers, presenting an overview of notable authors, journalists, novelists, playwrights, poets and screenwriters...
the east from eastern Turkey to India. This Greek name was borrowed into Amharic as ኢትዮጵያ, ʾĪtyōṗṗyā. An alternate theory suggests that Αἰθιοπία was derived...
boxes, or other symbols instead of Ethiopic characters. Ethiopian cuisine (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ምግብ "Ye-Ītyōṗṗyā məgəb") characteristically consists of vegetable...
of November 2011, DW only broadcast radio programming via shortwave in: Amharic, Chinese, Dari, English and French for Africa, Hausa, Kiswahili, Pashtu...
Habesha peoples (Ge'ez: ሐበሠተ; Amharic: ሐበሻ; Tigrinya: ሓበሻ; commonly used exonym: Abyssinians) is an ethnic or pan-ethnic identifier that has been historically...
The South Ethiopia Regional State (Amharic: ደቡብ ኢትዮጵያ ክልላዊ መንግስት) is a regional state in southern Ethiopia. It was formed from the southern part of the...
1080/09544169708717813 – via JSTOR. "Amharic Language: How it become Ethiopia's Lingua Franca – Addis Herald". "Amharic as a lingua franca and tool of domination"...
are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Aramaic, Hebrew, and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They...
Available in 112 languages List of languages Multilingual Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali,...
The birr (Amharic: ብር) is the primary unit of currency in Ethiopia. It is subdivided into 100 santims. In 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie formally requested...
(spoken by diaspora or other minorities) Albanian Armenian Abaza Abkhaz Amharic Azerbaijani Balochi Bosniak[dubious – discuss] Chechen Chinese Circassian...
Love to the Grave (Amharic: ፍቅር እስከ መቃብር) is an Amharic novel by Haddis Alemayehu published in 1968. It is one of the best known novels in Ethiopia and...
Global Information
Ethiopia[3]
