This creates several problems for transliterating Amharic words into the Latin alphabet.

It contains over 300 unique fidels including nine punctuation marks and 20 numerals. The Amharic writing system is quite complex when compared to many European languages. Transliterated, this reads as ko ka ko la. However, in the Amharic writing system, each symbol (known as a fidel) represents a consonant-vowel combination.Įxample: Coca-Cola has eight letters, each one represents a distinct sound.Īs you can see, this has only four characters, each representing a consonant and a vowel. In the majority of European languages, each symbol represents one sound (this varies from language to language, but it’s generally true). Well, let’s take a look at the Latin script as an example. Unlike European languages, Amharic does not technically use an alphabet, it uses what’s known as an abugida - or alphasyllabary - known as Ge’ez (Ge’ez is to Amharic as Latin is to English, it uses the same script, but today Ge’ez is used only as a liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church). When you start to learn Amharic, you’ll very quickly realize that the writing system bears little resemblance to anything else you’ve seen. The standard spoken dialect is that which is spoken in the capital city of Addis Ababa. These three differ in pronunciation, minor grammatical forms, and some vocabulary, however, all three are mutually intelligible. One theory is that Amharic developed as a pidgin allowing Cushitic people from different areas to communicate between themselves.Īs such, there are still at least three primary dialects of Amharic: Gondar, Gojjami, and Showa. Still, any experience with a Semitic language will make learning Amharic much easier. This means that it is similar to languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, but only loosely as it has continued to evolve on its own over the last several centuries. than in any city outside of Addis Ababa! 🙂).Īdditionally, Amharic is considered to be a Holy Language of the Rastafari faith and is used by its followers around the world.Īmharic is an Ethio-Semitic language with its roots in the Semitic language group. (more Ethiopians are living in Washington D.C. In addition to its use in Ethiopia, Amharic is widely used by the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel and is one of 7 languages offered by government services in Washington D.C. As the official language of Ethiopia, Amharic (also known as Abyssinian, Amarigna, Amarinya, Amhara, and Ethiopian) is spoken by more than 25 million people in Ethiopia and an additional 4 million emigrants abroad.Īmharic is the day-to-day language of the courts, business, and daily life throughout the country and has been since the 12 th century.

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