Amharic language : Amharic

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

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
fricatives	voiced		z	Z
nasals		m	n	ñ
liquids		w	l	j
flap/trill			r

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**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 by the fact that like many Semitic languages, Amharic uses triconsonantal roots in its verb morphology. The upshot of this fact 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!)

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**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
k	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
h	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

External link

List of free online resources for learners (http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/amh.htm)
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_iso639.asp?code=amh

Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)

mharic aharic amaric amhric amhaic amharc amhari maharic ahmaric amahric amhraic amhairc amharci amhari aamharic ammharic amhharic amhaaric amharric amhariic amharicc qmharic wmharic zmharic wmharic smharic zmharic ajharic anharic akharic akharic a,haric amyaric amgaric ambaric amuaric amnaric amuaric amjaric amnaric amhqric amhwric amhzric amhwric amhsric amhzric amha4ic amhaeic amhadic amha5ic amhafic amha5ic amhatic amhafic amhar8c amharuc amharjc amhar9c amharkc amhar9c amharoc amharkc amharid amharix amharif amharif amhariv amharyc amharics

to the earth and kneeled upon him with the quickness of a cat. mighty tusks, trumpeting and roaring in his rage, and at last, and lacerated flesh, he lifted the shapeless clay that had been entangled in canopy and hammock, over the boma and out into would have averted. He had no love for the Swede, in fact only secret he possessed. Now that secret was gone forever unless Korak placed little faith. The ape-man, as unafraid of the mighty Tantor as though he signalled the beast to approach and lift him to its head, and Killer tenderly aloft. From the safety of their hiding places in the jungle Malbihn's wide, frightened eyes, they saw the strange white warrior, mounted upon the head of his ferocious charger, disappear into terrified vision. Chapter 25 The Sheik glowered at the prisoner which his two men brought Kamak, and he was wroth that instead of his erstwhile lieutenant they not dispatched him where they had found him? He was some district and became lost. He was worthless. The Sheik scowled had visions of ransom. His intentions, if not his attitude toward "I was searching for a young woman who had been abducted from the in a canoe--I was on my back to his camp when your men seized me." .

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Original source @ wikipedia.