Intro w/ resources

Intro to Amharic 

Amharic is one of the most common languages that is spoken in Ethiopia along with Oromo, Tigrinya, and Gurage. These languages are spoken in different regions of the country, reflecting Ethiopia’s diversity. For example, Amharic is most widely used in central Ethiopia and also serves as the federal government’s official working language. Oromo is mainly spoken in the Oromia region and is the most widely spoken language overall. Tigrinya is primarily spoken in northern Ethiopia and in Eritrea, while Gurage languages are spoken in the southern part of the country.

What makes Amharic especially unique is its writing system, known as Fidel . This script dates back thousands of years and is one of the few indigenous writing systems in Africa that is still in use today. Each symbol in the Fidel changes shape depending on the vowel sound, which gives the script its distinctive look. Amharic is also apart of the Semitic language family, which means it is related to languages like Arabic and Hebrew.

edited by Ronny Meyer, Bedilu Wakjira, Zelealem Leyew. (2023). The Oxford handbook of Ethiopian languages. Oxford :Oxford University Press,

edited by M. L. Bender … [and others]. (1976). Language in Ethiopia. London :Oxford University Press,

Resources

• Armbruster, C. H. (2010). Initia Amharica: An Introduction to Spoken Amharic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • This is a book that is written by researchers that went to Ethiopia to create a kind of dictionary with phrases and words in English translated to amharic with the amharic fidel and also in the alphabet. This is great because with English letters I can learn the pronunciation.
• Meyer, R., & Edzard, L. (Eds.). (2016). Time in Languages of the Horn of Africa (1st ed.). Harrassowitz Verlag. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc76zxr
  • This book basically goes over the structure in the languages and the way time is told. What’s different is that it compares it through the top 3 most common languages in Ethiopia so I like the variety that it gives me. And it does break down structures and metaphors in the language.
• Folk Music and Ceremonies of Ethiopia (1974). In Wollner C. A., Lerner L.(Eds.), . Folkways Records.
  • I’m not sure if this counts but this is a recording of beautiful traditional music and ceremonies in Ethiopia. It is mostly in amharic so listening to this is very beneficial for learning dialect and pronunciation. It has almost 10 different records that are unique. Also in the recording there is some traditional instruments that are only found in ethiopia.