Amharic
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]
Not to be confused with Arabic or Aramaic.Amharic
IPA: [amarɨɲːa] ⓘ
Geʽez script (Amharic syllabary)
Ge'ez Braille
Signed Amharic[2]
Imperial Academy (former)
12-ACB-a
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.
Rastafari movement[edit]
The word Rastafari comes from Ras Täfäri, the pre-regnal title of Haile Selassie, composed of the Amharic words Ras (literally "Head", an Ethiopian title equivalent to duke) and Haile Selassie's pre-regnal name, Tafari.[53]
Many Rastafarians learn Amharic as a second language, as they consider it to be sacred. After Haile Selassie's 1966 visit to Jamaica, study circles in Amharic were organized in Jamaica as part of the ongoing exploration of Pan-African identity and culture.[54] Various reggae artists in the 1970s, including Ras Michael, Lincoln Thompson and Misty in Roots, have sung in Amharic, thus bringing the language to a wider audience. The Abyssinians, a reggae group, have also used Amharic, most notably in the song "Satta Massagana". The title was believed to mean "give thanks"; however, this phrase means "he thanked" or "he praised", as säṭṭä means "he gave", and amässägänä "thanks" or "praise". The correct way to say "give thanks" in Amharic is one word, misgana. The word "satta" has become a common expression in the Rastafari dialect of English, Iyaric, meaning "to sit down and partake".[55]
Software[edit]
Amharic is supported on most major Linux distributions, including Fedora and Ubuntu.
The Amharic script is included in Unicode, in the Ethiopic block (U+1200 – U+137F). Nyala font is included on Windows 7 (see YouTube video)[56] and Vista (Amharic Language Interface Pack)[57] to display and edit using the Amharic Script. In February 2010, Microsoft released its Windows Vista operating system in Amharic, enabling Amharic speakers to use its operating system in their language.
Google added Amharic to its Language Tools[58] which allows typing Amharic Script online without an Amharic Keyboard. Since 2004 Wikipedia has had an Amharic language Wiki that uses Ethiopic script.