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Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language of South Semitic (Bender 1976) (Webbook)
Ethnologue lists the classification as: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, South, Transversal, Amharic-Argobba
It is spoken primarily in the central highlands of Ethiopia, with sometimes significant expatriate and emigrant communities in various other countries.
Population: 17,372,913 in Ethiopia (1998 census). 14,743,556 monolinguals. (Ethnologue)
Ethnologue notes that there are "4,000,000 second-language speakers."
Amharic is the language of some 2.7 million emigrants (notably in Egypt, Israel and Sweden). (Wikipedia)
No extensive dialect survey work on Amharic has come to our attention. (Webbook)
Used in government, public media, national commerce, education to seventh grade in many areas, wide variety of literature (fiction, poetry, plays, magazines). (Ethnologue)
Literacy rate (according to Ethnologue):
Amharic has a standard orthography. (Webbook) It uses the Ethiopic (or Ge'ez) abugida (a kind of syllabary). Ethiopic permits alternative spellings of many words.
"Amharic is written with a version of the Ge'ez script known as ፊደል (Fidel). There is no standard way to transliterating Amharic into the Latin alphabet. Amharic is named after the district of Amhara, which is thought to be the historic centre of the language." (Omniglot)
See also:
| Ethiopic/Ge'ez abugida | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ä | u | i | a | e | ə | o | |
| h | ሀ | ሁ | ሂ | ሃ | ሄ | ህ | ሆ |
| l | ለ | ሉ | ሊ | ላ | ሌ | ል | ሎ |
| h | ሐ | ሑ | ሒ | ሓ | ሔ | ሕ | ሖ |
| m | መ | ሙ | ሚ | ማ | ሜ | ም | ሞ |
| s | ሠ | ሡ | ሢ | ሣ | ሤ | ሥ | ሦ |
| r | ረ | ሩ | ሪ | ራ | ሬ | ር | ሮ |
| s | ሰ | ሱ | ሲ | ሳ | ሴ | ስ | ሶ |
| š | ሸ | ሹ | ሺ | ሻ | ሼ | ሽ | ሾ |
| q | ቀ | ቁ | ቂ | ቃ | ቄ | ቅ | ቆ |
| b | በ | ቡ | ቢ | ባ | ቤ | ብ | ቦ |
| t | ተ | ቱ | ቲ | ታ | ቴ | ት | ቶ |
| č | ቸ | ቹ | ቺ | ቻ | ቼ | ች | ቾ |
| h | ኀ | ኁ | ኂ | ኃ | ኄ | ኅ | ኆ |
| n | ነ | ኑ | ኒ | ና | ኔ | ን | ኖ |
| ñ | ኘ | ኙ | ኚ | ኛ | ኜ | ኝ | ኞ |
| ʾ | አ | ኡ | ኢ | ኣ | ኤ | እ | ኦ |
| k | ከ | ኩ | ኪ | ካ | ኬ | ክ | ኮ |
| h | ኸ | ኹ | ኺ | ኻ | ኼ | ኽ | ኾ |
| w | ወ | ዉ | ዊ | ዋ | ዌ | ው | ዎ |
| ʾ | ዐ | ዑ | ዒ | ዓ | ዔ | ዕ | ዖ |
| z | ዘ | ዙ | ዚ | ዛ | ዜ | ዝ | ዞ |
| ž | ዠ | ዡ | ዢ | ዣ | ዤ | ዥ | ዦ |
| y | የ | ዩ | ዪ | ያ | ዬ | ይ | ዮ |
| d | ደ | ዱ | ዲ | ዳ | ዴ | ድ | ዶ |
| ǧ | ጀ | ጁ | ጂ | ጃ | ጄ | ጅ | ጆ |
| g | ገ | ጉ | ጊ | ጋ | ጌ | ግ | ጎ |
| t' | ጠ | ጡ | ጢ | ጣ | ጤ | ጥ | ጦ |
| č' | ጨ | ጩ | ጪ | ጫ | ጬ | ጭ | ጮ |
| p' | ጰ | ጱ | ጲ | ጳ | ጴ | ጵ | ጶ |
| s' | ጸ | ጹ | ጺ | ጻ | ጼ | ጽ | ጾ |
| s' | ፀ | ፁ | ፂ | ፃ | ፄ | ፅ | ፆ |
| f | ፈ | ፉ | ፊ | ፋ | ፌ | ፍ | ፎ |
| p | ፐ | ፑ | ፒ | ፓ | ፔ | ፕ | ፖ |
| Source: Wikipedia | |||||||
Legacy 8-bit fonts: (there are a number of non-Unicode fonts)
Tavultesoft Keyman keyboard layouts:
There is apparently an effort to develop a computer keyboard standard for Amharic in Ethiopia (need more info.)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Amharic: http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/amh.htm
Wikipedia in Amharic at http://am.wikipedia.org/
TuxPaint has been localised in Amharic.
There is an effort to translate OpenOffice.
There is a project to translate Debian (Linux) Installer in Amharic: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/edgy/+source/debian-installer/+pots/debian-installer
There is a project to translate the GRASS GIS software. (2007)
OLPC is translating an Amharic interface for its XO laptops (2007). See:
By 2000, using non-Unicode encodings, there were "at least 35 Ethiopic software products available, each with its own character set, encoding system, typeface names, and keyboard layout." (BBC)
There is a project for cell-phone localisation.
There is a project for localising OpenOffice
The Computing Research Laboratory at New Mexico State University "has developed tools for acquiring Amharic text" http://crl.nmsu.edu/say/amharic/
Google has a version localized in Amharic: http://www.google.com/intl/am/
The Ethiopic Unicode Resource Page http://www.abyssiniacybergateway.net/fidel/unicode/
Demessie, Laeke Mariam (2000), "Ancient alphabet enters cyber age," BBC News, 19 January 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/609217.stm
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Amharic," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Amharic-root.html )
Omniglot, "Amharic (ኣማርኛ)," http://www.omniglot.com/writing/amharic.htm
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Amharic," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=amh
SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php
Wikipedia, "Amharic," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amharic_language
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