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Amharic

Amharic

1 8.4
The main language spoken in Ethiopia
  • noun
  • /æmˈhɑːrɪk/
: amárico
  • The official documents in Ethiopia are primarily written in Amharic.
  • speak Amharic
  • Amharic language

But they're not broadcasting in Hausa or Tigrina or Amharic or Farsi or Russian.

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Examples

  • To communicate effectively in Ethiopia, knowing Amharic is essential.

  • It was later adapted to write other Ethiopian languages, including Amharic, now the national language of contemporary Ethiopia.

    Academic text (2007)

  • And then I have a personal relationship to Amharic, which is is just because a family member, really close friends are from Ethiopia.

    Harvard University

  • Behind him, the gatekeeper was yelling in Amharic.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Delivering the revised lines in Amharic required the scriptwriters to seek outside expertise.

    Academic text (2012)

  • In Ethiopia, a mom is called Enate (Amharic).

    Blog text (14)

  • "Even though they were talking in their language, I felt like I understood what they were saying," Gelana said in Amharic through a translator after our run.

    Blog text (29)

  • The very old literate traditions are in only two languages: Arabic (plus other languages in Arabic script) and Amharic.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The Girl Effect funded a program in rural Ethiopia called Berhane Hewan ("Light for Eve" in Amharic) that arms young girls with knowledge and resources that will help them avoid early marriages like Kidan's.

    Blog text (13)

  • ILRI maintains an online, searchable open access repository of research outputs called Mahider (Mahider means repository in Amharic).

    Blog text (7)

Synonyms

Amharic language
vsAmharic
1 8.5

The official language of Ethiopia that uses its own script

states the language is official without calling it dominant

Compounds

Amharic language
1 8.5

The official language of Ethiopia that uses its own script

Surface Forms

Amharic singular
Amharics plural

Morphology

Amharic = Amhara (semi-transparent) = Amhara + ic

The form is transparently built from the place/people name 'Amhara' plus the adjective-forming suffix '-ic', but the noun sense 'the language' requires a conventional language-name convention.

Etymology

Amharic comes from Amhara, the name of a people and region in Ethiopia, plus the ending -ic which means 'related to'. So Amharic is the language of the Amhara people and is used widely in Ethiopia.