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Amharic
Last update: Saturday 31st of July 2010
| Amharic አማርኛ āmariññā | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | IPA: /amarɨɲɲa/ | |
| Spoken in: | Ethiopia, Israel, North America, Eritrea | |
| Total speakers: | 27 million as a first language, between 7-15 million more as a second language | |
| Language family: | Afro-Asiatic Semitic South Semitic Ethiopic South Ethiopic Amharic | |
| Writing system: | Ge'ez alphabet | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | Ethiopia and the following specific regions: Addis Ababa City Council, Amhara Region, Benishangul-Gumaz Region, Dire Dawa Administrative council, Gambela Region, SNNPR | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | am | |
| ISO 639-2: | amh | |
| ISO 639-3: | amh | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Amharic (አማርኛ āmariññā) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the "official working" language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and thus has official status and use nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working language of several of the states within the federal system, including Amhara Region and the multi-ethnic Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, among others. It has been the working language of government, the military, and of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church throughout modern times. Outside Ethiopia, Amharic is the language of some 2.7 million emigrants (notably in Egypt, Israel and Sweden), and is spoken in Eritrea by educated Eritreans of the preindependence generation and younger deportees from Ethiopia.
It is written, with some adaptations, with the Ge'ez alphabet (used for the language of the same name) called fidel in Ethiopian Semitic languages (ፊደል fĭdel 'alphabet,' 'letter,' or 'character').