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The Amharic script - Part 1

The Amharic language is written in a script known as an 'abugida', with characters called 'fidel'. If you don't understand what 'abugida' means, it is a script where consonants and vowels are written joined together, rather than as individual units, as you'll come to see when we look at the letters. Amharic uses the Ge'ez script, minus a few consonants - Ge'ez is an Ethiopian language no longer spoken, and used only as a liturgical language by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. We'll look at the first set of letters alone, and I'll go over how the script works, as well as the transcriptions used.

 

Amharic features seven vowel orders. These are (in order):

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​ä - pronounced like ‘e’ in the word ‘bed’

u - pronounced like ‘oo’ in the word ‘zoom’

i - pronounced like ‘ee’ in the word ‘see’

a - pronounced like ‘a’ in the word ‘happy’

e - pronounced like ‘a’ in the word ‘day’

ï - pronounced like ‘u’ in the word ‘put’

o - pronounced like ‘o’ in the word ‘low’

 

We can now look at the consonant ‘l’ for an example, in all 7 orders:

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ለ ሉ ሊ ላ ሌ ል ሎ

 

The above line is read lä, lu, li, la, le, lï, lo. As you can see, the shape for the letter remains fairly constant throughout all 7 orders. Unfortunately, a lot of letters in Amharic change slightly at one stage during their 7 orders, however there is a basic rule which is followed by quite a few letters:

 

  • For u, a short stick is added in the middle on the right side of the letter.

  • For i, a short stick is added at the bottom on the right side of the letter. The right side of some letters is lengthened (for example ሀ to ሂ), with the original letter shape becoming smaller.

  • For a, different types of letters behave differently. For letters with one ‘leg’, such as ተ, this ‘leg’ curves to the left (ተ to ታ). For letters with two ‘legs’, such as ለ, the left ‘leg’ is shortened (ለ to ላ). For the three letters with three ‘legs’ (ሐ, ጠ, and ጨ), the left two ‘legs’ are shortened (ጠ to ጣ).

  • For e, a small ring is added on the rightmost side of the letter. If the letter is extended for the addition of the vowels i and a, the ring is added to the extension (ሀ to ሄ).

  • The sixth order, ï, changes the most. The only real rule that can be applied to how some letters change is that a small break is made on the letter to the first order (ሀ to ህ).

  • The seventh order, o, is also more irregular. For letters with one ‘leg’, a small ring is added at the top of the letter (ቀ to ቆ). For letters with two ‘legs’, the right 'leg’ is shortened (ሰ to ሶ). And for the three letters with three ‘legs’, the two right ‘legs' are shortened (ሐ to ሖ).

 

Now that we have gone over the basic rules, we can look at our first set of letters.

A few important things to note about the Amharic script:

  • The sixth order, ï, is also used to write the consonant alone.

  • Two of the same consonants next to one another with no vowel in between are written using one Amharic character.

  • The sixth order is always pronounced as the consonant alone when at the end of the word.

To show an example of these three points, we can look at the word for ‘Houses’, ቤቶች - this looks like ‘betočï’, but it is in fact pronounced ‘betočč’. Writing ቤቶችች would be wrong - this would be read as ‘betočïč’. Although this may seem quite tricky, as your knowledge of the language improves you will find it easier to work out the correct pronunciation for each word. Consonants in the sixth order at the end of a word are always pronounced as just the consonant, unless the following word starts with a consonant, in which case a short ï sound is added at the end to ease pronunciation:

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ትልቅ is pronounced ‘tïllïK’

ትልቅ ቤት is pronounced ‘tïllïK-ï bet’

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Another important thing is that because two consecutive consonants are written with only one fidel, there are word pairs in Amharic which are the same when written, and you will need to use context to figure out which one is meant. An example is አለ - this could be either alä ‘he said’ or allä ‘there is’. It is therefore important to pronounce consonants for the correct length.

 

That is the first of group of letters to learn. Here are some things to remember:

  • The 3 letters for ‘h’ (ሀ, ሐ, and ኀ) are all pronounced the same - they are different because in Ge'ez they were pronounced differently, but that distinction has been lost in Amharic. The same goes for the two variations for ‘s’ (ሰ and ሠ). Because of this, some words have multiple spellings. Two examples of this are the words ደህና ‘Well’, which can also be written ደኅና or even ደሕና, and ሦስት ‘Three’, which can also be written ሶስት.

  • The letter በ is pronounced in two ways. The first is the same as the English ‘b’. It is pronounced like this when at the start of word, after ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘l’, or ‘r’, or doubled. Examples of this are the words ባል ‘Husband’, ቅርብ ‘Near’, and አባት ‘Father’. In every other position it is pronounced closer to the English ‘v’, for example አበባ ‘Flower’.

  • The vowel carrier (አ) plus the three letters for ‘h’ (ሀ, ሐ, and ኀ) behave slightly differently - in the first order they are pronounced the same as the fourth order. 

  • The letter ቨ is only used in loanwords.

 

To practice the letters covered in this lesson, try reading the Amharic words below. Hover your mouse over the boxes to see the answers.

ህመም (Pain)

hïmäm

ahun

አሁን (Now)

ሰሞኑን (Recently)

​sämonun

ተመራማሪ (Researcher)

tämäramari

በታች (Below)

bätačč

መንቀሳቀስ (To move)

mänKäsaKäs

ትንታኔ (Analysis)

tïnïtane

እንቁላል (Egg)

ïnKulal

ሻማ (Candle)

šama

እራት (Dinner)

ïrat

ቀኝ (Right)

Käñ

ትብብር (Collaboration)

tïbïbïr

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