3 Amharic Abugida Symbols ("Fidels" ፊደል)

Please note that this chart is incomplete. Some phonemes have more than one series of possible symbols; only illustrative examples for /k/ and /h/ are shown (the latter has four series!). While the consonants have been grouped by manner of articulation (refer to the phoneme chart above), the vowels are listed in citation order. The citation form for each series is the consonant+/E/ form, i.e. the first column of fidels. You will need a font that supports Ethiopic, such as GF Zemen Unicode (available at ftp://ftp.ethiopic.org/pub/fonts/TrueType/gfzemenu.ttf ), in order to view the fidels.

Non-speakers are often disconcerted or astonished by the remarkable similarity of many of the symbols. This is mitigated somewhat because like many SemiticSemitic is a controversial adjective which in common parlance refers either to specifically Jewish things or to things originating among speakers of Semitic languages or people descended from them, and in a linguistic context to the northeastern subfamily languages, Amharic uses triconsonantal roots in its verb morphology. The upshot of this is that a fluent speaker of Amharic can decipher written text by observing which consonants are noted, with the vowel variants being supplemental detail. (T dmnstrt, "nglsh spkrs cn rd vwllss txt, t!)

Chart of Amharic Fidels

	ä	u	i	a	e	SchwaIn linguistics and phonology, the schwa is the vowel sound in many lightly pronounced unaccented syllables in English words of more than one syllable. It is most easily described as sounding like the British English "er" or the American English "uh".	o
p	ፐ	ፑ	ፒ	ፓ	ፔ	ፕ	ፖ
t	ተ	ቱ	ቲ	ታ	ቴ	ት	ቶ
c	ቸ	ቹ	ቺ	ቻ	ቼ	ች	ቾ
k	ከ	ኩ	ኪ	ካ	ኬ	ክ	ኮ
	ኸ	ኹ	ኺ	ኻ	ኼ	ኽ	ኾ
b	በ	ቡ	ቢ	ባ	ቤ	ብ	ቦ
d	ደ	ዱ	ዲ	ዳ	ዴ	ድ	ዶ
J	ጀ	ጁ	ጂ	ጃ	ጄ	ጅ	ጆ
g	ገ	ጉ	ጊ	ጋ	ጌ	ግ	ጎ
p’	ጰ	ጱ	ጲ	ጳ	ጴ	ጵ	ጶ
t’	ጠ	ጡ	ጢ	ጣ	ጤ	ጥ	ጦ
c’	ጨ	ጩ	ጪ	ጫ	ጬ	ጭ	ጮ
k’	ቀ	ቁ	ቂ	ቃ	ቄ	ቅ	ቆ
7	አ	ኡ	ኢ	ኣ	ኤ	እ	ኦ
ts’	ጸ	ጹ	ጺ	ጻ	ጼ	ጽ	ጾ
f	ፈ	ፉ	ፊ	ፋ	ፌ	ፍ	ፎ
s	ሰ	ሱ	ሲ	ሳ	ሴ	ስ	ሶ
S	ሸ	ሹ	ሺ	ሻ	ሼ	ሽ	ሾ
h	ሀ	ሁ	ሂ	ሃ	ሄ	ህ	ሆ
	ሐ	ሑ	ሒ	ሓ	ሔ	ሕ	ሖ
z	ዘ	ዙ	ዚ	ዛ	ዜ	ዝ	ዞ
Z	ዠ	ዡ	ዢ	ዣ	ዤ	ዥ	ዦ
m	መ	ሙ	ሚ	ማ	ሜ	ም	ሞ
n	ነ	ኑ	ኒ	ና	ኔ	ን	ኖ
ñ	ኘ	ኙ	ኚ	ኛ	ኜ	ኝ	ኞ
w	ወ	ዉ	ዊ	ዋ	ዌ	ው	ዎ
l	ለ	ሉ	ሊ	ላ	ሌ	ል	ሎ
j	የ	ዩ	ዪ	ያ	ዬ	ይ	ዮ
r	ረ	ሩ	ሪ	ራ	ሬ	ር	ሮ

4 References

• Abraham, Roy Clive. 1968. The Principles of Amharic. Occasional Publication / Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. [rewritten version of ‘A modern grammar of spoken Amharic’ van 1941]
• Cohen, Marcel. 1936. Traité de langue amharique. Paris.
• Leslau, Wolf. 1995. Reference Grammar of Amharic. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden.
• Praetorius, Franz. 1879. Die amharische Sprache. Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, Halle

5 External link

• List of free online resources for learners
• ISO 639 code: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_iso639.asp?code=amh
• Amharic Bible at St-Takla.org
• Amharic Language Sample

Abugida writing systems Languages of Ethiopia Semitic languages

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