Also known as Amarinya or Amringna, the Amharic script originated from the ancient writing system called the Ge’ez script. The Ge’ez script was created around the 5th century BCE from the Ethiopian script to write the Ge’ez language. Over time, the Ge’ez script evolved and was adopted for Amharic [1].
According to the latest data from 2021, there are over 31 million speakers [2] of the language, and it is an official language of Ethiopia [3]. Additionally, it is also spoken by Ethiopian communities in the United States, Canada, Israel, and several European countries [4].
The Amharic script consists of 7 vowels, 33 consonants, numeral letters, and several diacritic marks [5]. A detailed breakdown is given below.
Amharic Vowel Letters
There are seven vowels in the Amharic script, which may be written independently or combined with consonant letters.
Vowels:
Amharic Consonant Letters
There are 33 consonant letters in the Amharic script. They can be combined with vowel letters to create a syllable called a "fidel". There are a total of 231 possible vowel–consonant combinations, listed below:
Amharic Numeral Letters
Amharic has its own numeric symbols to denote numbers and fractions. However, in practice, either Hindu–Arabic or Latin numeral systems are more commonly used.
Amharic Special Characters
Amharic Diacritic Marks
Various diacritic marks used to modify the sound of the letters
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
References:
- [1] Fischer, S. R. (2004). A History of Writing. Reaktion Books.
- [2] Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. "Ethnologue: Ethiopia". Ethnologue. SIL International. Retrieved 21 July 2021
- [3] CIA. (n.d.). The World Factbook - Ethiopia. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ethiopia/
- [4] [4][5] Ethnologue. (2022). Amharic. Retrieved from https://www.ethnologue.com/language/amh
Sambhu Raj Singh ·