At one point, did these letters (like in Tigrinya) have distinct pronunciations in Amharic? What caused them to change? I’m also curious about ሀ and ሃ which observes the same pattern.

It seems possible that medieval or early Amharic retained these sound distinctions, which became less distinct over time. I wonder if this shift was influenced by differences between the Amharic spoken by the nobility and that spoken by the general population, or possibly the result of Cushitic language features becoming more pronounced as Amharic developed (unlike Tigrinya which remained relatively isolated). I haven’t found any resources on this, so any insight would be helpful!

I have seen hwa only as ኋ before and swa as ሷ . I didn't know if these versions exist as well in Amharic

My girlfriend's birthday is coming up, she's Ethiopian, raised is Addis. I wanted to translate the birthday message I want to give her into Amharic, then I'll probably write it on a card, can someone help me with this. I don't want Google translate's sloppy translation. Don't laugh at me lol. All the "I can't waits" can be swapped with "I'm excited" and any other changes that keep the message but make translation make more sense. Thanks in advance.

My love,

It is hard to convey how excited I am. I am excited because being with you has sparked a fire in my life. Our time together has been so precious to me. Full of learning, fun, vulnerability, and peace. I can't wait to do this every year. I can't wait to go on new adventures with you. I can't wait to learn new things with you. I can't wait to have good and hard times with you. I can't wait to explore the mysteries of this life. I am in awe of the values you hold and the character you have. I love your kindness and your ambition We love each other so well and blossom in each others presence and I am honored to have you as my lover. I love you.

Can someone help me translate "resilience" into Amharic. I know the word for courage and strength but they don't translate the exact meaning of resilience. Thanks

Hi! I've been learning Amharic for like three months and I'd like to find someone to practice together with over Discord - this can be either over call or texting. If you're interested, let me know and I'll give you my Discord username :)

Hey guys,

I've been recently working on a beginner Amharic learning app that will come out soon. You can sign up for the waitlist here: https://kubayalearning.com/

In my app, there will be video lessons that cover grammar and other topics in Amharic. New videos will be coming out quick as the app is in the final stages of product. Make sure to subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@kubayalearning

Hi everyone!

I'm currently developing a new free Amharic learning app for beginners. It has many different types of lessons and gamification.

Before creating this app, I did market research. I found the common problems with existing products and have been creating an app that is high quality as well as engaging.

Among its (updated) features are:

• Video, listening, tracing, sentence building and story lessons
• A streak and cups system (gamification)
• A flashcards and leadboard system
• Social system with friends and avatars

Remember that this app is completely free (crazy with all the features it has, right?).

If you're interested, make sure to visit www.kubayalearning.com to join my app's waitlist.

I know these are the "respectful" forms of "እሱ/እሷ" and "አንተ/አንቺ" respectively, but in which situations would I refer to people using these pronouns. Would it be when talking to elders, people of high status, etc? And when would it be considered rude to use the regular forms of these pronouns (እሱ/እሷ and አንተ/አንቺ) instead of the respect form (እርሳቸው and እርስዎ). Thank you.

https://preview.redd.it/uhdy0yqfieqd1.png?width=1659&format=png&auto=webp&s=51e9abe5ba688db3d23b878ab7fb42b75435693a

Is this a good model to base my own handwriting off of? Or is it too much?

can someone translate Samuel for me?

Just to give some context, I wanted to kind of explain the situation I have on hand. A good friend of mine was adopted from Ethiopia when he was 13- his birth mom passed away and he was subsequently adopted by an American family alongside his biological younger sister.

A few weeks ago, his younger sister passed away in a truly tragic and sudden manner. So, now along side the loss itself, being left in a situation at which he no longer has any remaining blood family members has obviously taken a really big toll on him.

Additionally, since he'd been adopted at 13, after spending a decent amount of time in the orphanage- his ability to speak or understand Amharic is essentially gone.

He's allowing me to design a memorial tattoo for him and I'm really wanting to find the best way to communicate the concept I'm going for. I know most things are context related and I'm not going to get anywhere with some translating software or something.

So, anyway. I'd ideally like to find some sort of saying, phrase, or word that evokes a feeling of "everything will be okay", "we're always here with you", "love is eternal", "you are never alone", etc. in some way shape or form. Something to reflect the idea that, just because they aren't physically here with him doesn't mean that their memory/spirit/love/souls have vanished. Some like philosophical reassurance or comforting- even if it's like something like "our souls are tied", just something neutral or positive, rather than saying something like "I am never going to be whole without you. I will wallow in sorrow until the day I die". That's super dramatic but you get this point.

If somebody could help steer me in the right direction I could really use the help!! If there's any further context needed for this to make most sense please let me know!!!

Are these sentences okay in Amharic?

A. ውሻው ዳቦውን ወዲያውኑ በላ.
B. ውሻው ዳቦውን ትናንት በላ.

Or do adverbs like ወዲያውኑ and ትናንት have to go before the object like this:

C. ውሻው ወዲያውኑ ዳቦውን በላ.
D. ውሻው ትናንት ዳቦውን በላ.

Selam! I am marrying an Ethiopian woman in a couple weeks. My Amharic is okay - greetings, small conversation, etc. I am hoping for help on respectful greetings and thank yous for coming to our wedding /celebration. Hoping to see English translation and pronunciation. Here are some phrases I’m hoping to know. Wide open to any traditional Amharic saying or recommendations that work in this context.

Thank you for coming! Great to see you! We are so excited to be married! Thank you for celebrating with us!

Really appreciate your help! Ahmasegahlano!

Thinking of getting a tattoo :) much appreciated!!

For exaample, Ethiopian, Asian, European, etc.

English uses -ish, -ian, -ese, -i to form nationality adjectives. So how about Amharic?

Hello I am a 16 year old kid who was born in Ethiopia but moved out of the country when I was about 2.

Because my parents speak to each other in Amharic, but talk sometimes Amharic, sometimes English with us kids, I can hear about 65% of words and speak about 50%.

I can have a conversation with people, but I'm not satisfied. Cuz I'm Ethiopian and I want to be completely fluent. On top of that I cannot read or wrote.

Do you guys have any suggestions on how I can master the language. I already have a pretty good background, but I want mastery

Also what would be the time table to be where I want to be?

Thank you all!

የልኡል ላፓቶብ አራዘምሺው እንዴት ሆነ ልኡል ጥሩ አይደለም እርሀብ ገባ በይው ከፍለግሺው እባክሽ ስታወሬው በስላም እያታለልሺ ይበሳጭል ያወራል እባክሺ

Hi everyone,

I’m starting to learn Amharic, and I just installed the keyboard to make looking words up easier. I managed to figure out the basics, but then I noticed that I can’t type certain characters: the letter ኀ (plus vowels), some punctuation marks, and numerals. Why is that? Do I have to install an extra programme to make it work?

Thanks in advance

Hi guys, not a translation request but just a search request.

I am looking for the song lyrics for my 2 favorite songs. “yeteretahulet” by Aster Aweke and “Yamelalsegnal” by Henok Abebe.

If anyone has them in a format I can copy and paste that would be great! Of course if you want to translate it (I can’t read), that would be awesome but not necessary.

Hello! I'm trying to work out a detailed translation of this sentence (called a "gloss"). This is for a university project I'm doing on Amharic.

ዛሬ ጥዋት “ባቡር” ያለው  ማነው? 
zare ṭəwat babur y-al-äw man-äw
today morning train REL-said-DEF who-DEF
'Who said 'train' this morning?'

I'm specifically wondering about ያለው ማነው. I've tried to break the words down into their constituent parts (prefixes/suffixes), but I'm not sure if I've translated them correctly. REL stands for "relative" – it's what you get in things like የመጣው ሰው ('the man who came'), and DEF stands for "definite" – like the definite article "the" in English, or in ውሻው ('the dog').

What I'm trying to figure out is if the ያ- in ያለው is the same type of thing as the relative marker የ- in የመጣው ሰው, and if the two instances of -ው in ያለው ማነው is the same kind of thing as the definite marker -ው in ውሻው, if that makes sense. If not, does anyone have a sense of what else these prefixes/suffixes might mean?

Also, is the verb ያለው conjugated for third person singular male, like "he said"? Or is it just unspecified?

Ameseginalehu!

Does anybody know what መፋኪያ means? The broad context is the term የብራና፡መፋኪያ፡መጥረቢ. I pretty sure I understand the first part to refer to parchment and the last part to mean "axe" or "adze."