Amharic

How Amharic became the language of the court

Amhara nobles backed a Zagwe prince in a struggle against his brothers, and in return Amharic was made the tongue of the king and Amhara nobles took high office. Another tradition traces the title to the Amhara dynasty that followed. From the late 12th century Amharic served as the working language of Ethiopia: in the courts, in trade, in everyday dealings and in the army.

Amharic did not descend from Geʽez. Geʽez belongs to North Ethio-Semitic, while Amharic is South Ethio-Semitic, beside Gurage, Argobba and Harari, and its vocabulary is 62% similar to that of Geʽez. The Cushitic Agaw took up the language, so it carries a heavy Cushitic substratum. Old Amharic often put the verb first, and the strict subject, object, verb order of today came later.

Why a reader must guess the doubled consonants

There are 34 basic characters, each in seven forms for the seven vowels, and 49 further letters for sounds with w. Consonant length changes meaning: alä is he said, allä is there is. The script does not mark it, and readers seldom find that a problem, much as Arabic and Hebrew readers manage without written vowels. Words are divided by ፡ and sentences end with ።.

What Jewish Amharic changed

The Beta Israel speak a variety called Jewish or Judeo-Amharic, which replaced Christian phrases with Jewish ones. A mother is congratulated with it is good that God has relieved her peacefully, where others say it is good that Mary has pardoned her, and a kind of grasshopper is Moses's horses, not Mary's. As the Beta Israel in Israel shift to Hebrew, the variety is declining.