The Lion of Judah speaks............and writes as well........

Writing system[edit]

The Ethiopic (or Ge'ez) writing system is visible on the side of thisEthiopian Airlines Fokker 50: it reads "Ethiopia's": የኢትዮጵያ ye-Ītyōṗṗyā.

See also: Ge'ez script and Amharic Braille

The Amharic script is an abugida, and the graphs of the Amharic writing system are called fidel.^[10] Each character represents a consonant+vowel sequence, but the basic shape of each character is determined by the consonant, which is modified for the vowel. Some consonant phonemes are written by more than one series of characters: /ʔ/,/s/, /sʼ/, and /h/ (the last one has four distinct letter forms). This is because these fidel originally represented distinct sounds, but phonological changes merged them.^[10] The citation form for each series is the consonant+ä form, i.e. the first column of the fidel. A font that supports Ethiopic, such as GF Zemen Unicode,^[11] is needed to see fidel on typical modern computer systems.

A modern usage of Amharic: the label of a Coca-Cola bottle. The script reads ኮካ-ኮላ (koka-kola).

Alphasyllabary[edit]

Chart of Amharic fidels^[12][13]

	ä [ə]	u	i	a	e	ə [ɨ], ∅	o	ʷä [ʷə]	ʷi	ʷa	ʷe	ʷə [ʷɨ]
h	ሀ	ሁ	ሂ	ሃ	ሄ	ህ	ሆ
l	ለ	ሉ	ሊ	ላ	ሌ	ል	ሎ			ሏ
h	ሐ	ሑ	ሒ	ሓ	ሔ	ሕ	ሖ			ሗ
m	መ	ሙ	ሚ	ማ	ሜ	ም	ሞ			ሟ
s	ሠ	ሡ	ሢ	ሣ	ሤ	ሥ	ሦ			ሧ
r	ረ	ሩ	ሪ	ራ	ሬ	ር	ሮ			ሯ
s	ሰ	ሱ	ሲ	ሳ	ሴ	ስ	ሶ			ሷ
ʃ	ሸ	ሹ	ሺ	ሻ	ሼ	ሽ	ሾ			ሿ
q	ቀ	ቁ	ቂ	ቃ	ቄ	ቅ	ቆ	ቈ	ቊ	ቋ	ቌ	ቍ
b	በ	ቡ	ቢ	ባ	ቤ	ብ	ቦ			ቧ
v	ቨ	ቩ	ቪ	ቫ	ቬ	ቭ	ቮ			ቯ
t	ተ	ቱ	ቲ	ታ	ቴ	ት	ቶ			ቷ
tʃ	ቸ	ቹ	ቺ	ቻ	ቼ	ች	ቾ			ቿ
ħ	ኀ	ኁ	ኂ	ኃ	ኄ	ኅ	ኆ	ኈ	ኊ	ኋ	ኌ	ኍ
n	ነ	ኑ	ኒ	ና	ኔ	ን	ኖ			ኗ
ɲ	ኘ	ኙ	ኚ	ኛ	ኜ	ኝ	ኞ			ኟ
ʔ	አ	ኡ	ኢ	ኣ	ኤ	እ	ኦ			ኧ
k	ከ	ኩ	ኪ	ካ	ኬ	ክ	ኮ	ኰ	ኲ	ኳ	ኴ	ኵ
x	ኸ	ኹ	ኺ	ኻ	ኼ	ኽ	ኾ
w	ወ	ዉ	ዊ	ዋ	ዌ	ው	ዎ
ʔ	ዐ	ዑ	ዒ	ዓ	ዔ	ዕ	ዖ
z	ዘ	ዙ	ዚ	ዛ	ዜ	ዝ	ዞ			ዟ
ʒ	ዠ	ዡ	ዢ	ዣ	ዤ	ዥ	ዦ			ዧ
j	የ	ዩ	ዪ	ያ	ዬ	ይ	ዮ
d	ደ	ዱ	ዲ	ዳ	ዴ	ድ	ዶ			ዷ
dʒ	ጀ	ጁ	ጂ	ጃ	ጄ	ጅ	ጆ			ጇ
g	ገ	ጉ	ጊ	ጋ	ጌ	ግ	ጎ	ጐ	ጒ	ጓ	ጔ	ጕ
t'	ጠ	ጡ	ጢ	ጣ	ጤ	ጥ	ጦ			ጧ
tʃ'	ጨ	ጩ	ጪ	ጫ	ጬ	ጭ	ጮ			ጯ
p'	ጰ	ጱ	ጲ	ጳ	ጴ	ጵ	ጶ			ጷ
ts'	ጸ	ጹ	ጺ	ጻ	ጼ	ጽ	ጾ			ጿ
ts'	ፀ	ፁ	ፂ	ፃ	ፄ	ፅ	ፆ
f	ፈ	ፉ	ፊ	ፋ	ፌ	ፍ	ፎ			ፏ
p	ፐ	ፑ	ፒ	ፓ	ፔ	ፕ	ፖ			ፗ
	ä [ə]	u	i	a	e	ə [ɨ], ∅	o	ʷä [ʷə]	ʷi	ʷa	ʷe	ʷə [ʷɨ]

Gemination[edit]

As in most other Ethiopian Semitic languages, gemination is contrastive in Amharic. That is, consonant length can distinguish words from one another; for example, alä 'he said', allä 'there is'; yǝmätall 'he hits',yǝmmättall 'he is hit'. Gemination is not indicated in Amharic orthography, but Amharic readers typically do not find this to be a problem. This property of the writing system is analogous to the vowels of Arabic andHebrew or the tones of many Bantu languages, which are not normally indicated in writing. The noted Ethiopian novelist Haddis Alemayehu, who was an advocate of Amharic orthography reform, indicated gemination in his novel Fǝqǝr Ǝskä Mäqabǝr by placing a dot above the characters whose consonants were geminated, but this practice is rare.