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Amharic Language Facts
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| Extinct: no |
| Family: Semitic |
| Branch: Afro-Asiatic |
| Continent: Africa |
| Country: Ethiopia |
| Region: North central Ethiopia, Amhara Region, and in Addis Ababa. Also spoken in Egypt, Israel, Sweden. |
| Countries Where Spoken: 17,372,913 mother tongue speakers, 5,104,150 second language users, 16,007,933 in the ethnic group, 14,743,556 monolinguals in Ethiopia, (1998 census). Population total all countries 17,413,000 or more. 21,000,000 including second language users (1999 WA). Isreal. |
| Countries Where Official: Ethiopia |
| Native Speakers: 17,372,913 |
| Speakers Total: 17,413,000 |
| Phrasebase members who speak this language at a native level: 0 |
| Phrasebase members who speak this language at a conversational level: 0 |
| Phrasebase members primary language they are trying to learn: 0 |
| Phrasebase members secondary language they are trying to learn: 0 |
| Three Letter Code: AMH |
| Alternative Names: ABYSSINIAN, ETHIOPIAN, AMARINYA, AMARIGNA |
| Dialects: |
| Summary: National language. 4,000,000 second-language speakers. Used in government, public media, national commerce, education to seventh grade in many areas, wide variety of literature (fiction, poetry, plays, magazines). Speakers also use English, Arabic, Oromo, or Tigrinya. People have suffered from recent famines. SOV; prepositions, postpositions, genitives, articles, and relatives precede noun heads; question word initial; case affixes; verb suffixes show person, number, gender of subject and (optionally) object; passives including deponents, causatives, CV, CVC, V, CVCC. Christian, Jewish. Literacy rate in first language: 28.1%. Literacy rate in second language: 28.1%. Radio programs. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 1840–1988. |
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