Amharic አማርኛ

[księżycowy]

Just in case anyone comes to this thread and hasn't seen our poll in the Hebrew forum, please check out this poll that will help us decide what to do with the Semitic languages.

Please vote!

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=52834

[vijayjohn]

Yep, I'm still learning it! It's going pretty slowly but steadily enough IMO, especially given that I'm studying about 24 other languages at the same time. I think there must be some reason why only the Ethiopic languages seem to have ejectives whereas all the other Semitic languages apparently have pharyngeals.

May be neighbouring language influences

This seems most likely to me.

What are you finding easy and hard in Amharic so far? Most say ejectives are hard although I don't think that's the case

It's not! The ejectives were probably one of the first things I learned in Amharic because when I was growing up, I knew a girl (now a young lady) who has one in her name, and she wouldn't quit poking me until I got it right! Now, I think it might be the vocabulary that I find hardest. Either that or the fidel, I haven't quite decided yet which.

[Brzeczyszczykiewicz]

If anyone's still around, could you please tell me how many syllables does Amharic currently use?
I started using David Appleyard's "Colloquial Amharic" and he mentions 276, only to state at some point that there are 8 labiovelars that are not really used in Amharic. But if that's the case, why bother introducing them at all???

I had a look at the English Wikipedia article on Amharic and there's this chart there that shows no less than 287 syllables!

Don't get me wrong, I really don't mind learning 287 or 276 syllables instead of 268 (especially when I love them all so much ) but I'd like to have a clear idea of which ones are actually used in contemporary Amharic.

Cheers