Amharic Grammar Fundamentals

Study Notes

Amharic Grammar

Phonology

Amharic has a unique set of consonant and vowel phonemes:
- 33 consonant phonemes
- 7 vowel phonemes
Amharic script is an abugida, where each symbol represents a consonant-vowel pair
Gemination: consonant lengthening is phonemically distinctive in Amharic

Morphology

Amharic is an agglutinative language, with a system of suffixes and prefixes to indicate grammatical relationships
Verbs:
- Have a complex system of suffixes and prefixes to indicate tense, mood, and person
- Can be conjugated in various ways, including:
  - Imperfective (ongoing action)
  - Perfective (completed action)
  - Jussive (command or request)
  - Imperative (direct command)
Nouns:
- Have a system of suffixes to indicate case and number
- Can be marked for:
  - Nominative case (subject)
  - Accusative case (direct object)
  - Genitive case (possessor)
  - Dative case (indirect object)
  - Ablative case (means or instrument)

Syntax

Amharic is a subject-verb-object (SVO) language
Word order is relatively flexible, but SVO is the most common
Clause structure:
- Independent clauses: can stand alone as a sentence
- Dependent clauses: cannot stand alone and must be attached to an independent clause
Use of pronouns:
- Amharic has a complex system of pronouns, including:
  - Personal pronouns (I, you, he, etc.)
  - Possessive pronouns (my, your, his, etc.)
  - Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, etc.)

Other Features

Amharic has a system of honorifics, where the speaker shows respect or deference to the listener or a third party
Use of politeness markers:
- Amharic has a system of politeness markers, which indicate the level of respect or deference
- Examples: -n (polite), -w (very polite), -h (very formal)

Description

Test your knowledge of Amharic grammar, including phonology, morphology, syntax, and other features. Learn about consonant and vowel phonemes, verb and noun conjugation, and sentence structure in Amharic.