Amharic Ethiopia Language

Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide.

Amharic is also the official or working language of several of the states within the federal system, including the Amhara Region and the multi-ethnic Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, among others. It has been the working language of government, the military, and of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church throughout modern times. Outside Ethiopia, Amharic is the language of some 2.7 million emigrants (notably in Egypt, Israel, and Sweden).

It is written, with some adaptations, with the Ge'ez abugida (first used for the language of the same name)-called, in Ethiopian Semitic languages, fidel ("alphabet", "letter," or "character") and abugida (from the first four Ethiopic letters in Greek order, also giving rise to the modern linguistic term abugida). Due to economic, political and some natural causes, the Amharic language has also been influenced by neighboring languages like Afaan Oromo, while some Afaan Oromo words-like gosa, buna, baqila, dinnicha-have integrated into Amharic vocabulary over time.

Not to be confused with Aramaic

Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship. It was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period (539 BCE - 70 CE), the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, likely to have been the mother tongue of Jesus of Nazareth and is the main language of the Talmud.