Amharic

Amharic is an Ethiopian Semitic language and part of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It is thought to have developed through the pidginization of the Semitic and Cushitic languages, to facilitate communication between them. Since the twelfth century Amharic has been used in law, the military and trade across Ethiopia, and remains the official language of Ethiopia to this day. However, Amharic is only the second most spoken language in Ethiopia, which has a larger population of Oromo speakers.

Amharic is written using a system that evolved out of the Ge’ez script. The Amharic script is an abugida, where each unit represents a vowel-consonant combination, in contrast to an alphabet.

The Amharic language is the native language of the Amharas, in addition to being used as a lingua franca across Ethiopia. It is considered a holy language by the Rastafari religion and is used by practitioners of this religion worldwide. Amharic is also spoken by Ethiopian Jewish communities in Israel and Ethiopia. Globally, Amharic is the second most spoken Semitic language, after Arabic.

In the United Kingdom there are only an approximate 16,000 Ethiopian born residents, as a result there are few Amharic speakers. Despite this, Amharic is one of our most requested language services, this is because we are highly experienced handling this specific language need. We have access to some of the best Amharic translators and interpreters in the country and provide comprehensive and professional Amharic language services.