ABSTRACT
The Ethiopic syllabary of 26 characters, written from left to right, has been extended by seven letters denoting specifically Amharic sounds. Phonological reduction from Ethiopic to Amharic has resulted in some redundancy; thus, there are, for example, four graphs for / h / . A major omission in the script is the absence of a sign denoting gemination, which is very important, usually phon emic, in Amharic. Signs for the numerals up to 20 are derived from Greek. Words are separated from each other by the marker
P H O N O L O G Y
Consonants
stops: p, b, p \ t, d, t ’, k, g, k ’ ? affricates: t j , d3 , t f ’ fricatives: f, v, s, z, s’, J, 3 , h semi-vowels: j, w nasals: m, n, ji, (rj) lateral and flap: 1, r;
The emphatics, i.e. glottalized consonants, are notated here as p, t, k , s; / k ’/ is often notated as q. Most consonants occur labialized. In the case of the velar series and / h / , this labialization is notated for all vowels by a specific series of graphs; in realization, however, /k ° /, /g ° /, / k ’°/ and /h 7 precede / a / ; before other vowels, the labialization tends to be lost.
