Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: አማርኛ), Amarəñña, IPA: [amarɨɲːa] (listen)) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for other populations residing in major cities and towns of Ethiopia.
The language serves as the working language of Ethiopia, and is also the working language of several of the states within the Ethiopian federal system. With 31,800,000 mother-tongue speakers as of 2018, plus another 25,100,000 second language speakers, Amharic is the second most commonly-spoken mother-tongue of Ethiopia (after Oromo), but the most widely spoken in terms of total speakers. It is also the second-most commonly spoken Semitic language in the world (after Arabic).
Amharic is written left-to-right using a system that grew out of the Geʽez script. The writing system is called fidäl (ፊደል) in Ethiopian Semitic languages. Fidäl means "script", "alphabet", "letter", or "character". The writing system is also called abugida (አቡጊዳ), from the first four symbols; from this the modern term abugida is derived.
There is no universally agreed way of romanising Amharic into Latin script. The Amharic examples in the sections below use one system that is common among linguists specialising in Ethiopian Semitic languages.
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