Amharic (አማርኛ āmariññā) 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 and thus has official status and use nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working language of several of the states within the federal system, including
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), and is spoken in
Eritrea by some Eritreans of the pre-independence generation and younger deportees from Ethiopia. It is written, with some adaptations, with the
Ge'ez alphabet (first used for
the language of the same name)—called, in
Ethiopian Semitic languages, ፊደል fidel ("alphabet", "letter", or "character") and አቡጊዳ abugida (from the first four letters in Greek order, also giving rise to the modern linguistic term
abugida).
See more at Wikipedia.org...