Note on Transliteration and Dates
Amharic is written in the Ethiopic script (fidal), which is an alphasyllabary. In this script each character stands for a syllable consisting of a consonant and a vowel, or a single consonant. For instance, በ represents the sounds [b] plus [a]. The transliteration system presented here is used for proper names, and words that cannot be satisfactorily translated into English. It is simplified in order to interfere with reading as little as possible. Amharic has seven vowels, which are transliterated in this book according to the diagram below, taking as an example their association with the consonant [b]:
|
በ |
ቡ |
ቢ |
ባ |
ቤ |
ብ |
ቦ |
|
ba |
bu |
bi |
bā |
bē |
be/b |
bo |
Characters representing the Amharic consonants are transliterated as follows:
|
ሀ |
ለ |
ሐ |
መ |
ሠ |
ረ |
ሰ |
ሸ |
ቀ |
በ |
ተ |
|
ha |
la |
ha |
ma |
sa |
ra |
sa |
sha |
qa |
ba |
ta |
|
ቸ |
ኀ |
ነ |
ኘ |
አ |
ከ |
ኸ |
ወ |
ዐ |
ዘ |
ዠ |
|
cha |
ha |
na |
nya |
a |
ka |
ha |
wa |
a |
za |
zha |
|
የ |
ደ |
ጀ |
ገ |
ጠ |
ጨ |
ጰ |
ጸ |
ፀ |
ፈ |
ፐ |
|
ya |
da |
ja |
ga |
t’a |
ch’a |
p’a |
ts’a |
ts’a |
fa |
pa |
A distinctive feature of the Amharic phonetic system is the ejective consonants. In the transliteration these are indicated by an apostrophe after the symbol, as in t’a and ch’a. An exception is the ejective [k], which is represented by the letter q with no apostrophe.
There is also a range of characters representing labialized consonants, such as:
|
ሏ |
ሟ |
ሯ |
ሷ |
ቋ |
ቧ |
ኋ |
ኳ |
ዷ |
ጓ |
ጧ |
ጯ |
ጿ |
ፏ |
|
lwā |
mwā |
rwā |
swā |
qwā |
bwā |
hwā |
kwā |
dwā |
gwā |
t’wā |
tch’wā |
ts’wā |
fwā |
The symbol [ʾ] is used for a glottal stop; this occurs only infrequently to separate two vowels in the middle of the word, such as in “Faqada Egziʾe”. The symbol [ʿ], representing the voiced pharyngeal fricative, appears here in some Geʿez, Arabic and Hebrew words, mainly proper names.
Gemination, that is doubling of the same consonant, is indicated only for sounds which are represented by a single symbol, such as [s], [w], [j], but not for [sh], [ch] and the like.
Some names, commonly used in literature in English, are given in their anglicized variant, which does not correspond to the transliteration system: Lalibela (Lālibalā), Tewodros (Tēwodros), Haile Selassie (Hayla Sellāsē), Menen Asfaw (Manan Asfāw), Taytu Betul (T’āytu Bet’ul), Makonnen (Makwannen), Adwa (Adwā) and Addis Ababa (Addis Ababā).
In older texts, and today still in religious texts of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, numerals are represented by letters of the Greek alphabet, written with a dash over and under the sign, such as ፫ for 3, and ፲ for 10.
Ethiopian dates are specified as EC (Ethiopian Calendar); Muslim dates are specified as AH (After Hijra); dates with neither of these labels refer to the standardly used Western calendar (Gregorian Calendar = AD). The Ethiopian year begins in the fall, not in January; this overlapping means that a given Ethiopian year corresponds to two Gregorian years. This will be indicted by linking the two years with a hyphen or N-dash, for example: 1883 EC (1890–1891). More detailed discussion can be found in footnote 7 of Chapter 2.