Amharic
Ethiopia's working language, written in its own ancient script.
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About Amharic
Amharic (አማርኛ) is the working language of the federal government of Ethiopia and the second-most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. It is written in Fidel (Ge'ez) script, one of Africa's oldest continuously used writing systems, with each symbol encoding a consonant plus a vowel.
Amharic is unusual among African languages because its script is not derived from Latin or Arabic but from Ge'ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Learning to read Amharic is learning a genuinely new alphabet — a rewarding project for children who have outgrown easy wins.
For Ethiopian and Eritrean diaspora families across the UK and North America, Amharic is often the key to connecting children with grandparents, restaurants, religious services and a national culture stretching back three thousand years.
Coffee ceremonies — buna — are the daily rhythm of Ethiopian life, and the first sentences a child learns often revolve around the pot.
A handful of Amharic to take away
These appear across our puzzles — every word in the app is paired with a translation and a spoken voice.
- •Start with the Fidel alphabet, not with words. Twenty minutes a day for two weeks and you can read simple signs.
Pick a theme to play
Each theme gathers 40–80 words, phrases and idioms. Every puzzle type teaches the same vocabulary in a different way — children absorb the words faster because they meet them again and again from new angles.
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