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Re: [NATLANG] Amharic and Irish help

From:Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...>
Date:Thursday, December 2, 2004, 9:38
Mark J. Reed wrote:


> I'm trying to learn some Amharic
Ah, that's a language!
> so I > already got to practice my all-but-completely-forgotten Russian on him...)
Then you are one more candidate for a russophone Conlang workshops I'm going to create one day...
> On the web, resources seem to be lacking.
Yes, they are very scarse. Fortunately, I have a copy of printed Amharic grammar essay - feel free to ask (better privately).
> I did find a guide to the > phonology (using SAMPA, even), but the mapping is only to the Amharic > abugida, and there seem to be a variety of Roman transcription systems in > use which I'm somewhat at a loss to decipher.
Yeah, that's a problem. Even more sophisticated sources use different transliteration schemes.
> For instance, the travlang.com Basic Words list gives > "Amessagganalehugn" for "Thank you". Are the doubled consonants > geminate?
There is gemination in Amharic, it is not marked in writing, it's phonemic status is not clear, but those consonants are definitely geminates.
> What am I to do with final "gn" - is that /gn=/ or a > Romancish transcription of /J/?
This is a more or less traditional rendering of /J/.
> Both |a| > and |e| appear with macrons; did Ge'ez have phonemic length?
Ge'ez did have. Amharic has none.
> Perhaps > an |a| with macron is [a], vs unmacronned [6], while macronned |e| is [e],
vs
> unmacronned [@]?
Ge'ez > Amharic: /a:/ > /a/ ; /a/ > /E/ ; /e:/ > /e/ + palatalization of the previous consonant; /e/ > /@/. /@/ is colored differently in different environment, and is realised as /I/, /U/, /i\/ or /@/.
> Thanks in advance.
You are welcome. -- Yitzik

Reply

Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>