DOCUMENT. RESUME FL 005 066 ED 100 127 Leslau, Wolf AUTHOR Basic Amharic Dictionary: Amharic-English, TITLE English-Amharic. Final Report. Institute of International Studies (DHEW/OE), SPONS AGENCY Washington, D.C. BUREAU NO BR-9-7731-FR PUB DATE Nov 72 CONTRACT OEC-9-097731-3330 NOTE 672p. MF-$1.05 MC Not Available from EDRS. PLUS POSTAGE EDRS PRICE *Amharic; *Dictionaries; English; Etymology; Letters DESCRIPTORS (Alphabet); Orthographic Symbols; *Reference Books; *Semitic Languages; Spelling; Word Lists; Writing NDEA Title VI IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT This basic dictionary, ctqLlisting of two sections, Amharic - English and English-Amharic, is the first such dictionary written since 1920. Since there is a considerable lack of consistency in Amharic spelling, the Amharic orthography used here has been standardized through etymological studies. Whenever necessary, English expressions are given in parentheses to restrict or clarify the meaning of an entry. (PMP) 01000. COQ SESI r INAL REPORT 9-7731 Praject No.: OEC-9-0q7731-33%0 Coin ract No.: Wol f Leslan University of California 90024 nia Los Angeles, Cal i Pasic Amharic Dictionary: Amharic-Engli sh, Engl i sh -Amha r i c OF HEALTH. U S bEPARTMENT EDUCATION i WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION HAS BEEN REPRO THIS DOCUMENT ROM XACTL Y AS RECEIVED f DUCE 0 ORGANIZATINOR IGIN THE PERSON OR OR OPINIONS ATING IT POINTS or viEor REPRE STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY INSTITUTE Of SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL OR POLICY EDUCATION POSITION November 1972 U.S. DEPARTMENT or HEALTH, EMCATION, AND WELEARE Office of Education Yi Institute of International. Studies 0 AVAlain REST COPY FINAL REPCRV 9-773I Project No.: OEC-9-097731-3330 Contract No.: Walf Leslau University of California 90024 Los Angeles, California Basic Amharic Dictionary: Amhariz-English, English-Amharic November 1972 The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a contract with the OlTice of Educat ion, U.S. D,partment of Health, Ed4cation, and Welfare. Contractors undertaking such projects under Covernment sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their professional judgment in ihe conduct of the project. Points of view or opinions stated do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Office of Education position or policy. U.S. DEPAR'IMENT OT HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELTARE Office of Education Institute of International Studies . . oiNtuist.t tort a 51$1 PREFACE Amharic in the national language of Ethiopia. The international . Yet there is no adequate Amharid-English, language of Ethiopia is English. The latest dictionaries in Amharic of nor hn English-Amharic dictionary. scientific character are the foll(Jaing: 1. Guidi, Vocabolario kmarico- Italiano, Rome 1 c.:J1 (an Amharic-Italian dictionary); J. Bacteman, Dictionnaire amarigna-franiais, Dire-DaoLia, 1929 (an Amharic-French dic- tionary); E. Gankin, An Amharic-Russian dictionary, Moscow 1969. The only AaaricEnglish dictionary is that of C. H. Armbruster, This dictionary, however, is Cambridge, 1920. Part III. Initia Amharica. incomplete; indeed it contains only the first five letters of the a:.phabet. a French- The dictionaries from foreign languages into Amharic are: There is an Amharic index in the above-mntioned J. Baeteman's dictionary. Italian-ArhariC dictionary by L. Fusella and A. Girace, Dizionario pratico A Russian- e fracario per conversazionu italiano-america, Napoli 1937. English-Amharic Amharic dictionary was published by E. Catkin in 1965. dictionaries are those of C. H. Armbruster, Initia Amharica, Part 11, 1910; ionary, 1920. and of C. H. Walker, English-Amharic di Since these publications (with the exception of the Amharic-Russian The and Ruasian-Anharte dictionary), Amharic has developed considerably. education, the literary pro ;Tess that Ethtopia has mde in the field of docuwslts of the )4st 50 years, the technical needs for new expressions, the contact with the Western world, and the natural development within the contributed i;rcatly, not only to the enrichment of the .laruzul;:e itself h...tv lanr,uar.e, but also to the nurous changes within the existing vocabulary. A few exmvles taken frcm Armbrunter's dictionary will illustrate the f t) AVAILABLE Mt COPY ArmbrUster as Thus "address" is rendered by ell:kni.',es in t'''0 expressiuns. If as against 50 t-i'M agal.is!; the prese:1-day IC; 6:1; "bank" algD4 ; tflor. erf141; "ciarette /7 0/..14 i; (,) tiro 1,....tfia :3 against a " "I) g 0 "ceneral",e.1.11Kos againstM 64); "story of the house" I as ag:tinsia 11.1.1b; t 1 Pr ansl many more. 161,1:ri as IV , need for expres- Needless to say, at ii,..mbruster's tire there was no Security Council, sicas such as "United Nations, Trusteeship Committee, basketball, elevator," control tower, review of books, agenda, airlines, and so oa. dictionaries (again with Likewi.se in the A.mhariclforeign languages dictionary) one wi13. not find the the execTi.don of the Amh:tric-Russian writing or in everyday speech. Thus, expressions or idims used in everyday dictionaries of Baeteman and Guidi, the root tiL.Pll, is mentioned in the whi3 rteilciic speech 1-101rlist, detail," the e, erday usa3e in writing or in Likewise, one would not find in "minutely, item by item" is not mentioned. VI lb expressions of everyday usage such as the above:-:::,.antioned dictionaries obab4 "bare"; head of a firm" ; d),An "arithmetic" ; "responsible, rib 1 ble , Ti th view"; (in a textbook)";7111Sri- "opinion, point of ft To is given in the die- "especially, in pe.rtinular," (even though the root and large, more or less"; Obi I "change in money"; t ionttrice);7)?).:14A6'by iiihq 90111117"0.pplication (request) ";GDZ,43 "inaugurate, dedicate"; ispfir`ifinr.eztsion, assembly, conference," and many more. As "civi lizat t.:3 ; dictionaries, the student is result of the inad,quacy of the exiting The present dictionary is int'nded to greatly handicapped in his studies. I, there a basic dictionary, no is Since thi3 is only rerAy thu s itr tion. There is still only partial. n..:cd to ::tress the f6, that the rel;;;:dy can b' an urgent dictionary. itee3 of a emplete Amharic*.zlish i) 14. AillABLE COPY BEST 0 r As is well known, the Amharic alphabet has various letters that are, letters identical in the prenunciRtion. This is a case of ;% and both being vowel carriers and no longer consonants; V, th. and 4) pronounced h; As a result of the merging of and 13.1 km-Ion:Iced s; V, and fl pronounced s. 41.0 these letters, there is considerable lack of consistency in the Amharic spelling. The principle adopted in this dictionary. is that of etymologies. Geez as well as Tigre and Tigrinya and the other In the case of N and ri In the Semitic langvages could be used as source for correct spelling. (h), only Geez (and Arabic) could be used as a guide case of U (h) <<h (h), 4) 410,s% this last sound representing a since Tigre Ind Tigrinya I:ept only U and eh , Likewise for a and (1 as well as for 91 and (3 merger of (II and Geez . "17 alone could serve as source of information, since :.n both Tigre and Tigrinya, It is on the:. and fJJ are represented as s, and 91 and 0 have merged into 1. basis of this principle that I adopted 'spelling such as t1 O)0"know" (Geez ), 12 reten" (G. apt: ), `''5 `1 "sister" (G. kA1/1/ ), 91 el "three" 9 (I) "things, package" ( ), Ell "baby" (G. ;:.1 (G. IPA e ),'ASP Tigrinya )s P1 ), Less generally accepted spellings are those of timk"donole," so on. and Imo, "wood," but hare again the spelling with I) was adopted ninow " because these roots have an fl as fir.st radicel in Gees: fl &a flatt, and respectively. r5 ihrin Etymological zpelling i& also used in Arabic. loanwords. Thus, Arabic Xrn; "bill," tt aim, . ;Di 719 Arabic t...s tm!..1.1 ; (al/ tyt(10C tor" Arabic 0i7pCrobject, purf;o:to," Arabic dnq 30 on. throuGh etyrology is not intended to rhk! stan(la:..UaLion of Thus, for instance, the verb disrecPrd the aeLoal pronunieraion of a lexeme. .1; AVAILABLE BEST COPY \S and is t.terefore writ. ;t; out" is pronounced wi!..tta, with final for "1 w tri), anti not j:0; as it would be if one adhered strictlr to the ten origin of the verb, namely Gees Likewise, the verb "he is" is pro- . . It is therefore written nounced a t lat with an inifdal a. and not 1.01 if one we to consider the origin of the verb, namely Gen tiAja Or, the . adjective "new" is pz'onouheed addis with an initial. vowel It is there.. fore wsit;.enshiPuti and not /Wilt one had to go back to its origin, namely Gees dl Ir. roots for which here is no corresponding Ethiopic or Semitic etymology, I adopted for an initial vowel, 1) for h (except in tiy.ij "water"), ti for 2, P.nd c; for s. definitions Observations on the arrangement, and The letters that have some sound in present -day Amharic are put together. Thust),/h and ') ; UV and ill ; . ; ()land 7N.a.nd The order of the entries is according to the consonant, and not consonant. Whenever the consouants of according to tha vowel of the fi-st the entry are the the the according to traditional arruni;erient i 10 before JO, order of the Amharic vocalic system. Thus, for instance, before 4,4. and . In the verbs, the entry is that of the perfect, 3rd masculine, singu- lar. It is translated by the Eaglish infinitive without "to." Only tin derived stems be whose meaning is not Automatically to deduced frr.,m the basic zte:n is given in the dictionary. Thus, for instance, if its it.stem is t;ivezi is that of the par.sive of the basAn tzan- ro raeaning ititive verb. iiherefor,. no MI is given as a derived stem of MI `'measure, vinee.the slIC.ent know. that 1.7111 .eans "49 rv.,asured," pannive of the BEST COPY AVAILABLE MM. is given since out-- On the other hand, atranriti7o verb Asil "lasetsure.." "break" (intransitive). *side o..0 it. passive meaning "be broken," it also means ithout the For the typos, oily type B is =irked by A veil (B). syrabo3. (B) is of Type A. All the verbal and nominal derivations are given under the entry. fi , and the nominal Thus, for iastance, under rJfl the verbal derivation of 111) ,Gbeinsand fill are given. derviations of h Wherever a derived form may not be easily recognizable, it is taken up independently with reference to n with the indication 11:drawee is given under its root. Thus, (ro I'll that its root is Wherever a derived form has subdivision, it is marked by Thus, . "' /in is mentioned independently ar rj."cbjeGt (in grammar)" given under vieT.111 Cf 0:trilandirect object" and 71.C*0 :tql ll ft'l a with the subdivisions of 411 "indirect object." * A verb that does not occur in the basic stem marked by The . is *tibilni 7V31 ibrthank, to be root is.then followed by the actual stern. Thus grateful" ; *AO, 71 A1.1 "make, do," and so on. meaning of the The Eni-,,lish expressions in parentheses restrict the (in court); /1)11/..rnurse (who takes care of chil- entry. Thus ,V111,1-"aret: . ,... the door )2" ri iiie. micact (report) 2" (ILlA "blow open C;1(.: priri dreg ) " The expression "of" followed by a noun indicates "contaminate (a well)." that the noun is the subject of the verb. .xiklit,tY01136,,"scent about Thus, the subject. refers to the dog as (of dog)" indicates that "scent about" Paren- In the Enfl.ish-Amharic dictionary likewise the expression in Normally, 4n adjective as main entry theses (it:Claes closer the main entry. "able" (eArable)oor (covetently is explained by another adjective, AS in "coarse" defined by (cloth), done); o by a noun to which it refers, as i . 6 A, transitive verb as main entry is closer defined (*and). or (c.me....), or (the woods); by the direct (*lent put. In parentheses; see "beat" defined by One verb is defined by another "charge. defined by (m,mey), or (battery). Like in the (exorable), or (mark with check). verb; see "chi!ek" defined Ambric-D:).i:)h dictionary, an intransitive verb followed by "of" with a the noun is the subject of the intransitive verb; thus, noun indicates that It or "holiday" are sub- (of tarn), or (of holiday) indicate that "turn ft IT COM! jects of the verb "come." List of Abbreviations . wijective adj. sdverb adv. . conjunction conj. n = noun. . prepwition prep. . verb = i -ftnsitive verb vi. = transitive verb vt. indicates an entry that has subdivisions and is mentioned in the appropri- ate place. 10 AVAILABLE core Dar (I) 1) , , n--- ?) from behind tri, em sound (of getters) hind, back (adj.) Q') ,-v eVery,. all, everybody in the long run, A.. all of them, everything (W)-510 sooner or later muf back (adv.) everybody 1+ 3 -. backward, in the back, on the VA+3 daily :1; U-A.:1)1E back everything latter (adj.), posterior VA-1K, always, everytime, perpetu- elAsh4 ally, all the time h 41 posterior, latter, rear (adj.) eta.: ti-tr everyone, everybody retrograde Li& halleluiah bA5t)ciream, fancy (see Nilcro) halleluiah Vi back, um. two behind in the late, U7/0.4 (suffix pronoun) two afterwards -- M 14$)1. later, behind, of both of U-ht twice in the back of htfo both later on, afterwards; then 11.1/1 eight o'clock U.hif (after that), behind 0, 4. nm Vill'atis twice behind, after (place, 0.04 second, another time time) (conj.) 11M :150V CI triNecondary Vilt4.1 A /. + perfect + after lm,) school behind yrialltny;.il in the rear second (prize) nhtM conscience behind, from behind 41/1.4 ht 1,) behind, from behind, 1/41A6}5 being (the fact of being) the back, It) A p. theory from after backward, backwards, behind II) ,transient, transitory, tel .11