Amharic is also known to be the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world. Second only to Arabic, and it uses the ancient language of Geez as its script, this is known as the Fidel. The Ethiopian alphabet or Amharic letters is also known as Ethiopic or Geez is one of the oldest used in the world. Results for 'amharic fidel alphabet tracing' Filter. Tired of tapes, books and ineffective flashcards? Learn to read Amharic quickly and easily with Axum Amharic Fidel, an. Amharic Alphabets – ፊደላት in Amharic // ልጆችን አማርኛ የማስተማርያ ቀላልና አስደሳች ዌብሳይት:: ይሞክሩት አሁን! Easy and Fun way to learn the Amharic language. Try it online now.
What a fun way to teach our child the Armenian alphabet. These are the phonetic sounds of the Eastern Armenian version. Brought to you by www.armeniankidsclub.com. The Amharic script is an abugida, and the graphemes of the Amharic writing system are called fidel. Each character represents a consonant+vowel sequence, but the basic shape of each character is determined by the consonant, which is modified for the vowel.
Amharic is one of those languages with a reputation for being hard to write. Since the abugida (writing system) has 200+ fidels (characters), many Amharic language-learners don’t even try. However, learning the Amharic fidels isn’t nearly as hard as you’d think. In fact, I’d argue that it’s even easier than learning the English alphabet! I learned Amharic while teaching English, and I promise — I had a way easier time than my students.
Amharic Fidel Chart
There’s one way to pronounce each fidel.
The students in my ninth-grade English class in Ethiopia HATED the word “sure.” For them, it violated everything they knew about English spelling. They’d learned that “s” was pronounced differently than “sh,” and that words ending with “sion” were exceptions. The word “sure” was obnoxious — it just made things harder, made them doubt their English abilities. English is mean like this.
Amharic, on the other hand, is quite nice. Each fidel has a pronunciation, and that pronunciation doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter what comes after it, or how it’s combined with other letters. One fidel has one pronunciation. If you learn that a fidel is pronounced as “s,” it’s always going to be “s” — no random words where it’s suddenly “sh.”
Fidels are named after their pronunciations.
Learning to read in English is notoriously hard (even for English speakers). One of the biggest challenges at the start is the fact that English letters are named one thing, and then they make a different sound — it’s maddening! For example, I once asked a student (who had recently mastered the alphabet) to try and read the word “CAT.” I told her she just had to read the letters, and put them together. So, she looked at the word, and answered, “SEEAYTEE.”
Now, prepare for your mind to be blown with the simplicity of Amharic. Let’s take the Amharic word for “cat” as an example: ድመት. It’s three fidels: ድ,መ,and ት. The first fidel (ድ) is called “d.” The second fidel (መ) is called “mä.” The third fidel (ት) is called “t.” So, when you put them together, ድመት is pronounced as “dmät.”
It’s so simple, so intuitive! It makes learning to read and write in fidel so, so much easier than learning English.
Amharic fidels aren’t finicky about spacing, height, and position.
Amharic Fidel Keyboard
If you’ve always spoken English, and always written in English, then you might not have noticed, but English is incredibly finicky about handwriting. Your letters have to be in the right spot on the line, and have to be the right height. Not only that, they’re different heights! “H” is taller than “a,” and “k” is taller than “m.” They all have to “sit” on the bottom line, but certain letters (looking at you, “j” and “q”) also dip below the line.
Amharic isn’t like that. As long as the letters fit between the lines, and they’re reasonably similarly spaced, you’re good to go. Don’t even worry if they’re touching the bottom, or sitting… it really doesn’t matter.
There are no capital or lowercase fidels.
Capitalization in English was always hard for my students. Why? Because Amharic doesn’t have it! Sure, if you grew up with it, it’s intuitive. But for a language learner? It’s incredibly frustrating. As an English teacher, it often felt like I was nitpicking, and my students couldn’t tell why it mattered. But, as a teacher, just try reading a paragraph written by a student still learning capitalization — rEadINg a SenTEnCe lIke ThiS!
Amharic doesn’t use capital or lowercase letters — there’s only one version of each fidel. So, once you’ve learned it, you’re done! So much easier than English.
So, don’t be intimidated by the number of fidels used in Amharic! While they’re numerous, there are plenty of other reasons why learning to read and write in Amharic is quite straightforward.
Amharic Fidel Test
Amharic Fidel
If you’re ready to take the plunge, check out this Amharic workbook, where you can learn to read and write in fidel (no previous Amharic knowledge required!).