Amharic textbook

ORIGIN OF THIS COURSE This series of flashchards is based on the textbook « Amharic, Basic Course » published in 1964 by the US Foreign Service Institute, and which is downloadable for free on that institution’s website: https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/fsi-amharic-basic-course/ Because of that document’s old age, I have tried to update the subject matter by modernizing it somewhat – most notably regarding the level of formality (nobody calls each other « mylord » anymore) and the numbers when talking about money (1 birr at that time was worth much more than today). A lot of places have also seen their name change over the last sixty years, too. I have also put an effort in diversifying the range of people’s names and locations used in the course, as the textbook focuses heavily on Yohannis, Kebbede and Lemma, Addis Ketema and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I have also done my best to feminize the matter, which was almost exclusively based on men talking to each other. I have also taken the liberty to change a bit the transliteration, most notably for words starting in « እ » and the « እው/እሁ » endings. Another change is that I have decided to introduce reading in the Ethiopian script right from the start. I recommend studying the script using my other series of flashcards: https://www.brainscape.com/p/62SXS-LH-DE720 A summary of the grammatical points for each unit can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10n2kon4lRHe44hGMgtOYZjvbyRUbGWRdSIk8L_9tyz0/edit?usp=sharing . This is a living document that will be expanded as I’m working on the course. I will also create a separate document with the complete dialogues and narrative texts, that will provide a better overview of each lesson’s theme (instead of only reading fragments on the flashcards). HOW TO USE THIS COURSE The best way to study using those flashcards is to use the « Random Mix » setting when starting on each one. By default the cards are shown in the Amarinya–>English order, which is good to learn how to *read*, but don’t forget to also press the « Study in Reverse » button in the settings to study the cards in the English–>Amarinya order, which is how you will learn to *speak*: try to say each sentence or word aloud in Amarinya before checking the answer. I’ll add more decks and cards as I progress through the textbook. THE VERBS DECK An important feature of Amarinya is the way verbs modify their radical depending on their mood. As learning the patterns of each verb is crucial for a decent study of the language, I’ve made a separate deck with all the different forms of each verb. Each verb is also associated to a category based on its number of root consonants and vowels and their behaviour (ie. « Neggere » is « 123 », « Fellege » is « 1223 », « Bella » is « 12a », etc.), with a model verb being defined for each category (ie. « Keffele is as Neggere » – they’re both « 123 » verbs, « Neggere » being the model for this category). The different forms given for each verb are: Perfective, Infinitive, Imperfective, Gerund, Imperative, Jussive. When reviewing a card, try to say aloud each of these forms then check if you are right!