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Pronunciation of phonetic symbols:
Amharic has sounds that are not found in English. In order to help the reader pronounce these words correctly the following chart has been prepared.
The following consonants have approximately the same pronunciation as in English:
B as in “Beta”
F as in “Fun”
G as in “Get”
H as in “House”
K as in “King”
M as in “Mother”
P as in “Post”
S as in “Sun”
W as in “Weather”
Y as in “Yet”
Z as in “Zoo”
The following chart presents sounds that are unique to Amharic.
Note: The * represents the vowel modifiers that follow the consonants.
For example J*’ means anything that is Je’, Ja’, or Jay’ and should be pronounced as “Je” in “Pleasure” or “Je” as "Je m'appelle" in French.|
Ch*'
|
1) Close your teeth
2) Press your tongue to your
upper inside part of your mouth
3) Force the air just from the
teeth outward to make the sound “Ch”
|
|
Gn*'
|
As "Onion"
|
| J*' |
As "Pleasure"
or "Je" as "Je
m'appelle" in French. |
|
Q*’
|
1) Compress an air between
your tongue and you’re inside upper mouth while your mouth is open,
2) Release the air by forcing
it to bounce against your inside upper mouth while making the sound
associated with “Q”.
|
|
P*’
|
1) Press your lips tighter and
2) Force the air just from the
lips outward to make the sound “P”, soon followed by the modifying
vowels.
|
|
T*’
|
1) Close your teeth
2) Put your tongue against
your inside upper mouth
3) Force the air just from the
teeth outward to make the sound “T”.
4) Finally open your mouth to
voice the vowel sound.
|