User:Sumiaz/Amharic

Romanization
Romanization systems:

Conjugation
Best predictor of conjugations? Example is "to break."
 * 1) "Base form" (no meaning), e.g. ስብር sbr
 * Pro: Gives an underlying form that predicts all others.
 * Con: It is an abstraction with no equivalent in spoken Amharic.
 * 1) "Theme" (3sg. masc. perfect), e.g. ሰበረ säbbärä
 * Pro: Most available form in dictionaries and grammars.
 * Con: Cannot predict tri-radical verbs without sub-classes.
 * 1) "Infinitive" (verbal noun), e.g. መስበር mäsbär
 * Pro: Slightly fewer rules necessary to conjugate compared to the "theme" form.
 * Con: Infinitive has more affixes than the "theme" form.

Verbs are marked for person (first/second/third), number (singular/plural), gender (masculine/feminine), aspect (perfect/imperfect), mood (indicative/imperative/interrogative/optative), voice (active/passive), and polarity (positive/negative). Verbs always agree with the subject and optionally with the object. Tenses are expressed through auxiliary verbs.

Verb classes

 * Trigeminal verbs are split into types A, B, and C. Quadrigeminal verbs are split into types 1 and 2.  The classification helps to predict conjugation, and are not associated with verb meaning.

Features
Adapted from Trommer J, "A feature-geometric approach to Amharic verb classes." PDF


 * Gemination class refers to the number of forms that have consonant doubling: 1 = perfect only; 2 = perfect and imperfect only; 3 = all forms.
 * Vowel class refers to the distribution of a and ä.

FSI Grammar
Polite pronoun subjects are conjugated as third-person plural.

Simple perfect
Example here is the transitive verb ፈለገ fällägä "to want, seek".

Notes
 * -ው -(ä)w is rendered as -ት -t after /o/ and /u/.

Simple imperfect
Example here is the transitive verb ፈለገ fällägä "to want, seek".

Group I Verbs
'''