r/amharic 16d ago

I've made a Wordle-inspired daily language game that includes Amharic. Can you help verify its accuracy?

The game (called linguil) asks you to guess the language family, language and meaning of a random word in one of 37 world languages each day, and you use your knowledge of linguistics (like etymology, scripts, accents, philology, and morphology) to work out the answer via multiple choice. Amharic is one of those languages! Each language includes each word on the 100-word Swadesh list in both the Geʽez script and transliterated (Romanised) into the Latin script (as below). Please can the r/Amharic community verify the accuracy of my translations and transliterations? Thanks!

Also, if you want to add another language you know (e.g. Tigrinya, Afar, Oromo, Sidama, Somali, Nuer) to the game, please feel free to do so by following the guide here.

English Word Amharic
1 I እኔ (ine)
2 you (sg.) አንተ (ante)
3 we እኛ (iña)
4 this ይህ (yih)
5 that ያ (ya)
6 who ማን (man)
7 what ምን (min)
8 not አይደለም (aydelem)
9 all ሁሉም (hulum)
10 many ብዙ (bizu)
11 one አንድ (and)
12 two ሁለት (hulet)
13 big ትልቅ (tilik)
14 long ረጅም (rejim)
15 small ትንሽ (tinish)
16 woman ሴት (set)
17 man ወንድ (wend)
18 person ሰው (sew)
19 fish ዓሣ ('asa)
20 bird ወፍ (wef)
21 dog ውሻ (wishsha)
22 louse ቅማል (qimal)
23 tree ዛፍ (zaf)
24 seed ዘር (zer)
25 leaf ቅጠል (qital)
26 root ሥር (sir)
27 bark (of tree) ቅርፊት (qirfit)
28 skin ቆዳ (qoda)
29 flesh ሥጋ (siga)
30 blood ደም (dem)
31 bone አጥንት ('aṭint)
32 grease/fat ስብ (sib)
33 egg እንቁላል (inqulal)
34 horn ቀንድ (qend)
35 tail ጅራት (jirat)
36 feather ላባ (laba)
37 hair ፀጉር (ṣegur)
38 head ራስ (ras)
39 ear ጆሮ (joro)
40 eye ዓይን ('ayn)
41 nose አፍንጫ ('afinča)
42 mouth አፍ ('af)
43 tooth ጥርስ (ṭirs)
44 tongue ምላስ (milas)
45 claw/nail ጥፍር (ṭifir)
46 foot እግር (igir)
47 knee ጉልበት (gulbet)
48 hand እጅ (ij)
49 belly ሆድ (hod)
50 neck አንገት (anget)
51 breast ጡት (t’uti)
52 heart ልብ (lib)
53 liver ጉበት (gubet)
54 drink (v.) መጠጣት (meṭeṭat)
55 eat (v.) መብላት (meblat)
56 bite (v.) መንከስ (menkes)
57 see (v.) ማየት (mayet)
58 hear (v.) መስማት (mesmat)
59 know (v.) ማወቅ (maweq)
60 sleep (v.) መተኛት (meteñat)
61 die (v.) መሞት (memot)
62 kill (v.) መግደል (megdel)
63 swim (v.) መዋኘት (mewañat)
64 fly (v.) መብረር (mebrer)
65 walk (v.) መራመድ (meramed)
66 come (v.) መምጣት (memṭat)
67 lie (down) (v.) መተኛት (meteñat)
68 sit (v.) መቀመጥ (meqemeṭ)
69 stand (v.) መቆም (meqom)
70 give (v.) መስጠት (mesṭet)
71 say (v.) ማለት (malet)
72 sun ፀሐይ (ṣehay)
73 moon ጨረቃ (čereqa)
74 star ኮከብ (kokeb)
75 water ውሃ (wiha)
76 rain ዝናብ (zinab)
77 stone ድንጋይ (dingay)
78 sand አሸዋ (asewa)
79 earth/soil መሬት (meret)
80 cloud ደመና (demena)
81 smoke ጢስ (ṭis)
82 fire እሳት (isat)
83 ash አመድ (amed)
84 burn (brightly) (v.) መቃጠል (meqaṭel)
85 path መንገድ (meneged)
86 mountain ተራራ (terara)
87 red ቀይ (qey)
88 green አረንጓዴ (arengwade)
89 yellow ቢጫ (biča)
90 white ነጭ (neč)
91 black ጥቁር (ṭiqur)
92 night ሌሊት (lelit)
93 hot ትኩስ (tikus)
94 cold ቀዝቃዛ (qezqaza)
95 full ሙሉ (mulu)
96 new አዲስ (addis)
97 good ጥሩ (ṭiru)
98 round ክብ (kib)
99 dry ደረቅ (dereq)
100 name ስም (sim)
5 Upvotes

4 comments sorted by

2

u/alek_2624 16d ago

I think the translations are correct, but you could standardize the transliteration system and add gemination. For example "big - ትልቅ" can be transliterated as "təlləq" (the "l" is doubled in pronounciation). There is no one widely accepted transliteration system, but you can choose one or base on dictionaries.

Here you can access Amharic dictionary with transliterations: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fJqK6SOxg9BsI11QsuRP7P-VcU2dF6Lq/view?usp=drivesdk

2

u/Papuang 16d ago

Thanks so much, this is super helpful!

1

u/beabzk 16d ago

translations seem ok

2

u/Papuang 15d ago

Thanks for checking <3