Locale Am 001

Reference data for the Amharic locale — endonym አማርኛ, written in the Ethiopic script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: am-001
• ISO 639-1: am
• ISO 639-3: amh
• Script: Ethi (Ethiopic)
• Region: 001 (World)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 33,700,000
• L2 (additional): 25,100,000
• L1+L2 (total): 58,800,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Amharic. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

• Locale Am Et (Amharic (Ethiopia))

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, other (2 forms).

• one — i = 0 or n = 1 (e.g. 0, 1)
• other — everything else (e.g. 2~17, 100, 1000, 10000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Amharic (አማርኛ) is a Semitic language, the working language of Ethiopia, written in the Ge'ez (Ethiopic) script, an abugida in which each character is a consonant-vowel syllable in one of seven orders. See Locale Am Et.

Translate ideas, not words.

• Amharic is subject-object-verb and verb-final. The verb carries subject agreement, tense, aspect, and often the object, and prepositions attach as prefixes. Restructure English sentences; do not translate word for word.
• Amharic expresses gender in verbs and pronouns: አንተ (you, masculine), አንቺ (you, feminine). The polite form እርስዎ is used for respect.
• Use established Amharic terms (from the Ethiopian language authorities and Microsoft glossaries) and avoid transliterating English terms where an Amharic term exists.
• Re-express idioms and proverbs (ምሳሌያዊ አነጋገር) by meaning.

Register.

• UI and public text use the polite form እርስዎ and polite verb forms (እባክዎ). Greetings and titles (አቶ, ወይዘሮ, ዶክተር) are customary in correspondence.

Orthography and typography.

• Ethiopic punctuation: ። (full stop), ፣ (comma), ፤ (semicolon), and ፧ (question mark); modern text also uses Western ? and .. Follow the project convention. Words are separated by spaces in modern text (the traditional ፡ separator is rare).
• Several Ethiopic letters represent the same sound (ሀ, ሐ, ኀ; ሰ, ሠ); use the standard spelling for each word.
• Ethiopic digits (፩ ፪ ፫) are rare in UI; Arabic digits are normal. Currency birr (ብር).
• The Ethiopian calendar is about seven to eight years behind the Gregorian (17 October 2026 is 7 Tikimt 2019), has 13 months, and the New Year is on 11 September. Ethiopian clock time counts hours from dawn, so 7:00 in the morning is 1 o'clock. State which calendar and clock the text uses.

Common pitfalls

• Mixing Ethiopian and Gregorian dates or clock conventions.
• Using the wrong homophone letter in spelling.
• Dropping the polite form in UI.
• Using transliterated English where an Amharic term exists.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Ethiopian Languages Academy and Amharic dictionaries
• Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Amharic (https://aka.ms/amharic-styleguide)