Serge Obolensky, Debebow Zelelie, Mulugeta Andualem

“ The instructor then asks questions listed at the end of each Narrative and the students answer them as completely as possible using words contained in the Narrative. In addition to the questions listed in the book the instructor may ask any question pertinent to the Narrative within the limits of the students' grammar and vocabulary. The students memorize the Narrative by listening to the tape and relate the story to the instructor the next day.
Students must keep in mind that there is no one correct way of speaking Amharic. ”

“ Since no census has ever been taken in Ethiopia the number of Ethiopians can only be estimated. According to the official data of the Ethiopian government the number of inhabitants of Ethiopia is between 20 and 22 million. It is also difficult to give a reliable estimate of the number of Amharic speakers ”

“ The instructor asks each student a question. The student repeats the question and gives an answer. Any answer given by the student is considered correct if it is good Amharic. The answer is corrected by the instructor, if necessary. The student repeats the corrected answer. The instructor then gives the student the answer which is written in the book and the student repeats it as a further drill. ”

“ The doubling of consonants is not indicated in the writing system. The word አለ may be read /alə/ 'he said' or /allə/ 'there is'; አባይ /abay/ 'a liar' or /abbay/ 'Nile'; ገና /gəna/ 'yet' or /gənna/ 'Christmas', etc. The meaning is determined by the context. ”

“ The voiced consonants /b, d, g, z, ž/ are generally devoiced in final position and sound very much like their voiceless counterparts /p, t, k, s, š/. They are, however, more 'lenis', i.e. pronounced with more relaxed muscles of the mouth. ”

“ A closer examination of the Amharic Syllabary shows that the majority of characters are predictable modifications of their basic form, i.e. from the first order /gı'ız/. Thus the second order /ka'ıb/ is characterized by a hooked dash /¬/ usually attached to the center of the right side of the character, e.g. ”