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How to recognize Amharic (Ethiopic)

Amharic (Ethiopic) is one of 6 languages in Grafle's Independent Scripts group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.

What Amharic (Ethiopic) looks like

የሰው ልጅ ሁሉ ነጻና በክብር እኩል ሆኖ ይወለዳል።

ሰላም፣ እንደምን አለህ?

አማርኛ ውብ ቋንቋ ነው።

Independent Scripts scripts: One-of-a-kind alphabets that fit no larger family: Greek, Hebrew, Georgian, Armenian, Ethiopic, Thaana.

Where you'll see it on signs

• Ethiopia

Easy to confuse with

• Georgian — Georgian is uniform-height round vines (ა, ე, ლ); Amharic symbols look like little chairs and people with legs.
• Armenian — Amharic glyphs are leggy syllable-symbols; Armenian is an alphabet of rounded u/n shapes with tails.

Neighbors in the Independent Scripts group

• Greek
• Hebrew
• Georgian
• Maldivian (Thaana)
• Armenian