Unit 3
Amharic
Note 3.7 Transition vowel /ı/
| lıkkı nəw | It's correct. |
| Kırbı hotél yət allə. | Where is the near[est] hotel? |
The transition vowel, indicated above by /ı/ is a weak vowel glide that serves to interrupt a sequence of consonants across word boundaries.
This vowel occurs at the point of word division whenever two words coming together produce a cluster of three consonants, or a cluster of two consonants, the first of which is an affricate: /c/, /j/, /C/.
The transition vowel is not marked in our transcription because its presence is almost completely predictable.
Pronunciation Drills
| /l/ | |||
| ləmma | 'a proper name' | malKəs | 'to weep' |
| lıbs | 'clothing' | alə | 'he said' |
| ləbbəsə | 'he dressed (himself)' | gıməl | 'camel' |
| lıj | 'child' | bulla | 'grey' |
| ləmın | 'why' | lul | 'pearl' |
| aləbbəsə | 'he dressed (someone)' | šul | 'sharp' |
| məlbəs | 'to dress' | Kal | 'word' |
| məlKəm | 'to pick up' | Kil | 'foolish' |
| mələmmən | 'to beg' |
| /r/ | |||
| ras | 'head, chief' | məttərə | 'he cut into pieces' (meat) |
| roma | 'Rome' | ||
| rat | 'dinner' | ırsas | 'pencil' |
| ruK | 'far' | mıkır | 'advice' |
| rəgga | 'it coagulated' | məsmər | 'line' |
| aratt | 'four' | wəmbər | 'chair' |
| məkəra | 'calamity' | məmokkər | 'to try' |
| ırsu | 'he' | mənor | 'to live' |
| bırr | 'dollar' | arrərə | 'burned' |
| sərra | 'he made' |
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