These past two weeks have been hectic because of midterms and I’ve had to reschedule both of my sessions for different times. Nevertheless, we had productive classes in which we went over vocabulary, sentence formation (subject (sim) + verb (gis)+ object (tesabī)), and further verb conjugations in Ge’ez and Amharic. We touched on some prepositions as well (ኀበ: habe: to).
Some example sentences we made were:
1 word commands
ነዓ: ne’a: come (masc, sing)
ንዒ: ni’ī: come (fem, sing)
ንዑ: ni’u: come (plural, masc/neutral)
ሑር: hur: walk/go (masc, sing)
ሑሪ:hurī: walk/go (fem, sing)
ሑሩ: huru: walk/go (plural, masc/neutral)
ይእቲ + ሖረት +ኀበ +ቤተ ትምህርት: she + went/walked + to + school
I also watched a movie in Amharic this weekend called Enchained. It was very dense Amharic in that you had to be paying very close attention to keep up with the plot. Also, it was based in the countryside where it is less modernized and thus some ways of life and vocabulary that goes along with it were very new to me. I still really enjoyed the movie because it also featured some of Church hymns. One of the characters was a Mergieta who is a teacher of hymnology. He rode a bike and had a very calm spirit! He was featured singing some of the most beautiful Church hymns as he carried out his day and as he taught his students.
Another character which I loved was the wife of the protagonist who was so strong. At the end of the movie, even though her husband wronged her through adultery with another man’s wife she still saved him from the hands of the antagonist. The antagonist was a belligerent but handsome man who went around with a gun killing people who crossed him. He had two friends that were his sidekicks that were a bit silly and funny. Unfortunately one of them died protecting him and the other died betraying him.
I also listened to two sermons in Amharic last week which were much easier to follow since I was familiar with the subject matter. The speaker was really funny so I was able to learn some cultural jokes from it.
I am continuing with reading Amharic and Ge’ez texts. One that I am reading now is an excerpt from a book on the current church season: the Season of the Flower or the exile of the Holy Family from Egypt. I also tried my hand at another translation in Ge’ez and shared it with my language partner.
As the Groom rejoices in Paradise, he came down
The flowers were shown in the time which He willed
In your miracles, O Virgin, one greatly rejoices
For He lightens for sinners the heavy load of sadness
For from you Joy was born
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