Phases in the linguistic description of Amharic until the 1970s

International audience The descriptive study of Amharic has developed through distinct phases, shaped by philologicaltraditions, missionary scholarship, and modern linguistic theory. From the 17th to 19th centuries,European scholars assisted by Ethiopian clerics or enslaved individuals produced the earliestaccounts, while Arab scholars compiled a few bilingual Arabic–Amharic vocabularies. Initiallywritten outside Ethiopia, such works increasingly emerged within the country as missionaryactivity expanded in the late 19th century. With the advent of secular education in the early 20thcentury, Amharic became the sole language of primary instruction, prompting the preparation ofschool grammars and dictionaries by Ethiopian scholars. More recent research reflectsstructuralist, generative, sociolinguistic, and documentary approaches, underscoring boththeoretical and applied concerns. This paper traces these major phases of Amharic linguisticdescription, emphasizing key contributions while also identifying areas that remainunderexplored.