I have been trying to help E learn some Spanish words as well as teach her about her Mexican ancestory. As I was reading a Dora book and making E repeat some of the Spanish, I thought about Amharic. Amharic is the language spoken in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the language spoken at the orphanage Jacob lived at for 11 months. It is not the language his birth family spoke (Ethiopia has over 80 spoken languages) but it is the official language and one he knew.
Jacob probably knew quite a bit of Amharic when he came home. I only recognized a couple of words but I know he said many more. I did not believe he remembered any except cah cah (it has the meaning most of you will think of). The only other word I recognized in Ethiopia was Wusha. This means dog and he would become excited and yell it whenever he saw a dog. I hadn't heard him say it in months.
Tonight I found some basic Amharic words on the internet. I decided to begin studying them and see if we could incorporate any of them in our daily lives. I asked Jacob if he knew what Wusha meant. He yelled "Doggy! Wusha!" I tried a couple of other words and he could easily pronounce them but didn't know what they meant. E had a harder time pronouncing them and Jacob could say them better than me. I think the language is still familiar to him although he doesn't understand it anymore. I would love to know how many words he does know. I am very happy he still remembers a couple.
As I try to raise money for another adoption, Jacob and I will work on his Amharic. It would be nice if he could say ahmahseganahlo (thank you) when he returns to Ethiopia.
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