ቃል

Amharic

Etymology

From Proto-West Semitic *ḳawl- (“voice”). Cognates include Ge'ez ቃል (ḳal) and Hebrew קוֹל (kol).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʼal/
• Hyphenation: ቃል

Noun

ቃል • (ḳal) m

1. word
2. voice
3. sound
4. speech
5. promise
6. statement
7. expression
8. vote
9. message
10. (Christianity) Word

Declension

Definiteness forms of ቃል

	masculine
indefinite	ቃል (ḳal)
definite subject	ቃሉ (ḳalu)
definite object	ቃሉን (ḳalun)
general object	ቃልን (ḳalən)

Possessive forms of ቃል (ḳal)

		singular	plural	formal
first person		ቃሌ (ḳale)	ቃላችን (ḳalaččən)	—
second person	m	ቃልህ (ḳaləh)	ቃላችሁ (ḳalaččəhu)	ቃልዎ (ḳalwo)
	f	ቃልሽ (ḳaləš)
third person	m	ቃሉ (ḳalu)	ቃላቸው (ḳalaččäw)
	f	ቃሏ (ḳalʷa)

Related terms

• ቃል መስጠት (ḳal mäsṭät, “to promise, to give one's word”)

Descendants

• → Sidamo: qaale

References

• Kane, Thomas Leiper (1990), “ቃል”, in Amharic-English Dictionary (in Amharic and English), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN

Tigrinya

Noun

ቃል • (ḳal) m (plural ቃላት (ḳalat))

1. word