26. Juni 2026, 10:00 Uhr, von AAI Webmaster

Foto: Christian Alemu

Join the lecture via zoom:
https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/61047380411?pwd=ROSgqiDX8I7dvjHxpPV7wTfOW1hY6l.1

Meeting-ID: 610 4738 0411
Kenncode: 10071229

This presentation examines the internal linguistic diversity of Amharic, focusing on its assumed status of a standard language, dialectal variation, and register differentiation. Although Amharic is commonly treated as a relatively homogeneous Ethiosemitic language, which also serves as one of the federal working languages of Ethiopia, it exhibits substantial variation across diachronic, regional, social, and communicative contexts. The presentation explores selected dimensions of this variation and discusses how they contribute to the linguistic complexity of contemporary Amharic. It argues that linguistic diversity within Amharic cannot be adequately described through a simple standard–dialect distinction alone, but instead requires an integrated perspective that accounts for the interaction of regional, social, and situational forms of variation.

Dr. Ronny Meyer is a linguist specializing in Ethiosemitic languages. He completed his M.A. in African Linguistics and Sociology at the University of Leipzig, Germany, in 1997 with a thesis on the verbal system of Amharic. He subsequently moved to the University of Mainz, Germany, where he pursued doctoral studies in African Philology. His dissertation, A Descriptive Grammar of Zay, was defended in 2003 and published in 2005.

From 1997 to 2008, Meyer worked as a research associate in the Collaborative Research Center 295, Project C.3 “Linguistic Contact and Change in Ethiopian Languages and Cultures” at the University of Mainz. His research focused on contact-induced linguistic change in Ethiosemitic languages, particularly the Gurage languages. During this period, he also conducted extensive fieldwork in Ethiopia on the documentation and description of several Gurage languages. 

Following the completion of the research project in 2008, he joined Addis Ababa University as Associate Professor, initially at the former Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature and, from 2010 to 2017, at the Department of Linguistics. Since 2017, he has been Associate Professor (Maître de conférences) of Amharic at Inalco (Paris), where he continues his research on Ethiopian languages at the LLACAN research laboratory.

His main research interests include Afroasiatic languages, especially Ethiosemitic and Cushitic, which he studies from descriptive, comparative, and typological perspectives. In addition to linguistic aspects of language contact, he works on sociolinguistic issues related to multilingualism, language planning, and standardization in Ethiopia. He is particularly interested in the languages, history, and culture of the Gurage.

Among his recent major publications is The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages (2023), co-edited with Bedilu Wakjira and Zelealem Leyew.

Date/Time:
Friday, June 26th, 2026, at 10 - 12 h (CET/MEZ).

Language:
English / German

Place:
University of Hamburg
Asia-Africa-Institute (AAI)
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Ostflügel ("East Wing"), room 222
20146 Hamburg