The Amhara people Gashaw Arutie Asaye 2020 The term "Amhara" has ambiguous definitions and descriptions in the literature. Scholars give different assumptions on the etymology of the term Amhara. Tesema (1959:10) states that the term Amhara is a compound term formed from the terms am and hara that originate from Semitic languages: Hebrew and Arabic. The term am means tribe, clan or people and the term hara refers to free, lord or master. The compound word Amhara refers to free people. Taye (1922:18) also describes that the term Amhara/Amara originates from Arabic to mean 'farmer/cultivator.' However, Levine (1974:72) argues that Amhara was a toponym located in Wəllo. In the current Ethiopian Federal Democratic Republic Government, the term Amhara is seen as the name of an ethnic group that refers to the native Amharic speech community (Pausewang 2009:551). According to CSA (2008:16), the number of the Amhara ethnic group is 19, 867,817. Tesema (1959:10-11) has mentioned that the word Amhara is a generic term for Amhara areas or districts, namely Shəwa, Bəgemɨdɨr (Gondər), Godʒdʒam, Amara Sajɨnt, Yedʒu, and Semien. However, scholars like Michael (2008:395) and Girma (2009:215) argued that the term Amhara refers to multiple ethnicities. Moreover, there are discrepancies among scholars regarding the origin of the Amhara people and their language. Levine (1974:72) has mentioned that the Amhara people were Agew speakers during the first millennium A.D. and were living in a place called Amhara, the western part of the former Wəllo province. The place Amhara is located to the east of Abbay (Blue Nile) and Baʃɨlo River; to the south of Angot and Lasta regions; to the west of Denakil Desert and the north of Wantʃ'it River. He said that those Amhara inhabitants possibly creolized or pidginized a language called Amharic. Levine (1974:75) described that the Amhara expanded to non-Amharic speaking areas such as to Mənz and the rest of Shəwa, to Godʒdʒam and Damot, to Wəgəra and Dəmbija and subsequently to Agəw Mɨdir and Semien, and their language (i.e., Amharic) became the mother tongue of people of the former provinces of Shəwa, Bəgemɨdɨr (Gondər), Godʒdʒam as well as most of Wəllo. This claim is also supported by Bender & Hailu (1978:3).