Amsalu Aklilu (2 September 1929 – 19 December 2013) was a distinguished lexicographer of

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

and a language professor at

Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa University (; AAU) is a national university located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the oldest university in Ethiopia. AAU has thirteen campuses. Twelve of these are situated in Addis Ababa, and one is located in Bishoftu, about away. ...

, a major figure in Ethiopian studies. He was born in Dessie, Wällo, attended a local church school and later attended and graduated from Holy Trinity Secondary School, in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Cairo University and his doctorate from the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

in German. He produced a number of scholarly books, articles and reviews (written in Amharic, German and English), but he will always be remembered for the ''English-Amharic Dictionary'', which he produced with G. P. Mosback in 1981 and was positively reviewed, followed by his 1986 ''Amharic-English'', also reviewed positively. He also produced an Amharic-Arabic dictionary but did not live to finish the publication of his Amharic-German dictionary. In addition to teaching in the Institute of Language Studies at Addis Ababa University, he served in a number of administrative roles, including Dean of the Institute of Language Studies, department chair for the Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature and a member of the editorial board of the ''Journal of Ethiopian Studies''. "In 1997, Amsalu moved to Hamburg, Germany where he became lecturer of Amharic and Ge'ez for the department of African and Ethiopian Studies. There his duties included teaching Amharic and Ge'ez to an influx of foreign students and introducing his county’s history and culture.... He served there till 2002."''Addis Journal.'' 2013.

References

1929 births 2013 deaths Ethiopianists University of Tübingen alumni Academic staff of Addis Ababa University Ethiopian scholars Linguists from Ethiopia Academic staff of the University of Hamburg Cairo University alumni {{Africanist-stub