This study constitutes a linguistic account of newspaper language, an aspect of media language. rnThere are only few studies that investigated the language of the media at depth though language rnis at the heart of media communication (Aitchison & Diana 2003: 1). Likewise, a linguistic study rnof newspapers has not got any attention in Ethiopia. This study was, thus, set out to explore rnprominent linguistic properties that characterize the language of Amharic newspapers by taking rnheadlines, as a case in focus. rnThe analysis was made on 1852 news headlines collected from four Amharic newspapers, rnnamely addis admas, addis nÉ™gÉ™r, addis zÉ™mÉ™n and riportÉ™r, which were selected based on their rnhigh circulation rate and coverage of wider topics. The data were collected from these rnnewspapers on randomly chosen issues for four months between March 2008 and October 2008 rnG.C. A simple frequency analysis was made to discern some potential patterns in the frequency rnof occurrences of the headlines. Thereafter, the observed linguistic data were described and rnexplained using a combination of stylistic approach, Accessibility Theory, audience design and rnan evaluative language framework. rnHeadlines in the Amharic newspapers demonstrate certain grammatical features. Names with rndifferent formats are predominantly employed to refer to news actors in news headlines. This rnusage violates the Accessibility Theory which stipulates the use of the most explicit referring rnexpressions text-initially. The use of lower and high accessibility markers instead of the lowest rnaccessibility markers in headlines may be motivated by the need to get the attention of readers rnand to prompt them to read the rest of the news story. rnConstituents, which are obligatory for the production of a well-formed and acceptable sentence, rnare omitted in news headlines. Most of the ellipses cannot be easily recovered either from the rnsituational or structural contexts. The use of such unorthodox grammatical structures may be rnassociated with the respective newspapersâ€™ desire to enhance the relevance of the news stories rnfor their readers, and hence increasing their readership and attract advertisers, which are their rnsources of income. Most of the conventional and complex structures found in the headlines of the rnAmharic broadsheet newspapers, however, tend to meet the ideational function. rnii rnAnother feature of the headlines is that the perfective aspect is predominantly used to express rnactions, events or processes which are completed, implying non-recency in the news stories. rnHeadline writers resort to other tenses and aspectual categories in response to some pragmatic rnfactors, such as to entertain an additional voice in the text (heteroglossic situation) and to make rnthe action relevant to the readers (interpersonal function). rnBasic-level vocabulary occurs with high frequency across the four Amharic newspapersâ€™ rnheadlines. Occurring in the headlines also include overtly emotive vocabulary items, words with rnstrong phonic effects that form alliteration and rhyme, shortened forms of phrases in the forms of rnabbreviations, acronyms and blends, low-level items and borrowed words. Specifically, the rnborrowings in the headlines do not only occur owing to cultural differences between the donor rnlanguages and Amharic but also due to stylistic factors. rnIn all the declarative headlines, a punctuating point (á¢) marking the ending of a clause is virtually rnnon-existent though interrogative headlines are marked by a question mark, and quotation marks rnare regularly used to indicate attributed material. Such usages are associated with the need to rnsave space and to enhance pace in reading the headlines. rnThe headlines of the Amharic newspapers contain evaluative terms which indicate the opinions rnor attitudes of the respective journalists or the newspapers. It proved that news reports, which rnhave been widely described as â€˜facelessâ€™ are subjective and impartial. rnBased on the degree and extent of adopting some or all of these features at the levels of grammar rnlexicon and semantics, the four Amharic newspapers were categorized into two. Accordingly, rnaddis zÉ™mÉ™n and riportÉ™r demonstrate features of a broadsheet newspaper, while addis nÉ™gÉ™r and rnaddis admas exhibit the characteristics of a tabloid newspaper. There are, however, certain rnoverlapping features in these newspapers. Evaluations along the lines of negativity and rnexpectedness, which are supposed to feature more in tabloids, are dominantly found in addis rnzÉ™mÉ™n and reporter, respectively. The use of more full clause headlines, which are normally the rnattribute of a broadsheet newspaper, are observed in addis admas that demonstrates more rnfeatures of a tabloid. In using these linguistic patterns in their headlines, the Amharic newspapers rnare accommodating and responding to the language habits of their respective readership, which is rnwhat Bell (1984:159) called audience design. rniii rnThe study would be a contribution to our general understanding of linguistic variation which is rninduced by situational factors, such as medium and function. It also benefits the existing practice rnof headline crafting and language pedagogy. rnOn the basis of the data analysis and the conclusions drawn, two issues pertinent to the Amharic rnnewspapers in question require attention. Firstly, longer words and expressions as well as rnreportive passives and needless repetitions that commonly occur in the headlines of addis zÉ™mÉ™nrnand riportÉ™r do not only affect clarity but also their sincerity. These newspapers should, rntherefore, give serious attention to this concern so as to enhance intelligibility in the headlines rnand to improve the credibility of the newspapers. Secondly, loanwords are overriding, rnparticularly in addis admas and addis nÉ™gÉ™r. As this hinders quick comprehension, efforts should rnprimarily be made to exploit the linguistic resources available in Amharic not only to avoid core rnborrowings but also to make up new words at least for some of the cultural borrowings.