Ge’ez
is to Ethiopia as Latin is to the west.
Ge’ez, like Latin, was not used as a spoken
language for a very long time. But like Latin,
Ge’ez is the precursor of Ethiopia’s three
major Semitic languages:
“In
order to convey an idea of the relationship of
Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigré towards each
other and towards Ge’ez, we might enlist the
helpful parallel of the Romance languages. If
Ge’ez is compared to Latin, Tigrinya takes
the place of Italian (both because it is most
closely akin to the ‘parent’ tongue and
also on account of its continuance in the
original home). Tigré would then be likened
to Spanish and Amharic to French.’’ (Edward
Ullendorff qtd. in Buxton 31).
Amharic
is the official language of Ethiopia and it is
spoken most widely in the northwest and
central part of the country. Tigrinya is
mostly spoken in northern and northeastern
Ethiopia. Tigré is spoken in the independent
nation of Eritrea, formerly part of Ethiopia
(Pankhurst 7-8).
The
south Arabian immigrants brought with them the
Sabean language into Ethiopia sometime early
in the first millennium BCE, possibly by the
Aguezat settlers (Doresse 23). By early in the
next millennium, a distinctive Ethiopian
version, influenced by the indigenous Cushitic
peoples, was being used in stone inscriptions
(Hetzron 242).
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The
Sabean writing system. (Asher 1149) |
Ge’ez
took 24 symbols from the Sabean writing
system. The early form of Ge’ez was written
in boustrophedon, which is writing in
alternate lines in opposite directions, as
from left to right and then from right to left
on the next line, and then left to right on
the next line, and so on. (Asher 1149).
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The
evolution of Sabean into Ge'ez. (Asher
1149) |
Before
the fourth century, Ge’ez had not made use
of vowels. But the usage of vowels was
incorporated into Ge’ez when the Aksumites
converted to Christianity, which occurred
sometime in the fourth century. Pankhurst
suggests that the reason that the alphabet was
modified at the time could have been due to
“the wish to make Biblical texts more
intelligible to newly literate.” (25). The
bible was translated into Ge’ez from Greek.
Greek influence is also seen in the
organization of the Ge’ez letters, which is
very similar to Greek alphabet organization
(Asher 1149).
Ge’ez
ceased to be used as a spoken language most
likely a short time before the tenth century
CE. Nonetheless, it is being used today as the
“liturgical language of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church, and was the only official
written language of Ethiopia practically up to
the end of the nineteenth century.” (Hetzron
242). To
see the Ge'ez script, click here. (Asher 1150)
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