The classical Ethiopian Semitic language of the Kingdom of Aksum and the namesake language of the Ge'ez script devised to write it. Ge'ez is now extinct as anyone's everyday spoken vernacular, the exact end date of colloquial use is not precisely fixed in the sources and estimates range from around the ninth to the fourteenth century CE, but it remains, in its own right, the by far most important vehicle of written Ethiopian knowledge through the nineteenth century and survives today purely as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo churches.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code StatusLiturgical / Learned Use Only 1 Extinct as a spoken vernacular; survives today purely as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo churches. RegionThe Kingdom of Aksum, modern Ethiopia and Eritrea 1 Classification
Language Kind Connections
Associated With
This source names Ge'ez directly: "largest living language written in the Ge'ez script and, alongside Oromo, one of the two most widely spoken languages of Ethiopia, where it serves as the federal working language."
Source Glottolog
This source names Ge'ez directly: "Minaean, Himyarite and proto-Ge'ez."
Source Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages
This source names Ge'ez directly: "University teaching resource on the Ge'ez (Ethiopic) script credited to Hamza Zafer, describing its emergence in Late Antiquity from pre-Aksumite and South Arabian precursors and calling it the only..."
Source Princeton McGraw Center: The Ethiopic AlphabetHamza Zafer
This source names Ge'ez directly: "Semitic language written in the Ge'ez script, official language of Eritrea alongside Arabic and a major working language of Ethiopia's Tigray region."
Source Glottolog
This source names Ge'ez directly: "world history reference site whose Ge'ez script page covers its origin from the Ancient South Arabian script and its transformation into an abugida under King Ezana of Aksum."
Source World History Commons: Ge'ez Script
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Ge'ez Language
Written In
Ge'ez script was devised for, and takes its name from, the Ge'ez language itself, its most direct written relationship among the languages it now serves.
Source World History Commons: Ge'ez Script
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Divinity Atlas: Ge'ez, the same subject.
Sources
1. University of Hamburg, Hiob Ludolf Centre, Beta maṣāḥǝft: Language
University of Hamburg, Hiob Ludolf Centre- About the Language
Language-kind, Ge'ez entity page
Ge'ez is now extinct as anyone's everyday spoken vernacular, the exact end date of colloquial use is not precisely fixed in the sources and estimates range from around the ninth to the fourteenth century CE, but it remains, in its own right, the by far most important vehicle of written Ethiopian knowledge through the nineteenth century and survives today purely as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo churches.
2. ISO 639-3 Registry, SIL International
SIL Internationalgez
World History Commons: Ge'ez Script
Wikipedia: Ge'ez Language
Wikimedia FoundationIn Family: Afro-Asiatic, Infobox, Language familyQuote, In Family: Afro-Asiatic, Infobox, Language family
Afro-Asiatic > Semitic > West Semitic > South Semitic > Ethiopic > North > Ge'ez
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