Geʽez

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Ge'ez (also transliterated Gi'iz, Template:Semxlit, and pronounced IPA [ɡɨʕɨz]; ISO 639-2 gez) is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands of the Horn of Africa as the language of the peasantry. It later became the language of the Ethiopian imperial court.

Today Ge'ez remains the main language used in the liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, the Ethiopic Catholic Church, and also the Beta Israel Jewish community. However, in Ethiopia Amharic (the main lingua franca of modern Ethiopia) or other local languages, and in Eritrea and Tigray Region in Ethiopia Tigrinya may be used for sermons.

Phonology

Vowels

a [æ], later *e < Proto-Semitic *a
u [u:] < Proto-Semitic *ū
i [i:] < Proto-Semitic *ī
ā [a:], later *a < Proto-Semitic *ā
e [e:] < Proto-Semitic *ay
i [i] < Proto-Semitic *i, *u
o [o:] < Proto-Semitic *aw

also transliterated as ǎ, û, î, â, ê, ě, ô.

Consonants

Ge'ez consonants have a triple opposition voiceless:voiced:glottalized (emphatic). The Proto-Semitic "emphasis" in Ge'ez has been generalized to include emphatic Template:Semxlit. Ge'ez is the only Semitic language to make a phonological disctinction between [p] and [f]. Ge'ez has phonologized labiovelars, descending from Proto-Semitic biphonemes. Ge'ez Template:Semxlit ሰ is reconstructed as descended from a Proto-Semitic voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ], kept as a distinct phoneme in no other Semitic daughter language. Like Arabic, Ge'ez merged Proto-Semitic š and s in Sawt ሠ (later representing just s). Apart from this, Ge'ez phonology is remarkably conservative; the only other Proto-Semitic phonological contrasts lost may be the interdental fricatives and ghayin.

In the chart below, IPA values are shown in square brackets.

**Consonants**
		Bilabial/ Labiodental	Dental	Palato-alveolar/ Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal	Labialized velar	Lateral	Uvular
Plosives	Voiceless	p	t		k		’ [ʔ]	kʷ
	Voiced	b	d		g			gʷ
	Emphatic (i.e. ejective)	p̣ [pʼ]	ṭ [tʼ]		ḳ [q, kʼ]			ḳʷ [qʷ, kʷʼ]
Affricates	Voiceless		ḍ (Template:Semxlit) [ɬˁ]
	Voiced
	Emphatic (i.e. ejective)		ṣ [ʦʼ]
Fricatives	Voiceless	f	s	š [ʃ]		ḥ [ħ]	h		ś [ɬ]	ḫ [χ]
Fricatives	Voiced		z			Template:Semxlit [ʕ]
Nasals		m	n
Liquids & Glides		w	r Template:Semxlit	y [j]

Writing system

Ge'ez is written with the Ge'ez abugida, a script which was originally developed specifically for this language. In languages which use it, eg Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is called Template:Semxlit, which means script or alphabet.

The Ge'ez script has been adapted to write other languages, usually Semitic ones. The most widespread use is for Amharic in Ethiopia and Tigrinya in Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is also used for Sebatbeit, Me'en, and most other languages of Ethiopia. In Eritrea it is used for Tigre, and it is often used for Blin, a Cushitic language. Some other languages in the Horn of Africa, such as Oromo, used to be written using Ge'ez but have switched to Latin-based orthographies.

The script has 26 basic consonant signs used to write Ge'ez:

translit.	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit
Ge'ez	ሀ	ለ	ሐ	መ	ሠ	ረ	ሰ	ቀ	በ	ተ	ኀ	ነ	አ

translit.	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit
Ge'ez	ከ	ወ	ዐ	ዘ	የ	ደ	ገ	ጠ	ጰ	ጸ	ፀ	ፈ	ፐ

It also uses 4 symbols for labialized velar consonants which are variants of the non-labialized velar consonants:

Basic sign	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit
Basic sign	ቀ	ኀ	ከ	ገ
Labialized variant	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit	Template:Semxlit
Labialized variant	ቈ	ኈ	ኰ	ጐ

History and literature

Ge'ez literature is dominated by the Bible including the Deuterocanon. Most of its important works are also the literature of the Ethiopian Church, which include Christian liturgy (service books, prayers, hymns), Lives of Saints, Patristic literature. This religious orientation of Ge'ez literature was a result of traditional education being the responsibility of priests and monks. "The Church thus constituted the custodian of the nation's culture", notes Richard Pankhurst, and describes the traditional education as follows:

Traditional education was largely biblical. It began with the learning of the alphabet, or more properly, syllabary.... The student's second grade comprised the memorization of the first chapter of the first Epistle General of St. John in Geez. The study of writing would probably also begin at this time, and particularly in more modern times some arithmetic might be added. In the third stage the Acts of the Apostles were studied, while certain prayers were also learnt, and writing and arithmetic continued. ... The fourth stage began with the study of the Psalms of David and was considered an important landmark in a child's education, being celebrated by the parents with a feast to which the teacher, father confessor, relatives and neighbours were invited. A boy who had reached this stage would moreover usually be able to write, and might act as a letter writer.¹

However works of history and chronography, ecclesiastical and civil law, philology, medicine, and letters were also written in Ge'ez.

The Ethiopian collection in the British Library comprises some 800 manuscripts dating from the 15th to the 20th centuries, notably including magical and divinatory scrolls, and illuminated manuscripts of the 16th to 17th centuries. It was initiated by a donation of 74 codices by the Church of England Missionary Society in the 1830s and 1840s, and substantially expanded by 349 codices, taken by the British from the Tewodros II's capital at Magdala in the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia.

Origins

The Ge'ez language is classified as a South Semitic language. It evolved from an earlier proto-Ethio-Semitic ancestor used to write royal inscriptions of the kingdom of Dʿmt in Epigraphic South Arabian. As a member of South Semitic, it is closely related to Sabaean, and the Ge'ez alphabet later replaced Epigraphic South Arabian in the Kingdom of Aksum (although Epigraphic South Arabian was used for a few inscriptions into the 8th century, though not any South Arabian language since Dʿmt). Early inscriptions in Ge'ez and Ge'ez alphabet have been dated² to as early as the 5th century BC, and in a sort of proto-Ge'ez written in ESA since the 8th century BC. Ge'ez literature properly begins with the Christianization of Ethiopia (and the civilization of Axum) in the 4th century, during the reign of Ezana of Axum.

5th to 7th centuries

Almost all texts from this early "Aksumite" period are religious (Christian) in nature, many of them translations from Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and later also Arabic. The translation of the Christian Bible was undertaken by Syrian monks known as the Nine Saints, who had come to Ethiopia in the 5th century fleeing the Byzantine persecution of the Monophysites. The Ethiopic Bible contains 81 Books; 46 of the Old Testament and 35 of the New. A number of these Books are apocryphal (or deuterocanonical), such as the Ascension of Isaiah, Jubilees, Enoch, the Paralipomena of Baruch, Noah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Maccabees, Moses and Tobit. The Book of Enoch in particular is notable since its complete text has survived in no other language.

Also to this early period dates Qerlos, a collection of Christological writings beginning with the treatise of Saint Cyril known as Haimanot Rete’et, or De Recta Fide, the theological foundation of the Ethiopic Church. Another work is Sher'ata Paknemis, a translation of the monastic Rules of Pachomius. Non-religious works translated in this period include Physiologus, a work of natural history also very popular in Europe; and Zena 'Ayhud, a translation of Joseph ben Gurion's "History of the Jews" which covers the period from the Captivity to the capture of Jerusalem by Titus.³

13th to 14th centuries

After the decline of the Aksumites, a lengthy gap follows; no works have survived that can be dated to the years of the 8th through 12th centuries. Only with the rise of the Solomonic dynasty around 1270 can we find evidence of authors committing their works to writings. Some writers consider the period beginning from the 14th century an actual "Golden Age" of Ge'ez literature -- although by this time Ge'ez was no longer a living language. While there is ample evidence that it had been replaced by the Amharic language in the south and by the Tigrigna and Tigre languages in the north, Ge'ez remained in use as the official written language until the 19th century, its status comparable to that of Medieval Latin in Europe.

Important hagiographies from this period include:

the Gadle Sama’etat "Acts of the Martyrs"
the Gadle Hawaryat "Acts of the Apostles"
the Senkessar or Synaxarium, translated as "The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church"
Other Lives of Saint Anthony, Saint George, Saint Takla Haymanot, Saint Gebre Manfas Qeddus

Also at this time the Apostolic Constitutions was translated in Ge'ez, which provided another set of instructions and laws for the Ethiopian Church.

Apart from theological works, the earliest contemporary Royal Chronicles of Ethiopia are date to the reign of Amda Seyon I (1314-44). With the appearance of the "Victory Songs" of Amda Seyon, this period also marks the beginning of Amharic literature.

The 14th century Kəbrä Nägäst or "Glory of the Kings" by the Nebura’ed Yeshaq of Aksum is among the most significant works of Ethiopian literature, combining history, allegory and symbolism in a retelling of the story of Queen Sheba, King Solomon, and their son Menelik I of Ethiopia. Another work that began to take shape in this period is the Mashafa Aksum or "Book of Axum".⁴

15th to 16th centuries

The early 15th century Fekkare Iyasus "The Explication of Jesus" contains a prophecy of a king called Tewodros, which rose to importance in 19th century Ethiopia as Theodore II chose this throne name.

Literature flourished especially during the reign of Emperor Zara Yaqob. Written by the Emperor himself were Matshafa Berhan ("The Book of Light") and Matshafa Milad ("The Book of Nativity"). Numerous homilies were written in this period, notably Retu’a Haimanot ("True Orthodoxy") ascribed to John Chrysostom. Also of monumental importance was the appearance of the Geez translation of the Fetha Negest ("Laws of the Kings"), thought to have been around 1450, and ascribed to one Petros Abda Sayd — that was later to function as the supreme Law for Ethiopia, until it was replaced by a modern Constitution in 1930.

By the beginning of the 16th century, the Islamic invasions put an end to the flourishing of Ethiopian literature. A letter of Abba 'Enbaqom (or "Habakkuk") to Imam Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim, entitled Anqasa Amin ("Gate of the Faith"), giving his reasons for abandoning Islam, although probably first written in Arabic and later rewritten in an expanded Ge'ez version around 1532, is considered one of the classics of later Ge'ez literature.⁵ During this period, Ethiopian writers begin to address differences between the Ethiopian and the Roman Catholic Church in such works as the Confession of Emperor Gelawdewos, Sawana Nafs ("Refuge of the Soul"), Fekkare Malakot ("Exposition of the Godhead") and Haymanote Abaw ("Faith of the Fathers"). Around the year 1600, a number of works were translated from Arabic into Ge'ez for the first time, including the Chronicle of John of Nikiu and the Universal History of Jirjis ibn al'Amid Abi'l-Wasir (also known as al-Makin).

Sample

The first sentence of the Book of Enoch:

ቃለ፡ በረከት፡ ዘሄኖክ፡ ዘከመ፡ ባረከ፡ ኅሩያነ፡ ወጻድቃነ፡ እለ፡ ሀለው፡ ይኩኑ፡

በዕለተ፡ ምንዳቤ፡ ለአሰስሎ፡ ኲሉ፡ እኩያን፡ ወረሲዓን።

Template:Semxlit

"Word of blessing of Henok, wherewith he blessed the chosen and righteous who would be alive in the day of tribulation for the removal of all wrongdoers and backsliders."

Notes

Richard P.K. Pankhurst, An Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935 (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968), pp. 666f.
Matara Aksumite & Pre-Aksumite City Webpage
E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), pp. 566f.
Budge, p. 574.
Addis Tribune: A Glimpse into 16th Century Ethiopian History

Further references

David Diringer. The Alphabet, A Key To The History of Mankind. 1968.
Yuri M. Kobishchanov. Axum (Joseph W. Michels, editor; Lorraine T. Kapitanoff, translator). University Park, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, 1979. ISBN 0271005319
Stuart Munro-Hay. Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University Press. 1991. ISBN 0748601066

External links

Ethnologue report for Ge'ez.
Ethiopian Collections of the British Library
The role of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Literature and Art by Adamu Amare and Belaynesh Mikael (1970)
J. M.Harden, An Introduction to Ethiopic Christian Literature (1926)
Unicode Chart