Geʽez

This article is about the language. For the alphabet, see Geʽez script.

"Geez" redirects here. For the Canadian cultural magazine, see Geez (magazine).

Geʽez
ግዕዝ Gəʿəz
Pronunciation	Template:IPA-gez
Native to	Eritrea, Ethiopia
Extinct	Estimates range from the 5th century BC to sometime before the 10th century. Remains in use as a liturgical language.
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic South Semitic Ethiopic North Ethiopic Geʽez
Writing system	Geʽez script
Official status
Official language in	Liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Ethiopian Catholic Church, Eritrean Catholic Church and Beta Israel
Language codes
ISO 639-2	gez
ISO 639-3	gez
Glottolog	geez1241

Drawing of Mary, mother of Jesus, 'with her beloved son,' from a Geʽez manuscript copy of Weddasé Māryām, circa 1875

Geʽez (/ˈɡiːɛz/; ግዕዝ, Gəʿəz Template:IPA-gez; referred to in some scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language of the Ethiopic branch. The language originates from the region encompassing Eritrea and northern Ethiopia regions in East Africa.

Today, Geʽez is used only as the main liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church and Eritrean Catholic Church, and the Beta Israel Jewish community. However, in Ethiopia, Amharic or other local languages, and in Eritrea and Ethiopia's Tigray Region, Tigrinya may be used for sermons. Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigre are closely related to Geʽez.

The closest living languages to Geʽez are Tigre and Tigrinya with lexical similarity at 71% and 68%, respectively. Some linguists do not believe that Geʽez constitutes a common ancestor of modern Ethiosemitic languages, but that Geʽez became a separate language early on from another hypothetical unattested language, which can be seen as an extinct sister language of Amharic, Tigre and Tigrinya.

Phonology

Vowels

• a /æ/ < Proto-Semitic *a; later e
• u /u/ < Proto-Semitic *ū
• i /i/ < Proto-Semitic *ī
• ā /aː/ < Proto-Semitic *ā; later a
• e /e/ < Proto-Semitic *ay
• ə /ɨ/ < Proto-Semitic *i, *u
• o /o/ < Proto-Semitic *aw

In the transcription employed by the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, which is widely employed in academia, the contrast here represented as a/ā is represented ä/a.

Consonants

Transliteration

Geʽez is transliterated according to the following system:

translit.	h	l	ḥ	m	ś	r	s	ḳ	b	t	ḫ	n	ʾ
Geʽez	ሀ	ለ	ሐ	መ	ሠ	ረ	ሰ	ቀ	በ	ተ	ኀ	ነ	አ

translit.	k	w	ʿ	z	y	d	g	ṭ	p̣	ṣ	ḍ	f	p
Geʽez	ከ	ወ	ዐ	ዘ	የ	ደ	ገ	ጠ	ጰ	ጸ	ፀ	ፈ	ፐ

Because Geʽez is no longer spoken in daily life by large communities, the early pronunciation of some consonants is not completely certain. Gragg (1997:244) writes "The consonants corresponding to the graphemes ś (Geʽez ሠ) and ḍ (Geʽez ፀ) have merged with ሰ and ጸ respectively in the phonological system represented by the traditional pronunciation—and indeed in all modern Ethiopian Semitic. ... There is, however, no evidence either in the tradition or in Ethiopian Semitic [for] what value these consonants may have had in Geʽez."

A similar problem is found for the consonant transliterated ḫ. Gragg (1997:245) notes that it corresponds in etymology to velar or uvular fricatives in other Semitic languages, but it was pronounced exactly the same as ḥ in the traditional pronunciation. Though the use of a different letter shows that it must originally have had some other pronunciation, what that pronunciation was is not certain. The chart below lists /ɬ/ and /ɬʼ/ as possible values for ś (ሠ) and ḍ (ፀ) respectively. It also lists /χ/ as a possible value for ḫ (ኀ). These values are tentative, but based on the reconstructed Proto-Semitic consonants that they are descended from.

Phonemes of Geʽez

In the chart below, IPA values are shown. When transcription is different from the IPA, the character is shown in angular brackets. Question marks follow phonemes whose interpretation is controversial (as explained in the preceding section).

Consonants

		Labial	Dental		Palatal	Velar, Uvular		Pharyngeal	Glottal
			plain	lateral		plain	labialized
Nasal		m	n
Stop	voiceless	p	t			k	kʷ		ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
	voiced	b	d			ɡ	ɡʷ
	emphatic1	pʼ ⟨p̣⟩	tʼ ⟨ṭ⟩			kʼ ⟨ḳ⟩	kʷʼ ⟨ḳʷ⟩
Affricate	emphatic		t͡sʼ ⟨ṣ⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɬ? ⟨ś⟩		χ? ⟨ḫ⟩	χʷ? ⟨ḫʷ⟩	ħ ⟨ḥ⟩	h
	voiced		z					ʕ ⟨ʽ⟩
	emphatic			ɬʼ? ⟨ḍ⟩
Trill			r
Approximant				l	j ⟨y⟩		w

1. In Geʽez, emphatic consonants are phonetically ejectives. As is the case with Arabic, emphatic velars may actually be phonetically uvular ([q] and [qʷ]).

Geʽez consonants in relation to Proto-Semitic

Geʽez consonants have a triple opposition between voiceless, voiced, and ejective (or emphatic) obstruents. The Proto-Semitic "emphasis" in Geʽez has been generalized to include emphatic p̣. Geʽez has phonologized labiovelars, descending from Proto-Semitic biphonemes. Geʽez ś ሠ Sawt (in Amharic, also called śe-nigūś, i.e. the se letter used for spelling the word nigūś "king") is reconstructed as descended from a Proto-Semitic voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ]. Like Arabic, Geʽez merged Proto-Semitic š and s in ሰ (also called se-isat: the se letter used for spelling the word isāt "fire"). Apart from this, Geʽez phonology is comparably conservative; the only other Proto-Semitic phonological contrasts lost may be the interdental fricatives and ghayn.

Morphology

Nouns

Geʽez distinguishes two genders, masculine and feminine, which in certain words is marked with the suffix -t. These are less strongly distinguished than in other Semitic languages, in that many nouns not denoting persons can be used in either gender: in translated Christian texts there is a tendency for nouns to follow the gender of the noun with a corresponding meaning in Greek.

There are two numbers, singular and plural. The plural can be constructed either by suffixing -āt to a word, or by internal plural.

• Plural using suffix: ʿāmat – ʿāmatāt 'year(s)', māy – māyāt 'water(s)' (Note: In contrast to adjectives and other Semitic languages, the -āt suffix can be used for constructing the plural of both genders).
• Internal plural: bet – ʾābyāt 'house, houses'; qərnəb – qarānəbt 'eyelid, eyelids'.

Nouns also have two cases: the nominative, which is not marked, and the accusative, which is marked with final -a (e.g. bet, bet-a).

Internal plural

Internal plurals follow certain patterns. Triconsonantal nouns follow one of the following patterns.

Patterns of internal plural for triconsonantal nouns. (C=Consonant, V=Vowel)
Pattern	Singular	Meaning	Plural
ʾāCCāC	ləbs	'garment'	ʾālbās
	faras	'horse'	ʾāfrās
	bet	'house'	ʾābyāt
	ṣom	'fast'	ʾāṣwām
	səm	'name'	ʾāsmāt
ʾāCCuC	hagar	'country'	ʾāhgur
	ʾādg	'ass'	ʾāʾdug
ʾāCCəCt	rə's	'head'	ʾārʾəst
	gabr	'servant, slave'	ʾāgbərt
ʾāCāCə(t)	bagʿ	'sheep'	ʾabāgəʿ
	gānen	'devil'	ʾāgānənt
CVCaC	ʾəzn	'ear'	ʾəzan
	ʾəgr	'foot'	ʾəgar
CVCaw	ʾəd	'hand'	ʾədaw
	ʾāb	'father'	ʾābaw
	ʾəḫʷ	'brother'	ʾāḫaw

Quadriconsonantal and some triconsonantal nouns follow the following pattern. Triconsonantal nouns that take this pattern must have at least one long vowel

Patterns of internal plural for quadriconsonantal nouns. (C=Consonant, V=Vowel)
Pattern	Singular	Meaning	Plural
CaCāCəC(t)	dəngəl	'virgin'	danāgəl
	masfən	'prince'	masāfənt
	kokab	'star'	kawākəbt
	maskot	'window'	masākut < masakəwt
	dorho	'chicken'	darāwəh
	lelit	'night'	layāləy
	bəḥer	'earth'	baḥāwərt
	wəḥiz	'river'	waḥāyəzt
	qasis	'priest'	qasāwəst

Pronominal morphology

Number	Person	Isolated personal pronoun	Pronominal suffix
			With noun	With verb
Singular	1.	ʾana	-ya	-ni
	2. masculine	ʾanta	-ka
	2. feminine	ʾanti	-ki
	3. masculine	wəʾətu	-(h)u
	3. feminine	yəʾəti	-(h)a
Plural	1.	nəḥna	-na
	2. masculine	ʾantəmu	-kəmu
	2. feminine	ʾantən	-kən
	3. masculine	wəʾətomu / əmuntu	-(h)omu
	3. feminine	wəʾəton / əmāntu	-(h)on

Verb conjugation

Person		Perfect qatal-nn	Imperfect
			Indicative -qattəl	Jussive -qtəl
Singular	1.	qatal-ku	ʾə-qattəl	ʾə-qtəl
	2. m.	qatal-ka	tə-qattəl	tə-qtəl
	2. f.	qatal-ki	tə-qattəl-i	tə-qtəl-i
	3. m.	qatal-a	yə-qattəl	yə-qtəl
	3. f.	qatal-at	tə-qattəl	tə-qtəl
Plural	1.	qatal-na	nə-qattəl	nə-qtəl
	2. m.	qatal-kəmmu	tə-qattəl-u	tə-qtəl-u
	2. f.	qatal-kən	tə-qattəl-ā	tə-qtəl-ā
	3. m.	qatal-u	yə-qattəl-u	yə-qtəl-u
	3. f.	qatal-ā	yə-qattəl-ā	yə-qtəl-ā

Syntax

Noun phrases

Noun phrases have the following overall order: (demonstratives) noun (adjective)-(relative clause)

ba-zā	hagar
in-this:f	city
in this city

nəguś	kəbur
king	glorious
the glorious king

Adjectives and determiners agree with the noun in gender and number:

zāti	nəgəśt	kəbərt
this:fem	queen	glorious:fem
this glorious queen

ʼəllu	nagaśt	kəburān
these:mpl	kings	glorious:pl
these glorious kings

Relative clauses are introduced by a pronoun which agrees in gender and number with the preceding noun:

bə'si	za=qatal-əww-o	la=wald-o
man	which:masc=kill-3mp-3ms	to=son=3ms
the man whose son they killed

As in many Semitic languages, possession by a noun phrase is shown through the construct state. In Geʽez, this is formed by suffixing /-a/ to the possessed noun, which is followed by the possessor, as in the following examples (Lambdin 1978:23):

wald-a	nəguś
son-construct	king
the son of the king

səm-a	malʼak
name-construct	angel
the name of the angel

Possession by a pronoun is indicated by a suffix on the possessed noun, as seen in the following table:

Possessor	affix
1sg 'my'	-əya
2msg 'your (masc)'	-əka
2fsg 'your (fem)'	-əki
3msg 'his'	-u
3fsg 'her'	-ā
1pl 'our'	-əna
2mpl 'your (masc. plur)'	-əkəma
2fpl 'your (fem. plur)'	-əkən
3mpl 'their (masc)'	-omu
3fpl 'their (fem)'	-on

The following examples show a few nouns with pronominal possessors:

səm-əya	səm-u
name-1sg	name-3sg
my name	his name

Another common way of indicating possession by a noun phrase combines the pronominal suffix on a noun with the possessor preceded by the preposition /la=/ 'to, for' (Lambdin 1978:44):

səm-u	la = neguś
name-3sg	to = king
'the king's name; the name of the king'

Lambdin (1978:45) notes that in comparison to the construct state, this kind of possession is only possible when the possessor is definite and specific. Lambdin also notes that the construct state is the unmarked form of possession in Geʽez.

Prepositional phrases

Geʽez is a prepositional language, as in the following example (Lambdin 1978:16):

wəsta	hagar
to	city
to the city

There are three special prepositions, /ba=/ 'in, with', /la=/ 'to, for', /ʼəm=/ 'from', which always appear as clitics, as in the following examples:

ʼəm=hagar

from=city

from the city

ba=hagar

in=city

in the city

əm=diba

from=on

down from

ba=zə bet

in=this house

in this house

These proclitic prepositions in Geʽez are similar to the inseparable prepositions in Hebrew.

Sentences

The normal word order for declarative sentences is VSO. Objects of verbs show accusative case marked with the suffix /-a/:

Takal-a	bə'si	ʿəḍ-a
plant-3ms	man	tree-acc
The man planted a tree

Questions with a wh-word ('who', 'what', etc.) show the question word at the beginning of the sentence:

ʼAyya	hagar	ḥanaṣ-u
which	city	flee-3pl
Which city did they flee?

Negation

The common way of negation is the prefix ʾi- which descends from ʾey- (which is attested in Axum inscriptions) from ʾay from Proto-Semitic *ʾal by palatalization. It is prefixed to verbs as follows:

nəḥna	ʾi-nəkl	ḥawira
we	(we) cannot	go
we cannot go

Writing system

Main article: Geʽez script

Genesis 29.11–16 in Geʽez

Geʽez is written with Ethiopic or the Geʽez abugida, a script that was originally developed specifically for this language. In languages that use it, such as Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is called Fidäl, which means script or alphabet.

Geʽez is read from left to right.

The Geʽez script has been adapted to write other languages, usually ones that are also Semitic. The most widespread use is for Amharic in Ethiopia and Tigrinya in Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is also used for Sebatbeit, Meʼen, Agew and most other languages of Ethiopia. In Eritrea it is used for Tigre, and it is often used for Bilen, a Cushitic language. Some other languages in the Horn of Africa, such as Oromo, used to be written using Geʽez but have switched to Latin-based alphabets. It also uses four series of consonant signs for labialized velar consonants, which are variants of the non-labialized velar consonants:

Basic sign	ḳ(a)	ḫ(a)	k(a)	g(a)
	ቀ	ኀ	ከ	ገ
Labialized variant	ḳʷ(a)	ḫʷ(a)	kʷ(a)	gʷ(a)
	ቈ	ኈ	ኰ	ጐ

History and literature

Example of Geʽez taken from a 15th-century Ethiopian Coptic prayer book

Although it is often said that Geʽez literature is dominated by the Bible including the Deuterocanonical books, in fact there are many medieval and early modern original texts in the language. Most of its important works are also the literature of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which include Christian liturgy (service books, prayers, hymns), hagiographies, and Patristic literature. For instance, around 200 texts were written about indigenous Ethiopian saints from the fourteenth through the nineteenth century. This religious orientation of Geʽez 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.

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

Significant collections of Ethiopian manuscripts are found outside of Ethiopia in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The 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, looted by the British from the Emperor Tewodros II's capital at Magdala in the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has at least two illuminated manuscripts in Geʽez.

Origins

The Ezana Stone, engraved from AD 330 to 356, is written in ancient Ge'ez, Sabaean and Greek.

The Geʽez 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 the Epigraphic South Arabian script. The Geʽez language is no longer universally thought of, as previously assumed, to be an offshoot of Sabaean or Old South Arabian, and there is some linguistic (though not written) evidence of Semitic languages being spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia since approximately 2000 BC. However, the Geʽez script later replaced Epigraphic South Arabian in the Kingdom of Aksum. Epigraphic South Arabian letters were used for a few inscriptions into the 8th century BCE, though not any South Arabian language since Dʿmt. Early inscriptions in Geʽez and Geʽez script have been dated to as early as the 5th century BC, and in a sort of proto-Geʽez written in ESA since the 9th century BC. Geʽez 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

The oldest known example of the old Geʽez script is found on the Hawulti obelisk in Matara, Eritrea. The oldest surviving Geʽez manuscript is thought to be the 5th or 6th century Garima Gospels. Almost all texts from this early "Aksumite" period are religious (Christian) in nature, and translated from Greek. Indeed, the range and scope of the translation enterprise undertaken in the first century of the new Ethiopian church has few parallels in the early centuries of Christian history. The outcome was an Ethiopic Bible containing 81 Books: 46 of the Old Testament and 35 of the New. A number of these Books are called "deuterocanonical" (or "apocryphal" according to certain Western theologians), such as the Ascension of Isaiah, Jubilees, Enoch, the Paralipomena of Baruch, Noah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Maccabees, and Tobit. The Book of Enoch in particular is notable since its complete text has survived in no other language; and, for the other works listed, the Ethiopic version is highly regarded as a witness to the original text.

Also to this early period dates Qerlos, a collection of Christological writings beginning with the treatise of Saint Cyril (known as Hamanot Reteʼet or De Recta Fide). These works are the theological foundation of the Ethiopic Church. In the later 5th century, the Aksumite Collection—an extensive selection of liturgical, theological, synodical and historical materials—was translated into Geʽez from Greek, providing a fundamental set of instructions and laws for the developing Ethiopian Church. Included in this collection is a translation of the Apostolic Tradition (attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, and lost in the original Greek) for which the Ethiopic version provides much the best surviving witness. Another important religious document is Serʼata 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.

13th to 14th centuries

After the decline of the Aksumites, a lengthy gap follows; Some writers consider the period beginning from the 14th century an actual "Golden Age" of Geʽez literature—although by this time Geʽez was no longer a living language; in particular in the major enterprise of translating an extensive library of Coptic Arabic religious works into Ge'ez.

While there is ample evidence that it had been replaced by Amharic in the south and by Tigrigna and Tigre in the north, Geʽez 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 Samaʼetat "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 Tekle Haymanot, Saint Gabra Manfas Qeddus

Also at this time the Apostolic Constitutions was retranslated into Geʽez from Arabic. Another translation from this period is Zena ʼAyhud, a translation (probably from an Arabic translation) of Joseph ben Gurion's "History of the Jews" ("Sefer Josippon") written in Hebrew in the 10th century, which covers the period from the Captivity to the capture of Jerusalem by Titus. 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 Kebra Nagast or "Glory of the Kings" by the Neburaʼed Yeshaq of Aksum is among the most significant works of Ethiopian literature, combining history, allegory and symbolism in a retelling of the story of the Queen of Sheba (i.e. Saba), 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".

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 Tewodros II chose this throne name.

Literature flourished especially during the reign of Emperor Zara Yaqob. Written by the Emperor himself were Matsʼhafe Berhan ("The Book of Light") and Matshafe Milad ("The Book of Nativity"). Numerous homilies were written in this period, notably Retuʼa Haimanot ("True Orthodoxy") ascribed to John Chrysostom. Also of monumental importance was the appearance of the Geʽez 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 1931.

By the beginning of the 16th century, the Islamic invasions put an end to the flourishing of Ethiopian literature. A letter of Abba ʼEnbaqom (or "Habakkuk") to Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, 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 Geʽez version around 1532, is considered one of the classics of later Geʽez literature. 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 Geʽez for the first time, including the Chronicle of John of Nikiu and the Universal History of George Elmacin.

Current usage in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Israel

Geʽez is the liturgical language of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo, Ethiopian Catholic and Eritrean Catholic Christians, and is used in prayer and in scheduled public celebrations. It is also used liturgically by the Beta Israel (Falasha Jews).

The liturgical rite used by the Christian churches is referred to as the Ethiopic Rite or the Geʽez Rite.

Sample

The first sentence of the Book of Enoch:

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

በዕለተ፡ ምንዳቤ፡ ለአሰስሎ፡ ኵሉ፡ እኩያን፡ ወረሲዓን።

Ḳāla barakat za-Henok zakama bāraka ḫəruyāna waṣādəḳāna ʾəlla hallawu yəkunu

baʿəlata məndābe laʾasassəlo kʷəllu ʾəkuyān warasiʿān

"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."

See also

• Ethiopian chant

References

• [BUD] Budge, E. A. Wallis. 1928. A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970.
• CHA Chain, M. Ethiopia transcribed by: Donahue M. in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume V. Published 1909. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. + John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
• [DIR] Diringer, David. 1968. The Alphabet, A Key To The History of Mankind.
• [KOB] Kobishchanov, Yuri M. 1979. Axum, edited by Joseph W. Michels; translated by: Lorraine T. Kapitanoff. University Park, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania. ISBN 978-0-271-00531-7.
• MAT Matara Aksumite & Pre-Aksumite City Webpage
• [MUN] Munro-Hay Stuart. 1991. Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0106-6.
• [PAN68] Pankhurst, Richard K.P. 1968.An Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800–1935, Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press.
• PAN03 Pankhurst, Richard K.P. A Glimpse into 16th. Century Ethiopian History Abba ʼEnbaqom, Imam Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim, and the "Conquest of Abyssinia". Addis Tribune. November 14, 2003.
• PER Perruchon, J. D. and Gottheil, Richard. "Falashas" in The Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.

Further reading

Grammar

• Aläqa Tayyä, Maṣḥafa sawāsəw. Monkullo: Swedish Mission 1896/7 (= E.C. 1889).
• Chaîne, Marius, Grammaire éthiopienne. Beyrouth (Beirut): Imprimerie catholique 1907, 1938 (Nouvelle édition). (electronic version at the Internet Archive)
• Cohen, Marcel, "la pronunciation traditionelle du Guèze (éthiopien classique)", in: Journal asiatique (1921) Sér. 11 / T. 18 (electronic version in Gallica digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France PDF).
• Dillmann, August; Bezold, Carl, Ethiopic Grammar, 2nd edition translated from German by James Crichton, London 1907. ISBN 978-1-59244-145-7 (2003 reprint). (Published in German: ¹1857, ²1899). (Online version at the Internet Archive)
• Gäbrä-Yohannəs Gäbrä-Maryam, Gəss – Mäzgäbä-ḳalat – Gəʽəz-ənna Amarəñña; yä-Gəʽəz ḳʷanḳʷa mämmariya (A Grammar of Classical Ethiopic). Addis Ababa 2001/2002 (= E.C. 1994)[1]
• Gene Gragg "Geʽez Phonology," in: Phonologies of Asia and Africa (Vol 1), ed. A. S. Kaye & P. T. Daniels, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana (1997).
• Kidanä Wäld Kəfle, Maṣḥafa sawāsəw wagəss wamazgaba ḳālāt ḥaddis ("A new grammar and dictionary"), Dire Dawa: Artistik Matämiya Bet 1955/6 (E.C. 1948).
• Lambdin, Thomas O., Introduction to Classical Ethiopic, Harvard Semitic Studies 24, Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press 1978. ISBN 978-0-89130-263-6.
• Mercer, Samuel Alfred Browne, "Ethiopic grammar: with chrestomathy and glossary" 1920 (Online version at the Internet Archive)
• Ludolf, Hiob, Grammatica aethiopica. Londini 1661; 2nd ed. Francofurti 1702.
• Praetorius, Franz, Äthiopische Grammatik, Karlsruhe: Reuther 1886.
• Prochazka, Stephan, Altäthiopische Studiengrammatik, Orbis Biblicus Et Orientalis – Subsidia Linguistica (OBO SL) 2, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlag 2005. ISBN 978-3-525-26409-6.
• Qeleb, Desie (2010). The Revival of Geez. MPID 3948485819.
• Tropper, Josef, Altäthiopisch: Grammatik der Geʽez mit Übungstexten und Glossar, Elementa Linguarum Orientis (ELO) 2, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 2002. ISBN 978-3-934628-29-8
• Vittorio, Mariano, Chaldeae seu Aethiopicae linguae institutiones, Rome 1548.
• Weninger, Stefan, Geʽez grammar, Munich: LINCOM Europa, ISBN 978-3-929075-04-5 (1st edition, 1993), ISBN 978-3-89586-604-3 (2nd revised edition, 1999).
• Weninger, Stefan, Das Verbalsystem des Altäthiopischen: Eine Untersuchung seiner Verwendung und Funktion unter Berücksichtigung des Interferenzproblems", Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2001. ISBN 978-3-447-04484-4.
• Wemmers, J., Linguae aethiopicae institutiones, Rome 1638.

• Zerezghi Haile, Learn Basic Geez Grammar (2015) for Tigrinya readers available at: https://uwontario.academia.edu/WedGdmhra

Literature

• Adera, Taddesse, Ali Jimale Ahmed (eds.), Silence Is Not Golden: A Critical Anthology of Ethiopian Literature, Red Sea Press (1995), ISBN 978-0-932415-47-9.
• Bonk, Jon, Annotated and Classified Bibliography of English Literature Pertaining to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Atla Bibliography Series, Scarecrow Pr (1984), ISBN 978-0-8108-1710-4.
• Charles, Robert Henry, The Ethiopic version of the book of Enoch. Oxford 1906. (Online version at the Internet Archive)
• Dillmann, August, Chrestomathia Aethiopica. Leipzig 1866. (Online version at the Internet Archive)
• Dillmann, August, Octateuchus Aethiopicus. Leipzig 1853. (The first eight books of the Bible in Geʽez. Online version)
• Dillmann, August, Anthologia Aethiopica, Herausgegeben und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Ernst Hammerschmidt. Hildesheim: Olms Verlag 1988, ISBN 978-3-487-07943-1 .
• The Royal Chronicles of Zara Yaqob and Baeda Maryam – French translation and edition of the Geʽez text Paris 1893 (electronic version in Gallica digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France)
• Ethiopic recension of the Chronicle of John of Nikiû – Paris 1883 (electronic version) in Gallica

Dictionaries

• Dillmann, August, Lexicon linguæ Æthiopicæ cum indice Latino, Lipsiae 1865. (Online version at the Internet Archive)
• Leslau, Wolf, Comparative Dictionary of Geez (Classical Ethiopic): Geez--English, English--Geez, with an Index of the Semitic Roots, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1987. ISBN 978-3-447-02592-8.
• Leslau, Wolf, Concise Dictionary of Ge‘ez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1989. ISBN 978-3-447-02873-8.
• Ludolf, Hiob, Lexicon Aethiopico-Latinum, Ed. by J. M. Wansleben, London 1661.
• Wemmers, J., Lexicon Aethiopicum, Rome 1638.

External links

• J. M.Harden, An Introduction to Ethiopic Christian Literature (1926)
• Unicode Chart
• Researcher identifies second-oldest Ethiopian manuscript in existence in HMML's archives (13 July 2010)
• Library of Ethiopian Texts