Ge'ez language

This article is about the language. For the alphabet, see Ge'ez script.

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

Geʻez
ግዕዝ Gəʿəz
Pronunciation	[ɡɨʕɨz]
Native to	Ethiopia , Eritrea
Extinct	Estimates range from the 4th century AD to sometime before the 10th century. Remains in use as a liturgical language.
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic South Semitic Ethiopian Semitic North Ethiopian Semitic Geʻez
Writing system	Ge'ez 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 the Virgin Mary 'with her beloved son,' from a Geʻez manuscript copy of Weddasé Māryām, circa 1875.

Geʻez (/ˈɡiːɛz/; ግዕዝ, Gəʿəz [ɡɨʕɨz]; also transliterated Giʻiz, also referred to by some as "Ethiopic") is an ancient South Semitic language that originated in the northern region of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It later became the official language of the Kingdom of Aksum and Ethiopian imperial court.

Today, Geʻez remains only as the main language used in the liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church, and 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, Tigrigna may be used for sermons. Tigrigna and Tigre are closely related to Geʻez with at least four different configurations proposed. Some linguists do not believe that Geʻez constitutes the common ancestor of modern Ethiopian languages, but that Geʻez became a separate language early on from some hypothetical, completely unattested language, and can thus be seen as an extinct sister language of Tigre and Tigrinya. The foremost Ethiopian experts such as Amsalu Aklilu point to the vast proportion of inherited nouns that are unchanged, and even spelled identically in both Geʻez and Amharic (and to a lesser degree, 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

Also transliterated as ä, ū/û, ī/î, a, ē/ê, e/i, ō/ô.

Consonants

The interpretation of the Geʻez writing system

Geʻez is transliterated according to the following system:

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

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

Because Geʻez is no longer a spoken language, the pronunciation of some consonants is not completely certain. Gragg (1997:244) writes "The consonants corresponding to the graphemes ś (Geʻez ሠ) and ḍ (Geʻez ፀ) have merged respectively with /s/ and /ṣ/ 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 Geʻez."

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 /ɬ'/ as possible values for Geʻez ሠ and Geʻez ፀ respectively. It also lists /χ/ as a possible value for ኀ. These values are tentative, but based on the Proto-Semitic consonants that they are descended from.

Phonemes of Geʻez

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		Pharyn- geal	Glottal
			plain	lateral		plain	labialized
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	kʷ		ʔ ⟨’⟩
	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⟩		ħ ⟨ḥ⟩	h
	voiced		z					ʕ ⟨‘⟩
	emphatic			ɬʼ? ⟨ḍ⟩
Trill			r
Approximant				l	j ⟨y⟩		w

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

Geʻez consonants in relation to Proto-Semitic

Geʻez consonants have a triple opposition between voiceless, voiced, and ejective (or emphatic) obstruents. The Proto-Semitic "emphasis" in Geʻez has been generalized to include emphatic p̣. Geʻez has phonologized labiovelars, descending from Proto-Semitic biphonemes. Geʻez 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, Geʻez 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, Geʻez phonology is comparably conservative; the only other Proto-Semitic phonological contrasts lost may be the interdental fricatives and ghayin.

Morphology

Nouns

Geʻez 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
āCCāC
	ləbs	'garment'	ālbās
	faras	'horse'	āfrās
	bet	'house'	ābyāt
	tzom	'fast'	ātzwām
	səm	'name'	āsmāt
āCCuC
	hāgar	'country'	āhgur
āCCəCt
	rəʾs	'head'	arʾəst
	gabr	'slave'	āgbərt
āCāCə(t)
	bagʾ	'sheep'	ābāgəʾ
	gānen	'devil'	āgānənt
CVCaC
	əzn	'ear'	ā'zan
	əgr	'foot'	ā'gar
CVCaw
	əd	'hand'	ā'daw
	ab	'father'	ābaw
	əḫʷ	'brother'	āḫaw

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
	qasis	'priest'	qasāwəst

Pronominal morphology

Number	Person	Isolated personal pronoun	Pronominal suffix
			With noun	With verb
Singular	1.	ʾāna	-ya	-ni
	2. masculine	ʾānta	-ka
	2. feminine	ʾānti	-ki
	3. masculine	wəʾətu	-(h)u
	3. feminine	yəʾəti	-(h)a
Plural	1.	nəḥna	-na
	2. masculine	ʾāntəmu	-kəmu
	2. feminine	ʾāntən	-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-za:	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:

za:ti	nəgəśt	kəbərt
this:fem	queen	glorious:fem
this glorious queen

'əllu	nagaśt	kəbura:n
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 Geʻez, 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	mal'ak
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'	-a:
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 Geʻez.

Prepositional phrases

Geʻez 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', /'əm=/ 'from', which always appear as enclitics on the following noun, as in the following examples:

'əm=hagar

from=city

from the city

ba=hagar

in=city

in the city

These enclitic prepositions in Geʻez 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	ʕətsʼ-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:

'Ayya	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: Ge'ez script

Genesis 29.11–16 in Geʻez

Geʻez is written with Ethiopic or the Geʻez 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.

Geʻez is read from left to right.

The Geʻez 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, Meʻen, 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 Geʻez but have switched to Latin-based alphabets.

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

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

History and literature

Although it is often said that Geʻez literature is dominated by the Bible including the Deuterocanon, 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), Lives of Saints, 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 Geʻez 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 Geʻez.

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, stolen 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 Geʻez.

Origins

The Geʻez 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. The Geʻez 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 Geʻez 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, though not any South Arabian language since Dʿmt. Early inscriptions in Geʻez and Geʻez script have been dated to as early as the 5th century BC, and in a sort of proto-Geʻez written in ESA since the 9th century BC. Geʻez 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 Geʻez script is found on the Hawulti obelisk in Matara, Eritrea. The oldest surviving Geʻez 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, 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 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.

Also to this early period dates Qerlos, a collection of Christological writings beginning with the treatise of Saint Cyril (known as Hamanot Rete’et or De Recta Fide). These works are the theological foundation of the Ethiopic Church. Another important religious document is Ser'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.

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 Geʻez literature—although by this time Geʻez 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, Geʻez 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 Tekle Haymanot, Saint Gabra Manfas Qeddus

Also at this time the Apostolic Constitutions was translated in Geʻez, which provided another set of instructions and laws for the Ethiopian Church. Another translation from this period is Zena 'Ayhud, 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 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 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 Mats'hafe Berhan ("The Book of Light") and Mats'hafe 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 Geʻez 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 '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 Geʻez version around 1532, is considered one of the classics of later Geʻez 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 Geʻez 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).

Current usage in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Israel

Geʻez is the liturgical language of Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, 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 Geʻez 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."

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 in SomeCollectionOfWritings, edited by Joseph W. Michels; translated by: Lorraine T. Kapitanoff. University Park, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania. ISBN 0-271-00531-9.
• MAT Matara Aksumite & Pre-Aksumite City Webpage
• MUN Munro-Hay Stuart. 1991. Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University Press. ISBN 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 'Enbaqom, 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 1-59244-145-9 (2003 reprint). (Published in German: ¹1857, ²1899). (Online version at the Internet Archive)

Dessie Keleb, " The Revivalof Geez".

• Gäbrä-Yohannəs Gäbrä-Maryam, Gəss - Mäzgäbä-ḳalat - Gə'əz-ənna Amarəñña; yä-Gə'əz ḳʷanḳʷa mämmariya (A Grammar of Classical Ethiopic). Addis Ababa 2001/2002 (= E.C. 1994)[1]
• Gene Gragg "Ge`ez 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 0-89130-263-8.
• 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 3525264097.
• Weninger, Stefan, Ge‘ez grammar, Munich: LINCOM Europa, ISBN 3-929075-04-0 (1st edition, 1993), ISBN 3-89586-604-0 (2nd revised edition, 1999).
• Weninger, Stefan, Das Verbalsystem des Altäthiopischen: Eine Untersuchung seiner Verwendung und Funktion unter Berücksichtigung des Interferenzproblems", Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2001. ISBN 3-447-04484-5.
• Tropper, Josef, Altäthiopisch: Grammatik der Geʻez mit Übungstexten und Glossar, Elementa Linguarum Orientis (ELO) 2, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 2002. ISBN 3-934628-29-X
• Vittorio, Mariano, Chaldeae seu Aethiopicae linguae institutiones, Rome 1548.
• Wemmers, J., Linguae aethiopicae institutiones, Rome 1638.

Literature

• Taddesse Adera, Ali Jimale Ahmed (eds.), Silence Is Not Golden: A Critical Anthology of Ethiopian Literature, Red Sea Press (1995), ISBN 0-932415-47-4.
• Jon Bonk, Annotated and Classified Bibliography of English Literature Pertaining to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Atla Bibliography Series, Scarecrow Pr (1984), ISBN 0-8108-1710-1.
• 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 Geʻez. 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 Geʻez 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 3-447-02592-1.
• Leslau, Wolf, Concise Dictionary of Ge‘ez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1989. ISBN 3-447-02873-4.
• Ludolf, Hiob, Lexicon Aethiopico-Latinum, Ed. by J. M. Wansleben, London 1661.
• Wemmers, J., Lexicon Aethiopicum, Rome 1638.

External links

• A blog on Classical Ethiopic (Geʻez)
• J. M.Harden, An Introduction to Ethiopic Christian Literature (1926)
• Unicode Chart
• Senamirmir Projects: Free Ethiopic Font (Win32, MacOS, Linux)
• The Bible in Geʻez
• Researcher identifies second-oldest Ethiopian manuscript in existence in HMML’s archives, Walta Information Center (10 December 2010)
• LIBRARY OF ETHIOPIAN TEXTS
• Äthiopische Texte
• Ethiopic Character Entry by Aberra Molla
• Collection of Geʻez proverbs
• Collection of Geʻez qine
• Geʻez Flashcards