Geʽez
Geʽez (/ˈɡiːɛz/; ግዕዝ Gəʽ(ə)z IPA: [ˈɡɨʕ(ɨ)z] ⓘ, and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
| Geʽez | |
|---|---|
| ግዕዝ Gəʽ(ə)z | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈɡɨʕ(ɨ)z] |
| Native to | Eritrea , Ethiopia |
| Extinct | Before 10th century to 14th century Remains in use as a liturgical language. |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Geʽez script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Catholic Church, Ethiopian Catholic Church, and Beta Israel |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | gez |
| ISO 639-3 | gez |
| Glottolog | geez1241 |
Today, Geʽez is used as the main liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Ethiopian Catholic Church, Eritrean Catholic Church, and the Beta Israel Jewish community.
Hawulti Obelisk is an ancient pre-Aksumite Obelisk located in Matara, Eritrea. The monument dates to the early Aksumite period and bears the oldest known example of the ancient Geʽez script.
Tigre and Tigrinya both have a lexical similarity of roughly 70% to Geʽez. Most linguists believe that Geʽez does not constitute a common ancestor of modern Ethio-Semitic languages but became a separate language early on from another hypothetical unattested common language.