Ethiopic (Ge'ez)

1. Ethiopic Writing
GETATCHEW HAILE
Presenter
Samuel Belayneh
GSR/ 5675/08

2. Outline
1. Introduction
2. Consonants
 Characters
3. Vowel
 Vowel Signs
4. Character or Diagram
5. Numerals
6. Writing Ethiopic
7. Summary
2

3. 1. Introduction
• 80+ languages are spoken in Ethiopia.
• Ethiopian languages belongs to:
– Semitic,
– Cushitic,
– Omotic, and
– Nilo-Saharan language families
• Before 20th C most of the Ethiopian languages did
not have writing system.
• Gə’əz (Ethiopic) is the oldest language having its own
writing system in 4th C
• In Gə’əze Students are expected toː
• practice proper stress, accent, and intonation .
• read a text with fluency, but without reading
comprehension.
• Later Ethiopic writing system is adopted by Amharic
and other Ethiopian languages.
3

4. 2. Consonants
• To be a written language, Ethiopic required a
character that represent its consonants.
• In ancient timeː
• ፀ was interdental z,
• ሠ = fricative ʃ (sibilants)
• ኀ = velar h̹ (is laryngeal)
• Latter
• ፀ and ጸ = ṣ [ts]
• ሐ =h
• ኀ = h̹ have become [h] like ሀ
• ኦ’ and ዐ represent glottal [ʔ]
– These sets of letters tend to be confused in
manuscript. 4

5. 2.1. Characters
• At that time two writing systems were available.
1. Greek Alphabet
2. South Arabian Sabean/Minean Script, one
related to Gə’əz (Ethiopic) WS
• The relation ship between Ethiopian and Arab
was the main factor in making choice.
– Ethiopic and Sabean are both members of the family
of the southern branch of the Semitic Language
5

6. …
• Sabean/ Minean Script represents all the
consonants except
– [p] = ፐ (modification of Greek II)
– [ṗ] = ጰ (derived from Ethiopic ጸ ṣ)
– for labiovelars, g, h, k, q the symbols were
modified
– The mark of palatalization is horizontal line (-),
broken in the case of ዠ
6

7. • Ethiopic ‘alphabet’ order is
different from those related
systems (Arab, Hebrew, Syriac,
Greek).
• The order of alphabet
1. Ethiopic = ሀ (h, hoy)
2. Arab, Hebrew, Syriac,
Greek= ‘aleph or alpha
• Why Ethiopic alphabet is
arranged differently?
• Ethiopic preserves an early
ancient branches of the
original. (but not satisfactory
reason)
• Ancient Sabean script in certain
religious contexts, the North
Semitic order called ‘abugida’
,from the first four consonants
and the first four “orders” which
is known from the acrostic
poems in the Gə’əz translation
of the Hebrew Bible, is also
found) 7

8. 3. Vowel
• The inscriptions being discovered reveal that
Gə’əz texts have no vowels.
• They represented consonant alone.
• The reader had to guess with the help of
knowledge of the language and its grammar,
the necessary vowel and supply them.
• Therefore, one sign cloud be read for example
as
– [b], [bɜ], [ba], [bu] or [bi]
– [negusɜ nɜgɜst] ‘king of king’ was encoded
as
ነገሠ/ነገሠተ, ‘ngs/ngst’
8

9. …
• Absence of the vowel sign results to confusion.
• Gə’əz with only consonants, with out vowel sign
was difficult for the student to begin their
schooling by reading the language written only
in consonants.
• Creating vowel become mandatory.
• Then vowel appeared along with the advent of
Christianity in Ethiopia 350 C.E
• There are seven vowels.
• Seven forms of each
consonant order symbol
are called orders.
i ə u
e ɜ o
a
9

10. 3. 1. Vowel Signs
1. The base character (Gə’əz) the character which
has no vowels sign is understood as having the
first vowel, ä
• በ is no longer b, but bä (lost its ability to
represent all other possible readings.)
Vowels in their traditional order
Order 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Translation ä u i a e ə o
Transcription [ɜ] [u] [i] [a ,
ɐ]
[e ,ɛ] [ə ] [o ɔ]
10

11. …2. A short horizontal line attached to the middle of
the right side of the character represents the
vowel u. ቡ, bu.
• In the case of ሩ, ru ዉ, wu ፉ, fu however, this
system is violated, the basic character bend down
at the end.
3. A short horizontal line attached to the
lowest part of the right leg of the character
represents the vowel i . ሂ ሚ ዊ
*ሪ ዪ ፊ
11

12. …
4. A vertical line is attached to the bottom of a
character to the right leg of the character, if
the character has more than one leg
represent the vowel a . If the character has only a
single leg, the line is titled to the left to make the
addition clear.
ሃ ሣ ማ or ቃ ታ ፓ * ና ኛ ራ
5. A ring or half ring attached to the lower part of
the right side of the character represents the vowel
e.
ሄ ሜ ሴ *ዬ ጬ (the ring is attached at
the middle) 12

13. …
6. The sign for the vowel ə and the rule
defining its place on the character are not
generalized
• ር ው ድ ፍ ( it is placed on the right
side)
• ህ ሕ ቅ ት እ ፅ (on the head)
• ል ስ ኽ ይ ግ (follow no rule)
7. Two signs are used to represent o. (o, -)
ሎ ዮ ጎ (different rule to represent a single
vowel)
13

14. …
8. A short horizontal line attached to the right
leg of most of the characters indicated a
combination of [u] or [w] and [a]
 à (the sign at the bottom of the
character)
 … the sign on the head
• Note: Vowel length is not recognized
14

15. 4. Character or Diagram
• The combining of individual characters with vowel
signs with so little systematization has resulted.
• The vowel signs have become such integral part of
the body of the character that each of the seven
forms, including the base form is a symbol
representing a consonant and vowel.
• The Ethiopic consonants may be 26 in number but
the character are in essence 26 (plus the
derivatives) time 7, plus the sign for labiovelars
(which are 4 times 5 these four have only five vowel
each: ä, i, a, e and ə
15

16. …
• As a rule, Ethiopic characters do not extend
below the line. However, the sign to some
vowels are written in small sign above.
• The Ethiopic writing system has no sign for
gemination of consonants although this is
distinctive in the language.
አለ ገና እንሥራ ዋና …
16

17. 5. Numerals
• The Gə’əz numerals are
developed from the Greek
alphabet, borrowed possibly
trough Coptic.
• Time has of course changed
them significantly in written
modern Ethiopian
languages, one usually the
Arabic numeral.
፳ ፴ ፵ ፶ ፷
20 30 40 50 60
፸ ፹ ፺ ፻
70 80 90 100 17

18. 6. Writing Ethiopic
• In the inscriptions, words were separated with a
vertical line e.g. <ngś|ngśt>ንጉሴ ነግስት
• In manuscripts and published books, this has
been replaces with two dots which look a colon
(:)
18

19. …
• This signs is being replaced with a blank
space in writing the modern language of
the country.
19

20. …
• A semi colon is expressed by the two dots with
horizontal line above and bellow ፤
• A comma by two dots with a horizontal line over
or between them ፣
• Full stops by doubling the two dots. ፡፡
• Ethiopic is written from left to right, bottom to up.
Sample Gə’əz
Gə’əz ወሶበ፡ ሰምዐ፡ ኢሳይያሰ፡ ዘንተ፡ ነገረ፡
Pronunciation wä-sobä säm’a ‘Isayəyyas zänta
nägärä
Gloss and- when herad.he ‘Isayəyyas this
statement
20

21. 5. Summary
 Gə’əz (Ethiopic) WS is the oldest language having its
own writing system in 4th C
 Sabean/Minean script was adopted .The relation ship
between Ethiopian and Arab was the main factor in
making choice.
 Sabean/ Minean Script represents all the consonants
except a few consonants.
 Ethiopic alphabet is arranged differently and aimed to
preserves an early ancient branches of the original. (but
not satisfactory reason)
 The inscriptions being discovered reveal that Gə’əz texts
have no vowels.
 Then vowel appeared along with the advent of
Christianity in Ethiopia 350 C.E 21

22. …
There are seven vowels
The combining of individual characters with vowel
signs with so little systematization has resulted,
but not identical across the orders.
The Ethiopic writing system has no sign for
gemination of consonants.
The Gə’əz numerals are developed from the
Greek alphabet, borrowed possibly trough Coptic.
In the inscriptions, <ngś|ngśt>ንጉሴ ነግስት, (:) then
by blank space.
Different punctuation marks were also used.
፣ ፤ ፡፡
22

23. Thank You.
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