The document discusses the Ethiopic writing system, which originated in the 4th century CE for the Gə'əz language. It adopted characters from the related Sabean script that represented consonants. Vowels were later added through various signs attached to characters. Though there are seven vowels, the placement of signs is not fully systematic across characters. While Ethiopic texts originally lacked vowels, their addition aided literacy. Numerals were derived from Greek, and punctuation evolved over time. Overall, the Ethiopic script enabled writing for Gə'əz and other Ethiopian languages.