Classical Ethiopic

Classical Ethiopic (Geʿez) belongs to the group of northern Ethiopian languages within the Ethio-Semitic languages. It can be documented in inscriptions from the 4th century and is written in its own script. This script is based on a cursive form of the Old South Arabian script. It was probably under Greek influence that the left-to-right script became established in the Aksumite period. In order to indicate the vowel following the consonant, changes were made to the respective letter itself. The result is a kind of syllabic script. Classical Ethiopic literature includes translations (at first mainly from Greek, then also from Copto-Arabic), sometimes with major changes and enrichments, but also independent works of considerable literary value (e.g. Kebra Nagast). To this day, Geʿez serves as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Ethiopian Catholic Church.