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Ge Ez Script - Wikipedia

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Ge Ez Script - Wikipedia

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solomonowe79
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Geʽez script

Article Talk

This article is about the script. For the language, see


Geʽez.

"Hahu" redirects here. For the airport with the ICAO


code "HAHU", see Humera Airport.

Geʽez (Ge'ez: ግዕዝ, romanized: Gǝʽez, IPA:


ⓘ)
[ˈɡɨʕɨz] is a script used as an abugida
(alphasyllabary) for several Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-
Saharan languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It
originated as an abjad (consonant-only alphabet)
and was first used to write the Geʽez language,
now the liturgical language of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean
Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Catholic
Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church, and
Haymanot Judaism of the Beta Israel Jewish
community in Ethiopia. In the languages Amharic
and Tigrinya, the script is often called fidäl
(ፊደል), meaning “script” or “letter”. Under the
Unicode Standard and ISO 15924, it is defined as
Ethiopic text.

Geʽez

The basic consonants of Geʽez

Script type Abugida

Time period c. 1st century CE to


present (abjad until
c. 4th century CE)

Direction left-to-right

Languages Afro-Asiatic languages


and Nilo-Saharan
languages.

Generally Ethio/Eritrean
Semitic languages (e.g.
Geʽez, Tigrinya,
Amharic, Tigre,
Guragigna, Harari, etc.),
but also some Cushitic
languages and Nilotic
languages. Bilen, Me’en,
as one of two scripts in
Anuak, are examples,
and unofficially used in
other languages of
Ethiopia and languages
of Eritrea.

Native to: the Horn of


Africa – Ethiopia and
Eritrea.

Related scripts

Parent systems Egyptian hieroglyphs[1]


Proto-Sinaitic script
Ancient South
Arabian script[2][3]
Geʽez

Child systems Amharic, Tigrinya


various other alphabets
of Ethiopia and Eritrea

ISO 15924

ISO 15924 Ethi (430), Ethiopic


(Geʻez)

Unicode

Unicode alias Ethiopic

Unicode range U+1200–U+137F


Ethiopic
U+1380–U+139F
Ethiopic Supplement
U+2D80–U+2DDF
Ethiopic Extended
U+AB00–U+AB2F
Ethiopic Extended-A
U+1E7E0–U+1E7FF
Ethiopic Extended-B

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the


International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an
introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the
distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and
transcription delimiters.

This article contains Ethiopic text. Without


proper rendering support, you may see question
marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Ethiopic
characters.

The Geʽez script has been adapted to write other


languages, mostly Ethiosemitic, particularly
Amharic in Ethiopia, and Tigrinya in both Eritrea
and Ethiopia. It has also been used to write Sebat
Bet and other Gurage languages and at least 20
other languages of Ethiopia. In Eritrea it has
traditionally been used for Tigre and just recently
for Bilen. The Geʽez script has also recently been
used to write Anuak, and used in limited extent to
write some other Nilo-Saharan Nilotic languages,
including Majang languages. It was also used in
the past to write some Omotic languages,
including Wolaytta, Bench, Hamer, Kafa.
[citation needed] For the representation of sounds,
this article uses a system that is common (though
not universal) among linguists who work on
Ethiopian Semitic languages. This differs
somewhat from the conventions of the
International Phonetic Alphabet. See the articles
on the individual languages for information on the
pronunciation.

History and origins

Geʽez writing system

Two writing systems were used to write the Geʽez


language, an abjad and later an abugida.

Geʽez abjad

The abjad, used until the advent of Christianity


(ca. AD 350), had 26 consonantal letters:

h, l, ḥ, m, ś, r, s, ḳ, b, t, ḫ, n, ʾ, k, w, ʿ, z, y, d, g, ṭ,
p̣ , ṣ, ṣ́, f, p

Translit. h l ḥ m ś r s ḳ

Geʽez ሀ ለ ሐ መ ሠ ረ ሰ ቀ
Translit. k w ʿ z y d g ṭ

Geʽez ከ ወ ዐ ዘ የ ደ ገ ጠ
It was properly written right-to-left.[6] Vowels
were not indicated.

Geʽez abugida

Genesis 29.11–16 in Geʽez

Modern Geʽez is written from left to right.

During the adoption or introduction of Christianity,


the Geʽez abugida developed under the influence
of Christian scripture by adding obligatory vocalic
diacritics to the consonantal letters. The diacritics
for the vowels, u, i, a, e, ǝ, o, were fused with the
consonants in a recognizable but slightly irregular
way, so that the system is laid out as a syllabary.
The original form of the consonant was used when
the vowel was ä (/ǝ/), the so-called inherent vowel.
The resulting forms are shown below in their
traditional order. For most consonants there is an
eighth form for the diphthong -wa or -oa, and for a
number of those a ninth form for -jä.

To represent a consonant with no following


phonemic vowel, for example at the end of a
syllable or in a consonant cluster, the ǝ (/ɨ/) form is
used (the character in the sixth column).

ä u i a e ǝ o wa
[ǝ] [ɨ]
or
[a]

h ሀ ሁ ሂ ሃ ሄ ህ ሆ
l ለ ሉ ሊ ላ ሌ ል ሎ ሏ
ḥ ሐ ሑ ሒ ሓ ሔ ሕ ሖ ሗ
m መ ሙ ሚ ማ ሜ ም ሞ ሟ
ś ሠ ሡ ሢ ሣ ሤ ሥ ሦ ሧ
r ረ ሩ ሪ ራ ሬ ር ሮ ሯ
s ሰ ሱ ሲ ሳ ሴ ስ ሶ ሷ
ḳ ቀ ቁ ቂ ቃ ቄ ቅ ቆ ቋ
b በ ቡ ቢ ባ ቤ ብ ቦ ቧ
t ተ ቱ ቲ ታ ቴ ት ቶ ቷ
ḫ ኀ ኁ ኂ ኃ ኄ ኅ ኆ ኋ
n ነ ኑ ኒ ና ኔ ን ኖ ኗ
ʾ አ ኡ ኢ ኣ ኤ እ ኦ ኧ
k ከ ኩ ኪ ካ ኬ ክ ኮ ኳ
w ወ ዉ ዊ ዋ ዌ ው ዎ
ʽ ዐ ዑ ዒ ዓ ዔ ዕ ዖ
z ዘ ዙ ዚ ዛ ዜ ዝ ዞ ዟ
y የ ዩ ዪ ያ ዬ ይ ዮ
d ደ ዱ ዲ ዳ ዴ ድ ዶ ዷ
g ገ ጉ ጊ ጋ ጌ ግ ጎ ጓ
ṭ ጠ ጡ ጢ ጣ ጤ ጥ ጦ ጧ
p̣ ጰ ጱ ጲ ጳ ጴ ጵ ጶ ጷ
ṣ ጸ ጹ ጺ ጻ ጼ ጽ ጾ ጿ
ṣ́ ፀ ፁ ፂ ፃ ፄ ፅ ፆ
f ፈ ፉ ፊ ፋ ፌ ፍ ፎ ፏ
p ፐ ፑ ፒ ፓ ፔ ፕ ፖ ፗ
Labiovelar variants

The letters for the labialized velar consonants are


variants of the non-labialized velar consonants:

ḳ ḫ k g

Consonant
ቀ ኀ ከ ገ
ḳʷ ḫʷ kʷ gʷ

Labialized variant
ቈ ኈ ኰ ጐ
Unlike the other consonants, these labiovelar ones
can be combined with only five different vowels:

ä i a e ǝ

ḳʷ ቈ ቊ ቋ ቌ ቍ
ḫʷ ኈ ኊ ኋ ኌ ኍ
kʷ ኰ ኲ ኳ ኴ ኵ
gʷ ጐ ጒ ጓ ጔ ጕ

Adaptations to other
languages

List order

Numerals

Punctuation

Unicode

In western culture

See also

Literature

References

External links

Last edited 5 hours ago by 70.184.205.166

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