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Geʽez is the liturgical language of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo, Ethiopian Catholic and Eritrean Catholic Christians and the Beta Israel (Falasha Jews), and is used in prayer and in scheduled public celebrations.
Geʽez (Ge'ez: ግዕዝ, romanized: Gəʽəz, IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] ⓘ) is a script used as an abugida (alphasyllabary) for several Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
- left-to-right
- Abugida
- c. 1st century CE to present (abjad until c. 4th century CE)
Zera Yacob Amha Selassie ( / ˈzɪərə jæˈkoʊb /; Geʽez: ዘርዐ ያዕቆብ አምሃ ሥላሴ; born 17 August 1953) is the grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie and son of Amha Selassie of the Ethiopian Empire. He has been head of the Imperial House of Ethiopia since 17 February 1997 as recognized by the Crown Council of Ethiopia .
- Nunu Getaneh (divorced)
- Medferiashwork Abebe
- Phonology
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Writing System
- History and Literature
- Sample
1.1. Vowels
1. a /æ/< Proto-Semitic *a; later e 2. u /u/< Proto-Semitic *ū 3. i /i/< Proto-Semitic *ī 4. ā /aː/< Proto-Semitic *ā; later a 5. e /e/< Proto-Semitic *ay 6. ə /ɨ/< Proto-Semitic *i, *u 7. o /o/< Proto-Semitic *aw Also transliterated as ä, ū/û, ī/î, a, ē/ê, e/i, ō/ô.
2.1. Nouns
Ge'ez distinguishes two genders, masculine and feminine, which in certain words is marked with the suffix -t. These are less strongly distinguished than in other Semitic languages, in that many nouns not denoting persons can be used in either gender: in translated Christian texts there is a tendency for nouns to follow the gender of the noun with a corresponding meaning in Greek. There are two numbers, singular and plural. The plural can be constructed either by suffixing -ātto a word, or...
3.1. Noun Phrases
Noun phrases have the following overall order: (demonstratives) noun (adjective)-(relative clause) Adjectives and determiners agree with the noun in gender and number: Relative clauses are introduced by a pronoun which agrees in gender and number with the preceding noun: As in many Semitic languages, possession by a noun phrase is shown through the construct state. In Ge'ez, this is formed by suffixing /-a/ to the possessed noun, which is followed by the possessor, as in the following example...
3.2. Prepositional Phrases
Ge'ez is a prepositional language, as in the following example (Lambdin 1978:16): There are three special prepositions, /ba=/ 'in, with', /la=/ 'to, for', /'əm=/ 'from', which always appear as proclitics on the following noun, as in the following examples: These proclitic prepositions in Ge'ez are similar to the inseparable prepositions in Hebrew.
3.3. Sentences
The normal word order for declarative sentences is VSO. Objects of verbs show accusative case marked with the suffix /-a/: Questions with a wh-word ('who', 'what', etc.) show the question word at the beginning of the sentence:
Ge'ez is written with Ethiopic or the Ge'ez abugida, a script that was originally developed specifically for this language. In languages that use it, such as Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is called Fidäl, which means script or alphabet. Ge'ez is read from left to right. The Ge'ez script has been adapted to write other languages, usually ones tha...
Although it is often said that Ge'ez literature is dominated by the Bible including the Deuterocanonical books, in fact there are many medieval and early modern original texts in the language. Most of its important works are also the literature of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which include Christian liturgy (service books, prayers, hymns...
The first sentence of the Book of Enoch: 1. ቃለ፡ በረከት፡ ዘሄኖክ፡ ዘከመ፡ ባረከ፡ ኅሩያነ፡ ወጻድቃነ፡ እለ፡ ሀለዉ፡ ይኩኑ፡ 2. በዕለተ፡ ምንዳቤ፡ ለአሰስሎ፡ ኵሉ፡ እኩያን፡ ወረሲዓን። 3. Ḳāla barakat za-Henok zakama bāraka ḫəruyāna waṣādəḳāna ʾəlla hallawu yəkunu 4. baʿəlata məndābe laʾasassəlo kʷəllu ʾəkuyān warasiʿān 5. "Word of blessing of Henok, wherewith he blessed the chosen and righteous ...
Although Ge'ez ceased to be a commonly spoken language by the 13th century, it continues to be used as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It was later adapted to write other Ethiopian languages, including Amharic, now the national language of contemporary Ethiopia.
