Note: This article contains special characters.

The of Ge'ez, the abugida script used to write the Ge'ez language is descended from the South Arabian alphabet. The details of the process of derivation, however, are controversial. As Stuart Munro-Hays notes, "the arguments advanced for the origins of the Ge'ez script would fill a small book." The earliest known inscriptions in Ge'ez are dated to the 5th century BCE in the city, located in present day Eritrea. The first vocalized Ge'ez appears about the time of king Ezana (4th century), when the alphabet was modified to include vowels, and some writers credit him with this change. However, Roger Schneider has pointed to anomalies in the known inscriptions which suggest that this vocalization occurred at an earlier time, and that Ezana was consciously employing an archaic style during his reign. Drawing of the 16 and 12 characters Wadi el-Hol inscriptions The Proto-Canaanite (also Proto-Sinaitic) alphabet is identified as the prototype of the Semitic alphabets that, mostly via the successful Phoenician alphabet became the ancestor of most scripts in use today. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1400 BC and is related to the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ... The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the paleo-Hebrew variety of the Phoenician alphabet, the more commonly known Hebrew alphabet having been adapted from the Aramaic alphabet under the Persian Empire. ... The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in BrāhmÄ« are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. ... 11th century book in Syriac Serto. ... The Avestan alphabet was created in the 3rd century AD for writing the hymns of Zarathustra (a. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ... Old Italic refers to a number of related historical alphabets used on the Italian peninsula which were used for some non-Indo-European languages (Etruscan and probably North Picene), various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles. ... Representation of the Gothic alphabet surrounding its inventor Ulfilas The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed to Wulfila used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ... Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... photograph of Botorrita 1 (both sides), 1st century BC. The Iberian scripts (or Iberian alphabet) are two scripts (or two styles of the same script) found on the Iberian peninsula, the Northeast and South Iberian script. ... The Celtiberian script was used to write the Celtiberian language, an extinct Continental Celtic language. ... The South Arabian alphabet branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. ... The Meroitic script is an alphabet of Egyptian (Hieroglyphic) origin used in Kingdom of Meroë. Some scholars, e. ... Nearly all the segmental scripts used around the globe were apparently derived from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet. ... An abugida or alphasyllabary is a writing system composed of signs (graphemes) denoting consonants with an inherent following vowel, which are consistently modified to indicate other vowels (or, in some cases, the lack of a vowel). ... Geez (also spelt Giiz, translitered Gə‘əz, and pronounced ) is an ancient language that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands of the Horn of Africa as the language of the peasantry. ... The South Arabian alphabet branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. ... (6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) Events Demotic becomes the dominant script of ancient Egypt Persians invade Greece twice (Persian Wars) Battle of Marathon (490) Battle of Salamis (480) Athenian empire formed and falls Peloponnesian War... Ezana of Axum was ruler of the Axumite Kingdom from about 320 to 350 AD. Ezana succeeded his father Ella Amida while still a youth and his mother, Sofya served as regent. ...

Likewise, the origins for the method of vocalizing the Ge'ez script is unclear. Some writers assume that the Greek alphabet served as the model. Yuri Kobishchanov has embraced the theories of W. Jones and Karl Richard Lepsius, who believed that the vocalization was patterned after Indian models. Kobishchanov cites a 1915 paper by A. Grohmann, which emphasized the similarities between Ge'ez and the ancient Indian Brahmi and Kharoshti alphabets. Note: This article contains special characters. ... Carl Richard Lepsius (December 23, 1810 - July 10, 1884) was a German professor of Egyptology and linguist. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... The Kharoṣṭhī script, also known as the Gāndhārī script, is an ancient alphabetic script used by the Gandhara culture of historic northwest India to write the Gandhari and Sanskrit languages (the Gandhara kingdom was located along the present-day border between Afghanistan and Pakistan between the Indus River and the...

Amharic in Ethiopia and Tigrigna in Eritrea and Ethiopia use modified forms of the Ge'ez abugida. Other languages in the Horn of Africa were also historically written using Ge'ez, such as Oromo language and Somali, but these have generally migrated to Latin-based orthographies. Amharic (አማርኛ ’amarñña) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia. ... Tigrigna (or ትግሪኛ) is a Semitic language spoken in Eritrea, where it is the official language, and in parts of Ethiopia and Israel. ... Nations of the Horn of Africa. ... The Oromo are an African ethnic group found in Ethiopia and to a lesser extent Kenya. ...

Basic signs

There are 26 basic consonant signs,

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

Compared to the inventory of 29 consonants in the South Arabian alphabet, continuants of ġ, ẓ and the interdental fricatives (ḏ, ṯ) are missing, as well as South Arabian s (Ge'ez s ሠ being derived from South Arabian š ). On the other hand, emphatic p̣ ጰ, a Ge'ez innovation, is a modification of ṣ ጸ, while p ፐ is based on t ተ. Ge'ez ṣ́ ፀ corresponds to South Arabian ḍ . The South Arabian alphabet branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. ... () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents the voiced velar fricative (IPA ). In name and shape, it is a variant of . ... () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents a = pharyngealized voiced dental or alveolar fricative (IPA or ). In name and shape, it is a variant of . ... () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents the voiced dental fricative (IPA ). In name and shape, it is a variant of . ... () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents the voiceless dental fricative (IPA ). In name and shape, it is a variant of . ... Samekh is the fifteenth letter of the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets. ... Shin or Sin is the 21st letter of the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets. ... () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents a pharyngealized voiced alveolar plosive (IPA ). In name and shape, it is a variant of . ...

Thus, there are 24 correspondences of Ge'ez and the South Arabian alphabet (corresponding glyphs of the Phoenician alphabet are shown where extant): The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1400 BC and is related to the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ...

h

l

ḥ

m

s

r

ś

ḳ

b

t

ḫ

n

ʾ

k

w

ʿ

z

y

g

d

ṭ

ṣ

ṣ́

f

Ge'ez

ሀ

ለ

ሐ

መ

ሠ

ረ

ሰ

ቀ

በ

ተ

ኀ

ነ

አ

ከ

ወ

ዐ

ዘ

የ

ገ

ደ

ጠ

ጸ

ፀ

ፈ

South Arabian

Phoenician

Phoenician Lamedh. ... Phoenician Sin. ... Phoenician Res. ... Phoenician Qoph. ... Phoenician Taw. ... Phoenician Nun. ... Phoenician Ayin. ... Phoenician Zayin. ... Phoenician Yodh. ... Phoenician Gimel. ...

Simple syllables

Genesis 29.11–16 in Ge'ez

The consonants can be combined with seven vowels, Download high resolution version (519x768, 138 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (519x768, 138 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... This article is about Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). ...

ä, u, i, a, ə, e, o,

the inherent vowel being ä (Proto-Semitic *a). An eighth modification expresses diphtongs -wa or -oa. Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical proto-language of the Semitic languages. ...

Variants

The labiovelars ḳ^w ቈ, ḳ^hw ቘ, ḫ^w ኈ, k^w ኰ and g^w ጐ are variants of ḳ ቀ, ḳ^h ቐ, ḫ ኀ, k ከ and g ገ.

Some letters have variants for use in Amharic: v ቩ, č ቸ, ž ዠ, ǧ ጀ and č̣ ጨ are affricated variants of b በ, t ተ, z ዘ, d ደ and ṭ ጠ; ñ ኘ is palatalized n ነ; ḳ^h ቐ, k^h ኸ, dd ዸ ^{[citation needed]} and gg ጘ ^{[citation needed]} are aspirated^{[citation needed]} variants of ḳ ቀ, k ከ, d ደ and g ገ. Amharic (አማርኛ) is a Semitic language spoken in Northern Central Ethiopia, where it is the official language. ...

ፘ ryä; ፙ myä; ፚ fyä.

Numerals

Unicode

Ge'ez (or "Ethiopic") has been assigned Unicode 3.0 codepoints U+1200 – U+137F (decimal 4608–4991), containing the basic syllable signs for Ge'ez and Amharic, punctuation and numerals; additionally, in Unicode 4.1, there is the "Supplement" range U+1380 - U+ 139F (decimal 4992-5023 ), containing syllables for Sebatbeit and tonal marks, and the "Extended" range U+2D80 - U+2DDF (decimal 11648-11743), containing syllable signs needed for writing Sebatbeit Me'en and Bilin. Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... Geez (also spelt Giiz, translitered Gə‘əz, and pronounced ) is an ancient language that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands of the Horn of Africa as the language of the peasantry. ... Amharic (አማርኛ) is a Semitic language spoken in Northern Central Ethiopia, where it is the official language. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

Literature

• Gabriella F. Scelta, The Comparative Origin and Usage of the Ge’ez writing system of Ethiopia (2001) [1]

External links

• ancientscripts.com
• Unicode specification
  • Ethiopic
  • Ethiopic Supplement
  • Ethiopic Extended

Special characters