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44-529: According to Ethnologue , the dialects of SBG (Sebat Bet Gurage) are Chaha ( čäxa ), Ezha ( äža ), Gumer (or Gwemare, gʷämarä ), Gura, Gyeto (or Gyeta, gʸäta ), and Muher (or Mwahr, mʷäxǝr ). However, some of these are sometimes considered languages in their own right. In particular, Muher diverges so much from the other dialects that it is not necessarily even treated as a member of the Western Gurage group to which SBG belongs. This article focuses on

88-416: A coin of his predecessor, Wazeba of Axum . Linguist Roger Schneider has also pointed out in an unpublished early 1990s paper anomalies in the known inscriptions of Ezana of Axum that imply that he was consciously employing an archaic style during his reign, indicating that vocalization could have occurred much earlier. As a result, some believe that the vocalization may have been adopted to preserve

132-568: A modification of a system that is common (though not universal) among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages , but it differs somewhat from the conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet . When the IPA symbol is different, it is indicated in brackets in the charts. In addition to the complexity in verb morphology characteristic of all Semitic languages , SBG exhibits another level of complexity because of

176-549: Is käfätä-m . However, when the impersonal of this same verb is used, meaning roughly 'he was opened', two of the stem consonants are changed: ' kä fʷ ä č -i-m' . At least three different phonological processes play a role in SBG morphophonology. In most Ethiopian Semitic languages, gemination , that is, consonant lengthening, plays a role in distinguishing words from one another and in the grammar of verbs. For example, in Amharic ,

220-483: Is n . Other voiced consonants are not devoiced. Several morphological processes cause consonants to be labialized (rounded). For example, from the three-consonant verb root { gkr } 'be straight', there is the derived adjective gʷ ǝ kʷ ǝr 'straight'. Labial and velar consonants can be labialized: p → pʷ , b → bʷ , β → w , f → fʷ , k → kʷ , ḳ → ḳʷ , g → gʷ , x → xʷ . Several morphological processes cause consonants to be palatalized. For example,

264-823: 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 (consonantal 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

308-430: 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 ə ( / ɨ / ) form is used (the character in the sixth column). The letters for the labialized velar consonants are variants of the non-labialized velar consonants: Unlike

352-562: Is below. Ge%27ez alphabet Generally Ethio/Eritrean Semitic languages (e.g. Geʽez , Tigrinya , Amharic , Tigre , Guragigna , Harari , etc.), but also some Cushitic languages and Nilotic languages . Bilen , Meʼen , as one of two scripts in Anuak , are examples, and unofficially used in other languages of Ethiopia and languages of Eritrea . Geʽez ( / ˈ ɡ iː ɛ z / GEE -ez ; Ge'ez : ግዕዝ , romanized:  Gəʽəz , IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] )

396-409: Is complex. At least within verb stems, [n] and [r] may be treated as allophones of a single phoneme. The consonant is realized as [n] at the beginning of the word, when this is a "gemination" environment, and when it ends the penultimate syllable of the word. [r] appears otherwise. Banksira also argues that k is an allophone of x and b an allophone of β . Chaha is transcribed using

440-509: Is now Ethiopia , others northeast out of Africa into Canaan , Syria and the Mesopotamian valley. The division of Ethiopic into northern and southern branches was proposed by Cohen (1931) and Hetzron (1972) and garnered broad acceptance, but has been challenged by Rainer Voigt, who concludes that the northern and southern languages are closely related. Hudson (2013) recognises five primary branches of Ethiosemitic. His classification

484-667: Is occasionally used, ḥ ( ሐ ) is strongly favored. As Harari used the Arabic script before adopting the Geʽ;ez script, Arabic phonemes entered the language due to loanwords and language contact and were ascribed to specific consonant forms when the Geʽez script was first adopted for the language. ḥ from ( ح ) was assigned to ( ሐ ), ṫ from ( ث ) to ( ሠ ), gh from ( غ ) to ( ኀ ), kh from ( خ ) to ( ኸ ), ʽ from ( ع ) to ( ዐ ), dˁ from ( ض ) to ( ጰ ), and dh from ( ذ ) to ( ፀ ). It also uses

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528-642: Is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea. There is a small population of Tigre speakers in Sudan, and it is the second-most spoken language in Eritrea. The Ge'ez language has a literary history in its own Ge'ez script going back to the first century AD. It is no longer spoken but remains the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches , as well as their respective Eastern Catholic counterparts. The linguistic homeland of

572-992: 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. 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

616-662: The Brahmic scripts in vocalization, as they are also abugidas , and the Kingdom of Aksum was an important part of major trade routes involving India and the Greco-Roman world throughout classical antiquity . According to the beliefs of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church , the original consonantal form of the Geʻez fidäl was divinely revealed to Enos "as an instrument for codifying

660-598: The Ge'ez (Ethiopic) writing system. It was originally developed for the now-extinct Ge'ez language , and now serves as the orthography for Amharic and Tigrinya . Although there are still relatively few texts in the language, three novels have appeared in the Chaha dialect (by Sahlä Səllase and Gäbräyäsus Haylämaryam). To represent the palatalized consonants not found in Ge'ez, Amharic, or Tigrinya, modified characters were introduced to

704-733: The Hebrew , Arabic abjad and Greek numerals . It is reduced from these systems in that it lacks digits for the multiples of 100. For example, 475 is written ( ፬፻፸፭ , that is "4-100-70-5", and 83,692 is ( ፰፼፴፮፻፺፪ "8–10,000-30-6-100-90-2". The digits historically are Greek letters over- and under-lined with a vinculum . Ethiopian numerals were borrowed from the Greek numerals , possibly via Coptic uncial letters . Punctuation, much of it modern, includes Tone marks for multiline scored layout are: Ethiopic has been assigned Unicode 3.0 codepoints between U+1200 and U+137F (decimal 4608–4991), containing

748-532: The 7th and 6th centuries BCE, variants of the South Arabian script arose, evolving in the direction of the later Geʻez abugida or alphasyllabary. This evolution can be seen most clearly in evidence from inscriptions (mainly graffiti on rocks and caves) in the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia and in many parts of Eritrea mainly in the former province of Akele Guzay . The oldest known example of

792-441: The Chaha dialect, which has been studied more than the others. Unless otherwise indicated, all examples are Chaha. SBG has a fairly typical set of phonemes for an Ethiopian Semitic language. There is the usual set of ejective consonants as well as plain voiceless and voiced consonants. However, the Chaha language also has a larger set of palatalized and labialized consonants than most other Ethiopian Semitic languages. Besides

836-524: The Geʽez script is the Hawulti obelisk in Matara, Eritrea . By the first centuries CE, what is called "Old Ethiopic" or the "Old Geʻez writing system" arose, an abjad written right-to-left (as opposed to boustrophedon like ESA) with letters basically identical to the first-order forms of the modern vocalized writing system (e.g. "k" in the form of "kä"). There were also minor differences, such as

880-642: The Geʻez consonantal writing system was first adapted by Zegdur, a legendary king of the Agʻazyan Sabaean dynasty held to have ruled in Abyssinia (Eritrea and Ethiopia) c.  1300 BCE . Geʻez has 26 consonantal letters. Compared to the inventory of 29 consonants in the South Arabian writing system, the continuants ġ , ẓ , and South Arabian s [REDACTED] (Geʻez Sawt ሠ being derived from South Arabian s [REDACTED] ) are missing, as are z and ṯ ; these last two absences reflect

924-483: The Geʽez language: an abjad and, later, an abugida . The abjad, used until the advent of Christianity (ca. AD 350), had 26 consonantal letters: It was properly written right-to-left. Vowels were not indicated. 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

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968-565: The South Semitic languages is widely debated, with some sources, such as A. Murtonen (1967) and Lionel Bender (1997), suggesting an origin in Ethiopia, and others suggesting the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula . A recent 2009 study based on a Bayesian model suggested the latter, with Ethiosemitic being introduced from southern Arabia some 2,800 years ago. This statistical analysis could not estimate when or where

1012-561: The ancestor of all Semitic languages diverged from Afroasiatic, but it suggested that the divergence of East, Central, and South Semitic branches most likely occurred in the Levant . According to other scholars, Semitic originated from an offshoot of a still earlier language in North Africa , perhaps in the southeastern Sahara , and desertification forced its inhabitants to migrate in the fourth millennium BCE – some southeast into what

1056-529: The basic consonants except for ś ( ሠ ), ḫ ( ኀ ) and ḍ (ፀ). It also uses the ones indicated below. It does not use the Geʽez labiovelar letter variants. The Bilen abugida uses the basic consonants except for ś ( ሠ ), ḫ ( ኀ ) and ḍ (ፀ). It also uses the ones indicated below and the Geʽez labiovelar letter variants. The Harari abugida uses the basic consonants except for ś ( ሠ ), ḫ ( ኀ ), ʽ ( ዐ ), p̣ ( ጰ ), ṣ ( ጸ ), and ḍ (ፀ). Although h ( ሀ )

1100-506: The collapse of the interdental with the alveolar fricatives . On the other hand, emphatic P̣ait ጰ, a Geʻez innovation, is a modification of Ṣädai ጸ, while Psa ፐ is based on Tawe ተ. Thus, there are 24 correspondences of Geʻez and the South Arabian writing system: Many of the letter names are cognate with those of Phoenician , and may thus be assumed for the Proto-Sinaitic script . Two writing systems were used to write

1144-454: The consonantal letters for Geʽez, Amharic and Tigrinya, punctuation and numerals. Additionally, in Unicode 4.1, there is the supplement range from U+1380 to U+139F (decimal 4992–5023) containing letters for Sebat Bet and tonal marks, and the extended range between U+2D80 and U+2DDF (decimal 11648–11743) containing letters needed for writing Sebat Bet, Meʼen and Bilen . In Unicode 6.0, there

1188-405: The consonantal letters. The diacritics for the vowels, u, i, a, e, ə, 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 ( / ə / ), the so-called inherent vowel . The resulting forms are shown below in their traditional order. For most consonants there

1232-399: The fifth century. Some letters were modified to create additional consonants for use in languages other than Geʽez. This is typically done by adding a horizontal line at the top of a similar-sounding consonant. The vocalised forms are shown below. Like the other labiovelars, these labiovelars can only be combined with five vowels. The Amharic abugida uses all the basic consonants plus

1276-452: The intricate relationship between the set of consonants in the root of a verb and how they are realized in a particular form of that verb or a noun derived from that verb. For example, the verb meaning 'open' has a root consisting of the consonants { kft } (as it does in most other Ethiopian Semitic languages). In some forms we see all of these consonants. For example, the third person singular masculine perfective Chaha form meaning 'he opened'

1320-421: The laws", and the present system of vocalisation is attributed to a team of Aksumite scholars led by Frumentius ( Abba Selama ), the same missionary said to have converted King Ezana to Christianity in the 4th century. It has been argued that the vowel marking pattern of the script reflects a South Asian system such as would have been known by Frumentius. A separate tradition, recorded by Aleqa Taye, holds that

1364-494: The letter "g" facing to the right instead of to the left as in vocalized Geʻez, and a shorter left leg of "l", as in ESA, instead of equally-long legs in vocalized Geʻez (somewhat resembling the Greek letter lambda ). Vocalization of Geʻez occurred in the 4th century, and though the first completely vocalized texts known are inscriptions by Ezana, vocalized letters predate him by some years, as an individual vocalized letter exists in

Chaha language - Misplaced Pages Continue

1408-447: The letters based on ከ come in this order: ከ, ኰ, ኸ, ዀ . In Bilen, the sorting order is slightly different. The alphabetical order is similar to that found in other South Semitic scripts , as well as in the ancient Ugaritic alphabet , which attests both the southern Semitic h-l-ħ-m order and the northern Semitic ʼ–b–g–d ( abugida ) order over three thousand years ago. Geʽez uses an additional alphabetic numeral system comparable to

1452-508: The ones indicated below. Note: "V" is used for words of foreign origin except for in some Gurage languages , e.g. cravat 'tie' from French . The consonant symbol "ኸ" is pronounced as "h" in Amharic. For Geʽez, Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigre, the usual sort order is called halähamä (h–l–ħ–m). Where the labiovelar variants are used, these come immediately after the basic consonant and are followed by other variants. In Tigrinya, for example,

1496-457: The ones indicated below. Some of the Geʽez labiovelar variants are also used. The Tigrinya abugida has all the basic consonants, the Geʽez labiovelar letter variants, except for ḫʷ ( ኈ ), plus the ones indicated below. A few of the basic consonants are falling into disuse in Eritrea (as they used "ጸ" for "ፀ"). See Tigrinya language#Writing system for details. The Tigre abugida uses

1540-517: The other consonants, these labiovelar ones can be combined with only five different vowels: The Geʽez abugida has been adapted to several modern languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia, frequently requiring additional letters. It has been speculated by some scholars in African studies that the Geʽez script had an influence on the Armenian alphabet after it may have been introduced to Armenia at the end of

1584-492: The pronunciation of Geʻez texts due to the already moribund or extinct status of Geʻez, and that, by that time, the common language of the people were already later the Eritrean and Ethiopian Afro-Asiatic languages . At least one of Wazeba's coins from the late 3rd or early 4th century contains a vocalized letter, some 30 or so years before Ezana. Kobishchanov, Peter T. Daniels , and others have suggested possible influence from

1628-596: The pronunciation. The Geʽez script was derived from the Ancient South Arabian script which originated in the region centred around what is now Yemen . The earliest inscriptions of Semitic languages in Eritrea date to the 9th century BCE and are known as Epigraphic South Arabian (ESA), an abjad shared with contemporary kingdoms in the Southern part of the Arabian Peninsula . After

1672-420: The reverse process takes place. In the imperative/jussive form of one class of verbs, the first consonant in the root is depalatalized if this is possible. For example, the verb meaning 'return' (transitive) has the stem consonants { žpr } in other forms, for example, ž äpärä-m 'he returned', but the ž is depalatalized to z in the imperative z äpǝr 'return! (m.)'. The relationship among n , r , and l

1716-616: The script, such as using wedges on the tops. The original use of this was done in the New Testament published by the Ethiopian Bible Society , then for the entire Bible ; it has now become generally adopted. Ethiopian Semitic languages Ethio-Semitic (also Ethiopian Semitic , Ethiosemitic , Ethiopic or Abyssinian ) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia , Eritrea , and Sudan . They form

1760-633: The second consonant of a three-consonant verb root is doubled in the perfective: { sdb } 'insult', sä dd äbä 'he insulted'. In Chaha and some other SBG dialects (but not Ezha or Muher), gemination is replaced by devoicing. For example, the verb root meaning 'insult' is the same in SBG as in Amharic (with b replaced by β ), but in the perfective the second consonant becomes t in the non-geminating dialects: sä t äβä-m 'he insulted'. Only voiced consonants can be devoiced: b/β → p , d → t , g → k , bʷ → pʷ , ǧ → č , gʸ → kʸ , gʷ → kʷ , z → s , ž → š . The "devoiced/geminated" form of r

1804-445: The second-person feminine singular form of verbs in the imperfective and jussive/imperative palatalizes one of the root consonants (if one is palatalizable): { kft } 'open', tǝkäf t 'you (m.) open', tǝkäf č 'you (f.) open'. Dental and velar consonants can be palatalized: t → č , ṭ → č̣ , d → ǧ , s → š , z → ž , k → kʸ , ḳ → ḳʸ , g → gʸ , x → xʸ . r palatalizes to y . In one morphological environment

Chaha language - Misplaced Pages Continue

1848-420: The typical seven vowels of these languages, SBG has open-mid front ( ɛ ) and back vowels ( ɔ ). Some of the dialects have both short and long vowel phonemes, and some have nasalized vowels. The charts below show the phones of the Chaha dialect; exactly how many phonemes there are is a matter of controversy because of the complexity of SBG morphophonology . For the representation of SBG sounds, this article uses

1892-563: The western branch of the South Semitic languages , itself a sub-branch of Semitic , part of the Afroasiatic language family . With 57,500,000 total speakers as of 2019, including around 25,100,000 second language speakers, Amharic is the most widely spoken of the group, the most widely spoken language of Ethiopia and second-most widely spoken Semitic language in the world after Arabic . Tigrinya has 7 million speakers and

1936-419: Was also used in the past to write some Omotic languages , including Wolaytta , Bench , Hamer , and Kafa . 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

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