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Ethio-Semitic (also Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic or Abyssinian) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. They form 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 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 Geʽez language has a literary history in its own Geʽez 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 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 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 is now Ethiopia, others northeast out of Africa into Canaan, Syria and the Mesopotamian valley.

Classification

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.

• Ethiopic
  • North Ethiopic
    • Geʽez (Classical Ethiopic) †
      • Dahalik
      • Tigre
      • Tigrinya
  • South Ethiopic
    • Transversal South Ethiopic
      • Amharic–Argobba
        • Amharic – Amharic is the working language of the Federal Government of Ethiopia.
        • Argobba
      • Harari–East Gurage
        • Harari
        • East Gurage
          • Silt'e (Silt'e; dialects Ulbare, Wolane, Inneqor)
          • Zway (Zay)
    • Outer South Ethiopic
      • n-group:
        • Gafat – extinct
        • Soddo (Kistane)
      • tt-group:
        • Mesmes – extinct (sometimes considered Inor)
        • Muher
        • West Gurage
          • Mesqan (Masqan)
          • Sebat Bet
            • Sebat Bet Gurage (dialects Chaha, Ezha, Gumer, Gura)
            • Inor (dialects Ennemor , Endegegn, Gyeto)

Hudson (2013)

Hudson (2013) recognises five primary branches of Ethiosemitic. His classification is below.

• Ethiosemitic
  • North
    • Geʽez
    • Tigre–Tigrinya
  • Gafat (†)
  • Soddo–Mesqan–Gurage
    • Soddo
    • Mesqan–Gurage
      • Mesqan
      • Gurage
        • Muher
        • Chaha–Inor
  • Silt'e–Zay–Harari
    • Harari
    • Silt'e, Zay
  • Argobba–Amharic

References

1. ^ "Languages of Sudan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
2. Diakonov, Igor Mikhailovich (1965). Semito-Hamitic Languages: An Essay in Classification. Moscow: Nauka, Central Department of Oriental Literature. p. 12. OCLC 576634823 – via Google Books.
3. "Amharic". Ethnologue.
4. "The world factbook". cia.gov. 18 September 2023.
5. Woldemikael, Tekle M. (April 2003). "Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea". African Studies Review. 46 (1): 117–136. doi:10.2307/1514983. JSTOR 1514983. S2CID 143172927.
6. Simeone-Senelle, Marie-Claude (December 2005). "Up todate Assessment of the results of the research on the Dahalik language (December 1996 - December 2005)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
7. Bender, L. (1997). "Upside Down Afrasian". Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere. 50: 19–34.
8. Hetzron, Robert (1972). Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification. Manchester University Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780719011238.
9. ^ Kitchen, Andrew; Ehret, Christopher; Assefa, Shiferaw; Mulligan, Connie J. (29 April 2009). "Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 276 (1665): 2703–2710. doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0408. PMC 2839953. PMID 19403539.
10. Weitzman, Steven (2017). The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-691-19165-2. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
11. Voigt, Rainer. "North vs. South Ethiopian Semitic" (PDF). portal.svt.ntnu.no. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-01-10. Retrieved 2019-06-12. Via Scribd
12. For its membership in North Ethiopic, see Leslau, Wolf (1970). "Ethiopic and South Arabian". Linguistics in South West Asia and North Africa. The Hague. p. 467.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), and Faber, Alice (2005). "Genetic Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages". The Semitic Languages. Routledge. pp. 6–7..
13. "Ethiopia to Add 4 More Official Languages to Foster Unity". Ventures Africa. Ventures. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
14. "Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia – Article 5" (PDF). Federal Government of Ethiopia. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
15. Hudson, Grover (2013). Northeast African Semitic: Lexical Comparisons and Analysis. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. 289. ISBN 9783447069830.

Bibliography

• Cohen, Marcel (1931). Études d'éthiopien méridional [Southern Ethiopian Studies] (in French). Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Hetzron, Robert (1972). Ethiopian Semitic: studies in classification. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Weninger, Stefan. "Vom Altäthiopischen zu den neuäthiopischen Sprachen" [From Old Ethiopian to the New Ethiopian Languages]. In Haspelmath, Martin; König, Ekkehard; Oesterreicher, Wulf; Raible, Wolfgang (eds.). Language Typology and Language Universals (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1762–1774.

• Ethiopian Semitic languages
• Semitic languages
• Western South Semitic languages
• Languages of Ethiopia
• Languages of Eritrea
• Subject–verb–object languages