GE'EZ LANGUAGE

also spelled Geez, liturgical language of the Ethiopian church. Ge'ez is a Semitic language of the Southern Peripheral group, to which also belong the South Arabic dialects and Amharic, one of the principal languages of Ethiopia. Both Ge'ez and the related languages of Ethiopia are written and read from left to right, in contrast to the other Semitic languages. Extinct as a vernacular language, Ge'ez is the ancestor of the modern Tigrinya and Tigr languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia. The oldest known inscription in the language dates from the 3rd or 4th century and is written in a script that does not indicate vowels. Subsequent inscriptions found in the ancient Ethiopian capital of Aksum were written from the 4th through the 9th century in a script that does indicate vowels. The Bible was translated into Ge'ez between the 5th and 7th centuries. Although the language ceased to be spoken popularly sometime between 900 and 1200, it continues as a liturgical language; the period of classical Ge'ez literature was between the 13th and 17th centuries.