Geʽez

Geʽez
ግዕዝ Gəʿəz
Pronunciation	[ˈɡɨʕɨz]
Native to	Ethiopia, Eritrea
Extinct	before 10th century to 14th century[1][2] Remains in use as a liturgical language.[3]
Language family	Afroasiatic Semitic West Semitic South Semitic Ethiopic North Ethiopic Geʽez
Writing system	Geʽez script
Official status
Official language in	Liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Catholic Church,[3] Ethiopian Catholic Church and Beta Israel[4]
Language codes
ISO 639-2	gez
ISO 639-3	gez
Glottolog	geez1241

Geʽez (/ˈɡiːɛz/;^[5][6] ግዕዝ, Gəʿəz IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] (listen^ⓘ)) is an ancient Ethiopian Semitic language. The language came from what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea.

1. ↑ Gene Gragg 1997. The Semitic Languages. Taylor & Francis. Robert Hetzron ed. ISBN 978-0-415-05767-7. p. 242.
2. ↑ De Lacy O'Leary, 2000 Comparative grammar of the Semitic languages. Routledge. p. 23.
3. 1 2 "No longer in popular use, Geʽez has always remained the language of the Church", [CHA]
4. ↑ "They read the Bible in Geez" (Leaders and Religion of the Beth Israel); "after each passage, recited in Geez, the translation is read in Kailina" (Festivals). [PER], publication date 1901–1906.
5. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
6. ↑ "Geez". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.