Writing System
Ge'ez is written with Ethiopic or the Ge'ez abugida, a script that was originally developed specifically for this language. In languages that use it, such as Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is called Fidäl, which means script or alphabet.
Ge'ez is read from left to right.
The Ge'ez script has been adapted to write other languages, usually ones that are also Semitic. The most widespread use is for Amharic in Ethiopia and Tigrinya in Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is also used for Sebatbeit, Me'en, Agew and most other languages of Ethiopia. In Eritrea it is used for Tigre, and it is often used for Blin, a Cushitic language. Some other languages in the Horn of Africa, such as Oromo, used to be written using Ge'ez but have switched to Latin-based alphabets.
It also uses 4 symbols for labialized velar consonants, which are variants of the non-labialized velar consonants:
Basic sign | ḳ | ḫ | k | g |
---|---|---|---|---|
ቀ | ኀ | ከ | ገ | |
Labialized variant | ḳʷ | ḫʷ | kʷ | gʷ |
ቈ | ኈ | ኰ | ጐ |
Read more about this topic: Ge'ez Language
Famous quotes containing the words writing and/or system:
“In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some monied corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in the mask and robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody. But through every clause and part of speech of the right book I meet the eyes of the most determined men; his force and terror inundate every word: the commas and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble,can go far and live long.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“An avant-garde man is like an enemy inside a city he is bent on destroying, against which he rebels; for like any system of government, an established form of expression is also a form of oppression. The avant-garde man is the opponent of an existing system.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)