History Of Writing In Ethiopia

Pre-Aksumite Era /5^th C. B.C.-1^st A.D/

It is strongly believed that the Ethiopian Alphabets are derived from those of South Arabians. A cursive consonantic alphabet was used in south Arabia prior to the 5^th C.B.C. Its precise origin is not known but the language was a south Semitic one.

In the second half of the 5^th C.B.C the monumental South Arabic writing was elaborated from this cursive South Arabic writing. It is assumed that the script had about 29 characters. Soon after it was adapted in Ethiopia. They were written in monumental south Arabic characters in two groups.

• The first group was written in Sabean e.g. Altar from Hawleti(JE 110).
• The second group was written in Sabean script, but the spoken language was not Sabean.

e.g. Inscription in relief from Yeha (JE 199) These inscriptions were normally “boustrophedon” i.e. the first line was written from the right to the left, the second line from the left to the right and so on. This system continued up to ca 300 B.C. Later on the inscriptions were written from left to the right only. During the “pre-Aksumite-era” B.C to 1st C.A.D./ the monumental writing disappeared and the cursive remained.

Aksumite Era(1^st – 7^th A.D.)

Around the middle of the 2^nd A.D. the Proto Ethiopia writing was derived from the south Arabic cursive writing. It is believed that the writing took most of the previous Sabean characters and gradually modified some of the features. It was only consonant. All its definite characteristics were lacking at this stage.

e.g. • Inscription on a schist tablet (JE 3077)

• Inscription bearing the name of King Gadar on a bronz object from Addi Galamo, ca 200 A.D.(JE 5)
• Inscription on a schist tablet (JE 3959)

The Official inscriptions were resumed after about five centuries of interruption. They were inscribed in “Ancient Ethiopia”. This ancient Ethiopia inscription also adapted few characters from other languages / sources/. The texts were either vocalized or not vocalized.

e.g. • Inscribed pot from Aksum,(JE 4155)

• Inscription of Ezana after his conversion to Christianity.

The original consonantic alphabet began to be vocalized and became syllabary. They were written from left to right since the 30 A.D.

Gradually the “ancient Ethiopia” script began to replace the Greek inscription. This “ancient Ethiopia” or Geez which was a south Semitic language was used in northern Ethiopia during the Aksumite times. The earliest written documents, since around the second half of the 2^nd C.A.D. were very short and limited. The royal inscriptions of the 4^th c. were longer and they show the language we know today. It ceased to be spoken around the 10h c, but remained the literary and religious language. We do not know much about the spoken language.

Zagwe Dynasty(11^th – 13^th C.)

From this period, some Geez inscriptions of King Lalibela have been recently discovered in the same site.

Solomonic Dynasty(13^th – 20^th C.)

Under the rule of King Amda Tsion I (1314-1344), the first secular text was written in Geez. It was the “History of the wars of Amda Tsion. Besides the Geez texts some “Royal war songs were written in “ancient Amharic language, dated to the 14^th-15^th C.

The syllabary was the same for Geez and Amharic in the 16th C. Amharic started to be occasionally used in religious texts. But it was only under the rule of Emperor Theodros (1855-1868) that it became used for all the secular texts. The Geez language remained used in religious fields.

Source: National Museum of Ethiopia