View source for Ethio-Semitic languages

{{Short description|Family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan}}
{{Infobox language family
|name = Ethio-Semitic<!-- distinct from broader Afro-Semitic coinage for the Semitic languages spoken in Africa, with emphasis on Egypto-Semitic: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218127410027854 --> 
|altname = Ethiosemitic, Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiopic, Abyssinian
|region = [[Ethiopia]], [[Eritrea]], [[Sudan]]<ref name="SD">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/25/country/SD/| title=Languages of Sudan|publisher=Ethnologue| accessdate=24 February 2024}}</ref>
|familycolor = Afro-Asiatic
|fam2 = [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
|fam3 = [[West Semitic languages|West Semitic]]
|fam4 = [[South Semitic languages|South Semitic]]
| fam5  = [[South Semitic languages|Southwestern]]
|child1 = North Ethiopic<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Classification-of-Ethiosemitic-languages-according-to-Hudson-2013_fig1_363263199|title=Classification of Ethio Semitic languages according to Hudson 2013|publisher=Research Gate|access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363263199|title=Issues in mapping and classifying the Semitic languages of Ethiopia|publisher=Tekabe Legesse Felake|access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> 
|child2 = South Ethiopic
|glotto = ethi1244
|glottorefname = Ethiosemitic
}}

'''Ethio-Semitic''' (also '''Ethiopian Semitic''', '''Ethiosemitic''', '''Ethiopic''' or '''Abyssinian'''<ref name=Z2-5>{{cite book|first=Igor Mikhailovich |last=Diakonov |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHoOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Abyssinian+languages%22 |title=Semito-Hamitic Languages: An Essay in Classification |via=[[Google Books]] |location=Moscow |publisher=Nauka, Central Department of Oriental Literature |date=1965 |oclc=576634823 |pages=12}}</ref>) is a [[language family|family of languages]] spoken in [[Ethiopia]], [[Eritrea]], and [[Sudan]].<ref name="SD">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/25/country/SD/| title=Languages of Sudan|publisher=Ethnologue| accessdate=24 February 2024}}</ref> They form the western branch of the [[South Semitic languages]], itself a sub-branch of [[Semitic languages|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 [[Languages of Ethiopia|language of Ethiopia]] and second-most widely spoken Semitic language in the world after [[Arabic]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Amharic |work=Ethnologue |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/amh/25 |publisher=[[Ethnologue]]}}</ref><ref name="The world factbook">{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ethiopia/ |title=The world factbook |website=cia.gov|date=18 September 2023 }}</ref> [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]] has 7 million speakers and is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Woldemikael |first1=Tekle M. |title=Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea |journal=African Studies Review |date=April 2003 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=117–136 |doi=10.2307/1514983 |jstor=1514983 |s2cid=143172927}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/PDF/Publications/Senelle/DahlikBilan.pdf |title=Up todate Assessment of the results of the research on the Dahalik language (December 1996 - December 2005) |date=December 2005 |first=Marie-Claude |last=Simeone-Senelle |access-date=2019-06-12 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023215/http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/PDF/Publications/Senelle/DahlikBilan.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Tigre language|Tigre]] is the second-most spoken language in Eritrea, and has also a small population of speakers in Sudan. 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 Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian]] and [[Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church]]es, as well as their respective [[Eastern Catholic]] counterparts.

==Development==
{{expandsection|forms of the South Semitic hypothesis, contact with Cushitic languages|date=April 2025}}
The unity of the Ethio-Semitic languages has been usually assumed. They, however, do not share many common innovations. A possibility was entertained by [[Marcel Cohen]] and [[Harold C. Fleming]] that they could represent two separate branches of Semitic that had independently migrated to Africa. Current research regardless outlines reasons to consider the Ethiopian Semitic languages a single group, and notes an absence of reasons for any alternative classification within Semitic.<!--that is, the lack of proposals where e.g. South ES would be more closely related to anything else in Semitic-->
* [[Agent noun]] formation with a vowel pattern ''CaCāCi'', e.g. [[Semitic root|√kʼtʼl]] 'to kill' → *kʼatʼāli 'killer';<ref name="BK2010"/><ref name="SWGeneral">{{cite encyclopedia|first=Stefan|last=Weninger|chapter=Ethio-Semitic in General|encyclopedia=The Semitic Languages: an International Handbook|editor-first=Stefan|editor-last=Weninger|publisher=de Gruyter Mouton|year=2012|pages=1114–1123}}</ref>
* An innovative verb for '[[copula (linguistics)|to exist]]', *hallawa;<ref name="BK2010"/><ref name="SWGeneral"/>
* An infinitive ending *-ot;<ref name="SWGeneral"/>
* Shared [[semantic shift]]s in several Semitic roots, e.g.<ref name="Kogan2015">{{cite book|first=Leonid|last=Kogan|year=2015|title=Genealogical Classification of Semitic|chapter=Lexical isoglosses and the historical unity of Ethiopian Semitic|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-1-61451-726-9}}</ref>
** √blʕ 'to eat' < Proto-Semitic √blʕ 'to swallow' (replaces PS √ʔkl, which only survives in a derived noun *ʔVkl- 'cereal');
** √lḫsʼ 'bark' < PS √lḫsʼ 'to draw off, peel' (PS √kʼlp survives only in [[Zay language|Zay]] ''kʼəlfi'');
** √ngŝ 'to be king' < PS √ngɬ 'to push, press for work' (replaces PS *[[malik]] 'king', which only survives in a broken plural form *ʔamlāk, meaning 'god');
** *ŝʼaħāy 'sun' < PS √ɬʼħw 'to shine' (replaces PS *ɬamš-);
* Shared innovative vocabulary, such as √kʼyħ 'to be red', √mwkʼ 'to be warm', √nbr 'to sit', √ndd 'to burn', *ħamad- 'ashes', *marayt- 'earth'.<ref name="Kogan2015"/>

A unique "causative-reflexive" prefix *ʔasta-, combining two Proto-Semitic causative prefixes *ʔa-, *š- and the reflexive-passive marker *-t-, is productive in Ge'ez and has left occasional remnants in Tigre, Tigrinya and Amharic, but is not known as an independent prefix in the smaller languages. A similar but shorter innovative formation *ʔat- has arisen in the languages other than Ge'ez, and it is possible *ʔasta- was a Proto-Ethio-Semitic innovation that later lost productivity.<ref name="BK2010"/>

All Ethiopian Semitic languages have [[ejective consonant]]s, and the more northern languages have [[broken plural]]s, which were formerly seen as evidence for their connection with the [[Modern South Arabian]] languages. Today these are however considered to be archaic features inherited from [[Proto-Semitic]], which were lost in most or all of the Central Semitic languages such as Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew.<ref name="SWGeneral"/>

==South Semitic Urheimat==
The [[linguistic homeland]] of the South Semitic languages was widely debated, with some sources, such as A. Murtonen (1967) and Lionel Bender (1997),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bender |first=L. |date=1997 |title=Upside Down Afrasian |journal=Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere |volume=50 |pages=19–34}}</ref> suggesting an origin in Ethiopia, and others suggesting the southern portion of the [[Arabian Peninsula]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |title=Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1972 |isbn=9780719011238 |pages=122 |language=EN}}</ref>

More recently (2009), a study based on a [[Bayesian model]] suggested a South Arabian origin, with Semitic languages being introduced from [[southern Arabia]] some 2,800 years ago.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last1=Kitchen |first1=Andrew |first2=Christopher |last2=Ehret |first3=Shiferaw |last3=Assefa |first4=Connie J. |last4=Mulligan |date=29 April 2009 |title=Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=276 |number=1665 |pages=2703–2710 |pmid=19403539 |pmc=2839953 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2009.0408}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=":0" /> According to other scholars, [[Proto-Semitic language|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 [[Mesopotamia|Mesopotamian]] valley.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weitzman |first1=Steven |title=The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-19165-2 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c3SYDwAAQBAJ&dq=The+Origin+of+the+Jews:+The+Quest+for+Roots+in+a+Rootless+Age&pg=PA69 |access-date=11 January 2023}}</ref>

== Subclassification ==
A primary division of Ethiopic into northern and southern branches was proposed by Cohen (1931) and Hetzron (1972) and garnered broad acceptance, but has not been followed as such in more recent studies.<ref name="SWGeneral"/> Rainer Voigt<ref>{{cite web |title=North vs. South Ethiopian Semitic |url=http://portal.svt.ntnu.no/sites/ices16/Proceedings/Volume%204/Rainer%20Voigt%20-%20North%20vs.%20South%20Ethiopian%20Semitic.pdf |last=Voigt |first=Rainer |website=portal.svt.ntnu.no |access-date=2019-06-12 |archive-date=2014-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110231342/http://portal.svt.ntnu.no/sites/ices16/Proceedings/Volume%204/Rainer%20Voigt%20-%20North%20vs.%20South%20Ethiopian%20Semitic.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> argues that features traditionally used to define the Northern and Southern group are not exclusive to them but also found in some languages of the other group, while others do not cover the entire group. Bulakh and Kogan<ref name="BK2010">{{cite journal|first1=Maria|last1=Bulakh|first2=Leonid|last2=Kogan|title=The Genealogical Position of Tigre and the Problem of North Ethio-Semitic Unity|year=2012|journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft|issue=160|pages=273–302}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=Maria|last1=Bulakh|first2=Leonid|last2=Kogan|title=More on Genealogical Classification of Ethiopian Semitic|year=2014|journal=Babel und Bibel|issue=7}}</ref> agree on rejecting North Ethiopian Semitic, and point to several unique features particularly in Ge'ez and Tigre; they continue to support the broad Southern group, but not Hetzron's Transversal Southern grouping of Amharic–Argobba and Harari–East Gurage.

[[File:Semitic languages genealogy.jpg|thumb|400px|Genealogy of the Semitic languages]]

{{tree list}}
* '''Ethiopic'''
** [[Geʽez]] (Classical Ethiopic)<ref>For its membership in North Ethiopic, see {{cite book|first=Wolf |last=Leslau |chapter=Ethiopic and South Arabian |title=Linguistics in South West Asia and North Africa |location=The Hague |date=1970 |pages=467}}, and {{cite book|first=Alice |last=Faber |chapter=Genetic Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages |title=The Semitic Languages |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2005 |pages=6–7}}.</ref> †
** Tigre–Dahalik?
*** [[Tigre language|Tigre]]
*** [[Dahalik language|Dahalik]]
** [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]
** '''South Ethiopic'''
*** Amharic–Argobba
**** [[Amharic]] – Amharic is the working language of the Federal Government of Ethiopia.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ethiopia to Add 4 More Official Languages to Foster Unity |url=http://venturesafrica.com/ethiopia-to-add-4-more-official-languages-to-foster-unity/ |website=Ventures Africa |date=4 March 2020 |publisher=Ventures |access-date=2 February 2021 |last1=Emi |first1=Ishioma }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia – Article 5 |url=http://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/et/et007en.pdf |publisher=Federal Government of Ethiopia |access-date=31 January 2018}}</ref>
**** [[Argobba language|Argobba]]
*** Harari–East Gurage
**** [[Harari language|Harari]]
**** [[East Gurage languages|East Gurage]]
***** [[Silt'e language|Silt'e]] (Silt'e; dialects [[Ulbare language|Ulbare]], [[Wolane language|Wolane]], [[Inneqor language|Inneqor]])
***** [[Zay language|Zway]] (Zay)
*** Outer South Ethiopic
**** n-group:
***** [[Gafat language|Gafat]] – extinct
***** [[Soddo language|Soddo]] (Kistane)
**** tt-group:
***** [[Mesmes language|Mesmes]] – extinct (sometimes considered Inor)
***** [[Muher language|Muher]]
***** [[West Gurage languages|West Gurage]]
****** [[Mesqan language|Mesqan]] (Masqan)
****** Sebat Bet
******* [[Sebat Bet Gurage language|Sebat Bet Gurage]] (dialects [[Chaha language|Chaha]], [[Ezha language|Ezha]], [[Gumer language|Gumer]], [[Gura language|Gura]])
******* [[Inor language|Inor]] (dialects Ennemor [Inor proper], Endegegn, Gyeto)
{{tree list/end}}

=== Hudson (2013) ===
Hudson (2013) recognises five primary branches of Ethiosemitic. His final classification is below.{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=289}}

{{tree list}}
* '''Ethiosemitic'''
** North
*** [[Geʽez]]
*** Dahalik–Tigre–Tigrinya
**** Dahalik–Tigre
***** [[Dahalik language|Dahalik]]{{efn|Although Dahalik is not included on the main tree chart on page 289, Hudson notes on page 9 that other linguists have demonstrated a close relationship between it and Tigre and tentatively classifies it as having split from Tigre when examining Hetzron (1972)'s classification on page 45.{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=9}}{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=45}}}}
***** [[Tigre language|Tigre]]
**** [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]
** [[Gafat language|Gafat]] (†)
** Soddo–Mesqan–Gurage
*** [[Soddo language|Soddo]]{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=35}}
**** Dobbi
**** Galila
**** Gogot
*** Mesqan–Gurage
**** [[Mesqan language|Mesqan]]{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=35}}
***** Urib
**** [[Gurage languages|Gurage]]
***** [[Muher language|Muher]]
***** Chaha–Inor
****** [[Chaha language|Chaha]]{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=35}}
******* Ezma
******* Gumer
******* Gura
****** [[Inor language|Inor]]{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=35}}
******* Ener
******* Gyeta
******* Indeganya
******* Meger
******* [[Mesmes language|Mesmes]]
** Siltʼe–Zay–Harari
*** [[Harari language|Harari]]
*** Siltʼe–Zay
**** [[Siltʼe language|Siltʼe]]{{sfn|Hudson|2013|pp=35}}
***** Inneqor
***** Ulbareg
***** Wolane
**** [[Zay language|Zay]]
** Argobba–Amharic
*** [[Argobba language|Argobba]]
*** [[Amharic]]
{{tree list/end}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Marcel |date=1931 |title=Études d'éthiopien méridional |language=fr |trans-title=Southern Ethiopian Studies |location=Paris}}
* {{cite book |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |date=1972 |title=Ethiopian Semitic: studies in classification |location=Manchester |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Weninger |first=Stefan |chapter=Vom Altäthiopischen zu den neuäthiopischen Sprachen |language=de |trans-chapter=From Old Ethiopian to the New Ethiopian Languages |title=Language Typology and Language Universals |editor1-first=Martin |editor1-last=Haspelmath |editor2-first=Ekkehard |editor2-last=König |editor3-first=Wulf |editor3-last=Oesterreicher |editor4-first=Wolfgang |editor4-last=Raible |volume=2 |pages=1762–1774 |location=Berlin |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]]}}
* {{cite book|first=Grover |last=Hudson |date=2013 |title=Northeast African Semitic: Lexical Comparisons and Analysis |location=Wiesbaden |publisher=Harrassowitz |isbn=9783447069830 |page=289}}

{{Languages of Ethiopia}}
{{Languages of Eritrea}}
{{Semitic languages |expanded=Western South}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ethiopian Semitic languages| ]]
[[Category:Semitic languages]]
[[Category:Western South Semitic languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Ethiopia]]
[[Category:Languages of Eritrea]]
[[Category:Subject–verb–object languages]]