Vocalized Ge'ez script (Ethiopic abugida)
Escritura ge'ez vocalizada (abugida etiópica)
- Date
- c. 340 · confidence medium
- Place
- Aksum, Tigray, Ethiopia
- Credited to
- Scribes of the kingdom of Aksum, reign of Ezana
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A reform adding fixed vowel marks to each consonant, transforming a consonantal alphabet into an abugida. It remains in use for Amharic, Tigrinya and other languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
It derives from the ancient South Arabian alphabet; unvocalised Ge'ez inscriptions date from the 1st century CE. Whether the vocalisation was influenced by Indic scripts is debated.
What it led to
- Christian literature in Ge'ez
- the writing of Amharic and Tigrinya
- one of the few African scripts in continuous use for 1,700 years