Ethiopian Semitic (also known as Ethiopian, Ethiosemitic or Ethiopic) is a language group, which together with Old South Arabian Old South Arabian is the term used for four closely related languages spoken in the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. These languages are distinct from Classical Arabic. Among the Semitic groups who did not migrate to the north, a distinct language type developed which is called Southwest Semitic. The Old South Arabian languages with its, forms the Western branch of the South Semitic South Semitic is one of the three macro-classifications in Semitic linguistics, the other two being East Semitic and West Semitic (e.g. Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew). Semitic itself is considered a branch of the larger Afro-Asiatic language family found, as indicated in the name, both in (northern and eastern) Africa and (southwestern) Asia. (See languages. Today, the name Ethiopian can be considered a misnomer, as the North languages are also found in Eritrea Eritrea (Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritriya), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and, with two of them being exclusively used there; however, the term came into use before Eritrea had separated from Ethiopia. Scientific research on Ethiopian Semitic is carried out in the fields of linguistics and Ethiopian Studies.

References

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. They constitute a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, the only branch of that family spoken in both Africa and Asia
East
Akkadian Akkadian (also Accadian, Assyro-Babylonian) is an extinct Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate. The name of the language is · Eblaite Eblaite is an extinct Semitic language, which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BCE in the ancient city of Ebla, at Tell Mardikh (تل مرديخ), between Alep and Hama, in western modern Syria. It is considered to be the second oldest written Semitic language after Akkadian
West The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. One widely accepted analysis, supported by semiticists like Robert Hetzron and John Huehnergard, divides the Semitic language family into two branches: Eastern and Western. The former consists of the extinct Eblaite and Akkadian languages, the latter of the majority · Central The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and Northwest Semitic (including Canaanite , Aramaic and Ugaritic)
Northwest The Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic language family. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today. The group is generally divided into three branches: Ugaritic , Canaanite (including Hebrew) and Aramaic. Semiticists often group the Northwest Semitic languages together
Canaanite The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines. All of them became extinct as native languages in the early 1st millennium CE, although Hebrew remained in continuous literary and
Hebrew 1United States Census 2000 PHC-T-37. Ability to Speak English by Language Spoken at Home: 2000. Table 1a Biblical Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelite inscriptions were written · Mishnaic · Medieval · Mizrahi · Yemenite Yemenite Hebrew, also referred to as Temani Hebrew, is the pronunciation system for Biblical and liturgical Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. Large numbers of Yemenite Jews brought the language with them when they fled to the State of Israel following a number of anti-Israel riots which culminated in violence against the Jews · Sephardi Sephardi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Sephardi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by contact languages such as Spanish, Ladino, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic · Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by languages with which it came into contact, such as Yiddish and various Slavic languages. It survives today as a separate religious dialect even alongside Modern Hebrew in Israel · Samaritan The Samaritan Hebrew language is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew as pronounced and written by the Samaritans. It is used in the reading tradition of the Samaritan Pentateuch · Modern 1United States Census 2000 PHC-T-37. Ability to Speak English by Language Spoken at Home: 2000. Table 1a
Phoenician Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called Pūt in Ancient Egyptian, Canaan in Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and Phoenicia in Greek and Latin. Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup; its closest living relative is Hebrew. The area where Phoenician was spoken includes modern-day Lebanon, Punic
Others Ammonite · Moabite · Edomite
Aramaic Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship. It was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period , the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, likely to have been the mother tongue of Jesus of
Western
Western Middle Jewish Middle Palestinian · Samaritan Samaritan Aramaic, or Samaritan, is the dialect of Aramaic used by the Samaritans in their sacred and scholarly literature. This should not be confused with the Samaritan Hebrew language of the Scriptures. It ceased to be a spoken language some time between the 10th and the 12th centuries · Christian Palestinian Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship. It was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period , the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, likely to have been the mother tongue of Jesus of
Eastern Eastern Aramaic languages have developed from the varieties of Aramaic that developed in and around Mesopotamia, as opposed to western varieties of the Levant. Historically, eastern varieties of Aramaic have been more dominant, due, in good part, to their political acceptance in the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid Persian empires. With the later loss Biblical Biblical Aramaic is the form of the Aramaic language that is used in the books of Daniel, Ezra and a few other places in the Hebrew Bible and should not be confused with the later Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible known as targumim . For the use of Aramaic in the Christian Bible, see the article on the Aramaic of Jesus · Hatran · Syriac Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries, the classical language of Edessa, preserved in a large body of Syriac literature · Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Jewish Babylonian Aramaic is the form of Middle Aramaic employed by Jewish writers in Babylonia between the 4th century and the 11th century CE. It is most commonly identified with the language of the Babylonian Talmud and of post-Talmudic (Geonic) literature, which are the most important cultural products of Babylonian Jewry. The most important · Chaldean Neo-Aramaic · Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is a modern Eastern Aramaic language. Assyrian Neo Aramaic is neither to be confused with Assyrian Akkadian, nor the Old Aramaic dialect that was adopted as a lingua franca in Assyria in the 8th century BC. Although this latter Aramaic is also an Aramaic language, it is incomprehensible to speakers of the modern language · Senaya · Koy Sanjaq Surat · Hértevin · Turoyo · Mlahsô · Mandaic · Judeo-Aramaic Judæo-Aramaic is a collective term used to describe several Hebrew-influenced Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic languages
Others Nabataean · Western Neo-Aramaic
Others Amorite · Ugaritic The Ugaritic language, discovered by French archaeologists in 1928, is known only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit, near the modern village of Ras Shamra, Syria. It has been extremely important for scholars of the Old Testament in clarifying Biblical Hebrew texts and has revealed more of the way in which ancient Israelite
Arabic SIL Ethnologue unites Canaanite and Arabic in a South Central Semitic group together with Aramaic forming Central Semitic, but it is more common to unite Aramaic and Canaanite as Northwest Semitic
Literary Classical Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendent used today throughout the Arab World in writing and in formal · Middle · Modern Standard Standard Arabic or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in formal speech. It is part of the Arabic macrolanguage
Dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties that diverge widely from one another—both from country to country and within a single country. A distinction is to be made between Classical/Standard Arabic and these "colloquial" variants. In sociolinguistic terms, Arabic in its native environment typically occurs in a &
Eastern
Arabian Peninsular Dhofari · Hejazi Hejazi Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Although, strictly speaking, there are two distinct dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the bedouins, and another by the urban population, the term most often applies to the urban variety, spoken in cities such as Jeddah, Mecca ,Ta'if, Rabigh, · Najdi · Omani Omani Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hajar Mountains of Oman and in a few neighboring coastal regions. It was formerly spoken by colonists in Kenya and Tanzania, but most or all of them have shifted to Swahili · Yemeni Yemeni Arabic is the name of a cluster of Arabic varieties spoken in Yemen, southwestern Saudi Arabia, and northern Somalia. It is generally considered a very conservative dialect cluster, as it has many classical features not found across most of the Arabic speaking world · Judeo-Yemenite Judeo-Yemeni Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken by Jews living or formerly living in Yemen. 98% of all speakers now live in Israel. The language is quite different from the non-Jewish Arabic spoken in Yemen. The language may be split into the subdialects of San`a, `Aden, Be:da, and Habban
Bedouin / Bedawi Eastern Egyptian and Peninsular Bedawi Bedawi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken by Bedouins mostly in eastern Egypt, and also in Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Syria. Dialects include Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic, South Levantine Bedawi Arabic, and North Levantine Bedawi Arabic ·
Others Central Asian Central Asian Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and currently facing extinction. It was once spoken among Central Asia's numerous settled and nomadic Arab communities, which inhabited areas in Samarqand, Bukhara, Qashqadarya, Surkhandarya , and Khatlon (present-day Tajikistan), as well as Afghanistan. The first wave (Khuzestani · Shirvani) · Egyptian Egyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo. Descended from the spoken Arabic brought to Egypt during the AD seventh-century Muslim conquest, its development was influenced mainly by the indigenous Copto- (Sa'idi Arabic) · Gulf Gulf Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language spoken around both shores of the Persian Gulf such as in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and parts of Oman. Some notable characteristics that set it apart from other Arabian dialects is the small number of Persian loanwords, and a pronunciation of k as ch (kalb " (Bahrani · Shihhi Shihhi Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Musandam Peninsula of Oman) · Levantine Levantine Arabic (Arabic: شامي‎[citation needed] and sometimes called Eastern Arabic) is a group of Arabic varieties spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip known as the Levant, i.e. in western Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and western Jordan. This corresponds to the western wing of the Fertile Crescent, which (Cypriot Maronite · Lebanese Lebanese or Lebanese Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in Lebanon. Lebanese Arabic is one of the Levantine varieties of Arabic. Lebanese dialect shares 80% of its vocabulary with Syrian Arabic, and about 75% with Jordanian and Palestinian Arabic dialects . French, Turkic, and Persian loanwords make less than 20% · Palestinian Palestinian Arabic is a Levantine Arabic dialect subgroup spoken by Palestinians and Arab Israelis. Rural varieties of this dialect exhibit several distinctive features; particularly the pronunciation of qaf as kaf, which distinguish them from other Arabic varieties. Palestinian urban dialects more closely resemble northern Levantine Arabic) · Iraqi (Judeo-Iraqi) · Sudanese Sudanese Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken throughout northern Sudan. It has much borrowed vocabulary from the local languages . This has resulted in a variety of Arabic that is unique to Sudan, reflecting the way in which the country has been influenced by both African and Arab cultures. Some of the tribes in the eastern part of Sudan still
Maghrebi Algerian · Saharan · Shuwa · Hassānīya · Andalusian · Libyan Arabic (Judeo-Tripolitanian) · Siculo-Arabic (Maltese) · Moroccan Arabic (Judeo-Moroccan) · Tunisian Arabic (Judeo-Tunisian)
Others Ancient North Arabian
South
Western South
Old South Sabaean · Minaean · Qatabanian · Hadramautic
Ethiopian
North Ge'ez · Tigrinya · Tigre · Dahlik
South
Amharic Argobba
Harari Silt'e (Wolane, Ulbareg, Inneqor) · Zay
Outer
n-group Gafat · Soddo
tt-group Mesmes · Muher · West Gurage (Masqan · Ezha · Chaha · Gura · Gumer · Gyeto · Ennemor · Endegen)
Eastern South
Bathari · Harsusi · Hobyot · Jibbali · Mehri · Soqotri
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to extend our work to languages and scripts of more global and market importance The solution to the first challenge is to find ways to embed these Ethiopic characters or letters such as into the mobile phone any mobile phone carried by the majority of mobile phone users inside and outside Ethiopia This requires developing a technology in processing fonts in some

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