Ethiopian Semitic languages facts for kids

Ethiopian Semitic languages are a group of languages. People speak them mainly in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. They are part of the larger South Semitic language family. This family also includes languages like Arabic and Hebrew.

Important Languages

Amharic is the most widely used Ethiopian Semitic language. It is the official working language of Ethiopia. About 62 million people speak Amharic. This number includes people who learn it as a second language.

Tigrinya is another important language. Around 7 million people speak Tigrinya. It is the most spoken language in Eritrea.

The Ge'ez language is a very old language. It is no longer spoken in daily life. However, it is still used as a religious language. You can hear it in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches. Writings in Ge'ez are as old as the first century AD.

How Words Are Ordered

In most modern Ethiopian Semitic languages, sentences follow a specific word order. They usually put the subject first, then the object, and finally the verb. This is called subject–object–verb (SOV) order. For example, you might say "I apple eat."

However, the ancient Ge'ez language had a different order. It put the verb first, then the subject, and then the object. This is known as verb-subject-object (VSO) order. For example, it would be like saying "Eat I apple."

How They Are Grouped

Experts group Ethiopian Semitic languages into different branches. This helps us understand how they are related to each other. According to Grover Hudson (2013), there are five main groups:

• North Ethiosemitic: This group includes Ge'ez, Tigre, and Tigrinya.
• Gafat: This is a separate language.
• Soddo–Mesqan–Gurage: This group includes Soddo, Mesqan, Muher, Chaha, and Inor.
• Silt'e–Zay–Harari: This group includes Harari, Silt'e, and Zay.
• Argobba–Amharic: This group includes Argobba and Amharic.

Images for kids

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  Genealogy of the Semitic languages

See also

In Spanish: Lenguas etiópicas para niños