Task 1.1 - Ethiopic scripts (15/16)

Ethiopic scripts (Ge'ez)

The earliest Ge'ez inscriptions date to the 5th century BC. and it was developed from the Sabaean/Minean script (South Arabian alphabet). Like the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, the first Ethiopic scripts represented only consonants. It is thought that vowels started to appear in the 4th century AD. This distinguished the Ethiopic script from the South Arabian script. Vowels were written by adding a stroke to the consonant.

Image taken from : http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ethiopic.htm

One can notice that the writing direction is from left to right and therefore can be distinguished from Hebrew and Arabic. Each symbol represents a consonant and a vowel, it is thought that this was influenced by the Indians.

Ancient Script, 2014. Ethiopic. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ancientscripts.com/ethiopic.html. [Accessed 03 March 2014].

Omniglot, 2014. Ge'ez (Ethiopic) script. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ethiopic.htm. [Accessed 03 March 2014].