History in Trade and Writing
Semeticized Agew peoples founded the first great empire in North-East Africa at Axum. They left written records and imposing ruins, and were in touch with literate societies of South Arabia and the East Mediterranean. Much of their history is known.
The writing system of Ge’ez is interestingly linked to Greek and Semitic language. Written from left to right, vowel marks in each letter indicated specific pronunciation. Greek and Ge’ez parallel texts appear in history, and it is evident that Ge’ez is a variation of Greek, with influence by South Arabian characters. Readers of Ethiopic and its modern sister languages have a full syllabary, giving direct insight into pronunciation, inflections, and meanings.
Script was used to write church services, record keeping, and manuscripts. One of these was the Christian bible, which took more than 200 years to translate from Greek to Ge’ez. Why spend so much time and effort on the translation? Again, we can see the huge impact that Christianity had on the Ethiopian people of Africa.
As the culture of Axum declined, several trading cities and city-staes with a unique Muslim-African culture began to appear. These tribes developed along the East African Coast, or present-day Somalia to Mozambique. This was the beginning of the Swahili civilization, named after the tongue that was spoken.
The writing system of Ge’ez is interestingly linked to Greek and Semitic language. Written from left to right, vowel marks in each letter indicated specific pronunciation. Greek and Ge’ez parallel texts appear in history, and it is evident that Ge’ez is a variation of Greek, with influence by South Arabian characters. Readers of Ethiopic and its modern sister languages have a full syllabary, giving direct insight into pronunciation, inflections, and meanings.
Script was used to write church services, record keeping, and manuscripts. One of these was the Christian bible, which took more than 200 years to translate from Greek to Ge’ez. Why spend so much time and effort on the translation? Again, we can see the huge impact that Christianity had on the Ethiopian people of Africa.
As the culture of Axum declined, several trading cities and city-staes with a unique Muslim-African culture began to appear. These tribes developed along the East African Coast, or present-day Somalia to Mozambique. This was the beginning of the Swahili civilization, named after the tongue that was spoken.