ETHIOPIAN LANGUAGE

THE, or more accurately the Geez language, is the old official and ecclesiastical language of Aby in i a, introduced into that kingdom by settlers from South Arabia. In the fourteenth century it was supplanted as the language of the Christian Church of Aby in i a by the Amharic. It is a Semitic language resembling Aramaic and Hebrew as well as Arabic. It has a Christian literature of some importance. The principal work is a translation of the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, to which are appended some non-canonical writings, such as the Shepherd of Hermas and the Book of Enoch. The language is to some extent represented by the modern dialects of Tigre, and by that spoken by some nomadic tribes of the Sudan. For the Ethiopian or Aby in i an Church, see ABYSS IN I A and Copr.