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I was unable to get away from work to go to church for Orthodox Good Friday so I'm livestreaming a service from Ethiopia. Most of it is in Ge'ez and I'm lamenting the fact that I don't understand any of it.
PS. Hope everyone on here who commemorates has a blessed Siklet. <3
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![r/translator - [Unknown->English] What does this say? I dont even know the language :’)](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/iKTwf0Y6_rzmZ1s2noeC73b0A7v9aQb-2YYNaweiozI.jpg)
Ge'ez died in natural way like other ancient language. It's evolved in to Amharic and tigregna. Even early Amharic and today's Amharic are very different almost different language.
My guess is that it just evolved into Tigrinya but maybe r/linguistics or r/languagelearning will have better answers for you that are actually based on something besides it being revealed to me in a dream.
It's like how all the Romance languages like Italian, Spanish, French, etc. all came from Latin, and it's funny since they still thought they were speaking Latin until they realized everyone was saying it differently.
The thing is, unlike the Romance languages modern Ethiopian Semitic languages are no longer considered to be descended from Ge'ez. Tigrinya and Tigre are considered sister languages to Ge'ez, which together (along with smaller languages like Dahalik) make up the North Ethiosemitic branch (or descended from it).
But Ge'ez' extinction does seem to follow Classical Latin's in that the people who spoke the language either died out or adopted other languages and cultures and were absorbed. The exact details of how the end of the Aksumites unraveled is still a mystery.
I find the linguistic history really fascinating the more I look into it.
I honestly don't understand why Tigrinya isn't considered a descendant of Ge'ez. There isn't much convincing evidence that separates it from Ge'ez imo. (you can see my post on why I think that)
I think it is because of presence of evidence that the experts concluded it isn't descended from it. It's like asking why Portuguese isn't descended from Spanish.
My impression is that assuming the other languages descended from Ge'ez was unscientific or based on lacking evidence. I think it's the timeline of when both language were prevalent, and Ge'ez' clear influence as the liturgical and scholarly language, that misled earlier scholars into thinking Ge'ez might have been the ancestor.
No, what I'm saying is that the evidence for it is not that strong. It is possible that Tigrinya originated from a sister language to Ge'ez, but this is neither supported by historical records, nor does it make sense geographically. The exisitng evidence can easily be explained by dialectal differences which we know existed in Ge'ez. What I've seen claimed is that Tigrinya isn't descended from the the standard codified Ge'ez we know from later texts, which makes sense knowing that the romance languages are descended from Vulgar Latin and not the Latin used in the Catholic Church.
Geez was a holy language and written language amongst the elite. Not spoken language. I think it's way older than axumnite time.
It's not dead, it evolved into amharic and tigrenga. Similar to old English and modern English.
Ge’ez came from the Middle East, most likely from Sabeans. Some of those people came to Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia, and mixed with the indigenous locals like Agaw people, that’s how Tigrigna and Amharic came about. Perhaps the original Sabean language died out due to arabization?
I think Amharic is more distinct because it’s influenced by more populations but I’m not 100% sure, I just know Tigrigna is closer to ge ez than Amharic.
Geez died ? It is widely spoken among clergymen
Ge’ez was never a language to begin with
It’s mainly used in churches nobody uses ge’ez to communicate