Ethio-Semitic languages

Ethio-Semitic (also Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic or Abyssinian[2]) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan.

[5][6] There is a small population of Tigre speakers in Sudan, and it is the second-most spoken language in Eritrea.

It is no longer spoken but remains the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches, as well as their respective Eastern Catholic counterparts.

[8] A recent 2009 study based on a Bayesian model suggested the latter, with Ethiosemitic being introduced from southern Arabia some 2,800 years ago.

[9] According to other scholars, Semitic originated from an offshoot of a still earlier language in North Africa, perhaps in the southeastern Sahara, and desertification forced its inhabitants to migrate in the fourth millennium BCE – some southeast into what is now Ethiopia, others northeast out of Africa into Canaan, Syria and the Mesopotamian valley.