[4] Charles A. Ferguson proposed the Ethiopian language area, characterized by shared grammatical and phonological features in 1976.

[5] According to data from 2021 from Ethnologue,[6] the largest first languages are: Arabic, which also belongs to the Afroasiatic family, is spoken in some areas of Ethiopia.

Recently the Ethiopian Government announced that Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya are adopted as official federal working languages of Ethiopia.

Italian is still spoken by some parts of the population, mostly among the older generation, and is taught in some schools (most notably the Istituto Statale Italiano Omnicomprensivo di Addis Abeba).

[23][24] In terms of writing systems, Ethiopia's principal orthography is the Ge'ez script, employed as an abugida for several of the country's languages.

The Ethiopic script first came into usage in the sixth and fifth centuries BC as an abjad to transcribe the Semitic Ge'ez language.

[25] Ge'ez now serves as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

[citation needed] Amharic has been the official working language of Ethiopian courts and its armed forces, trade and everyday communications since the late 12th century.

[33] Furthermore, Amharic is considered a holy language by the Rastafari religion and is widely used among its followers worldwide.

Recently the Ethiopian Government announced that Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya are adopted as official federal working languages of Ethiopia.

[citation needed] Italian is still spoken by some parts of the population, mostly among the older generation, and is taught in some schools (most notably the Istituto Statale Italiano Omnicomprensivo di Addis Abeba).