Geʽez (/ˈɡiːɛz/ GEE-ez;[4] Ge'ez: ግዕዝ, romanized: Gəʽəz, IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] ⓘ) is a script used as an abugida (alphasyllabary) for several Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

[citation needed] For the representation of sounds, this article uses a system that is common (though not universal) among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages.

After the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, variants of the South Arabian script arose, evolving in the direction of the later Geʻez abugida or alphasyllabary.

This evolution can be seen most clearly in evidence from inscriptions (mainly graffiti on rocks and caves) in the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia and in many parts of Eritrea mainly in the former province of Akele Guzay.

[6] By the first centuries CE,[clarification needed] what is called "Old Ethiopic" or the "Old Geʻez writing system" arose, an abjad written right-to-left[7] (as opposed to boustrophedon like ESA) with letters basically identical to the first-order forms of the modern vocalized writing system (e.g. "k" in the form of "kä").

[9][10] Linguist Roger Schneider has also pointed out, in an unpublished early 1990s paper, anomalies in the known inscriptions of Ezana of Axum that imply that he was consciously employing an archaic style during his reign, indicating that vocalization could have occurred much earlier.

[12] Kobishchanov, Peter T. Daniels, and others have suggested possible influence from the Brahmic scripts in vocalization, as they are also abugidas, and the Kingdom of Aksum was an important part of major trade routes involving India and the Greco-Roman world throughout classical antiquity.

[13][14] According to the beliefs of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the original consonantal form of the Geʻez fidäl was divinely revealed to Enos "as an instrument for codifying the laws", and the present system of vocalisation is attributed to a team of Aksumite scholars led by Frumentius (Abba Selama), the same missionary said to have converted King Ezana to Christianity in the 4th century.

[16] A separate tradition, recorded by Aleqa Taye, holds that the Geʻez consonantal writing system was first adapted by Zegdur, a legendary king of the Agʻazyan Sabaean dynasty held to have ruled in Abyssinia (Eritrea and Ethiopia) c. 1300 BCE.

On the other hand, emphatic P̣ait ጰ, a Geʻez innovation, is a modification of Ṣädai ጸ, while Psa ፐ is based on Tawe ተ.

Thus, there are 24 correspondences of Geʻez and the South Arabian writing system: Many of the letter names are cognate with those of Phoenician, and may thus be assumed for the Proto-Sinaitic script.

The diacritics for the vowels, u, i, a, e, ə, o, were fused with the consonants in a recognizable but slightly irregular way, so that the system is laid out as a syllabary.

It has been speculated by some scholars in African studies that the Geʽez script had an influence on the Armenian alphabet after it may have been introduced to Armenia at the end of the fifth century.

The Tigrinya abugida has all the basic consonants, the Geʽez labiovelar letter variants, except for ḫʷ (ኈ), plus the ones indicated below.

The Harari abugida uses the basic consonants except for ś (ሠ), ḫ (ኀ), ʽ (ዐ), p̣ (ጰ), ṣ (ጸ), and ḍ (ፀ).

ḥ from (ح) was assigned to (ሐ), ṫ from (ث) to (ሠ), gh from (غ) to (ኀ), kh from (خ) to (ኸ), ʽ from (ع) to (ዐ), dˁ from (ض) to (ጰ), and dh from (ذ) to (ፀ).