Getatchew Haile (Amharic: ጌታቸው ኀይሌ, romanized: Gētachew Ḫäyilē; April 19, 1931 – June 10, 2021)[1] was an Ethiopian-American philologist widely considered the foremost scholar of the Ge'ez language[2] and one of its most prolific (he published more than 150 books and articles).

[3] He was acknowledged for his contributions to the field with a MacArthur Fellows Program "genius" award[4][5] and the Edward Ullendorff Medal from the Council of the British Academy.

[7][8][9] Haile was born in the rural village of Tute in Shenkora (part of the province of Shoa in the Ethiopian Empire).

[10] As a boy, he attended an Ethiopian Orthodox Church school, where he learned Ge'ez liturgical language and "devoted his energies to reading and understanding the texts.

The title of his dissertation was Das Verbalsystem im Äthiopischen: Ein morphologischer Vergleich mit den orientalischen semitischen Sprachen.

According to Getachew Haile, on the other hand, he was the victim of a premeditated and unprovoked assassination attempt by a Derg death squad.

After the BBC World Service and Voice of America publicized him as a prisoner of conscience worldwide, the Ethiopian government released him.

[22][23] In addition to his writings and translations of a variety of works on Ethiopia and the Orthodox church, he produced two two-volume books on the history and beliefs of Abba Estifanos of Gwendagwende, one in 2006[24] and the other in 2011.

[7][11] On another occasion, Ullendorff wrote that Haile's work represented the "most meticulous and original study of Ethiopic literature" ever done, and "on a scale and depth never before attempted.