Languages Spoken In Ethiopia And Their Origin
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Ethiopia is a land of ethnicity, of distinct culture, of color and festivities, and staunch people, belonging to over eighty different communities and speaking myriad languages. The Amharic people of Ethiopia, constituting the majority of the population of the country have been named after the language and place of Amhara, a subgroup of the original Semitic language. However, what is the origin of these Semitic language and what are the other languages spoken in Ethiopia?
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The Semitic languages have its origin amongst the various communities of Southwestern Asia some of whom are the Akkadians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Heres, Arabs and the Ethiopian Semites. The term 'Semitic' is a derivation from the name “Shem”, one of Noah’s sons as mentioned in the Holy Bible. The Semitic Language can be broadly divided into three main subgroups, namely Eastern Semitic, Northwestern or Western Semitic, and Southwestern or Southern Semitic. The languages spoken in Ethiopia have their origin in the last, which is the Southwestern or Southern Semitic Languages.
A number of languages are spoken in Ethiopia with most of their origin in the Semitic language, the majority being, the Amharic and the Tigrinya. The Amharic has evolved as the mother-tongue of the majority population in Ethiopia and also considered one of the official languages being taught in schools. However, the Amharic languages has differences with its ancestral origin of Semitic language, especially when it comes to Syntax and bear very little resemblance to the earliest form of Ehtiopian Semitic language, the Ge'ez. This dissimilarity has been largely attributed to the mingling and mixing of the Amharic with the Cushitic language of Ethiopia, some of which are still spoken in the country. The two languages of Tigriniya spoken by the Christians and Tigre spoken by the Muslims of Ethiopia are closer to the Semitic language in structure than their Amharic counterparts. Other languages spoken by the people of Ethiopia having their origin in the Cushitic are Oromo, Somali, Haddiya, Kembata and Sidamo, prevalent among quite a percentage of population. Apart from these, the Muslims of the Harar region speak Harari, which most probably has its origin in the Arabic Script and Gurage, the language spoken in the Southwest part of Addis Ababa.
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Languages Spoken In Ethiopia And Their Origin
