Geʽez

Geʽez (/ˈɡiːɛz/;[5][6] ግዕዝ, Gəʿəz IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] (listen), and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient Ethiopian Semitic language. The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Geʽez
ግዕዝ Gəʿəz
Pronunciation	[ˈɡɨʕɨz]
Native to	Ethiopia, Eritrea
Extinct	before 10th century to 14th century[1][2] Remains in use as a liturgical language.[3]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic South Semitic Ethiopic North Ethiopic Geʽez
Writing system	Geʽez script
Official status
Official language in	Liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Catholic Church,[3] Ethiopian Catholic Church and Beta Israel[4]
Language codes
ISO 639-2	gez
ISO 639-3	gez
Glottolog	geez1241
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Today, Geʽez is used as the main liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church and Eritrean Catholic Church, and the Beta Israel Jewish community.

The closest living languages to Geʽez are Tigre and Tigrinya with lexical similarity at 71% and 68%, respectively.[7] Most linguists believe that Geʽez does not constitute a common ancestor of modern Ethio-Semitic languages but became a separate language early on from another hypothetical unattested common language.[8][9][10]