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Ethiopia: Ge'ez script Eliza Codex, Ethiopian Biblical Manuscript, 16th century.

Ethiopia: Ge'ez script Eliza Codex, Ethiopian Biblical Manuscript, 16th century.

Ge'ez (also transliterated Gi'iz, and less precisely called Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It later became the official language of the Kingdom of Aksum and Ethiopian imperial court. Ge'ez is written with Ethiopic or the Ge'ez abugida, a script that was originally developed specifically for this language. In languages that use it, such as Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is called Fidäl, which means script or alphabet.

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