Agaw

The Agaw languages, also called Central Cushitic, are a branch of the Afroasiatic family spoken across the Ethiopian highlands from Lake Tana to Lasta, with Bilen reaching into Eritrea and eastern Sudan. Their main members include Awngi, Xamtanga, Bilen and Qimant, whose Qwara and Kayla dialects were once spoken by the Beta Israel.

Agaw speech forms the chief substratum of Amharic and the other Ethio-Semitic languages, which absorbed much of its vocabulary as Semitic spread through the highlands. In the twelfth century Agaw chiefs of Lasta founded the Zagwe dynasty, which ruled Christian Ethiopia until 1270.

Its best-remembered king, Lalibela, gave his name to the rock-hewn churches, and succession followed the Agaw custom of brother succeeding brother. After the Zagwe fall the Agaw kept their tongues in remote highland districts such as Wag and the country around Lake Tana.