Ethiopic

Ethiopic, or Ethio-Semitic, is the western branch of the South Semitic languages, carried to the Horn of Africa from South Arabia in the first millennium BC and laid over a Cushitic substratum. Ge'ez, the tongue of Aksum, became its literary and liturgical standard.

Amharic, the largest member, was named Lisane Negus, the tongue of the king, and served the Solomonic dynasty restored in 1270 as the language of court, army and trade, written in the fidal abugida adapted from Ge'ez. Harari was the language of the Muslim trading city of Harar, recorded in an Arabic-based script and carried by the merchants and preachers of the Adal sultanate.

Through the wars of the sixteenth century and the Oromo migrations that followed, Amharic held its place as the lingua franca of the Christian empire, while Gurage and Harari communities preserved their own speech.