Studies in the Ethiopic Syllabary

Abstract

Opening Paragraph The Ethiopian script as known to us today is a quasi-syllabic script, each character consisting of one consonant followed by a vowel (or zero). This system developed in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.; we are, however, in possession of some inscriptions in which the early purely consonantal form of the Ethiopian alphabet has survived. When the Semites from South Arabia crossed the Bābel Mandeb and immigrated into that part of North-East Africa which is today the Tigre province of Ethiopia and Southern Eritrea, the South Arabian alphabet which they brought with them was, perhaps, the most important innovation they introduced into Africa. This South Arabian alphabet belongs to the Southern branch of the Semitic script, but we are still not quite certain at what time it severed its connexion with the Northern alphabet.