256
Berichte und Kommentare
Anthropos 79.1984
Language, Geography, and History: The
Case of Ethiopian Semitic
Jack Fellman
A glance at a linguistic map of Semitic Ethiopia reveals
an interesting picture. A generally continuous bloc of three
Semitic languages runs from Eritrea through the north,
central, and southern Ethiopian highlands to the capital
Addis Ababa, and includes, from north to south, Tigré,
Tigrinya, and Amharic. Further, at each extremity of the
Amharic bloc, one finds a relic Semitic language: in the west,
Gafat near Debre Markos, recently extinct; and in the east,
Argobba, spoken in the general vicinity of Ankober, and
clearly obsolescent. Moreover, outside the Amharic bloc,
one further finds tiny Semitic islands floating in a vast
Cushitic sea of languages: to the east, some 350 miles from
Addis Ababa, Harari, spoken only within the walled city of
Harar, and clearly obsolescent; just outside of Harar, another
patch of the above-mentioned Argobba, recently extinct; and
100 miles southwest of Addis Ababa, in a small region
bounded by Lake Zway and the Omo and Awash Rivers, a
cluster of some twelve Ethiopian Semitic tongues, plus their
dialects and subdialects, usually divided in the literature into
three mutually unintelligible groups, Northern, Eastern, and
Western Gurage. The historical reasons for this rather
strange positioning, patterning, and clustering of languages
are not known. Indeed, the history of the Ethiopian Semitic
group is shrouded in obscurity, their documentation begin
ning only in the modern period. In this, Ethiopia and her
languages are not different from other African countries and
their tongues. Further, the linguistic relations among the
Ethiopian Semitic tongues are also somewhat puzzling.
While, taken as a group, they show many family resemblan
ces and form a generally homogeneous, compact, and clearly
delimited branch of Semitic, each tongue has its own
distinctive and independent identity, and - with the excep
tion of Argobba, which is clearly a conservative dialect of
Amharic - none of the languages are mutually comprehen
sible. Tigré is closest to Tigrinya; Gafat to Northern Gurage;
Harari to Eastern Gurage. The other languages are sui
generis. To correlate the above geographical and linguistic
data and to find a satisfactory explanation for them is the
purpose of this brief paper. This will be done by postulating
certain historical developments. It is hoped that our diachro
nic reconstruction will help elucidate the synchronic situa
tion outlined above, and that thus the ties between language,
geography, and history in the Ethiopian Semitic context will
become patent.
It is understood in the literature that the Ethiopian
Semitic group of languages is not indigenous to Ethiopia.
Rather, Semitic was imported, via merchants and colonizers,
into northern Ethiopia via Yemen some time in the second
millennium B.C. and superimposed on a native Cushitic-
speaking (especially Agaw) population. A Semitic-Cushitic
symbiosis developed, with the Semitic component dominant
linguistically. From this symbiosis ultimately arose Classical
Ethiopie (Ge’ez), attested in writing from the beginning of
the first millennium. Ge’ez was the official language of the
Axumite Empire (third-eighth centuries), and as such was
used and/or understood over a rather large section of the
north Ethiopian plateau region and adjacent areas. As in
similar circumstances elsewhere, spoken Ge’ez ultimately
developed local dialect clusters. The northern ones under
went Bedawye and northern Agaw influence and produced
Tigré, while the southern ones underwent strong Agaw
influence and produced Tigrinya. As time went on, these two
tongues grew increasingly apart, as the two areas in which
they are used are physically (lowland vs. highland), ecologi
cally (nomadic vs. agriculturalist), and culturally-religiously
(Islamic vs. Christian) different.
With the decline of the Axumite Empire, especially
pursuant to the rise of Islam, north Ethiopia and her
languages sank in importance - although Ge’ez, having died
meanwhile in speech, remained for centuries as the official
and written language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Still, the thrust of Ethiopian society moved southward, to the
central and southerly parts of the highland plateau. Semitic
speaking colonizers, soldiers, traders, clergy, royalty, and so
on moved south, and ultimately new dialect clusters were
formed, again on various Cushitic (and again especially
Agaw) substrata. In particular, those Semitic speakers who
migrated to the southwest underwent Southern Agaw and
Sidamo influence and produced the Gafat-Northern Gurage
cluster; those who migrated to the southeast underwent
Southern Agaw, Somali, and Galla influence and produced
the Harari-Eastern Gurage cluster; those who went into the
deepest south underwent Agaw, Galla, and strong Sidamo
influence and produced the Western Gurage cluster; while
those who stayed closest to the northern areas underwent
Agaw and Sidamo influence and produced the Amharic-
Argobba cluster. The last cluster was, throughout the
centuries following, the dominant one, Amharic being the
language of royal court and aristocracy, continually expan
ding and influencing other tongues. This common Amharic
superstratum coupled with the common Agaw substratum
kept Ethiopian Semitic within common family lines.
Everywhere the above clusters were generally continu
ous in their respective areas - indeed it may well be that all of
Semitic Ethiopia formed a continuous dialect area. This too
could not but keep the several tongues within common
linguistic limits. Of particular interest is that the Gafat-
Northern Gurage and the Harari-Eastern Gurage clusters
ultimately converged in the south with the Western Gurage
cluster. This led to these groups becoming, at least superfi
cially, more similar one to another. However, the repeated
upheavals in medieval Ethiopia - and especially the sixteenth-
century war against the Moslems and the subsequent Galla
invasions - completely convulsed the Ethiopian plateau, and,
what is of most relevance here, the above dialect continua. In
particular, the Gafat-Northern Gurage and the Harari-
Eastern Gurage continua were to all intents and purposes
destroyed. Gafat became completely isolated from Northern
Gurage, and similarly Harari from Eastern Gurage. Thus, the
tongues grew increasingly apart. This, besides the disappe
arance of their connecting dialect links, led to the languages’
complete mutual unintelligibility. By contrast, the now
isolated Northern, Eastern, and Western Gurage cluster
began growing even closer, as the three groups were now
thrown together as Semitic outposts in a vast Cushitic area.