Ge'ez, the scriptural and liturgical language of The Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Also called Ancient Ethiopic, Ge’ez belongs to the South Peripheral branch of the Semitic languages. It was in use by at least the 3rd or 4th century ad and became extinct as a spoken language by the 14th century. It still survives as a literary language, however, and classical Ge’ez literature flourished from the 13th to 17th century. The modern language Tigrigna, spoken in northern Ethiopia, is descended from spoken Ge’ez. Early writing in Ge’ez, examples of which survive from the 3rd or 4th century, were written in a consonant-only alphabet of South Semitic origin. In later inscriptions of the 4th century and after, a system of vowel notation was introduced, with vowel sounds indicated by lengthening or shortening strokes or adding a stroke, hook, or circle. Today this alphabet is also used to write the modern languages of Ethiopia.

The earliest Ge’ez inscriptions were written with lines running alternately from right to left and left to right (boustrophedon writing, from the Greek for “oxplow”). Later, under Greek influence and in contrast to other Semitic scripts, writing from left to right prevailed.