Ethiopian Semitic languages
Ethiopian Semitic (also Ethio-Semitic, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic or Abyssinian) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic, part of the Afroasiatic language family.

With 21,811,600 total speakers as of 2007, including around 4,000,000 second language speakers, Amharic is the most widely spoken language of Ethiopia (but second as a first language after Oromo) and second-most commonly spoken Semitic language in the world (after Arabic). Tigrinya has 7 million speakers and is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea. There is a small population of Tigre speakers in Sudan, and it is the second-most spoken language in Eritrea. The Ge'ez language has a literary history in its own Ge'ez script going back to the first century AD. It is no longer spoken but remains the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches, as well as their respective Eastern Catholic counterparts.

The "homeland" of the South Semitic languages is widely debated, with sources such as A. Murtonen (1967) and Lionel Bender (1997), suggesting an origin in Ethiopia and others suggesting the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. A study based on a Bayesian model to estimate language change concluded that the latter viewpoint may be more probable.

The modern Ethiopian Semitic languages all share subject–object–verb (SOV) word order as part of the Ethiopian language area, but Ge'ez had verb-subject-object (VSO) order in common with other Semitic languages spoken in what is now Yemen.
Q25295
family of languages
Concept
Q115
Ethiopia
LOC
Q986
Eritrea
LOC
Q1049
Sudan
LOC
Q38890
South Semitic languages
MEDIA
Q34049
Semitic
Concept
Q25268
Afroasiatic language family
Concept
Q125421
second language
Concept
Q478474
language of Ethiopia
ORG
Q33864
Oromo
MEDIA
Q13955
Arabic
Concept
Q34124
Tigrinya
Concept
Q34129
Tigre
MEDIA
Q35667
Ge'ez language
Concept
Q257634
Ge'ez script
Concept
Q179829
Ethiopian
ORG
Q844083
Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
ORG
Q49376
Eastern Catholic
ORG
Q31945
Arabian Peninsula
LOC
Q812540
Bayesian model
MISC
Q539808
subject–object–verb
MEDIA
Q257885
word order
Concept
Q992106
Ethiopian language area
MEDIA
Q166097
verb-subject-object
MEDIA
Q805
Yemen
LOC
Q163629
Ethiopian Semitic languages
Concept
2007-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2007
DATE
+7^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
7
NUMBER
+1967^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1967
NUMBER
+1997^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1997
NUMBER
instance of
country
subclass of
subclass of
subclass of
writing system
subclass of
part of