Judeo-Ge'ez

Judeo-Ge'ez (Ge'ez: የፈላሻዎች አፍ. Hebrew: יהודי אתיופי) is a historical Jewish dialect spoken by the ancient Beta Israel community that is derived from Biblical Hebrew, today it is mainly spoken by the Kahenate, and is an near extinct language. The dialect is used across several religious Ethiopian Jewish texts, rituals and holy chants. The dialect has historically been documented by numerous independent travellers and scholars who have visited the region at various times throughout history. This dialect represents a mixture of Geʽez and Hebrew and is primarily employed during religious ceremonies. It is believed to have developed around the 8th to 9th centuries AD, being diverged from Hebrew and Ge'ez. Today the language is written in both the Geʽez and Hebrew alphabet.

Usage

Judeo-Ge'ez is the liturgical subset dialect spoken by the Beta Israel community, and has been recorded to be in use throughout time by many independent travellers and scholars who went to the region at the several different points in history. Judeo-Ge'ez is used between the mixation of the languages of Geʽez and Hebrew and is mainly used in religious ceremonies and thought to be developed around the 8-9th century AD. This is characterised by the many Hebrew words and words with a Hebraic root is used within their religious text and significant religious chants, such words can be found in the several religious books such as The Orit (from Imperial Aramaic: אורייה, romanized: ˀorāytā, lit. 'written law, Torah') or Octateuch: the Five Books of Moses plus Joshua, Judges and Ruth. The Orit possesses very ancient Jewish rituals which is called from its original name, e.g. numerous Niddah laws, purification, etc. The rest of the Bible has secondary importance. They possess the Book of Lamentations which is directly taken from the traditional Hebrew canon hence has immense Hebraic influence, as well as of the Book of Jeremiah.

Many of the months that the Beta Israel followed had came from Hebrew words such as "Nisan", "Ab", "Lul" and "T'heshvan".

In the 1930s, Jones and Monroe argued that the chief Semitic languages of Ethiopia may suggest an antiquity of Judaism in Ethiopia. "There still remains the curious circumstance that a number of Abyssinian words connected with religion, such as the words for Hell, idol, Easter, purification, and alms, are of Hebrew origin. These words must have been derived directly from a Jewish source, for the Abyssinian Church knows the scriptures only in a Ge'ez version made from the Septuagint."

Deuterocanonical books that also make up part of the canon are Sirach, Judith, Esdras 1 and 2, the Books of Meqabyan, Jubilees, Baruch 1 and 4, Enoch, and the testaments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Many of these books differ substantially from the similarly numbered and named texts (such as "Maccabbees"), though some of the Ge'ez works are clearly dependent on those texts. Others appear to have different ancient literary and oral origins, which has a clear pathway link to the Hebraic language.