Editing Amharic (section)

=== Linguistic development theory ===

Early [[Afroasiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]] populations speaking proto-[[Semitic languages|Semitic]], proto-[[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] and proto-[[Omotic languages|Omotic]] languages would have diverged by the fourth or fifth millennium BC. Shortly afterwards, the proto-Cushitic and proto-Omotic groups would have settled in the Ethiopian highlands, with the proto-Semitic speakers crossing the [[Sinai Peninsula]] into [[Asia]]. A later return movement of peoples from [[South Arabia]] would have introduced the Semitic languages to Ethiopia.<ref name="Levine2728" /> Based on archaeological evidence, the presence of Semitic speakers in the territory date to some time before 500 BC.<ref name="eoaamhara">{{cite book|last1=Appiah|first1=Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0XNvklcqbwC&pg=PA96|title=Encyclopedia of Africa|author2=Henry Louis Gates|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-533770-9|page=96}}</ref> Linguistic analysis suggests the presence of Semitic languages in Ethiopia as early as 2000 BC. Levine indicates that by the end of that millennium, the core inhabitants of Greater Ethiopia would have consisted of dark-skinned agropastoralists speaking Afro-Asiatic languages of the Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic branches.<ref name="Levine2728">{{cite book|first=Donald N.|last=Levine|title=Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZHeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|year=2014|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-22967-6|pages=27–28|quote=The analysis of linguistic distributions suggests that the proto-Ethiopians of the third millennium B.C. spoke languages derived from a single stock, that is known as Hamito-Semitic or Afro-Asiatic. This ancestral language probably originated in the eastern Sahara, before the desiccation of that region... the homeland of Afro-Asiatic may have been in southwest Ethiopia. Wherever the origins of Afro-Asiatic, it seems clear that peoples speaking proto-Cushitic and proto-Omotic separated as groups with distinct languages by the fifth or fourth millennium BC and began peopling the Ethiopian plateaus not long after. Proto-Semitic separated at about the same time or somewhat earlier and passed over into Asia Minor... it seems reasonable to follow I. M. Diakonoff in assuming that the Semitic-speakers moved from the Sahara across the Nile Delta over Sinai, so that the presence of Semitic-speaking populations in Ethiopia must be attributed to a return movement of Semitic-speakers into Africa from South Arabia... As a base line for reconstructing the history of Greater Ethiopia, then, we may consider it plausible that by the end of the third millenium<!--sic, according to Google Books snippet view--> B.C. its main inhabitants were dark-skinned Caucasoid or "Afro-Mediterranean" peoples practicing rudimentary forms of agriculture and animal husbandry and speaking three branches of Afro-Asiatic – Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic.}}</ref>

Other scholars such as Messay Kebede and Daniel E. Alemu argue that migration across the Red Sea was defined by reciprocal exchange, if it even occurred at all, and that Ethio-Semitic-speaking ethnic groups should not be characterized as foreign invaders.<ref name="Kebede 2003 1–19">{{Cite journal |last=Kebede |first=Messay |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27828817 |date=2003 |title=Eurocentrism and Ethiopian Historiography: Deconstructing Semitization |department=University of Dayton-Department of Philosophy |journal=International Journal of Ethiopian Studies |publisher=Tsehai Publishers |volume=1 |pages=1–19}}</ref><ref name="Alemu 2007 56–64">{{Cite journal|last=Alemu|first=Daniel E.|date=2007|title=Re-imagining the Horn|journal=African Renaissance|volume=4|issue=1|pages=56–64|via=Ingenta}}</ref>

Amharic is a South Ethio-Semitic language, along with [[Gurage languages|Gurage]], [[Argobba language|Argobba]], [[Harari language|Harari]], and others.<ref name=":Meyer2011">{{cite book |last=Meyer |first=Ronny |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMzgBLT87MkC&dq=amharic+proto+ethio+semitic&pg=PA1178 |title=The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook |date=2011 |publisher=Walter De Gruyter |isbn=9783110251586 |editor-last=Weninger |editor-first=Stefan |location= |pages=1178–1212 |chapter=Amharic |author-link=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Edzard |first=Lutz |title=The Semitic Languages |publisher=Routledge |year=2019 |editor1=John Huehnergard |location=London |pages=202–226 |chapter=Amharic |editor2=Naʽama Pat-El}}</ref><ref name=":Hetzron72p36">{{Cite book |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |title=Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1972 |isbn=9780719011238 |pages=36 |language=English}}</ref> Due to the social stratification of the time, the Cushitic [[Agaw people|Agaw]] adopted the South Ethio-Semitic language and eventually absorbed the Semitic population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |title=Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1972 |isbn=9780719011238 |pages=36, 87–88 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Appleyard |first=David |title=Amharic: History and dialectology of Amharic |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Aethopica |volume=1 |page=235}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Butts |first=Aaron Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lai8CgAAQBAJ&dq=amhara+old+agaw&pg=PA22 |title=Semitic languages in contact |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |isbn= 9789004300156|location=Leiden, Boston |pages=18–21 |language=English |oclc=1083204409 |author-link=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Amhara {{!}} Definition, History, & Culture |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amhara |access-date=2022-04-17 |website=Britannica  |language=en}}</ref> Amharic thus developed with a Cushitic [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]] and a Semitic [[superstratum]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |title=Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1972 |isbn=9780719011238 |pages=88 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Demeke |first=Girma |title=The Origin of Amharic |publisher=The Red Sea Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-56902-379-2 |pages=45–52 |language=English |oclc=824502290}}</ref> The northernmost South Ethio-Semitic speakers, or the proto-Amhara, remained in constant contact with their North Ethio-Semitic neighbors, evidenced by linguistic analysis and oral traditions.<ref>{{cite book|title=Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia: Monarchy, Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi|date=2015|publisher=C. Hurst & Co.|isbn=9781849042611|editor1-last=Prunier|editor1-first=Gérard|location=London|page=19 |editor2-last=Ficquet|editor2-first=Éloi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |title=Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1972 |isbn=9780719011238 |pages=124 |language=English}}</ref> A 7th century southward shift of the center of gravity of the [[Kingdom of Aksum]] and the ensuing integration and Christianization of the proto-Amhara also resulted in a high prevalence of Geʽez sourced lexicon in Amharic.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Demeke |first=Girma |title=The Origin of Amharic |publisher=The Red Sea Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-56902-379-2 |pages=15, 133–138 |language=English |oclc=824502290}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Butts |first=Aaron Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lai8CgAAQBAJ&dq=amhara+old+agaw&pg=PA22 |title=Semitic languages in contact |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |isbn= 9789004300156|location=Leiden, Boston |page=22 |oclc=1083204409 |author-link=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tamrat |first=Taddesse |title=Church and state in Ethiopia, 1270-1527 |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-1-59907-039-1 |pages=34–38 |language=English |oclc=783536291}}</ref> Some time after the 9th century AD, Amharic diverged from its closest relative, [[Argobba language|Argobba]], probably due to religious differences as the [[Argobba people|Argobba]] adopted Islam.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Demeke |first=Girma |title=The Origin of Amharic |publisher=The Red Sea Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-56902-379-2 |pages=33, 131–137 |language=English |oclc=824502290}}</ref>

In 1983, Lionel Bender proposed that Amharic may have been constructed as a [[pidgin]] as early as the 4th century AD to enable communication between Aksumite soldiers speaking Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic languages, but this hypothesis has not garnered widespread acceptance. The preservation in Old Amharic of [[Verb–subject–object word order|VSO word order]] and [[guttural]]s typical of Semitic languages, Cushitic influences shared with other Ethio-Semitic languages (especially those of the Southern branch), and the number of geographically distinct Cushitic languages that have influenced Amharic at different points in time (e.g. Oromo influence beginning in the 16th century) support a [[Language change|natural evolution]] of Amharic from a Proto-Ethio-Semitic language with considerable Cushitic influences (similar to Gurage, Tigrinya, etc.).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Demeke |first=Girma |title=The Origin of Amharic |publisher=The Red Sea Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-56902-379-2 |pages=8–54 |language=English |oclc=824502290}}</ref><ref name=":Meyer2011" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hetzron |first=Robert |title=Ethiopian Semitic: Studies in Classification |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1972 |isbn=9780719011238 |pages=22, 67, 88 |language=English}}</ref>