Is Amharic that different than other Semitic languages including Ge'ez?
- Thread starter Aurelian
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Garaad Awal
Zubeyri, Hanafi Maturidi
Amharic is a South Ethio-Semitic language. Ethio-Semitic is split in two groups:
- North Ethio-Semitic: Ge’ez, Tigrinya, Tigre
-South Ethio-Semitic: Amharic,Argobba,Gurage,Sl’ite, Harari, and possibly Harla
Somalis have South Ethio-Semitic loanwords like Maalin which I would probably attribute to contact with the Harla mentioned in the Futuh.
It seems we didn’t like them much which suggest we had close geographical proximity with them.
- North Ethio-Semitic: Ge’ez, Tigrinya, Tigre
-South Ethio-Semitic: Amharic,Argobba,Gurage,Sl’ite, Harari, and possibly Harla
Somalis have South Ethio-Semitic loanwords like Maalin which I would probably attribute to contact with the Harla mentioned in the Futuh.
It seems we didn’t like them much which suggest we had close geographical proximity with them.
Maalin is semitic?
Almost All Semitic words for day is Yaum
It comes from the Harare Maaltu, which comes from the Geez Ma’al
Garaad Awal
Zubeyri, Hanafi Maturidi
Maalin comes from a South Ethio-Semitic word. It isn’t Cushitic
Ugaas is also a South Ethio-Semitic word
Garaad Awal
Zubeyri, Hanafi Maturidi
Hararis are recent medieval migrants from the Sidama region. The South Ethio-Semitic words definitely came from Harla or some South Ethio-Semitic language that was local to Eastern Ethiopia & Western SL
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Geez is a real Semitic language closely resembling Arabic and Old South Arabian. Amharic however is a creole Semitic language. Just compare it to all the other Semitic speeches and you will notice it’s the bastard one.
It's generally agreed upon that Ge'ez, Tigrinya, and Amharic have a Proto-Ethiosemitic superstratum on top of an Agaw substratum. Amharic is a morphologically and grammatically complex language that developed over a long period of time. Therefore, I think the creole model would be a rather incorrect characterization as that would imply that its some kind of simplified pidgin developed into a language over the course of a generation to efficiently facilitate communication.
I'm no linguist so someone correct if I'm wrong here. But just from listening to them, I get the feeling that the North Ethio-Semitic languages like Tigryinya are more pristinely Semitic whereas in the South Ethio-Semitic languages, the Agaw substratum is much more pronounced. Perhaps this explains arguably the most prominent aspect which is the loss of the harsh guttural sound. I think this is why Amharic is perceived as the odd one out amongst the major Semitic languages.
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Garaad Awal
Zubeyri, Hanafi Maturidi
Amharic isn't a creole language.It's a Semitic language...You clearly don't know what the linguistic definition of a creole is
Garaad Awal
Zubeyri, Hanafi Maturidi
North Ethio-Semitic languages have different Agaw substratum but they have still have a substratum nonetheless.South Ethio-Semitic languages like Amharic & Argobba also have Agaw (which is a collection of Central Cushitic languages) substratum.
Other Ethio-Semitic languages like Harari,Gurage etc contain Sidamic substratums.
I understand that the NES languages (minus Tigre) also contain an Agaw substratum like Amharic and Argobba. But there seems to be a perception that Amharic is more "Agaw-ized."
You bring up a great counterpoint - the Central Cushitic / Agaw language in the south that makes up the Amharic substratum would have been quite different from the Agaw language up North that makes up the Tigrinya substratum to begin with.
To address OP, I think however/whenever it happened, the loss of the "harsh" guttural sounds that people tend to associate with Semitic languages is what causes Amharic to be perceived as so different from the others.
amhara became christian recently they were pagan before that and they basically cushitic speaking semitic
If the Somali word ( Maalin ) , as you claim , is taken from the Harla language .
following your claim :
We can say this : ( Somali word " af / afka " come from Amharic or Tigrinya )
because the word ( af አፍ ) means ( mouth ) in Amharic and Tigrinya languages .
Unfortunately , what you wrote makes no sense .
The word ( Maalin ) is Somali , it is not a loanword as you claim .
If the word ( Maalin ) is not Somali , then there is no Somali language . 
Are you serious ?
The word ( Ugaas ) is Somali .
Stop spreading misinformation .
The word ( Ugaas ) is Somali .
Stop spreading misinformation .
It is weird that all Semtic languages has y-m cognate, except this Ge'ez, m-l-t-u.If the word ( Maalin ) is not Somali , then there is no Somali language .
ugaas --> u'g-aad = wise
Garaad diinle
Ge'ez itself has a lot of loan word from cushitic languages which makes sense since the original inhabitants of northern ethiopia were originally cushites. Some recognizable words specially for somalis is the following.
While sky in ge'ez is samay they also say erar which would be in somali cir. Note also arara meaning gather and somali uruuri or aruuri.
Tigre does have an Agaw/Central Cushitic substratum, there is an Agaw substratum baked into all Ethio Semitic languages and has been there before it split into North and South
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