--- title: "Ancient features of Ancient Ethiopic — paper by Bausi (2012)" description: "This reverses the usual study of \"post-classic\" Geʿez. Among them: 25." authors: ["Alessandro Bausi"] year: 2012 venue: "Aethiopica 8" source: "https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/aethiopica/article/view/331" doi: "10.15460/aethiopica.8.1.331" licence: "CC BY-SA (journal licence per DOAJ; Aethiopica)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/bausi-2012-ancient-features-ancient-ethiopic/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/bausi-2012-ancient-features-ancient-ethiopic/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2012/page/2/) / Ancient features of Ancient Ethiopic # Ancient features of Ancient Ethiopic **Authors:** [Alessandro Bausi](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/alessandro-bausi/) · **Year:** 2012 · **Venue:** [Aethiopica 8](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/aethiopica/) ([Aethiopica 2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/aethiopica/2012/)) · **Publisher:** [Hamburg University Press](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/publishers/hamburg-university-press/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-SA (journal licence per DOAJ; Aethiopica)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.8.1.331) · [PDF](https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/aethiopica/article/download/331/331) · [DOI 10.15460/aethiopica.8.1.331](https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.8.1.331) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W1554274037) **Citations:** 25 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary Bausi asks which linguistic traits of Geʿez (Ancient Ethiopic) depart from the standard language codified in grammars and native tradition while having evidence that objectively points to early date. This reverses the usual study of "post-classic" Geʿez. Such traits may be stages of one language's history, or, if they do not fit a coherent line of development, dialectal variants. He draws on Aksumite inscriptions, coin legends, early manuscripts and rare transcriptions in other languages. He rechecks earlier claims against the RIÉ re-readings, especially Drewes's 1991 outline of epigraphic features, and finds that some alleged sound confusions do not hold. He also places the textual record in its history of transmission. Aksumite texts survive mostly in manuscripts from the 13th century or later, and many were lost, revised or retranslated from Arabic. A shift toward literal translation may explain why some unusual syntax seen in inscriptions is missing from early manuscripts. He concludes that the evidence may reflect parallel scribal traditions. From the 14th century one standard dominated, and non-conforming manuscripts may have been replaced, leaving only scattered relics. ## Key points - The text dates itself to Aethiopica 08 (2005), pp. 149–169, not 2012 as in the request. The middle pages of the extract are omitted, so this summary covers only the visible parts. - Main sources are DAE (Littmann 1913), RIÉ (Bernand, Drewes, Schneider 1991–2000) and EMML microfilms. Drewes (1991) lists three phonetic features and one morphological feature that set epigraphic Ethiopic apart from the classical language. - On s/ś confusion: - The earliest plausible case is in Kālēb's inscription (RIÉ 191). - The ʿĒzānā case (RIÉ 190) may just copy a Sabaean spelling. - Littmann's nst/nśt example disappears under the corrected reading nkt. - The variant spelling cited by Elias does not exist. - Dillmann's proposed nominal e-ending, which he reconstructed from Cosmas Indicopleustes, is supported by ΣΟΥʿΑΤΕ and ΒΕΔΙΕ in the pseudo-trilingual RIÉ 270 bis. - Manuscript evidence and syntax: - Apart from the Gospels (the ʾAbbā Garimā MSS, dated anywhere from the 6th/7th to the 14th century), Aksumite texts survive only in manuscripts from the 13th century onward. - Inscription syntax such as object-before-verb, direct speech before "to say" and za-genitive before its antecedent is absent from early manuscript texts. - MS EMML 1763 (14th century) contains both archaic translations (Acts of Mark, Acts of Peter) and newer original works. ## Interesting ideas - If deviant forms do not line up along a consistent timeline, treat them as a parallel variety rather than an older stage. - Several anomalies vanished once the source was re-read (nst → nkt, a nonexistent variant spelling), so checking the input should come before explaining a pattern. - Bausi warns that rejecting an etymology because it breaks sibilant correspondences assumes the very regularity under test, which is circular. - An odd spelling may imitate a prestige model (Sabaean writing) rather than show the writer's own grammar. - What survives is filtered by later standardization: non-conforming witnesses were replaced, and the translation style changed from reader-oriented to source-oriented. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (tree): When a treebank departs from current UD, first test whether the deviations fit a UD-version history or form a separate annotation dialect, then pick the matching conversion rules. - **I2** (learn): Before inducing a repair rule from disagreement among witness parsers, recheck tokenization and the raw text so the rule does not encode an input error. - **I3** (learn): Never filter evaluation items with the rule being evaluated, and add negative controls that the rule should fail on. - **I4** (tokens): Flag archaic, quoted or foreign-modelled forms separately so they do not skew lemma and morphology statistics about the text's own language. - **I5** (back): Make literal versus free rendering an explicit, explainable parameter when translating through the meta-world, and remember that "standard" training text hides normalized variation. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* ## Institutions - [University of Naples - L'Orientale](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-naples-l-orientale/) — University, Naples, Italy · 6 works · 456 citations Also on the byline: [College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University](https://ror.org/00watgv28). 📚 Shelves (2): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 16,039 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 15,891 works ## Cite Cite as: Alessandro Bausi. 2012. Ancient features of Ancient Ethiopic. Aethiopica 8. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{bausi2012ancient, title = {{Ancient features of Ancient Ethiopic}}, author = {Alessandro Bausi}, booktitle = {Aethiopica 8}, year = {2012}, doi = {10.15460/aethiopica.8.1.331}, url = {https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.8.1.331} } ``` - [← previous Easy-first Coreference Resolution](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/stoyanov-2012-easy-first-coreference-resolution/) - [next → Coarse Lexical Semantic Annotation with Supersenses: An Arabic Case Study](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/schneider-2012-coarse-lexical-semantic-annotation-supersenses/) - [↑ back to papers of 2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2012/page/2/) *Updated 29 October 2026*