Ethiopia's linguistic landscape is one of the most diverse on Earth, with over 80 languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Omotic families. Amharic, the official federal language, is a Semitic language written in the Ge'ez (Ethiopic) script — an ancient syllabary descending from the South Arabian script and used continuously for over 2,000 years. Ge'ez itself was the liturgical and literary language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, preserving texts that no longer survive in other ancient Semitic languages. Amharic became the dominant administrative language under Emperor Amda Seyon in the 14th century and has grown as an urban lingua franca. Oromo, a Cushitic language spoken by the largest ethnic group, uses a Latin-based alphabet adopted in 1991. The coexistence of multiple language families within Ethiopia's borders makes it a unique laboratory for linguistic study.
