A lot of interesting topic were raised, the final recording was almost 30 minutes so I had to cut out a lot to fit under the time limit. I hope it does sound too choppy!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18fLTrCrqO1yY_OdZfuBrERTwWzYgSlmJ/view?usp=sharing
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For my last cultural artifact I want to share a conversation between my language p
artner, myself, and our second student. I want to reflect on what a helpful language partner I was lucky to have this semester. I think I enjoyed the fact that he always challenged me during the class to do things that I wouldn’t think to do myself nor think that I could even do.
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He made it manageable by compiling the necessary materials for us to start working and also did the research to ensure that we wouldn’t be in the dark. I also loved the fact he really took our interests and decisions into consideration
when guiding us to the new project. Here is how the conversation went. It also includes a lot of interesting information that served as an introduction for us as we started on the work that I thought was really important to highlight.
For this blog post, I want to share the podcast questions my language partner gave me along with my reflection on them. We both prepared questions for each other to speak on during the podcast. I thought they were good reflection questions so I also wanted to write my thoughts to gather them on my post for this week.
Language Partner Podcast questions:
What made you first interested in linguistics and philology?
How have your initial interests and motivations changed or developed in your studies?
What languages have you studied and which do you have more of an interest in?
How do you plan to continue with your future studies?
What other projects are you working on related to
Lidia’s Questions & Answers:
How does it feel for you, as an Eritrean, to study Ge’ez?
I don’t know, I never really considered it in that sense of feeding my personal identity as an Eritrean but rather a Tewahdo Christian. I guess I always associated Ge’ez as something different from anything in this world. Even though I contest it intellectually, I still feel like it is unique and taps into something so beautiful and not yet formed in my brain, sometimes something that feels out of reach. Tigrigna being a Semitic language as well has helped me probably more than I know, though. It definitely has made studying Ge’ez a little more manageable because I often notice cognates and such.
People often consider Ge’ez to be a “dead” language, but you and I worked on composition, can we challenge this label (consider qine etc.)?
Ge’ez is very much alive in the Tewahdo Church and I think scholars do continue to write qine, arkies, compositions, I don’t know how much of it is published though. I see that it is documented, but overall I guess since more efforts are going into translations than compositions the label is probably fitting. What do you think about this label?
How did you find the spectrum of composing new texts, working with more recent ones, and working from a 600 year old manuscript?
I found it really fascinating and consider myself very lucky to have an opportunity to work with such texts. Doing a wide range of things has helped me detect different styles more. More prominently the difference between poetry and narrative...which I really didn’t think were that different until being exposed to both right after one another here. Obviously, I have a ways to go but it’s really interesting to me when you point out certain stylistic items. It helps draw the bigger picture, and the works in context.
During Holy Week, I was listening to a lot more Ge’ez than I was used to. Like several hours a day and not in melody, I think all of this has helped me to at least be able to sit through these services and at the most be able to understand fully what is being read. At one point I fell asleep during a reading and actually had a dream in Ge’ez.
Sunday, April 12 Reflection
This week we were working with another student in the “classroom”. The new student was a friend that I often talked Ge’ez things with. He had also been doing classes with my language partner as well. We had talked about it for a while but it was a scheduling conflict that brought us to working together. I remember I was really excited to recommend my language partner to my good friend so it was really nice to finally have him in the classroom. I do recognize though that it was good to have personal tutoring time so we could get a foundational instruction.
Our classroom format was the same as usual but we just took turns reading and translating. We translate on the spot by speaking and discuss word/tense choice as we go. We were able to give each other feedback and chime in to the questions our language partner had for us. We also made sure to discuss with each other before about not judging one another just as a disclaimer but that didn’t pose an issue during our sessions.
At first we worked on a manuscript that had been uploaded on the British Library called the Vision of Theophilus and though it was my first time reading from a manuscript this semester it wasn’t too bad. It was a hagiography of Theophilus and also told the story of Mary and Jesus (from conception, incarnation, exile, etc. onwards). The next work we worked on a scanned version of a very old book (dated in the 1400s) called the Book of Mystery by Abba Giorgis zeGasicha. It was of Abba Giyorgis’ refutation of the canons of the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD). This manuscript was much more difficult to read as it was older and stored as a scan of a scan rather than a picture. Nevertheless, it was very interesting! Here is an excerpt from another section of the book.
ለቀዳማዊ፡ ምስለ፡ ካልአይ፨ The first with the second,
ወለሣልሳዊ፡ ምስለ፡ ራብዓይ፨ And the third with the fourth,
ፍልጠተ፡ ዓመታት፡ በዘይትሌለይ፨ (Who made) the division of the years into which they are separated,
ውስተ፡ ልበ፡ መሓስባን፡ በዘይትሔለይ፨ In which they are intelligible to the mind(s) of astronomers,
ሎቱ፡ ስብሐት፡ ለብሑተ፡ ስልጣን፡ ወዕበይ፨ To Him be glory, to (Him who is) alone in authority and greatness,
ለዓለመ፡ ዓለመ፡ አሜን፨ Unto ages of ages, amen.
This work was less of a story and more like a theological analysis. It required a different set of vocabulary though its focus was still the Incarnation of Christ. It also contained some poetry of exaltation to God that was quite abstract as we can see in the example excerpt.
I know I wouldn’t have dared to look at something like this on my own so I’m very glad our language partner challenged us with this!
Conversation about Melke'a Himamat:
This week I have been listening to Melke’a Himamat during church services. Similar to the first work we translated this semester Melke’a Si’il, it is poetry that is sung. It is under the same genre: “melk” or “image/portrait”. This particular one is called the Image of the Sufferings (of Christ). It is recited in hymn and is very beautiful. One particular line caught my eye one afternoon and I decided to think about how to word the translation in English. I sent it to my language partner to get a second eye on it and this is how our conversation went.
There are a couple of things I want to note here. I generally like writing my translations better because that is the mode that I have practiced the most. Also, you can give different options in a written format. I often need to do this because I don’t know exactly how certain words are being used (even commonly seen ones). Often words have different renderings in different contexts (this is concerning semantics). I have two examples of this. One example is of “ኀበ..ኀበ..” where ኀበ (pronounced ha-be) usually means towards, to, where. However, when used in this construction it means “the more...the more” and such is used to make a comparison. The other example is the use of the words በስመ ብእሲት (be-sime bi’isīt) which literally is in/by the name of a woman. Better put for the context is the feminine name in English.
The idea is that the Holy Trinity is so compassionate, and since women are known for compassion they are known by the feminine form of holy in Ge’ez-- that is Qidist instead of Qidus. It’s quite an interesting phenomena in the Orthodox faith since many times God is considered in the masculine. The faith shows that God doesn’t fit into a gender and that the masculine label is just a default. You would never hear someone say Qidus Silassie (Holy Trinity in the masculine).
The language itself also lends to this kind of flexibility as well I suppose since it offers the option of having gender attached to adjectives. Overall, I think this is a good example of learning as you go. I have been loving the fact that I get to have this kind of interaction with my language partner as well. I can work through things and have him there to help where needed.
Sunday, March 29
This week we have been finalizing the Aba Giorgis piece that told of his life and most famous known works. Here is an excerpt from the translation:
I have really been able to see my growth in language learning this week and I have two anecdotes to share. The first is while listening to the Miracles of Jesus book (Te’amire Eyesus) being read I was surprised to find that I understood the whole story. Even without catching every work I knew what miracle it was referencing and saw that I caught small details. Because this text isn’t very obscure and the miracles of Jesus are often retold and read throughout the Bible, I had the familiarity to connect passages where I couldn’t recognize as much of the words. This was an extraordinary experience and I hope to have more like this. It showed me how context is key and that I’ve really been retaining the instruction I have had. The second story is about dreaming in Ge’ez. After listening to what felt like hours of Ge’ez being read, I dozed off for a moment and actually had a dream in Ge’ez. I dreamt about my priest telling me a funny story about a little boy and a bag of flour.
After discussing it, my language partner and I decided to make the next project a composition which is a little different than what I have been doing thus far. Last semester, we started a little with compositions, applying the grammar concepts in sample sentences of my choosing. Now, we have decided to compose a Ge’ez “synaxarium” (Book of the Life of Saints) passage according to the life and miracles of St. Spyridon.
This means writing in the same style as the Synaxarium and using similar conventions. There is an English version that we are working from that is written with slightly different conventions than what would be used in Ge’ez. I am excited to apply what I have been noting and learning through the past couple of months on something that is a real story and an original rendering of it in Ge’ez! Of course, with the guidance of my language partner and the dictionaries that we have on hand but nevertheless, it will be interesting! I often hear the Synaxarium being read in Ge’ez in church and following along with my English pdf version I notice a lot of different attributes of the texts. I think it will be similar to the previous Miracle piece by Aba Giorgis that we translated so it was really good preparation.
Now we are transitioning to narrative style manuscripts, specifically books of Miracles. I decided to try this style because I felt like I should learn to translate different types of texts. Also within narrative style you get a context that you may not have with poetry. The chronological nature and the specific actors within a story lend itself to a more informed translation. While outside references may be considered the most important thing is the content of the narrative which is not always the case to understanding poetry.
We are starting with a story from the book of Miracles of St Urael which outlines the life of the author Abba Giorgis zeGasicha. He is one of the greatest authors who wrote original works in Ge’ez. Of course they are all considered inspired and he is a saint of the Church, but he created a large body of work that changed the history of the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Some of which are used in daily praises such as Anqetse Berhan “The Door of Light”, Widasie Mesqel “Praises of the Cross”, Seatat “The book of Hours”. Authorship is a very obscure thing in Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox texts because out of humility, authors are known to ascribe their writings to someone else or completely omit a/their name. However, Abba Giorgis includes a miracle that tells of his life in this miracle book that we are translating. Though, this piece has already been translated and it is serving just as a means to practice by. Abba Giorgis names himself in some of his works as the lowly servant of God and includes many important facts about himself such as birth place, lineage, and upbringing.
His style can be described as heavily using repetition, obscure references, amazing vocabulary (in Ge’ez, Greek, Hebrew), both capturing hymnology and theology in his works.
We are using a transcript compiled by Getatchew Haile which compares 4 different manuscripts using one as the primary text. It is absolutely fascinating the work that goes into this. “Getatchew Haile is an Ethiopian-American philologist widely considered the foremost scholar of the Ge'ez language alive today. He was acknowledged for his contributions to the field with a MacArthur Fellows Program "genius" award and the Edward Ullendorff Medal from the Council of the British Academy.” My language mentions him a lot but I never realized how much of a leading scholar he is! Looking at his body of work, recognitions, vast deep and wide experiences, and continued work till this day is amazing. His work may be a project I want to look in for my final project. It actually makes me even more interested to study linguistics even further into my career whether it is in a self directed fashion as I am now or a formal way. This is definitely something I am interested in exploring. What I know for sure is that I don’t want to stop learning Ge’ez and working on translating.
Now we’ve moved on to translating the Easter service rites. This is different because it draws from a lot of different resources for example it starts off with the daily book of prayers, then into a poem called “the Image of the Praises”, then it goes into the readings of the day from the Holy Bible, finally the part of the rites that are specific to the day draw almost completely from the Book of Psalms. Once we figured out that that’s where the phrases were coming from, we were able to look up the verses in the Ge’ez and English versions of the Psalms to locate the verse and contextualize it in the translation.
Because the document we were working on was compiled but another party, we were also going through and fixing common spelling mistakes and forms.
One big lesson I got from this project was the importance of identifying object markers. These are the different object case markers in Ge’ez:
They are seen at the end of the noun; if the noun ends in a 6th order it will go to 1st order, 3rd order → 5th order, adding a ḥā on proper nouns and names also makes it an object,
Object markers: for example with sī (3rd order) → sie (5th order) bi’sī to bi’isie, man subject form to man object form. This changed one sentence we were working on and because the sentence order was also off we needed to spot the case change in order to make the most sense of it.
I made some stylistic notes as well like using exclamation marks in the presence of an imperative or a plea. Putting these notes into action as well as reiterating simple grammatical lessons like common prepositions really feels like I’m getting the best of both. In this lesson, I learned a new term “clictic” which refers to prepositions. “In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word, but depends phonologically on another word or phrase. In this sense, it is syntactically independent but phonologically dependent—always attached to a host.” One such example is im- which may also be seen as i- depending on the noun that follows it in the word. The word itself means from, originating.
I also just realized the difference between perfect and imperfect verbs and how they are used in Ge’ez. The distinction doesn’t always make a difference in translation. Perfect is for a completed action while imperfect is an ongoing action.
During our sessions, my language partner and I worked on this poem; “The Image of the Icon”. This is one of the paragraphs we translated and analyzed. This is my language partner’s finished edit.
The Image of the Icon (Malkəʾā Śəʿəl)
ኦርኅርኅተ፡ ሕሊና፡ አፍቅሮተ፡ ሰብእ፡ ልማዳ።
ሰአሊተ፡ ምሕረት፡ ይእቲ፡ ማርያም፡ ሐፁረ፡
መስቀል፡ ዘየዓውዳ።
ንትቀበላ፡ ንዑ፡ ለወለተ፡ ዳዊት፡ ዘይሁዳ።
መጽአት፡ ነያ፡ ኅቡረ፡ ምስለ፡ ወልዳ።
ናንፈርዕፅ፡ ቅድመ፡ ሥዕላ፡ እንዘ፡ ንሁብ፡ ጋዳ።
ለለጌሠሙ፡ ትመስል፡ እንግዳ።
Orəḫrəḫta ḥəllinā afqərota sabəʾ ləmādā.
Saʾālita məḥrat yəʾəti māryām ḥāṣura masqal
zayaʿāwdā.
Nətqabalā nəʿu lawallata dāwit zayəhudā.
Maṣʾāt nayā ḫəbura məsla waldā.
Nānfarʿəṣ qədma śəʿəlā ənza nəhub gādā.
Lalageśamu təmasl əngədā.
O compassionate of mind, whose custom is to love mankind, / Thou intercessor for mercy, Mary, who
art encompassed by the rampart of the Cross. / Come, let us welcome the daughter of David of
Judah! / Behold! She has come, joined by her son. / Let us leap with joy before her icon, giving
offerings! / Every morning she resembles a guest.
O compassionate one, whose habit is to love mankind?, Mary is the beseecher of mercy, who is surrounded by fortification/palisade/rampart of the Cross; come let’s receive her, the daughter of David of Judah/the Jews?; Behold, she has come here together with her Son. Let’s jump with joy in front of her icon/image as we give her gifts; (for regulars?) everyday she looks like a guest
I would like to highlight some words that we discussed in length.
“Lalageśamu” which quite literally means morning by morning to indicate repetitive context. Also in Ethiopian/Eritrean culture, guests are very honored. Receiving guests is an event and is observed by all members of the household. Thus, St Mary is likened to a guest who is received into the home.
The concept of being compassionate in mind is hard to pinpoint in English. In Ge’ez rəḫrəḫta ḥəllinā can also be translated as compassionate one, compassionate conscience; loving, kind, can also be used.
In this stanza, we can also note the rhyming of each line, ending with the “ā” sound. In this stanza the lines don’t have a syllabic consistency, with some lines holding 12 and others 20, but it fits very well with the melody of the song.
As I described earlier, the way we went about the translation is by doing independent research on the context and meanings and coming together to orate the translation. There we would discuss alternate meanings and how the translation can best fit the audience I am translating for. Namely, young, native English speakers with a simple background in Church services. This informed the formatting and definitely has an impact on how I choose to do transliterations as opposed to my language partner. His work is more for the academic setting and his audience are scholars of Ge’ez. Thus his work consists also of comparing manuscripts and their small differences as well as providing a more comprehensive contextual explanation.
February 16:
These past two weeks have been really great and I have learned a lot! We have gone over very important things like verb categories and other grammatical concepts like forming clauses without a verb. One exercise that we have done is a translation exercise with the Epistle of St John in Ge’ez. This was new to me. I would start off by reading aloud the group of verses to practice my reading and pronunciation. Then I would vocally exercise translating on the spot. My language partner would suggest some things or point out important grammatical markers and I would thus improve my translation. Another way we did it is by preparing more with the text to spot out vocabulary I didn’t know or conjugations I could mark. Then, during our session, I would use that knowledge to reform the translation along with the feedback of my instructor. We also are trying to translate Melke’a Si’il which is a piece of poetry. The subgenre is “Melk” or portrait. The style is archaea poetry. It isn’t very easily translated in English but it is a type of poetry in which God, the saints, and events are characterized physically. The stanzas are typically 5 lines and the number of syllables in the line are very important to the piece because it is sung in melody. Each stanza ends with a rhyme and keeps one rhyme in the stanza. Thus, words are often rearranged to make the rhyme fit. The order of subject, object, verb is often moved around in comparison to a typical narrative script. The poems are often long, having around 30 stanzas or more.
One of the first important comments that I got from translating this poem is identifying infinitives. Identifying subjunctives, verbs in perfect and imperfect “tenses” is another difficult exercise that we do while translating. And actually I found out that the sense of tenses in Ge’ez is much more dependent on the context of the sentence than just the verb alone. Imperfect tense for example can have a future implication or a subjunctive implication when translated into English.
Another great thing thus far has been the resources that my language partner has compiled for me including grammar guides, dictionaries, and dictionary guides. I have been primarily using Holmstead’s Introduction to Ge’ez. It has small lessons that I take weekly and come back to our sessions with questions. I really like how the information is organized in the textbook. It is very easy to follow and includes graphics and exercises to apply the lessons. It also includes a dictionary and verb conjugation guide.
So far, I really like the format of this class. I am able to apply the concepts that I have learned, work on projects that I am really passionate about, and discuss the application of the Ge;ez language in a larger social context. I can’t wait to see the future projects we choose, because the ones we’re looking at now are really applicable to my daily service in the church as well.
February 2nd 111 Reflection:
This week I was able to talk to my language partner to solidify my weekly meetings with him. They will occur on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Class meetings will start tomorrow. I l plan to structure my main study time for the class around the class meeting with practices on Friday as well. We talked briefly about covering grammar concepts using the aid of a workbook of Ge’ez. This will probably make my class more structured. Last semester I thought I would need a workbook of sorts but my teacher just provided the concepts each class and assigned homework based off of it.
The first assignment I got which is kind of a pre-assignment is to familiarize myself with the special letters of the Ge’ez alphabet which aren’t commonly used. And often when they are seen they are mistaken for the more common variations of the letter. For example, one letter is like the slight vowel difference between kit and quit. It doesn’t necessarily make the meaning different nowadays since many people don’t familiarize themselves with them, but they used to hold more phonemic value before. This kind of shows the slow evolution of language and its phonemes.
My language partner gives the following description:
Labialized Consonants
Four consonants, ቀ, ኀ, ከ, and ገ, also have labialized forms, indicated in transliteration
with a superscript “w.” The difference in pronunciation is similar to the difference
between “kit” and “quit.” These labialized forms are present in every order except the
second and seventh orders. The forms follow these patterns:
My language partner had initially made a facebook post about tutoring in Ge’ez for the purposes of a phD study that he is doing. This week I am interested in hearing more about it. A part of that conversation, I want to touch on what his goals are for me this semester as well. Knowing a clear goal of my instructor for my studies really helped me keep in mind what kind of expectations I should have and where I should put more effort in last semester. It also showed me how invested my teacher was last semester in my learning. The main goal last semester was to learn the parts of a sentence and create simple new ideas in Ge’ez through them. I think that will be similar for the most part. Last semester there was also a heavy use of Amharic which there will not be this semester. I don’t think this change will necessarily enhance or decrease my learning. I think having a younger language partner will also shift the dynamics of the weekly meetings a bit as well. In my culture, we learn to honor elders and clergy to the highest degree so I feel like at times that made me not open up as much though that got a little better throughout the semester. I am also doing it in 2 sessions a week now instead of one. That will probably push me to be more proactive throughout the week in preparation for my meetings. We will see how it goes this week!
One fun interaction I had this past week related to the Ge’ez language is receiving a letter in Ge’ez from my friend in Dallas, Texas. I sent her a letter a while ago in tigrigna and she leveled up to Ge’ez. While we are both novices in the Ge’ez language we make efforts to practice and formulate sentences between each other and our other friends. It makes for a nice challenge and a purposeful use of language!
Here is the letter.
In it, she begins with and greeting that says: ifo haloki or how are you...she continues to recall the last time we actually saw each other at a friend’s wedding and she comments on how long it has been. She describes me quite poetically and wishes me the best. There she ends it saying “be well until we see each other next”. It is a mix of Ge’ez and Tigrigna throughout which is interesting because some words are close enough to being cognates but some aren’t. On the other hand with the verb conjugations, there is a similar pattern where the difficult conjugations lean towards Tigirgna.
Some letters are hard to decipher when written by hand because they differ by such minute marks or lengths of strokes. It’s very interesting to read the handwriting of others because I don’t do so often. I am usually reading digital texts or printed texts. There are also some handwritten scriptures that I have to get used to reading.
I plan to write back with a narrative. I can talk about a young girl, daughter of modernized parents in the U.S. who loves Ge’ez and has always wanted to learn it. She sets off into the monastery to learn because that’s where all the teachers are. She learns more things than she expected; how to speak with kindness, humility, and patience. I want to name the character Hanna which is my friend’s name and it also means grace. The character’s name will be revealed at the end. I hope she will find it amusing.
I think this kind of application will help me with my use of Ge’ez because of the relaxed, low pressure situation. Also it is fun to imagine and discover new words through searching for the ones to fit the story. I may post an update to this post later on in my cultural artifacts or journals.
I am excited to continue this semester learning Ge’ez and I hope it is just as informative as last semester. I think it would be good to start by reviewing the content from last semester until we work out the details for my language partner. In that I can also print out all my materials and organize them with the corresponding notes. Re-writing my notes is one way to help me memorize concepts and since I previously only dealt with the digital version of the content that Kesis Moges gave me, it would be good to work with the physical copies.
Unfortunately, I didn’t practice Ge’ez much over winter break but I hope to more now since I have had a new family member come from Ethiopia that speaks and reads Ge’ez! It was very exciting to meet him as he is a scholar in many ways. He is also very forthcoming about what he knows and easy to engage with.
Last semester, we left off on learning more verb conjugations, pronouns, and numbers. My plan is to start with the numbers then verb conjugations and different types of pronouns. I am thinking about working with a language partner that was once a student of Ge’ez and now teaches it. Besides that there is another proficient student of Ge’ez that I am thinking about, he is a deacon and a university student. Both of these people are in Canada and I only know them through mutual friends or working on projects together. However, they have aided my understanding in ge’ez in one way or another.
Until that is sorted out, I am also continuing on working on Ge’ez translation projects. The current one I am working on is called Melkea Si’il or ‘Portrait of the icon’. It is very beautiful and rhythmic.
In the future I am interested in doing larger preservation of documents through grants and research opportunities and also through the Orthodox Church. Next winter, I want to spend some time in Eritrea and Ethiopia continuing my language study. These are long term dreams but it is truly where my passion is and I intend to invest in it. In the past I have seen that one of the possible language partners has spoken at large in conference style on their research area. I think this is a good step forward because I can also ask him further about his past research and how he got into it. Regardless if I will have the opportunity with this particular community partner, I think he would still be open to discussing those topics with me in the future.
Overall, I am really excited about the decision I made to join this class and am hoping even more than from last semester.
It has been getting more and more complex and I find that this knowledge has helped me in constructing sentences but it actually has been harder to decipher when translating sentences to English because I over think the conjugations and am trying to process it all at the same time. The hardest concept I want to highlight was the use of case. I realized that with this skill I am able to more correctly translate actions in a poem or story. Because the object and subject can be in different orders when used poetically it is important to use this indicator to see which is doing the action and which is being acted on. The whole deeper meaning can be misconstrued if you don’t keep that in mind.
This week’s homework is to conjugate the leading verbs in the 8 categories of verbs in the tenses that we have learned already. As I stated last time, verbs falling under the same category share similar patterns like pronunciation and conjugations. However each category has a slightly different way of conjugating in the 4 different forms that we have covered. It could be as slight as a shift from “e” to “ie”. I definitely need to practice more on this area in order to get it down.
I am looking forward to the final project in this class. I am thinking to do it on the Axumite empire. This topic is going to be really interesting to learn about, because I hear about it a lot but I have never read up on it as much as I’d like. I want to look into sources that I wouldn’t typically use on a presentation. I know there are a lot of sources that aren’t known and are more of a blog style or even those in different languages that are typically not appropriate for a class project. But for this topic I think I need to use resources that are outside of the box in order to cover the topic because there aren’t a lot of sources that cover the stories that make this one whole. Like I spoke about previously, some academic sources say things like “the story is unknown” but especially from native sources these gaps can be filled. If not for the presentation, I think the information I gather will really inform me as an individual and aid my own understanding of the ancient Ge’ez culture
110 4th Artifact
Ethiopic Bible:
One thing that is really well known about the Ethiopic-Ge’ez language is the version of the Bible that is held. Instead of the standard 66 book King James Version or even the more abundant Catholic Church version there are 81 books in the Ge’ez Bible. This is due to the different history of Christianity that occurred in the East versus the West. There were different influences and even different ways books were canonized.
The Bible is a central part of the church service and specifically the gospels.
Once the Gospel reading is done during the service, it is wrapped in an honorific wrap and the young boys who are learning to be deacons walk around with the book so that people can kiss it. There is one boy who holds the large book and one who follows behind the first holding an ornate umbrella. The gospel is large and also adorned with icons of Jesus Christ and a goldish metal cover. People wait in anticipation to touch it and older women bow down for the boy to lay it on their back. Others lift their shawl from their head as a sign of respect before they kiss the book.
Many older versions of the Bible have many paintings and drawings in them that depict the happenings of the bible. The oldest versions are kept and guarded in churches in Ethiopia and Eritrea but also in museums around the world.
Likewise partial manuscripts are kept. In the British Library there is one manuscript that is part of the Magdala Collection, which was given to the British Museum Library in 1868 by the Secretary of State for India. The volume retains its original wooden bindings covered with stamped leather and lined with silk. Images like these lay hidden in them.
Most of the 81 books are with the addition of Old Testament books vut there are some in the New Testament. In more detail: “Some sources speak of the Broader Canon, which has never been published as a single compilation but is said to include all of the Narrower Canon, as well as additional New Testament books said to have been used by the early church: two Books of the Covenant, four Books of Sinodos, an Epistle of Peter to Clement—also known as "Ethiopic Clement," and the Ethiopic Didascalia. These may not all bear close resemblance to works with similar titles known in the West. An eight-part, Ethiopic version of the history of the Jewish people written by Joseph ben Gorion, known as the 'Pseudo-Josephus' is considered part of the broader canon, though it would be considered an Old Testament work.”
As we can see there is a lot of discussion around this from international scholars and the topic is vast.
The last couple of things we cover this semester are objective pronouns (accusative) and possessive pronouns/Adjectives in Ge’ez and Amharic. Examples of object pronouns are me (kiyaye), us (kiane), them (kiyahomu), her (kiyaha). Examples of adjective pronouns are our (ziane), your (ziake), their (ziahomu), my (ziaye). There is another way to show possession that I learned earlier in the semester which is done by specific suffixes and surprisingly, in the examples that I saw you can use both the possessive pronoun and the suffix in the same sentence and it isn’t grammatically incorrect.
We also covered numbers up until 50. Ahadu (one), kilietu (two), selestu (three), arbaetu (four), hamistu (five), sedestu (six), sebaitu (seven), sementu (eight), tesatu (nine), asertu (ten). The way to you make double digit numbers in Ge’ez is by saying ten and one, ten and two, twenty and one, etc. There is still so much to cover but I think this semester has taught me a lot.
Final Paper:
Reflect on your learning experiences this semester.
(a) What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer? What did you find difficult?
What have you enjoyed? How will you continue your learning?
(b) Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful? What would you like to learn more about?
This semester, I have had a great experience with self directed language learning. Even though I actually ended up controlling less of the subject material, I was able to be lead in a very flexible way by my language partner. I didn’t expect my teacher to have as big of a role that he ended up having and to be honest, that was a great advantage for me. I was able to craft my own study habits and applications of the lessons we learned and that flexibility enhanced how I used this program. I really appreciated the fact that my language partner would compile just the right of information I needed to delve into the topic of the week. Consequently, I spent the week drilling that material on a schedule that worked best for me and I also homework assignments from my language partner that I could use as a basis of my work. I didn’t spend as much time translating as a part of this class as I expected I would in the beginning. However, I did continue that in my personal endeavors.
Through this experience I learned that I like having structure when learning and I wouldn’t have been as successful without the guidance of a regular class period. If I was “self taught” I would have not had as much motivation to continue. My language partner constantly encouraged me and invited me to look at the world of Ge’ez not only as a personal spiritual endeavor but one that could benefit the academic research world and the legacy of ethiopic people. He informed me about research endeavors and showed me that if I worked hard I would have the tools to explore those.
The part of the class activities that I liked the most was when we were given a chance to share what we have been learning with our classmates and they did the same. These were simple lessons that helped me test my understanding of them when I practiced and eventually shared with others. I also really enjoyed crafting the last research project because it really reflected what I wanted to learn.
I will definitely continue where I left off with the last bits of content that my language partner has shared with me. I will aim to spend my winter break reading more in Ge’ez and also creating sentences now that I have the tools to do so. Additionally, I am hoping to enroll in a Ge’ez class with other students this upcoming summer after graduation so I can have a similar classroom style feedback as I received while learning this semester. These sessions will also be held online rather than in person, but I think it will still be helpful.
Overall, this experience gave me a great introduction to what self directed learning looks like and though I required more guidance this time around, I think I will eventually be able to propel my learning individually.
Sunday, November 17
110 Reflection
These past couple of weeks, I have seen my Ge’ez sessions change to be more interactive. Our lessons call for more of a conversation/discussion style between my language partner and I. Because now I have the tools to construct grammatical sentences, be they simple or moderately complex, our discussions have served as a window to more learning and a way of assessing my progress as well. As such, written and oral conversations in Ge’ez and Amharic have been a growing part of the class periods. In each class period we have also been learning at least one grammatical concept and honing in on it. Some new concepts that we have gone over are future, subjunctive, and imperative conjugations of verbs. The subjunctive, as was the case when learning Spanish, is the hardest one for me to grasp. The imperative and subjunctive forms are also similar in some conjugations as they are in Spanish. In Spanish, you use the subjunctive to make a formal command. Similarly, the subjunctive and imperative are only different in the 2nd person in Ge’ez conjugations. However, the subjunctive almost always requires another verb to be conjugated in the sentences (another clause?). It was also a bit confusing to be how the imperative form could be conjugated in the 3rd person, because in English and in Spanish I believe imperative or command conjugations are only seen in first and second person. However, my teacher put it in the context of a sentence for me and it made a little more sense. I definitely need more practice on it though.
Another concept that we’ve been learning is the system of verb organization. There are 8 categories of verbs that are similar in conjugations and reading styles. This one was also a hard topic for me to learn as it requires a focus on intonation which is hard to gage. Intonation of words in Ge’ez is very important and there are 4 types of reading in Ge’ez. Knowing these 8 categories and their characteristics helps to keep track of how to read any type of word. This was less of a focus before but now with more oral activities this has become a bigger focus. My teacher helps me grasp this concept but exaggerating his own speech so I can detect the intonation. I find that I almost have to shift my mood in order to say some words correctly. To me, they sound more excited or even more serious. It’s interesting for me to now see the technical parts of reading, as I noticed it before when hearing scriptures being read but didn’t know that it had this level of technicality.
110 Artifact #3:
the Aksumite Empire:
I found a really interesting series on Khan Academy that talks about the Aksumite empire. The main source used for the compilation of articles on the history, art, and impact of the empire was the British Library. There is also an article on contemporary art by Julie Mehretu and ancient Christian art (Ethiopian Iconography).
Beginning with the history, the article noted that the Kingdom of Aksum was one of the 4 greatest powers of the world and matched the development of the European powers at the time --- Roman and Greek empires. Aksum served as a big trading post between Europe and Asiatic countries. The following excerpt harps on the impact and connections that this empire had economically and in terms of academics. “Research shows that Aksum was a major naval and trading power from the 1st to the 7th centuries C.E. As a civilization it had a profound impact upon the people of Egypt, southern Arabia, Europe and Asia, all of whom were visitors to its shores, and in some cases were residents. Aksum developed a civilization and empire whose influence, at its height in the 4th and 5th centuries C.E., extended throughout the regions lying south of the Roman Empire, from the fringes of the Sahara in the west, across the Red Sea to the inner Arabian desert in the east. The Aksumites developed Africa’s only indigenous written script, Ge’ez. They traded with Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean and Arabia.” Christianity and Judaism have very deep roots in this area which is now Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia.
The article remarks that not much is known about this empire today but I believe that this is due to a lack of research into the non-english resources there are about this empire. In fact, scriptures and artifacts from this time period are plentiful within the Church and though I am not certain, outside of it too. Take the story of Kings Atsbeha and Abreha or Kings Ezana and Saizana, there are books written about them and churches dedicated to them. They are attributed as the kings who brought the wide spread practice of Christianity into the land.
I also found it really interesting how the contemporary art of Julie Mehretu was analyzed. The deeply symbolic and modern painting called “Stadia II” was created in 2004. In it, Mehretu aims to take a familiar place, a stadium, and express in it the emotions and chaos of the world. “In her monumental paintings, murals, and works on paper, Julie Mehretu overlays architectural plans, diagrams, and maps of the urban environment with abstract forms and personal notations. The resulting compositions convey the energy and chaos of today’s globalized world. Stadia II is part of a triptych of works created in 2004, and explores themes such as nationalism and revolution as they occur in the worlds of art, sports, and contemporary politics.”
The comparison between this art and the ancient Ethiopian Christian art is stark. In this series, there is also an article of Ethiopian Christian art through the 4th-20th centuries, through different leadership, empires, and societies. It is fascinating and though this article is brief, I would love to go into it deeper in my future studies.
Source: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/east-africa2/ethiopia/a/the-kingdom-of-aksum
