Gə’əz revival from Aksumite abugida to digital and decolonial scholarship in the twenty-first century

Abstract

Gə’əz, the classical Ethio-Semitic language of Aksum and the liturgical cornerstone of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, has transitioned from a state of nineteenth-century scholarly neglect and sacred confinement to a dynamic twenty-first-century revival. This paper explores Gə’əz 's journey from its Aksumite roots as a vocalized abugida (a writing system where each character represents a consonant–vowel syllable) innovated around the fourth century CE to enhance phonetic precision beyond its South Arabian consonantal predecessor to its modern resurgence in liturgical, digital, and academic spheres. This study integrates philological analysis, archival ethnography, fifteen semi-structured interviews, and digital tools like Transkribus OCR and Gephi network mapping, merging classical philology with AI-driven digital-humanities methodologies. Results highlight significant strides in manuscript digitization (over 20,000 manuscripts cataloged or digitized via Beta Maṣāḥǝft and HMML), interdisciplinary advancements in linguistics and law, and innovative cultural expressions. By situating Gə’əz 's revival within the context of global linguistic sovereignty movements including parallels with Arabic script retention in China, Jawi in Southeast Asia, Ajami in West Africa, and Literary Sinitic in East Asiathis paper demonstrates how the revitalization of a marginalized classical language serves as a powerful form of epistemic resistance to Eurocentrism while acknowledging persistent challenges in phonological encoding, digitization accuracy, and inclusive representation. The study advances decolonial scholarship by amplifying African perspectives, providing scalable models for non-Latin script digitization, and enhancing cultural diplomacy through global humanities, thereby offering a critical framework for understanding similar revival efforts worldwide.