Ethiopic pharyngeal E

Language sets the sound. Ge’ez and Tigrinya retain a voiced pharyngeal, a consonant made deep in the throat; modern Amharic uses the row as vowel signs.

The Ethiopic script developed from Old South Arabian, a consonant alphabet used for inscriptions. Evidence for early Ge’ez at Yeha and Matara dates to the fourth to fifth century BCE; a clearly defined Ethiopic script appears in inscriptions from the second/third centuries CE. By the fourth century CE, added vowel signs helped Ge’ez scribes write longer texts, especially sacred works.