after that event, supplanted by a new dynasty of princés,* who
in the historical books are termed the Zagean family. At the
period of this revolution, one infant of the ancient race is said
to have been preserved from the massacre which destroyed
the rest. This child, conveyed to the distant province of Xoa
or Shoa preserved the lineage of the ancient emperors. When
the Zagean house failed at Axum, the government of the empire
was removed to Shoa, about A. D. 1300, where the descendants
pf the old emperors are said to have been restored
to their full sovereignty, and there the first Portuguese missionaries
at their arrival found the seat of the Abyssinian monarchy.
Shoa is a southern province in the Amharic country,
and the Amharic language thenceforward became the “ Lesan
Negush” or royal idiom of Abyssinia.* The government
being no longer in Tigré, Gheez, which was the ancient vernacular
tongue of that province ceased to be cultivated ; it
was from that period preserved only in hooks and used for
ecclesiastical purposes.*}*
The modern language of Tigré has thus been for five centuries
a merely oral dialect. It could not fail to be modified
by time and accidents. We are, however, informed by Ludolf,
that the Gheez was formerly the vernacular language of Tigré,
and that, although the dialect of that province has undergone
corruptions in the lapse of time, yet the common
idiom of the inhabitants is still near to the' ancient speech;
Ludolf assures us that the people of other districts in Abyssinia
consider the Tigrani as speaking the Gheez lahguage ;
and that, when they have any doubt about the meaning of a
word in their Ethiopie books, they always have recourse to a
man of Tigré for explanation as if the Gheèz was his native
and peculiar idiom,
* Ludolf, Prefat. Grammatics Ling. Amharic», item Ludolf, Hist.Æthiop,
See also Bruce’s- Abyssinian Annals.
+ Some writers have considered this supposed preservation of the old royal family
of Abyssinia as a fable, and the revolution' which occasioned the removal of
the government to Shoa, as a real conquest of the Axumite empire by the Amharas.
The result in either case was a change of the seat of government, whence ensued
the adoption of a new national language and the abandonment of the old one, and
the subsequent predominance of a new race.
X Ludolf, Comment, in Hist. Æth. .
The Amharic,iOrmódërntAb^ssiiiian, hasj^eéifthe laögphge
of the ’court andTh^Mc^of thé; êktpjch since ;the period.above
noted. >~It is ekpok eat throilgtS^'' pali of Abyssinia. The
Amharic^ isf%#t a sd^i’p^il6)wthe ^Gheezof^Etldofe|i- ’ as some
havet imaginedy but a: language^pndamentally ’distinct. Of
this any person jmdy^éé'c'dhvinced who'- ex a Alqliff he grammar
and dictionary of th&Amharie' compiled, by Ludolf with thé
assistance of Gregorius, and-'f^p^ndeds^td ;Jhe dictionary
and grammar; of Jf|è 'Ethiopië!?* If immediately evident
that the Amharic has' adopted from* fhej gfeatihumber
of words,^especially such as"* aró\‘connected, with religidfi
and the advancement, of arts ^d;-lèivilization. A,
bef pi jgr^mhtical forms, ;as a part, öSh^verMl inflections
and of the pronominal suflfixes $ pppn,ected with them, havé
likewise been adQptédr by the AmharasfrOm .thei.dlafect.’of
the -more improved Axoimites, and the statdlof «the Amharic
language might.almost be compared, in thi^ffispectfo that of
the AlgOfinp Berber (or. Showiah, which, ^as. JVlr. Newy^att
has proved, in m admirable and elaborate ana}$$$£&£f that
idiom, to. be. so engrafted with grammahCal.forms borrowed
from the Arabic?;, that it might easily*'be mistaken^ as it
has indeed been, for a Semitic dialect^ TheJBeibpr| as M.
Venture and Mr. Newman have fully proved, is^sentially
and in the most original part of itsayPjjabulary an idiom
entirely distinct and devoid of any relation m, the Senhfio
or any other known language. This last, reiifark may-'bp/
applied with equal truth the Amharic.v, It ^probably
an ancient African language, and tbe original idiom apI the
inhabitants of the south-eastern .. provinces, of» Abyssinia.f
Agatharchid.es, in his account, of countries bordering{ on the
Red Sea, terms the idiom of the Troglodytes; ofrE|biopia
—rrjc Kafidpag —the language of Camara, or as some
read, Kapapa Xé^ig, the Camera language. The; people
who spoke that language were,. according to Agatharchides/
Grammatica Lingua Amharic®, qua vernacula est Habessinörum, autore
Jobo Ludolfo, Fransofurt. ad Man.-1698, and Lexicon Amharicb-Latinum ab eo-
dem. The same observation as to the distinctness of the Amharic from Üfe?Ethiópic
was,made by Vater. See Mithrid. Th. iii.
t Agatharchides de Rubro Mari.