The Harari Alphabet

Harari (also called Adare or Ge Sinan — "language of the city", ISO 639-3: har) is an Ethiopic Semitic language spoken by approximately 56,000 people in the walled city of Harar, eastern Ethiopia ^[1]. Harar is one of Islam's holiest cities in sub-Saharan Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its 82 mosques and medieval walled city.

Harari belongs to the Afro-Asiatic → Semitic → Ethiopic Semitic branch, alongside Amharic, Tigrinya, and the Gurage languages ^[2]. The Harari people (Adare) are the historic inhabitants of Harar, maintaining a distinct linguistic and cultural identity in eastern Ethiopia.

Although Harari and Amharic share the Ge'ez Fidel, they are distinct languages — not dialects of each other ^[2]. The defining phonological difference is that Harari preserves the pharyngeal consonants ሐ (/ħ/) and ዐ (/ʕ/) that were lost in Amharic.

In Amharic, ሐ merged with ሀ and ዐ merged with አ, both becoming simple glottal sounds. In Harari, both pharyngeals retain their original Semitic pronunciation ^[1].

Harari also has the phoneme /p/ (ፐ) in native vocabulary — absent from Amharic. Core vocabulary, verb conjugation, and noun plural systems differ significantly between the two languages.

Harari is primarily spoken in the walled city of Harar (Jugol) in the Harari Region of eastern Ethiopia, approximately 525 km east of Addis Ababa near the Somali border ^[1]. The city is famous for its 82 mosques, the historic practice of hyena-feeding, and its well-preserved medieval fortifications.

Harari diaspora communities exist in Addis Ababa, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and North America ^[2]. The Harari Regional State is one of Ethiopia's smallest administrative regions, but one of the most culturally distinct.

Harari is primarily written in the Ge'ez Fidel (Ethiopic syllabary) — the same script used for Amharic, Tigrinya, and Tigre ^[2]. The Fidel is an abugida: each character represents a consonant with an inherent vowel, modified by diacritics to produce seven vowel orders per consonant.

Historically, Harari was also written in Arabic Ajami — an adaptation of the Arabic alphabet for non-Arabic languages ^[1]. This Ajami tradition reflects Harar's centuries-long role as a centre of Islamic scholarship and Arabic literary culture.

Harari preserves two pharyngeal consonants — ሐ (/ħ/, voiceless pharyngeal fricative) and ዐ (/ʕ/, voiced pharyngeal fricative) — that were merged and lost in Amharic ^[1]. In Amharic, ሐ merged with ሀ and ዐ merged with አ; in Harari, both retain their original Semitic pharyngeal pronunciation.

This preservation directly connects Harari to Arabic (/ħ/ = ح, /ʕ/ = ع) and to Classical Semitic phonology ^[2]. Languages like Tigrinya, Tigre, and Gurage also preserve pharyngeals better than Amharic, though Amharic is by far the most widely spoken Ethiopian Semitic language.

The ISO 639-3 code for Harari is har ^[2]. The language is documented at Addis Ababa University's Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) and at SOAS University of London's African Languages and Cultures department.

Research on Harari covers phonology, morphology, lexicography, and oral literary traditions — including the community's distinctive poetry and song that encode Harari cultural history ^[1].

Harari has the voiceless bilabial stop /p/ (written ፐ) in native vocabulary — absent from Amharic and most Ethiopian Semitic languages ^[1]. In Amharic, ፐ (pe) only appears in loanwords from European languages and is not a native phoneme.

In Proto-Semitic, /p/ existed (as in Arabic فاء, Hebrew פ), but most Ethiopian Semitic languages shifted /p/ → /f/ early on ^[2]. Harari's retention of /p/ in native vocabulary marks it as phonologically distinctive within the Ethiopian Semitic branch.

Harari is considered endangered, with approximately 56,000 speakers concentrated in Harar and in diaspora communities ^[2]. Amharic (Ethiopia's national language) and Oromo (the dominant regional language) exert significant pressure on intergenerational transmission.

The Harari Regional State government has promoted Harari language education, but the small speaker population creates structural challenges ^[1]. Documentation at AAU and SOAS works to preserve Harari's linguistic and cultural heritage.

Harari belongs to the Afro-Asiatic → Semitic → South Semitic → Ethiopic → Transversal South Ethiopic sub-branch ^[1]. Robert Hetzron's 1972 classification places Harari alongside the Silte (East Gurage) cluster within this subgroup.

Harari's closest relatives are Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre, and the Gurage languages ^[2]. The Afro-Asiatic super-family also includes Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, the Cushitic languages (Oromo, Somali), and the Berber languages of North Africa.