Old Harari
{{short description|Earliest historical form of Harari language}}
Old Harari or Ancient Harari is the earliest recorded form of the Harari language, spoken in Harar, Ethiopia.{{cite book |last1=Bausi |first1=Alessandro |title=The Emergence of Multiple-Text Manuscripts |publisher=De Gruyter |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Emergence_of_Multiple_Text_Manuscrip/3kXCDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0}}{{cite book |last1=Roma |first1=Elisa |title=Europe and the Mediterranean as Linguistic Areas Convergencies from a Historical and Typological Perspective |publisher=J. Benjamins Publishing Company |page=6 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Europe_and_the_Mediterranean_as_Linguist/ZHWySGXtuYQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=old+harari&pg=PA6&printsec=frontcover}}{{cite book |last1=Huehnergard |first1=John |title=The Semitic Languages |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=486 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Semitic_Languages/aWhHAQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=ancient+harari&pg=PA486&printsec=frontcover}} It used the Arabic script.{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=Samantha |title=A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea |publisher=Brill |page=285 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/A_Companion_to_Medieval_Ethiopia_and_Eri/-RNEEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=old+harari&pg=PA285&printsec=frontcover}}
History
Historian Ewald Wagner posited that Old Harari could uncover a common ancestry linking southern Ethiosemitic and Eastern Cushitic languages.{{cite book |last1=Dombrowski |first1=Franz |title=Reviewed Work: Harari-Texte in Arabischer Schrift Ewald Wagner |publisher=Journal of the American Oriental Society |page=369 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/601620}} The early Zikr text is linked to Sayo Abdulmalik, who composed it in Old Harari. Tradition holds that Abdulmalik resided during the era of Abadir in the 13th century.{{cite book |title=Harari Literature |publisher=Encyclopedia Aethiopica}} According to philologist Alessandro Bausi, the earliest known manuscript featuring a text in Old Harari dates back to 1460.{{cite book |last1=Gori |first1=Alessandro |title=Text Collections in the Arabic Manuscript Tradition of Harar: The Case of the Mawlid Collection and of šayḫ Hāšim’s al-Fatḥ al- Raḥmānī |publisher=De Gruyter |page=62 |url=https://uplopen.com/reader/chapters/pdf/10.1515/9783110645989-003}} Historian Mohamed Nuuh Ali, who specializes in Somali studies, suggests that there are indications that Old Harari loanwords in Somali language stem from the western expansion of the Somali people.{{cite book |last1=Ali |first1=Mohamed |title=History in the Horn of Africa, 1000 B.C.-1500 A.D. Aspects of Social and Economic Change Between the Rift Valley and the Indian Ocean |publisher=UCLA |page=151 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/History_in_the_Horn_of_Africa_1000_B_C_1/7gYucAAACAAJ?hl=en}}
Subsequently, Middle Harari later emerged, characterized as a blend of both Modern and Old Harari.{{cite book |last1=Banti |first1=Giorgio |title=The literature of Harar until the end of the 19th century |publisher=Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura |page=156 |url=https://unora.unior.it/handle/11574/37902}}
Linguist Giorgio Banti asserts that there is a common belief regarding the connection between the Harari language and the East Gurage languages, including Silt'e. However, this assertion is incorrect, as Old Harari is more similar to Modern Harari than to any of the East Gurage languages.{{cite book |last1=Banti |first1=Giorgio |title=Some Further Remarks on the Old Harari Kitab alfarayid |publisher=East and West |page=274 |url=https://everythingharar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020_Some_further_remarks_on_the_Old_Har.pdf}}
References
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