Ge'ez

Ge'ez (also called Classical Ethiopic) is no longer spoken as an everyday language, but it remains the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo churches, the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic churches, and the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews). It is used in Ethiopia and Eritrea and by Ethiopian and Eritrean church communities abroad.
Ge'ez was the language of the ancient Kingdom of Aksum in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. It probably died out as a spoken language between the 10th and 14th centuries, but it remained the main literary language of Ethiopia until the 19th century. Its script, also called Ge'ez or Ethiopic, is still used to write Amharic, Tigrinya, and Tigre, which are closely related to Ge'ez.