held to have ruled in Abyssinia (Eritrea and Ethiopia) c. 1300 BCE. Geʻez has 26 consonantal letters. Compared to the inventory of 29 consonants in the South Arabian writing system, continuants are missing of ġ, ẓ, and South Arabian s3 (Geʻez Sawt ሠ being derived from South Arabian s2 ), as well as z and ṯ, these last two absences reflecting the collapse of the interdental with the alveolar fricatives. On the other hand, emphatic ጰ, a Geʻez innovation, is a modification of ጸ, while Pesa ፐ is based on Tawe ተ. Thus, there are 24 correspondences of Geʻez and the South Arabian writing system: Many of the letter names are cognate with those of Phoenician, and may thus be assumed for the Proto-Sinaitic script. Geʽez writing system Two writing systems were used to write the Geʽez language, an abjad and later an abugida. Geʽez abjad The abjad, used until the advent of Christianity (ca. AD 350), had 26 consonantal letters: It was properly written right-to-left. Vowels were not indicated. Geʽez abugida Modern Geʽez is written from left to right. During the adoption or introduction of Christianity, the Geʽez abugida developed under the influence of Christian scripture by adding obligatory vocalic diacritics to the consonantal letters. The diacritics for the vowels, , were fused with the consonants in a recognizable but slightly irregular way, so that the system is laid out as a syllabary. The original form of the consonant was used when the vowel was (), the so-called inherent vowel. The resulting forms are shown below in their traditional order. For most consonants there is an eighth form for the diphthong or , and for a number of those a ninth form for . To represent a consonant with no following phonemic vowel, for example at the end of a syllable or in a consonant cluster, the () form is used (the character in the sixth column). Labiovelar variants The letters for the labialized velar consonants are variants of the non-labialized velar consonants: Unlike the other consonants, these labiovelar ones can be combined with only five different vowels: Adaptations to other languages The Geʽez abugida has been adapted to several modern languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia, frequently requiring additional letters. Additional letters Some letters were modified to create additional consonants for use in languages other than Geʽez. This is typically done by adding a horizontal line at the top