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The Name of a Nation

Aksum, Abyssinia, Habashah, Habesha. There are a recorded twelve different pronunciations and spellings for the nation and all are considered accurate.

All point to different times and different views of the great nation. In truth all are related. The root of it all is a denotation for the Kingdom of Aksum as Habashat in Ge'ez before the language went extinct by the rise of Arabic, but the Habesha Arabic would save this taking many loan words. Habashah is a rendition of Arabic of the original Habashat, and likewise Abyssinia is also likewise derived from the Latinized form of the name. Throwing further confusion into the mix is the common practice of scholars, in particular western scholars, as referring to the ruling dynasty and people as Habashabs, not unlike Ottoman or Mughal. Thus in many instances Al-Habashah and Al-Habesha can be considered interchangeable especially as pronunciation differences arise from the many different language groups within Habashah itself!

The people of Habashah, refer to themselves as Habesha as a people, though even that can be broken down into various sub groups (Habesha Somali, Habesha Tigraen, Habesha Arab, Habesha European, and so forth) it still represents the evolution of centuries as what once used to refer to a highland tribe became a nation of millions by the 21st century.