Ge'ez Grammar Adjustments for our Two Patriarchs
there is a (ግድ የለሽነት) carelessness and lack of critical thinking we sometimes display when carrying out the liturgy. this manifests in several ways, but today i will just address one. now that we have two patriarchs, the portion of our liturgy entitled “for the sake of the blessed and holy” “በእንተ ብጹዕ ወቅዱስ” “(beinte bissui weqidus)” has to be adjusted.
most deacons and priests i have heard so far have adjusted this part correctly. “በእንተ ብጹዐን ቅዱሳን” “beinte bissuan weqidusan”. the misstep all but one have made is in the next part. “ርእሰ ሊቃነጳጳሳት” “riise leeqane ppappasat” “head of the archbishops” or “patriarch” is the normal pattern. i have heard people incorrectly pluralize (most grammatical errors i encounter surround pluralization and singularization when switching back-and-forth between ge’ez and amharic without care and critical thinking) this as “ርእሳን” “riisan” and “ርእሳት” “riisat”. the former is the regular masculine pluralization of objects and persons. the latter is the regular feminine pluralization of objects and persons. the issue here is that this is an irregularly conjugated word that we all should know due to it popping up later on in the liturgy!
after the elements have returned into the holy place, and now typically a sermon has been preached, the deacon begins the end of the liturgy by saying, “አድንኑ አርእስቲክሙ” “adninu ariisteekimu” “bow your heads”. this last word is the word we are looking for. subtract the “ክሙ” “kimu” which just means third person plural. “አርእስት” “ariist” is the plural of “ርዕስ” “riis”.
so, in full, we should pray, “በእንተ ብጹዓን ወቅዱሳን አርእስተ ሊቃነጳጳሳት” “beinte bissuan weqidusan ariiste leeqane ppappasat” “for the sake of the blessed ones and holy ones, heads of the archbishops” or “for the sake of the blessed and holy patriarchs”.
i love diversity, and it has its place, but so does its fraternal twin, standardization. please share this wisdom, and let us attend.
p.s. for those of you who really want to go down the ge’ez rabbit hole, i have questions about leeq, leeqan, and leeqawint...
p.p.s this is reposted from fb. go there to see the corrections and agreement of my friends and fellow lovers of ge'ez