Geʽez consonants have a triple opposition between voiceless, voiced, and ejective (or emphatic) obstruents. The Proto-Semitic "emphasis" in Geʽez has been generalized to include emphatic p̣. Geʽez has phonologized labiovelars, descending from Proto-Semitic biphonemes. Geʽez ś Sawt (in Amharic, also called "śe-nigūś", i.e. the "se" letter used for spelling the word "nigūś" "king") is reconstructed as descended from a Proto-Semitic voiceless lateral fricative . Like Arabic, Geʽez merged Proto-Semitic š and s in (also called "se-isat": the "se" letter used for spelling the word "isāt" "fire"). Apart from this, Geʽez phonology is comparably conservative; the only other Proto-Semitic phonological contrasts lost may be the interdental fricatives and ghayn.