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Tigrinya language

Tigrinya (sometimes written asTigrigna; /tɪˈɡriːnjə/;[1] ትግርኛ təgrəñña) is an Afroasiatic language of the Ethiopian Semitic branch. It is mostly spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. There are approximately 6,915,000 total speakers of this language. There are approximately 4,320,000 in Ethiopia and approximately 2,540,000 in Eritrea. Tigrinya is also spoken by emigrants from these regions, including some Ethiopian Jews.[2][2]

Tigrinya
ትግርኛ
tigriññā
Pronunciation[tɨɡrɨɲa]
Native toEritrea, Ethiopia
RegionEritrea, Tigray Region
Native speakers6.9 million  (2006 – 2007 census)e18
Language family
Writing systemTigrinya alphabet (Ge'ez script)
Official status
Official language inEritrea, Ethiopia
Language codes
ISO 639-1ti
ISO 639-2tir
ISO 639-3tir
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
Ge'ez.svg
 This article contains Ethiopic text. Without the correct software, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Ethiopic characters.

History and literature

The earliest written example of Tigrinya is a text of local laws found in Logosarda district, Southern Region, Eritrea. It is from the 13th century.[3]

Tigrinya is related to the Ethiopian Semitic language Ge'ez. However, Tigrinya has a different word order than Ge'ez, and there are some more differences in grammar. However, the two languages have similar phonology and morphology, which show they are related.[4] Ge'ez has influenced Tigrinya literature, especially with words about Christian life.[5] Until recent times, Ge'ez was used for writing more often than Tigrinya was.[6] When the British ruled Eritrea, there was a newspaper written in Tigrinya.[7]

Tigrinya was one of Eritrea's official languages while it was part of Ethiopia; in 1958 it was replaced with the language Amharic. During the rule of Emperor Haile Selassie (1930-1974), publications in Tigrinya were banned.[8] When Selassie lost power, Amharic remained the standard language.[8] In 1991, Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia. Tigrinya was the "working language" in Eritrea.

Speakers

There are 6,915,000 total Tigrinya speakers. Of these, approximately 4,320,000 live in Ethiopia. Most Tigrinya speakers in Ethiopia live in the Tigray region. There are approximately 2,540,000 Tigrinya speakers in Eritrea. Most of these live in the southern and central areas of the country. There are also over 10,000 Beta Israel speakers of Tigrinya.[2]

Tigrinya is the fourth most spoken language in Ethiopia after Amharic, Oromo, Somali and the most widely spoken language in Eritrea. It is also spoken by immigrants around the world. In Australia, Tigrinya is broadcast on public radio on the Special Broadcasting Service.[9]

There are two dialects of Tigrinya: Northern and Southern.[10]

Northern Dialect

  • Eritrea (Hamasien, Seraye, Akele Guzay, Anseba)
  • Ethiopia (Adwa, Axum, Shire, most areas of Agame)

Southern Dialect

  • Ethiopia (Enderta, Tembien, Raya, some areas of Agame)

Phonology

Tigrinya has a set of ejective consonants and seven vowels.

A Tigrinya syllable may have a consonant-vowel or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence.

Writing system

Tigrinya is written in the Ge'ez script (Ethiopic script), which was originally developed for the Ge'ez language. The Ge'ez script is an abugida. Each symbol represents a consonant+vowel syllable.[11]

Tigrinya writing system
  ä u i a e (ə) o wä wi wa we wə
h ሀ ሁ ሂ ሃ ሄ ህ ሆ  
l ለ ሉ ሊ ላ ሌ ል ሎ  
ḥ ሐ ሑ ሒ ሓ ሔ ሕ ሖ  
m መ ሙ ሚ ማ ሜ ም ሞ  
ś ሠ ሡ ሢ ሣ ሤ ሥ ሦ  
r ረ ሩ ሪ ራ ሬ ር ሮ  
s ሰ ሱ ሲ ሳ ሴ ስ ሶ  
š ሸ ሹ ሺ ሻ ሼ ሽ ሾ  
ḳ ቀ ቁ ቂ ቃ ቄ ቅ ቆ ቈ ቊ ቋ ቌ ቍ
ḳʰ ቐ ቑ ቒ ቓ ቔ ቕ ቖ ቘ ቚ ቛ ቜ ቝ
b በ ቡ ቢ ባ ቤ ብ ቦ  
v ቨ ቩ ቪ ቫ ቬ ቭ ቮ  
t ተ ቱ ቲ ታ ቴ ት ቶ  
č ቸ ቹ ቺ ቻ ቼ ች ቾ  
ḫ ኀ ኁ ኂ ኃ ኄ ኅ ኆ ኈ ኊ ኋ ኌ ኍ
n ነ ኑ ኒ ና ኔ ን ኖ  
ñ ኘ ኙ ኚ ኛ ኜ ኝ ኞ  
ʾ አ ኡ ኢ ኣ ኤ እ ኦ  
k ከ ኩ ኪ ካ ኬ ክ ኮ ኰ ኲ ኳ ኴ ኵ
x ኸ ኹ ኺ ኻ ኼ ኽ ኾ ዀ ዂ ዃ ዄ ዅ
w ወ ዉ ዊ ዋ ዌ ው ዎ  
ʿ ዐ ዑ ዒ ዓ ዔ ዕ ዖ  
z ዘ ዙ ዚ ዛ ዜ ዝ ዞ  
ž ዠ ዡ ዢ ዣ ዤ ዥ ዦ  
y የ ዩ ዪ ያ ዬ ይ ዮ  
d ደ ዱ ዲ ዳ ዴ ድ ዶ  
ǧ ጀ ጁ ጂ ጃ ጄ ጅ ጆ  
g ገ ጉ ጊ ጋ ጌ ግ ጎ ጐ ጒ ጓ ጔ ጕ
ṭ ጠ ጡ ጢ ጣ ጤ ጥ ጦ  
č̣ ጨ ጩ ጪ ጫ ጬ ጭ ጮ  
p̣ ጰ ጱ ጲ ጳ ጴ ጵ ጶ  
ṣ ጸ ጹ ጺ ጻ ጼ ጽ ጾ  
ṣ́ ፀ ፁ ፂ ፃ ፄ ፅ ፆ  
f ፈ ፉ ፊ ፋ ፌ ፍ ፎ  
p ፐ ፑ ፒ ፓ ፔ ፕ ፖ  
  ä u i a e (ə) o wä wi wa we wə

Note: Symbols falling into disuse in Tigrinya are shown with a dark gray background in the table.

Tigrinya Language Media

  • Tigrinya notices at an Eritrean Orthodox Church, Schiebroek, Rotterdam

References

  1. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Tigrigna". Ethnologue. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  3. ↑ "UCLA Language Materials Project Language Profiles Page: Tigrinya". UCLA. Archived from the original on 2007-03-02. Retrieved 2006-11-10.
  4. ↑ Fellman, J. (2005). Lines on an African-Semitic language: The case of Tigrinya. Folia Linguistica, 26(1/2), 163-164. doi:10.1515/flin.26.1-2.163
  5. ↑ The Bible in Tigrigna, United Bible society, 1997
  6. ↑ Edward Ullendorff, The Ethiopians, Oxford University Press 1960
  7. ↑ Ministry of Information (1944) The First to be Freed—The record of British military administration in Eritrea and Somalia, 1941-1943. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Woldemariam, H., & Lanza, E. (2014). Language contact, agency and power in the linguistic landscape of two regional capitals of Ethiopia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 228, 79-103.
  9. ↑ "ቀንዲ ገጽ ትግርኛ". SBS Your Language. Archived from the original on 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
  10. ↑ Leslau, Wolf (1941) Documents Tigrigna (Éthiopien Septentrional): Grammaire et Textes. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.
  11. ↑ Rehman, Abdel. English Tigrigna Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Tigrinya Language: (Asmara) Simon Wallenberg Press. Introduction Pages to the Tigrinya Language

Bibliography

  • Amanuel Sahle (1998) Säwasäsǝw Tǝgrǝñña bǝsäfiḥ. Lawrencevill, NJ, USA: Red Sea Press. ISBN 1-56902-096-5
  • Dan'el Täxlu Räda (1996, Eth. Cal.) Zäbänawi säwasəw kʷ'ankʷ'a Təgrəñña. Mäx'älä
  • Rehman, Abdel. English Tigrigna Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Tigrinya Language: (Asmara) Simon Wallenberg Press. Introduction Pages to the Tigrinya Language ISBN 1-84356-006-2
  • Eritrean People's Liberation Front (1985) Dictionary, English-Tigrigna-Arabic. Rome: EPLF.
  • ----- (1986) Dictionary, Tigrigna-English, mesgebe qalat tigrinya englizenya. Rome: EPLF.
  • Kane, Thomas L. (2000) Tigrinya-English Dictionary (2 vols). Springfield, VA: Dunwoody Press. ISBN 1-881265-68-4
  • Leslau, Wolf (1941) Documents tigrigna: grammaire et textes. Paris: Libraire C. Klincksieck.
  • Mason, John (Ed.) (1996) Säwasǝw Tǝgrǝñña, Tigrinya Grammar. Lawrenceville, NJ, USA: Red Sea Press. ISBN 0-932415-20-2 (ISBN 0-932415-21-0, paperback)
  • Praetorius, F. (1871) Grammatik der Tigriñasprache in Abessinien. Halle. ISBN 3-487-05191-5 (1974 reprint)
  • Täxästä Täxlä et al. (1989, Eth. Cal.) Mäzgäbä k'alat Təgrəñña bə-Təgrəñña. Addis Ababa: Nəgd matämiya dərəǧǧət.
  • Ullendorff, E. (1985) A Tigrinya Chrestomathy. Stuttgart: F. Steiner. ISBN 3-515-04314-4
  • Ze'im Girma (1983) Lǝsanä Ag’azi. Asmara: Government Printing Press.

Other websites

  Wikivoyage has a travel guide about: Tigrinya_phrasebook
  This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Tigrinya language edition.
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