Tigrinya language

Spoken in

• Afro-Asiatic languages Semitic languages West Semitic languages West Semitic languages Äthiosemitische languages Tigrinya

Ti

Tir

Tir

Tigrinya ( proper name Tigrinya: ትግርኛ tǝgrǝñña, also: Tigrinnya, Italian Tigrigna, Tigrinya and German ) is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It originated with the old Ethiopian language Ge'ez from a common older preform. The speakers of this language are called today in Ethiopia Tigray and Eritrea in Tigrinya.

Terms of language

The language name " Tigrinya " comes from the Amharic and is composed of the word Tigre and Amharic suffix "- ɲɲa ", the German " -ish " (as in English, etc.) corresponds. Older local language names that are now in use only in the country, are Qwanqwa Habesha ( " language of the Abyssinian " ) or simplistic Habesha or, especially in Tigray, Tigray Qwanqwa ( " language of Tigray "). The ancient ethnonym of the Tigrinya population is Habesha; Tigray, which is derived the modern language name is originally a purely geographical term and refers to the old center Tigray, the region around the holy city of Aksum.

The Tigrinya language name is used today in Eritrea as a term for the Tigrinya speaking population; the Tigrinya are one of the official nine ethnic groups of the country. Belonging to Ethiopia Tigrinya - speakers who live esp. in Tigray are officially called Tigray, Tigrinya not.

The Tigrinya should not be confused with the also in Eritrea, and Sudan spoken, closely related Tigre language äthiosemitischen.

Dissemination

Tigrinya was already 1952-58 along with Arabic the official language of the semi-autonomous region of Eritrea in the kingdom of Abyssinia. Today, it is next to eight other languages ​​National language and de facto along with Arabic is the most important official language. Tigrinya is the working language in the Ethiopian Tigray Regional State.

Of the world's nine million speakers of a population of about 4.5 million in Tigray and other regions of Ethiopia and approximately 2.5 million in the northern neighbor Eritrea.

Font

A final way of writing the language was not until the beginning of World War II on the basis of the old Ethiopian Ge'ez script. First Tigrinya manuscripts, however, are already known from the early 19th century. A first Tigrinya literature evolved from the Tigrinya Bible translations since the 1860s.

Vocabulary

During the Italian colonial period in the colony of Eritrea have numerous words of Italian origin - as forchetta, macchina and cancello - found their way into the language Tigrinya.