Lesser-Known Languages (LKL) — Tigrinya

A deep dive into the language, history, and culture of Africa's North Korea

I like to think I’m rather knowledgeable when it comes to languages. After all, I’ve spent thousands of hours researching languages from there and living in both these areas.

I’m also well aware of how little I know about Africa and the Middle East as a whole. Something that was made clear to me once again when I discovered Eritrea, its history, and its languages.

I instantly decided to deep dive into the Tigrinya language when I saw it. I thought it was a good opportunity to appreciate the Amharic script—a script I’ve always found attractive for a long time—and I also didn’t know anything about it.

The discoveries that followed made me feel disappointed in myself for not knowing more about what was happening there.

I could have turned around and buried my head in the sand but I’m glad I didn’t.

Not only is the history of this country and its current situation worth knowing, but its main language’s structure is also absolutely wonderful.

Before we dive further, here is some overall info that’ll come in handy.

Photo by mulugeta wolde on Unsplash

Overall

Tigrinya is one of the 9 official languages (Tigrinya, Tigre, Saho, Kunama, Rashaida, Bilen, Afar, Beni, Amir, and Nera) of Eritrea. The government also uses Arabic.

The Tigriniyan population amounts to 50% of the population, approximately 3 million people. This number decreases each year as people are fleeing the country.

There is also a large Tigrinyan population in Ethiopia, most of whom are in the Tigray region. At the moment, only about 6% of the population speaks Tigrinya but this still amounts to over seven million speakers in this 123 million-people country.

The overall population speaking Tigrinya is therefore about 10 million people.

Careful though, as I looked around, it seems most people confuse the Tigre language with Tigrinya. While they are from the same language family, they are still different languages. Tigre is spoken by about a million people most of whom are in Eritrea.

Alright, let’s dive into the shocking history of Eritrea.

History

Eritrea is home to Madam Buya, the oldest fossils revealing important stages in the evolution of humans found to date. These have been dated to 1 million years old.

As such, archeology discoveries have shown Eritrea was the most likely location of a land known as Punt by the Ancient Egyptians in the 25th century BC. The Puntites apparently had a close relationship with Egypt as gifts were exchanged between the two.

Pre-1991

During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Eritrea was part of the kingdom of D’mt (read “Daʿamat”). This kingdom, which developed irrigation schemes and weaponry, was later overtaken by multiple smaller kingdoms until the Kingdom of Aksum unified the region.

The Kingdom of Aksum was one of the major empires of the ancient world. Located in today’s Tigray region, it thrived thanks to its location, at a crossroads between the Roman Empire, the Middle East, and India. It was also the kingdom that brought the Christian religion to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

The earliest inscription of the Ge’ez script, used in Tigrinya and a few other Semitic languages, dates back to this Kingdom and is known as the Ezana Stone. The Ezana Stone dates back to the 4th century CE and has a text in ancient Ge’ez, Sabaean, and Greek. A sort of local Rosetta Stone.

The Aksum empire began its decline with the rise of Islam in the 7th century CE. Indeed, while Aksum was originally on good terms with its neighbors, it was pushed into economic isolation after the Rashidun Caliphate took control of the Red Sea and Egypt in 646.

The country was occupied by multiple empires in the following centuries and most notably the Ottoman empire from the 16th century onwards.

The Italians arrived in 1869 first but Eritrea only became an official colony in 1885 after the occupation of Massawa. The colony remained under Italian rule until 1941.

During this occupation, the colony was used as a base for further Italian expansion in the region, and as a way to control trade routes. The Italians established a modern infrastructure in Eritrea. They also developed agriculture and mining industries in the colony.

However, the Italian occupation was also marked by repression and discrimination against the Eritrean population. The Italians attempted to forcibly assimilate the Eritreans into Italian culture and imposed strict controls on their movement and economic activity. They also implemented policies of forced labor and conscription, which led to widespread resistance among the Eritreans.

During the second world war, the British and Ethiopian forces took over the colony and pushed out the Italians. After the war, Eritrea was made a UN trust territory with the intention of eventually giving the people the right to self-determination. However, in 1952, Eritrea was annexed by Ethiopia, despite the protests of many Eritreans. This annexation set off a long and bloody struggle for independence.

Post Independence Eritrea

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) emerged victorious in the war for independence, and Isaias Afwerki, the leader of the EPLF, became the country's first president.

In the years following independence, Eritrea was seen as a promising new nation, with a strong sense of national pride and a desire to build a better future for its people. However, the government quickly began to centralize power and restrict civil liberties. The government also implemented a series of controversial policies, including mandatory military service for all citizens and strict controls on the press and political opposition.

In the early 2000s, a large number of Eritreans began to flee the country in search of better prospects elsewhere. This trend has continued to the present day, with Eritreans making up one of the largest groups of refugees and migrants in the world.

It’s also given Eritrea its nickname of “Africa’s North Korea.”

In recent years, the number of Eritreans fleeing the country has risen dramatically, with many people seeking asylum in Europe and other countries. Considering the situation, most requests are being accepted. The UN has estimated that almost 10% of the population has fled the country since independence.

This situation is, unfortunately, likely to continue.

Across the border

When talking about Tigrinya, not mentioning the Tigray region in Ethiopia would be overlooking the second region with the most speakers of the language.

First, a war between Ethiopia and Eritrea began in 1998, just seven years after Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia. The conflict was sparked by a dispute over the border between the two countries, which had been undefined since Eritrea's independence. The war lasted for two years and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 100,000 people.

A ceasefire agreement known as the Algiers Agreement was signed in 2000 but the border dispute remained unresolved, and tensions continued to simmer between the two countries. In 2018, however, the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, took steps to improve relations with Eritrea, and the two countries officially declared an end to the war, reopening diplomatic and trade relations.

Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for these efforts but also caused a humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region when he began a conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in November 2020.

A two-year war unfolded until November 2nd, 2022 when a peace treaty was signed between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF.

It appears some fighting is still ongoing in some parts of Tigray despite the peace agreement. Even in “peaceful” parts, people are still suffering the consequences of the war as basic needs still can’t be met.

Culture

When it comes to culture, completely unbiased and verified information is difficult to find. Considering the current situation in Eritrea, the information I found needs to be taken with a grain of salt, especially considering some of it comes from the Eritrean government website inviting people to visit the country.

Still, the Tigrinyan culture is extremely interesting and deserves to be known so here we go. Of course, if you or someone you know has more knowledge about Tigrinyan culture (from Eritrea or Ethiopia) let me know in the comments!

Religions

Following the Italian occupation, many Tigranyans have become Orthodox Christians. According to Wikipedia, Christians amount to 94% while the remaining 6% are Muslims. The official Eritrean website mentions about half of the population is Muslim so, considering the fact that Tigrinyans account for 50% of the population, that’d fit the bill.

Festivals

As Eritrea and Ethiopia have both Muslims and Orthodox Christians, festivals throughout the year reflect both religions.

These festivals are Orthodox Christmas, Enkutatash (እንቁጣጣሽ, Ge'ez New Year), Timket (ጥምቀት, Baptism of Christ), Easter, and Meskel (መሰቀል, Finding of the True Cross), Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Eid Milad un-Nabi.

The official Eritrea page mentions three festivals for children too: Hiyo, Aba Abraham, and Hoye (ሆየ) but was able to find little information on Hoye alone¹. This one, also poorly documented, at least has a few tweets about it with videos and pictures.

Hoye is apparently celebrated on Ge’ez New Year’s Eve and Meskel Eve by lighting torches and going around the neighborhood singing.

Food

Like many countries that used to be colonies, Eritrean cuisine has both typical local recipes and interpretations of dishes from their colonizers.

The injera (ጣይታ), a pancake-like flatbread made of teff flour, is a staple of Eritrean (and Ethiopian) food. Common meals will include injera along with several tsebhi (ጸብሒ) which are stews.

Tsebhi derhō (ጸብሒ ደርሆ), a tsebhi made from chicken often combined with hard-boiled eggs, is the most popular traditional food but others like the vegetarian option shiro (ሽሮ) exist too.

Other savory local dishes include fit-fit (ፍትፍት), Ga’at (ጋዓት, also called Genfo and similar to the Arab Asida), and the chickpea snack kolo (ኮሎ).

Coffee ceremonies are also a core cultural custom found in the area. While it would make sense to think this is a tradition the Italian colonizers brought, this tradition dates to before then.

Coffee ceremonies are an honor and the rule is to have three cups. Each round has a different name (awel, kalei’i, and baraka in Tigrinya), with the last one meaning “to be blessed.”

Music

Finally, there are two typical instruments from Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The first is a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre tuned to a pentatonic scale called the krar (ክራር). As it was historically used by wandering poets², it is usually played solo to accompany singing or storytelling, but we can find it as part of ensembles nowadays.

The kebero (ከበሮ) is a hand drum used for traditional music in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. This hollow metal cylinder with a membranophone is especially common in Orthodox church ceremonies as it is apparently supposed to represent the body of Jesus.

Both sides of the kebero have a membrane, allowing two distinct tunes when playing it.

Tigrinya Language ቋንቋ ትግርኛ

Now, let’s get nerdy and talk grammar.

Overall information

The Tigrinya language is an Ethiopian Semitic language following a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order. This differs from the Ge’ez language (from which it evolved) which was OSV.

Tigrinya most often places noun modifiers like other modern Ethiopian Semitic languages do, in front of the noun³, although some can appear as suffixes:

• -ን…-ን (-n… -n) means “and” if added at the end of two nouns following each other

• -አይ -äy means “my” while -ካ -ka means “your (masc.)”. Other possessive adjectives also appear as suffixes.

Tigrinya uses what is called “gemination,” the doubling of a consonantal sound. This means the sound of any consonant can be doubled and leave an impact on the meaning of said words.

Tigrinya has two genders (masculine and feminine) and uses plural forms as follows:

• By adding a suffix (such as -tat/-at, as in ዓራት ‘arat “bed”, ዓራታት(ዓራውቲ) ‘aratat "beds"), called “external plural⁴”

• Using an “internal plural,” also called “broken plural,” which is made by retaining the root consonants of the word and rearranging syllables into new ones. This is similar to the broken plural found in Arabic. It appears some patterns are particularly frequent but the only method to be sure of which nouns use this system is to learn each form.

  • ደርሆ därho 'chicken', ደራሁ därahu 'chickens'

Verbs have a tense-aspect-mood system modifying a 3-to-5-consonants root which can be combined with auxiliary verbs, creating a useful precision for speakers of the language (and making it harder to learn for learners!)

This being said, it appears this verb system is quite common among Semitic languages so speakers of Arabic, Hebrew, and many others may find this quite intuitive.

As you’ve already noticed, Tigrinya doesn’t rely on the Latin alphabet but on another script. Those who know a bit might think it is the Amharic script but it’s not. It’s actually the Ge’ez script which is older. Hell, you might even be seeing squares everywhere in this piece if your computer/phone doesn’t have the capacity to read this script.

Ge’ez script

The Ge’ez script, read from left to right, is an abugida, which means letters represent a consonant with an inherent basic vowel and extra marks change what vowel should be understood.

For example, ቱ is tu, ቲ is ti, ታ is ta, and ቶ is to, all changing from the “basic form” of ተ (tä).

This specific script is particular to Ethiopian and Eritrean Semitic languages since other Semitic languages all (except Maltese) rely on abjads, a system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader.

Interestingly enough, it appears the Ge’ez script used to be an abjad too and it is through interaction with Christian scripture that it evolved into an abugida. With even more time, the vowels merged with the consonants forming a sort of syllabary like Japanese.

As a result, there are about 200 different characters appearing in a table as the following one.

Some “new” characters were also created to fit the requirements of modern languages. Tigrinya is one of those languages and uses some extra letters like ቨ (v) or ዠ (ž).

Pronouns

Tigrinya has 10 personal pronouns. It has the singular and plural forms for the first person (ኣነ (anä) = I, ንሕና (nǝḥǝna) = we), but also a masculine and a feminine form for the second and third person, both in the singular and plural forms:

• 2nd masc sing. - ንስኻ (nǝssǝxa)

• 2nd fem sing. - ንስኺ (nǝssǝxi)

• 3rd masc plural. - ንሳቶም (nǝssatom)

• 3rd fem plural. - ንሳተን (nǝssatän)

• Etc.

Just like in many other languages, the plural form is also used to be polite when talking to a single person too.⁵

This being said, Tigrinya is a pro-drop language. This means it is common to drop aspects of the language easily understood from context. This is often the case for pronouns as the verb always indicates the subject. As a result, the subject is often omitted and added for emphasis alone.

The pronoun can also be added as a suffix in certain cases (as an object or as a possessive suffix for example)

Verbs basics

Tigrinya verbs, like all other Semitic languages, rely on adding vowels in between a set of consonants considered the root of a verb. For example, the root of the verb “to sing” is {drf} (pronounced as its citation form, ደረፈ däräfä) and the rearrangement of syllables determines the tense, person, etc.

Tigrinya has 5 classes of conjugation classes:

• Triliteral verbs (verbs with a three-consonant root) can be part of one of 3 types (called 3A, 3B, and 3C here). This is common among Ethiopian Semitic languages.

• Quadriliteral verbs (verbs with a four-consonant root)

• Quinquiliteral verbs

Before the verb can be conjugated, it needs to undergo a derivational process, which means it can be modified with prefixes, internal changes, or both.

For example, if the prefix ተ (tä-) is added to the verb, it changes it to its passive form. With ተደረፈ (tädäräfä), the verb comes to mean “to be sung.” The verb could also get an added “a” in the middle to indicate repetition: ደራረፈ (däraräfä) means “to sing repeatedly.”

From this point, verbs can be conjugated into one of the 4 main tenses:

• Perfect, used for expressing the past

• Imperfect

  • Used for expressing the present in its bare form

  • Used for expressing the future if the prefix ኪ (ki) is added with the conjugated copula as a suffix እዩ ǝyyu:

    • ኪነብር እዩ (kinäbbǝr ǝyyu) — 'he will be (there)'

• Jussive/Imperative, used for orders and requests

• Gerundive, used for completed actions

And finally comes the actual conjugation of the verb.

Each tense will be modified accordingly to the subject, which means there are 10 forms per tense⁶. Here are two examples

• ፈለጥኩ (fälät'-ku) — I knew

• ፈለጥክን (fälät'-kǝn) — You (feminine plural) knew

• ይፈልጡ (yǝ-fält'-u) — They (masculine plural) know

• ተፈለጥኩ (tä-fälät'-ku) — I was known ([passive prefix] - know (perfect tense) - I)

To negate a sentence, the prefix ኣይ (’ay-) combined with the suffix ን (-n) are needed:

• ኣይግድሰንን'ዩ። (’ay-gidisenin’yu) — I don’t care.

• ካብ ኤርትራ ኣይእየን። (Kab Eritre ’ay-iye-n) — I am not from Eritrea.

This negation system can also be applied to nouns, adjectives, or pronouns: ኣይኣነን (ʼay-ʼanä-n) = not me

Basic Phrases

• ስመይ XXX እዩ። (Sïmey XXX iyu)— My name is XXX. (Lit. Name - XXX - it-is)

• ካበይ ኢኹም መጺእኩም? (kabeyi īẖumi mets’ī’ikumi?) — Where do you come from? (Where-from - you-come?)

• ካብ ከተማ መጺኣ። (kab betema metṣi’a)— She came from the town. (From - Town - she-came)

• ብመኪና መጺኡ። (bamekina metṣi’u) — He came by car. (by-car - he-came)

  • ብ (ba) is a preposition meaning “by”

• ኣብ ቤት ጽሕፈት እሎ። (Ab bēti ts’iḥifeti ilo) — He’s at/in the office (in/at - office ([house-writing] - [copula])

• ናብ ሱፐርማርክት ክኸይድ እየ። (Nabi superimarikiti kiẖeyidi iye) — I will go to the river (to - supermarket- will-I go-[copula])

• ጌና ብዙሕ ጌጋታት እገብር። (giena bizuḥi giegatati igebiri) — I still make many mistakes (Still - many - mistakes - I make)

• እንታይ ደሊኹም? (initayi delīẖumi?) — What do you want to do? (What - you-wanted-to)

• የቐንዩለይ። (Yeqʰeniyeley) —Thank you.

• ይግረታ። (Yigreta) — Sorry.

• ደሓን ኩን! (Dehan kun) — Goodbye!

Where to Learn Tigrinya

Information about the Tigrinya language is scarce. Incredibly scarce.

I have found only one YouTube channel teaching the language but it has been on hiatus for a while now. There are many videos teaching English in Tigrinya though so they may be a useful tool for new learners as you’ll get to hear even more Tigrinya.

Due to Eritrea and Tigray’s current situation, there hasn’t been much created about the language since the country’s “independence.” Right now, in early 2023, the only recent textbooks available seem to be the 2015 and 2020 books published by ex-Peace Corps Volunteer Andrew Tadross:

• The Essential Guide to Tigrinya: The Language of Eritrea and Tigray Ethiopia

• Tigrinya Verb Conjugation⁷

Other textbooks are older. Tigrinya Grammar is quite precise and well-ordered but you’ll first need to make sure you can read the language first as no romanization is offered past the introduction.

The 1998 Tigrinya Phrasebook can be a good introduction to combine with the above textbook as this one does include romanization but lacks grammatical explanations.

Interestingly enough, the Wikipedia pages for the Tigrinya language and for the Tigrinya verbs are the most comprehensive texts about the language (in English at least).

The website 50languages.com has sentences written both in Ge’ez script and with romanization, along with audio recordings. This being said, I’m unsure how “natural” these sound as they sometimes contradicted what the above textbooks proposed.

You can also rely on this 2007 phrasebook or, even better, take classes. Italki has one private tutor and TeacherOn has a few options offline and online.

As the language has some similarities to other Semitic languages, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more in Arabic or Hebrew but I don’t speak any of those.

Let me know if you find more resources so I can add them here!

Oh, and you can type in Tigrinya by choosing each character on the Lexilogos website or typing on Google Translate.

Final words

Eritrea’s current (and recent) political situation is shocking, to say the least, and I hope this piece will also have contributed to making more people aware of it. I, too, should have known about how bad its state was.

With Ethiopia finally recognizing the Tigrinya language in 2020 as one of its official languages, it would make sense to think resources would grow but that year was also the beginning of the crisis in Tigray.

Now that it’s “over”, we can only hope the language can spread once again in the next years.

Eritrean speakers of Tigrinya fleeing Eritrea each day will also make the language evolve by mixing with other languages. I wouldn’t be surprised if a kind of Tigrinya-based pidgin evolved in the next decades in neighboring countries.

Tigrinya itself, however, is already a beauty to discover. Not only is its script incredibly gorgeous, its structure also is.

If you want to help Tigray and Eritrea with the current situation, learning the language could be a great asset. Otherwise, you can donate to the UN Refugee Agency or Unicef as they are working on helping people on the ground as much as possible.

Thanks for reading,

ቻው! (Chawi — Bye!)

1. No potential written version of Hiyo and Aba Abraham brought me anywhere apart from the official website.

2. These were called Azmari (አዝማሪ) in Amharic but I couldn’t find the Tigrinyan name.

3. For those, like me, who are used to SOV languages like Japanese or Korean (both of which place particles after the word), this may feel counter-intuitive.

4. Interestingly enough, “tat” is quite similar to the way to indicate the plural form for some words in Japanese: 達 (tachi) and exactly the same suffix as the Asian Auxlang Manmino we talked about last week. Coincidence? Who knows.

5. Think “tu” vs “vous” in French.

6. Remember there is a distinction made between masculine and feminine for the 2nd and 3rd person both singular and plural

7. 240 pages just for the language’s conjugation system! 🤯