A short summary of this paper. Ge'ez is the ancient language, and was introduced as an official written language during the first Aksumite kingdom when the Sabeans sought refuge in Aksum. In Eritrea, for /s/ and /sʼ/, at least, one of these has fallen into disuse in Tigrinya and is now considered old-fashioned. It is also spoken by large immigrant communities around the world, in countries including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In these circumstances, /k/ is pronounced as a velar fricative. They form the west­ern branch of the South Se­mitic lan­guages, it­self a sub-branch of Se­mitic, part of the Afroasi­atic lan­guage fam­ily . Amharic (also known as Amarinya, Amarigna) is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. Edited by M. Lionel Bender. Download Full PDF Package. Publication date. The orthography does not mark gemination, so the pair of words k'ärräbä 'he approached', k'äräbä 'he was near' are both written ቀረበ. during the first Aksumite kingdom when the Sabeans sought refuge in Aksum. setTimeout("slideit()",2500) 37 Full PDFs related to this paper. The largest ethnic and linguistic groups are the Oromos, Amharas and Tigrayans. This fricative or affricate is more often pronounced further back, in the uvular place of articulation (although it is represented in this article as [xʼ]). // --> READ PAPER. Afroasiatic language groups in Ethiopia include Ethiopian Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic (though its classification remains uncertain). There are several locations proposed as possible sites for prehistoric origins of Semitic-speaking peoples: Mesopotamia, the Levant, East Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa, with the most recent Bayesian studies supporting the view that Semitic originated in the Levant circa 3800 BC, and was later also introduced to the Horn of Africa in approximately 800 BC from the southern Arabian peninsula, and to North Africa via Phoeniciancolonists at approximately the same time. Ethiopian Semitic (also known as Ethiopian, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic, or Afro-Semitic) is a language group, which together with Old South Arabian forms the Western branch of the South Semitic languages. For example, for the verb meaning cry, which has the triconsonantal root |bky|, there are forms such as ምብካይ /məbkaj/ ('to cry') and በኸየ /bɐxɐjɐ/ ('he cried'), and for the verb meaning 'steal', which has the triconsonantal root |srkʼ|, there are forms such as ይሰርቁ /jəsɐrkʼu/ ('they steal') and ይሰርቕ /jəsɐrrəxʼ/ ('he steals'). All the consonants, with the exception of the pharyngeal and glottal, can be geminated.[8]. That is, there is a set of ejective consonants and the usual seven-vowel system. Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical reconstructed proto-language ancestral to the Semitic languages.There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic Urheimat; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant, the Sahara, or the Horn of Africa, and the view that it arose in the Arabian Peninsula has also been common historically. The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. Additionally, there are dozens of Nilo-Saharan languages, as well as some languages that are unclassified. Since these two sounds are completely conditioned by their environments, they can be considered allophones of /k/ and /kʼ/. Since most of the Ethiopian Semitic languages share more features from Cushitic than from Ge'ez, the only option for the validity of Gragg's suggestion would be to say Publisher. This page was last edited on 10 May 2021, at 06:40. Since such minimal pairs are very rare, this presents no problem to readers of the language. The Semitic languages are spoken in northern, central and eastern Ethiopia (mainly in Tigray, Amhara, Harar and northern part of the Southern Peoples' State regions). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (2003). the Ethiopian Semitic languages. These redundant symbols are falling into disuse in Tigrinya and are shown with a dark gray background in the table. return Ethiopia has 86 different languages with up to 200 different dialects Stress is neither contrastive nor particularly salient in Tigrinya. It is the official working language of Ethiopia and has about 62 million speakers (including second language speakers). In Ethiopia, a native of Tigray is referred to in Tigrinya as tigrāwāy (male), tigrāweytī (female), tigrāwōt or, more commonly, tegaru (plural). For example. Most of the languages that are expressed in Ethiopia today are of the Afroasiatic language family. Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia and the primary language of the federal government of Ethiopia. it affects the meaning of words. English is the most widely spoken foreign language and is the medium of instruction in secondary schools and universities. Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia.It is the second-most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, … Grammatically, Tigrinya is a typical Ethiopian Semitic (ES) language in most ways: . Tigrinya has a fairly typical set of phonemes for an Ethiopian Semitic language. The most important Ethio-Semitic language is Amharic. Na'ama Pat-El. Amharic is the most used Ethiopian Semitic language. slideit() The charts below show the phonemes of Tigrinya. The Jeberti in Eritrea also speak Tigrinya. else Imperial Ethiopia Homepage. At the time, it was reported to be the first of its kind.[5]. Semitic Languages that are spoken in Ethiopia are classified into North Ethio-Semetic and South Ethio-Semetic. Since some of the distinctions that were apparently made in Ge'ez have been lost in Tigrinya, there are two rows of symbols each for the consonants /ħ/, /s/, and /sʼ/. The Cushitic languages are mostly spoken in central, southern and eastern Ethiopia (mainly in Afar, Oromia and Somali regions). Most people living in the northern and central parts of Ethiopia speak Semitic languages including Tigrinya, Amharic, Gurage, Geʿez, and Hareri. Unlike many of the modern Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya has preserved the two pharyngeal consonants which were apparently part of the ancient Geʽez language and which, along with [x'], voiceless velar ejective fricative or voiceless uvular ejective fricative, make it easy to distinguish spoken Tigrinya from related languages such as Amharic, though not from Tigre, which has also maintained the pharyngeal consonants. The Nilo-Saharan languages are largely spoken in the western part of the country along the border with Sudan (mainly in Gambella and Benshangul regions). It seems to depend on gemination, but it has apparently not been systematically investigated. All rights reserved. The Ge'ez language is a religious language that is used in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches. In addition to the 77 living Semitic languages, there are some important extinct tongues, some of which are listed below: //call function "slideit()" every 2.5 seconds A member of the Afroasiatic family, its speakers are the Siltʼe, who mainly inhabit the Siltʼe Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region. The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia Paperback – January 1, 1976 by M. Lionel Bender (Editor) Previous page. This is especially clear from verb roots in which one consonant is realized as one or the other allophone depending on what precedes it. Semitic Languages Astrology Baseball Cards Signs Shop Signs Sign Ethiopia has 83 different languages with up to 200 different dialects spoken. For each consonant in an abugida, there is an unmarked symbol representing that consonant followed by a canonical or inherent vowel. //--> The Ethiopian languages are divided into four major language groups.These are Semitic, Cushitic, Omotic, and Nilo-Saharan. In Ethiopia, which recognizes all locally spoken languages equally, Amharic is the “working language” of the government. The Omotic languages are predominantly spoken between the Lakes of southern Rift Valley and the Omo River. For the ethnicity based in Eritrea, see, The Bible in Tigrinya, United Bible society, 1997, Rehman, Abdel. This is supported by the fac… Tauris and Co. Ltd., London and New York, ISBN 1 86064 7448, Jenny Hammond, Fire From The Ashes, A Chronicle of the Revolution in Tigray, Ethiopia, 1975-1991, 1999, published by The Read Sea Press, Inc., ISBN 1 56902 0868, Philip Briggs, Ethiopia, The Bradt Travel Guide, Third Edition, 2002, published by Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, England, UK, ISBN 1 84162 0351. Michigan State University African Studies Center. Tigrinya (along with Arabic) was one of Eritrea's official languages during its short-lived federation with Ethiopia; in 1958 it was replaced by the Southern Ethiopic language Amharic prior to its annexation. The Semitic languages of Ethiopia are divided into two groups: 1. Download PDF. Ethiopian Treasures. North-Ethiopic: Geez (Old Ethiopic, no longer spoken) and the languages sill spoken: Tigre and Tigriiia.10 2. Language Distribution. Typical grammatical features. While gemination plays an important role in the morphology of the Tigrinya verb, it is normally accompanied by other marks. The Ethiopic script is an abugida: each symbol represents a consonant+vowel syllable, and the symbols are organized in groups of similar symbols on the basis of both the consonant and the vowel. Although some scholars once considered the so-called Ethiopic … tamia, Arabia, and across the Red Sea in Ethiopia and Eritrea. As early as 2000 BC, other Semitic speakers were living in Ethiopia and Eritrea where Ge'ez developed. is written እንታይ, literally ’ǝ-nǝ-ta-yǝ. Amharic differs radically from the general structure of the Semitic languages, especially in syntax. if (step<13) For the Ethiopic abugida, this canonical vowel is ä, the first column in the table. Other Semitic languages designated as official are Hebrew in Israel (where Arabic also enjoys special status) and Maltese in Malta (with English). 2019 Introduction to the Semitic Languages and Their History. All of these possible realizations - velar ejective fricative, uvular ejective fricative, velar ejective affricate and uvular ejective affricate - are cross-linguistically very rare sounds. The velar consonants /k/ and /kʼ/ are pronounced differently when they appear immediately after a vowel and are not geminated. Tigrinya dialects differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically. The dominant language is Amharic, which has long been Ethiopia's sole official language. See all details. [3] Ge'ez, because of its status in Ethiopian culture, and possibly also its simple structure, acted as a literary medium until relatively recent times.[4]. Sites with Tigrinya text or sound files (all require a Ge'ez Unicode font). These less-used series are shown with a dark gray background in the chart. January 1, 1976. [7] No dialect appears to be accepted as a standard. var currentYear = getCurrentYear(); Tigrinya has compound prepositions corresponding to the preposition–postposition compounds found in Amharic: Unlike most Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya has only one set of, Eritrean People's Liberation Front (1985). "Tigrinya" redirects here. Upon Eritrea's independence in 1991, Tigrinya retained the status of working language in the country, the only state in the world, until changes made in Ethiopia in 2020, to recognize Tigrinya on a national level. Tigrigna and Amharigna (Amharic) are the modern languages which are derived from Ge'ez. However, Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia, is thought to have developed independently from Sabaean, one of the South Arabian Semitic languages. Mr. Solomon Kibriye (2003). 738 pages. - … When three consonants (or one geminated consonant and one simple consonant) come together within a word, the cluster is broken up with the introduction of an epenthetic vowel ə, and when two consonants (or one geminated consonant) would otherwise end a word, the vowel i appears after them, or (when this happens because of the presence of a suffix) ə is introduced before the suffix. Ethiopian Semitic language spoken in central Ethiopia. The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. The Ethiopian language area is sometimes mentioned as especially convenient for the comparativist. North Ethio-Semetic consists of three languages and those are Geez, Tigrigna and Tigr’e which is spoken in Eritrea. Important extinct Semitic languages. In Australia, Tigrinya is one of the languages broadcast on public radio via the multicultural Special Broadcasting Service.[6]. //variable that will increment through the images Introduction Pages to the Tigrinya Language, Tigrina Learning and Playing Game Board -, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tigrinya_language&oldid=1022385371, ISO language articles citing sources other than Ethnologue, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.