Tigrinya

We've got the Kushitic languages, including Somali and Oromo, as well as smaller languages such as Afar and a large number of less widely spoken languages in Ethiopia.

There are also Semitic languages, including Amharic and Tigrinya.

This is particularly interesting in relation to the history of Afroasiatic, because Semitic is often associated in people's minds with the Middle East.

Yet Semitic languages have been established in the Horn for many centuries.

And most of them are in Addis Ababa.

And some of them started on social media, either in Tigrinya or in A- in Amharic, those who were a member of TDF explaining for their fellow Tigrayans why they shouldn't join TDF, explaining and unpacking the propagandas from TPLF in detail.

And this was not available in the previous round of conflict.

In the previous round of conflict, almost it seems from outside, almost everyone was supporting TPLF united.

I say this as someone who has been creating content for almost ten years.

I started out doing the same thing, teaching Tigrinya, sharing cultural traditions, and introducing people to Eritrea through a very beautiful lens.

But I have grown.

I don't want to only show people the Eritrea that makes us feel good.

Their mother was arrested two years later, and neither has been seen since.

Three years later, Hana appeared again in PBS Frontline's Escaping Eritrea, describing what she survived after being caught trying to flee the country.

Recently, she gave her account again on BBC Tigrinya.

Tigrinya is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea, although I don't speak fluently enough to follow in full.

But we've had reports of heavy fighting between forces of the, uh, Tigray People's Liberation Front, the TPLF, which dominates the region, and also government forces.

These local people managed to make contact with the BBC's Tigrinya service.

They were shelling with heavy artillery.

We kept hearing heavy thuds.

By the 1930s, it was known as Little Rome, as so many Italians had moved there during the occupation.

It was founded centuries earlier, and the name comes from the Tigrinya phrase meaning four women, as that is the myth of how it was founded.

Anyway, I found a cool guy at the local 7-Eleven, and he helped me out with the phrase.

And so for my Minimart friend, we say in Tigrinya,

Thank you, and good night.

I

don't even know any Tigrinya.

That's how I started learning Tigrinya.

Duolingo? yeah it's like i have to find it it's like a version of something lingo yeah

there's also a podcast like out there like on apple i remembered i found one it's still my phone too but like it'll teach you i'm hard from the beginning and you just i remembered i was just listening to it on my drives bro i don't really need the basic level to an extent but like i'll be i'll still like go through it anyway just to like refine it

I hadn't until I read Daniel's prompt and went looking.

Tigrinya.

Roughly 9 million speakers, primarily in Eritrea and Ethiopia's Tigray region.

It's the working language of an entire country, Eritrea, and a major regional language in Ethiopia.

Right.

Aymara has co-official status in Bolivia.

Tigrinya runs a country.

Fula is a major trade language across the Sahel.