Ethio-Semitic languages in the context of "Tigrayans"

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⭐ Core Definition: Ethio-Semitic languages

Ethio-Semitic (also Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic or Abyssinian) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic, part of the Afroasiatic language family.

With 57,500,000 total speakers as of 2019, including around 25,100,000 second language speakers, Amharic is the most widely spoken of the group, the most widely spoken language of Ethiopia and second-most widely spoken Semitic language in the world after Arabic. Tigrinya has 7 million speakers and is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea. Tigre is the second-most spoken language in Eritrea, and has also a small population of speakers in Sudan. The Geʽez language has a literary history in its own Geʽez script going back to the first century AD. It is no longer spoken but remains the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches, as well as their respective Eastern Catholic counterparts.

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👉 Ethio-Semitic languages in the context of Tigrayans

The Tigrayan people (Tigrinya: ተጋሩ, romanized: Təgaru) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia. They speak Tigrinya, an Afroasiatic language belonging to the North Ethio-Semitic language descended from Geʽez, and written in the Geʽez script serves as the main and one of the five official languages of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also the main language of the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea, who share ethnic, linguistic, and religious ties with Tigrayans.

According to the 2007 national census, Tigrayans numbered approximately 4,483,000 individuals, making up 6.07% of Ethiopia’s total population at the time. The majority of Tigrayans adhere to Oriental Orthodox Christianity, specifically the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church, although minority communities also follow Islam or Catholicism.

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Ethio-Semitic languages in the context of Amharic

Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populations in Ethiopia.

The language serves as the official working language of the Ethiopian federal government, and is also the official or working language of several of Ethiopia's federal regions. In 2020 in Ethiopia, it had over 33.7 million mother-tongue speakers of which 31 million are ethnically Amhara, and more than 25.1 million second language speakers in 2019, making the total number of speakers over 58.8 million. Amharic is the largest, most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, and the most spoken mother-tongue in Ethiopia. Amharic is also the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world (after Arabic).

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Ethio-Semitic languages in the context of Tigrinya language

Tigrinya, sometimes romanized according to Italian spelling rules as Tigrigna, is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is primarily spoken by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples, native to Eritrea and to the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, respectively. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions.

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Ethio-Semitic languages in the context of Tigre language

Tigre (ትግሬ, Təgré), also known as Tigrayit (ትግራይት), is an Ethio-Semitic language spoken in the Horn of Africa, primarily by the Tigre people of Eritrea. It is believed to be the most closely related living language to Ge'ez, which is still in use as the liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Tigre has a lexical similarity of 71% with Ge’ez and of 64% with Tigrinya. As of 1997, Tigre was spoken by approximately 800,000 Tigre people in Eritrea. The Tigre mainly inhabit western Eritrea, though they also reside in the northern highlands of Eritrea and its extension into the adjacent parts of Sudan, as well as Eritrea's Red Sea coast north of Zula. There is a small number of Tigre speakers in Sudan, as well as communities of speakers found in the diaspora.

The Tigre people are not to be confused with their neighbors to the south, the Tigrinya people of Eritrea and the Tigrayans of Ethiopia, both of whom speak Tigrinya. Tigrinya is also derived from the parent Geʽez tongue, but is quite distinct from Tigre despite the similarity in name.

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Ethio-Semitic languages in the context of Sebat Bet Gurage language

Sebat Bet ("Seven houses") is an Ethio-Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken in Ethiopia.

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Ethio-Semitic languages in the context of Harari language

Harari is an Ethio-Semitic language spoken by the Harari people of Ethiopia. Old Harari is a literary language of the city of Harar, a central hub of Islam in the Horn of Africa. According to the 2007 Ethiopian census, it is spoken by 25,810 people. Harari is closely related to the Eastern Gurage languages, Zay, and Siltʼe, all of whom are believed to be linked to the now extinct Semitic Harla language. Locals or natives of Harar refer to their language as Gēy Sinan or Gēy Ritma 'language of the City' (Gēy is the word for how Harari speakers refer to the city of Harar, whose name is an exonym). According to Wolf Leslau, Sidama is the substratum language of Harari and influenced the vocabulary greatly. He identified unique Cushitic loanwords found only in Harari and deduced that it may have Cushitic roots.

Harari was originally written with a version of the Arabic script, Harari script, then the Ethiopic script was adopted to write the language. Some Harari speakers in diaspora write their language with the Latin alphabet.

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