Recentemente un amico ci ha chiesto se conosciamo dizionari per comprendere la lingua parlata in Eritrea: il tigrino.
Abbiamo vissuto alcuni anni ad Addis Abeba, dove oltre all’amarico si parla anche il tigrino. Entrambe le lingue, molto simili tra loro, utilizzano l’alfabeto derivato dall’antica lingua ge’ez, oggi usata eclusivamente dai preti copti.
Noi siamo riusciti ad imparare solo poche frasi, ma la scrittura è veramente complicata. Per darvi un’idea di come questo alfabeto sia diverso dal nostro osservate l’immagine qui sotto.
Ad ogni modo la rete fornisce le risposte cercate dai nostri amici.
Dopo una rapida ricerca si raggiungono queste fonti, in inglese:
Ovviamente per poter capire il significato delle parole tigrine bisogna saperle leggere, quindi occorre conoscere l’alfabeto.
Prima di tutto occorre installare i caratteri (font) sul proprio computer, altrimenti non si visualizzeranno altro che simboli incomprensibili. In secondo luogo è caldamente consigliato l’uso di Firefox perché la sua gestione dei caratteri ge’ez è molto migliore di quella di Internet Explorer.
Bisogna quindi sapere come pronunciare ogni singola lettera, l’alfabeto ne contiene un discreto numero:
Se qualcuno poi vuole cimentarsi con la scrittura a computer della lingua ge’ez, esistono software adatti allo scopo.
- A pagamento da scaricare: Ge’ez Word;
- Gratuito da usare online: GeezEdit (dopo aver scritto bisogna copiare/incollare su una pagina di Word che abbia i font installati).
Per finire, qualche link utile ad approfondire l’argomento:
Tigrigna Language links
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Teaching websites
Omniglot – Tigrinya alphabet and pronunciation
Tigrinya.se – Tigrinya language teachers in Sweden
Tigrigna lessons – by Goitom Ahferom for Dehai.
Tigrinya-English LEXIN dictionary – “Web-based dictionaries that are made especially for immigrants in Norway.”
“My Tigrinya Phrasebook” – by Peter A. Crowther, made for traveling tourists.
Tigrigna spell checking software – by Biniam Gebremichael for those who use “Open office” instead of “Microsoft office”.
Web-Radio
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Eastafro – EriTV – Live television, streaming directly from Eritrea; has programs in Tigrigna, Tigre, Arabic, and English.
Voice of America – Has daily news broadcasts in Tigrigna, Amharic, and Afaan Oromoo.
Voice of Eritrea – Weekly Eritrean-American news in Tigrigna, based in Washington DC.
Asmarino – The site has numerous political radio broadcasts in Tigrigna.
EritreanCommUNITY.com – Has 24-hour “Habesha Radio”
Geza Tegaru – An Ethiopian site dedicated to Tigrigna music.
On the web
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meftih.com – A Tigrigna Eritrean diaspora newspaper issued from Toronto.
google.com – a search engine in Tigrigna.
Tigrigna – UCLA Language Materials Project Language Profiles Page.
Wikipedia – Tigrinya – a wikipedia article on Tigrigna; also has an extensive article on Tigrigna grammar, and verbs.
ዊኪፒድያ – The Tigrigna version of Wikipedia.
Raimoq – Eritrean community website in Tigrigna/English.
Alenalki.com – Eritrean community news, some in Tigrigna but mostly in English.
Meadna.com – Eritrean community news, some in Tigrigna but mostly in English.
Tigrinya Forum – A Myspace.com groups forum on Tigrinya.
Eritrios.net – Eritrean website with some Tigrinya articles.
Ertra.com – Eritrean website with some Tigrinya articles.
Political
Asmarino – An independent Eritrean political site with sections in Tigrigna/English and write-in comments.
Haddas Ertra – A daily newspaper issued by the Eritrean government; in Tigrigna, Arabic, and English.
Awate.com – Political website mostly in English, with some commentaries in Arabic or Tigrigna.
Jeberti.com – Eritrean Jeberti/polictical website in Tigrigna/English.
Meskerem.net – Political website with some Tigrigna articles.
Religous
Eriwongel – Eritrean Christian/polictical website in Tigrigna.
Dehai Wongel – Eritrean Christian/polictical website in Tigrigna.
Products and resources
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Feedel Vision
Tigrinya for beginners
Tigrinya Language Tutorial
Ge’ez soft – A Ge’ez word processor
Tigrinya the EZ way
Mall Asmarino – Has music, books, software…
Delina Solutions – Eritrean music CD’s, videos…
“Yatawn Zemnawn Mslatat Tigrinya” A book of 5000 Tigrinya proverbs and riddles
Eritean print and oral culture A University of Alberta website dedicated to archiving artefacts of Eritrean culture.
abyssiniacybergateway Anything you would possible want to know about the fidel
Filtet – a Tigrina Learning and family Game Board.
Other Eritrean languages
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Blin Page – A Bilen language tutorial created by Kiflemariam Hamde for Dehai.
Debanma – A website “To advance the education of the Blin people who are from Eritrea”.
Allsaho.com – A website dedicated to all things Saho.
Awkir.com – “Eritrean website featuring resources relevant to Tigre history and culture.”
Modaina.com – “Eritrean website featuring resources relevant to Tigre history and culture.”
Tigre Page – A Tigre language tutorial created by Omar M. Kekia for Dehai.
Eritrea links
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Dehai News
Eritrean Languages
Wikipedia – Eritrea – has a good basic article on Eritrea and it’s history.
Eritrea Climate, Energy, Environment and Technology Site – created by the Eritrea Technical Exchange Project.
Red Sea 1 – Forum – An online community forum for Eritrean youth.
Beilul.com – “a Stockholm based Eritrean website mainly dedicated to meet the needs of Eritrean youth in the Diaspora.”
Biddho.com – A collection of various Eritrean related news and videos.
Hedmona.com – A European based Eritrean community website.