Eritrea Languages

Eritrea Wiki Topics

Eritrea Beginning Research

Getting Started Online Learning Record Finder Research Strategies

Record Types

Church Records Civil Registration Colonial Records Compiled Genealogies Emigration & Immigration Online Genealogy Records Religious Records

Eritrea Background

Gazetteers History Languages Maps Social Life & Customs

Eritrea Genealogical Word Lists

Arabic Latin

Local Research Resources

Archives & Libraries Societies Local FamilySearch Center

Eritrea

Languages

Description

Eritrea is a multilingual country. The nation has no official language, as the Constitution establishes the "equality of all Eritrean languages". Tigrinya, Arabic, and English serve as de facto working languages, with English used in university education and many technical fields.
Eritrea has many national languages:

• Tigrinya
• Arabic
• Tigre
• Afar
• Beja
• Bilen or Blin
• Kunama
• Nara
• Saho

In terms of writing systems, Eritrea's principal orthography is Ge'ez, Latin script and Arabic script.

Word List(s)

• Latin Genealogical Word List

Tigrinya

• Useful phrases in Tigrinya (Omniglot)
• Tigrinya phrasebook (Wikivoyage)

Arabic

• Arabic Genealogical Word List
• Useful Arabic phrases (Omniglot)

Tigre

• Numbers in Tigre (Omniglot)

Afar

• Numbers in Afar (Omniglot)

Beja

• Word and Number List (Wikipedia)
• Numbers in Beja (Omniglot)

Bilen or Blin

Kunama

• Kunama Word List (Wiktionary)

Nara

• Nara Word List (Wiktionary)

Saho

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Tigrinya

• Tigrinya Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Tigrinya Writing system (Wikipedia)
• Tigrinya Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)
• Pam, Martin David. Tigrinya phonology. New York: City University of New York, 1973. Available at: WorldCat.

Arabic

• Arabic phonology (Wikipedia)
• Arabic alphabet (Wikipedia)
• Arabic Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Tigre

• Tigre Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Tigre Writing system (Wikipedia)
• Tigre Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Afar

• Afar Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Afar Writing system (Wikipedia)
• Afar Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Beja

• Beja Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Beja Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Bilen or Blin

• Bilen Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Bilen Writing system (Wikipedia)

Kunama

Nara

Saho

• A Sketch of Saho Grammar (SahoArchive)

Language Aids and Dictionaries

Tigrinya

• English to Tigrinya Dictionary (Glosbe)
• Tigrinya dictionary (Lexilogos)
• Elias, David L. The Tigre language of Gindaʻ, Eritrea : short grammar and texts. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Available at: WorldCat.
• Tadross, Andrew, and Abraham Teklu. The essential guide to Tigrinya, the language of Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia. n.p.: n.p., 2015. Available at: WorldCat.
• Weldemichael, Tedros Hagos. Tigrinya dictionary & phrasebook. New York, NY: Hippocrene Books Inc., 2019. Available at: WorldCat.
• Learn Tigrinya Online (cudoo)

Arabic

• English to Arabic Dictionary (Glosbe)
• Learn Arabic in just 5 minutes (duolingo)
• Learn Arabic (ArabicPod101)

Tigre

• English to Tigre Dictionary (Glosbe)
• Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta, and David D Harnish. The Tigre Language of Ginda?, Eritrea : Short Grammar and Texts. Leiden: BRILL, 2014. Available at: WorldCat.

Afar

• English to Afar Dictionary (Glosbe)

Beja

• English to Beja Dictionary (Glosbe)

Bilen or Blin

Kunama

• English to Kunama Dictionary (Glosbe)

Nara

Saho

• English to Saho Dictionary (Glosbe)
• How to write and read the Saho language (SahoArchive)

Additional Resources

• Hailemariam, Chefena. Language and education in Eritrea : a case study of language diversity, policy and practice. Amsterdam: Aksant, 2002. Available at: WorldCat.
• Eritrea (Wikitravel)
• Eritrea: The Nara People (Modote)
• Saho Language (allsaho)