Modaina

‘Mieras:’ a new Tigre language book joins the shelf
Efrem Habtetsion,

A new Tigre language book entitled ‘Mieras’ or ‘heritage’ was launched last Friday at Emba-Soyra Hotel. The book, co-written by educator Musa Aron and Dessale Berekhet, mainly focused on the oral tradition of the Tigre ethnic group.
During the inauguration ceremony, the head of the organizational affairs at the PFDJ, Mr. Abdela Jabr praised the initiative and effort of both writers and said that the work would be a good ground for similar work in the other languages of Eritrea. Mr. Abdela provided a recognition certificate to educator Musa Aron for his contribution in the development of Eritrean languages. Mr. Musa Aron has written and translated many books in the Tigrinya and Tigre languages.
Educator Musa Aron, commenting on their work, said that the Tigre language is the second largest language in Eritrea, following Tigrinya and is first in its distribution over the country. So, the publication of the book is an important step in the development of Eritrean literature. The Tigre language speakers are estimated to be 1.5 million.
The book which took the writers about six years to complete, used a book written 100 years ago by an Eritrean scholar Nefae Etman and a German professor, Eno Litman, as a source. However, the former writers focused on the traditions of people of a specific area.
Mr. Dessale Berekhet, the young co-author of the book, said that he had learned significant lessons from educator Musa Aron who has contributed a lot in the development of the language since the 1960s. “I am really grateful of him for his invaluable contribution. Our book is entitled Mieras or heritage; so, I would like to ensure Educator Musa Aron that I have ‘inherited’ from him and that I would continue his effort by contributing in the development of the Eritrean languages in general.”
Mieras, a 555-page book, is expected to inspire more writers for research based on the stories it has documented.

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Entfenate: Tigre Translation of the Book Aynfelale
By Selam Seyoum

So much is written about Eritrea in the 70s and 80s, and some other books about the 40s. The book entitled Aynfelale is one of those discussing the Eritrean political movement during the 40s.
Hidri Publishers and Awget Bookstores launched the Tigre translation of Aynfelale on Friday July 11, 2008 at Embasoira Hotel Asmara.
The word Aynfelale (let us not separate) was the slogan of the newspaper Hanti Eritrea in the late 40s with a picture of a Muslim and a Christian holding hands. Aynfelale, in the context of the book is about the mothers and fathers who sacrificed a lot for the honor of the struggle and Eritrean unity.

Aynfelale originally written in Tigrigna by Alemseged Tesfay is translated by Adem Saleh Abuharish, Umer Mehamed Ali and Mehamed Idris Mehamed into Tigre, entitled Entfenate.
During the launching ceremony, one of the translators said that using a group rather than an individual to translate a book is preferable when it comes to a book dealing with history. He said that one should be cautious not to give wrong information to the reader, especially when dealing with political issues. Entfenate, the 574 pages translated book is published after being revised for more than twice.
Aynfelale is a 626 pages Tigrigna book and was formerly translated into Arabic. The book discusses the political movement of Eritreans from 1941 to 1950.
Similarly, a symposium was held on March 30, 2008 by Eritrean Embassy and Ministry of Culture in Cairo on the Arabic translation of Aynfelale. The objective of the symposium was to evaluate the book translated from Tigragna into Arabic for the first time.
During the occasion, Mr. Mussa Aaron commented that Tigrigna and Tigre languages are similar that a word might have the same alphabet and sound but different meanings.
Mr. Mussa said that the two languages can develop borrowing words from each other instead of looking for foreign languages.



Tigre of Habab: Short grammar and texts from the Rigbat people (Eritrea) by David Lyndon Elias (Paperback - Mar 18, 2006)

Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red SeaMotoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea '
by Eric Hansen (Paperback - Feb 4, 1992)

The Ethnic Origins of Nations by Anthony D. Smith (Paperback - May 1, 1988) - Illustrated

The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary
by James S. Olson (Hardcover - May 30, 1996)


Excerpt - page 7: "... are one of the three subdivisions of the Bet Asgede people of Eritrea and Ethiopia. In the nineteenth century, they adopted the Muslim religion and the Tigre* language of the Tigre people, over whom they presided as feudal ..."

See more references to tigré language people eritrea in this book.

A Vocabulary of Beni Amer Dialect of Tigre
Aki'o Nakano and Yoichi Tsuge, 1982, African Languages and Ethnography XVI, edited by Morimichi

Tomikawa, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA)

Tigre Grammar And Texts
Shlomo Raz, 1983
Undena Publications
P.O. Box 97
Malibu, CA 90265

The Morphology of The Tigre Noun
F.R. Palmer, 1962,
London, Oxford University Press

* A grammar and vocabulary of the Tigre language (as spoken by the Beni Amer). Khartoum: Publications Bureau. Beaton, A.C. & A. Paul (1954).
* Tigre of Habab: Short Grammar and Texts from the Rigbat People. Ph.D dissertation. Harvard University. Elias, D.L. (2005). Leslau, W. (1945)
* Short Grammar of Tigré. Publications of the American Oriental Society, Offprint Series, No. 18. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
* "The Verb in Tigré", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 65/1, pp. 1-26. Leslau, W. (1945),
* "Grammatical Sketches in Tigré (North Ethiopic): Dialect of Mensa", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 65/3, pp. 164-203. Leslau, W. (1945),
* "Supplementary observations on Tigré grammar", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 68/3, pp. 127-139. Leslau, W. (1948),
* "Die Pronomina in Tigré", in: Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 12, pp. 188-230, 291-316. Littmann, E. 1897),
* "Das Verbum der Tigre-Sprache", in: Zeitschrift für Assyrologie 13, pp. 133-178; 14, pp. 1-102. Littmann, E. (1898),
* Publications of the Princeton expedition to Abyssinia, 4 vols. in 4, Leyden. Littmann, E. (1910-15).
* Wörterbuch der Tigre--Sprache: Tigre--Deutsch-Englisch. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. Littmann, E. and Höfner, M. (1962)
* A Vocabulary of Beni Amer Dialect of Tigre. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Nakano, Aki'o & Yoichi Tsuge (1982)..
* "'Openness' in Tigre: a problem in prosodic statement", in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 18/3, pp. 561-577 Palmer, F.R. (1956)..
* "Relative clauses in Tigre", in: Word 17/1, pp. 23-33. Palmer, F.R. (1961).
* The morphology of the Tigre noun. London: Oxford University Press. Palmer, F.R. (1962).
* "Tigre syntax and Semitic Ethiopian", in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43/2, pp. 235-250. Raz, Sh. (1980).
* "The morphology of the Tigre verb (Mansa? dialect)", in: Journal of Semitic Studies 25/1, pp. 66-84; 25/2, pp. 205-238. Raz, Sh. (1980).
* Tigre grammar and texts. Malibu, California, USA: Undena Publications. Raz, Sh. (1983).
* "Some Tigre texts", in: Le Monde Orientale 8, pp. 1-15. Sundström, R. (1914).

Hidri Publishers Launches a Book in Tigre
Demsas Tsegay, Nov 19, 2007

In November, 16, 2007 Hidri Publishers launched a book ‘Emenini’ (Trust me) in Tigre language that tells about the role of Eritrean women in the armed struggle and the cultural challenges that faced them.

Written by Mr. Mohammed Ali Ibrahim, the book narrates a story of a woman that joined the freedom fighters after seeing atrocities committed by the colonizers. In the fight for independence the woman was held captive and at last escapes from the enemy and joins the freedom fighters again.

Mr. Mohammed Ali, the author, said that we Eritrean have much unwritten histories. So we do not have to wonder what to write about, we have just to look at our rich history.

Mr. Adem Ali presented a short review of the book. He said that Tigre was first written in the 19th century but, almost no book was written in the language for the last 140 years (until 2005). “Mr. Mohammed’s initiative is an encouraging step for developing the language,” he added.

He further said that even though it has some problems in the flow of ideas and some characters are lost in the middle without the reader knowing their sufficient explanation. However, it has excellent usage of language and gives graphic explanation of the places in the struggle.

The ceremony was attended by people who have interest in the Tigre Language and invited guests from different walks of life.