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34-614: Alamata ( Tigrinya : ኣላማጣ ) is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia . Located in the Debubawi (Southern) zone of Tigray it has a latitude and longitude of 12°25′N 39°33′E  /  12.417°N 39.550°E  / 12.417; 39.550 and an elevation of 1,520 metres (4,990 ft) above sea level and is located along Ethiopian Highway 2 . It is surrounded by Alamata woreda. On 14 December 1895, Emperor Menilek's passed through Alamata on their way northwards against

68-564: A literary medium until relatively recent times. The earliest written example of Tigrinya is a text of local laws found in the district of Logosarda, Debub Region in Southern Eritrea, which dates from the 13th century. In Eritrea, during British administration , the Ministry of Information put out a weekly newspaper in Tigrinya that cost 5 cents and sold 5,000 copies weekly. At the time, it

102-499: A national level. There is no general name for the people who speak Tigrinya. In Eritrea, Tigrinya speakers are officially known as the Bəher-Təgrəñña ( ' nation of Tigrinya speakers ' ) or Tigrinya people . In Ethiopia, a Tigrayan , that is a native of Tigray , who also speaks the Tigrinya language, is referred to in Tigrinya as təgraway (male), təgrawäyti (female), tägaru (plural). Bəher roughly means "nation" in

136-531: A small successor village lies near the site. Qohaito is often identified as the town Koloe described in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea , a Greco-Roman document dated to the end of the first century, which thrived as a stop on the trade route between Adulis and Aksum . It is thought that crops were interspersed with buildings in the town. Old edifices included the pre-Christian Temple of Mariam Wakino and

170-512: A word, the cluster is broken up with the introduction of an epenthetic vowel -ə- , and when two consonants (or one geminated consonant) would otherwise end a word, the vowel -i appears after them, or (when this happens because of the presence of a suffix) -ə- is introduced before the suffix. For example, Stress is neither contrastive nor particularly salient in Tigrinya. It seems to depend on gemination, but it has apparently not been systematically investigated. Grammatically, Tigrinya

204-405: Is ä, the first column in the table. However, since the pharyngeal and glottal consonants of Tigrinya (and other Ethiopian Semitic languages) cannot be followed by this vowel, the symbols in the first column for those consonants are pronounced with the vowel a, exactly as in the fourth column. These redundant symbols are falling into disuse in Tigrinya and are shown with a dark gray background in

238-510: Is a typical Ethiopian Semitic (ES) language in most ways: Tigrinya grammar is unique within the Ethiopian Semitic language family in several ways: Tigrinya is written in the Geʽez script , originally developed for Geʽez. The Ethiopic script is an abugida : each symbol represents a consonant+vowel syllable, and the symbols are organized in groups of similar symbols on the basis of both

272-420: Is characterized by steep slopes, gorges and undulating terrain having scattered flat lands used for grazing livestock and farming. It covers 25% of the woreda. The topography of the area dominated by steep slopes has induced erosion. The eastern lowland with its eight tabias is generally plain in topography with an altitude ranging from 1,450–1,750 metres (4,760–5,740 ft). The plain landscape of this area makes

306-525: Is especially clear from verb roots in which one consonant is realized as one or the other allophone depending on what precedes it. For example, for the verb meaning ' cry ' , which has the triconsonantal root √b-k-y, there are forms such as ምብካይ /məbkaj/ ( ' to cry ' ) and በኸየ /bɐxɐjɐ/ ( ' he cried ' ), and for the verb meaning ' steal ' , which has the triconsonantal root √s-r-kʼ, there are forms such as ይሰርቁ /jəsɐrkʼu/ ( ' they steal ' ) and ይሰርቕ /jəsɐrrəxʼ/ ( ' he steals ' ). What

340-453: Is especially interesting about these pairs of phones is that they are distinguished in Tigrinya orthography. Because allophones are completely predictable, it is quite unusual for them to be represented with distinct symbols in the written form of a language. A Tigrinya syllable may consist of a consonant-vowel or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence. When three consonants (or one geminated consonant and one simple consonant) come together within

374-464: Is indicated in brackets. Gemination , the doubling of a consonantal sound, is meaningful in Tigrinya, i.e. it affects the meaning of words. While gemination plays an important role in the morphology of the Tigrinya verb, it is normally accompanied by other marks. But there is a small number of pairs of words which are only differentiable from each other by gemination, e.g. /kʼɐrrɐbɐ/ , ( ' he brought forth ' ); /kʼɐrɐbɐ/ , ( ' he came closer ' ). All

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408-412: Is now considered old-fashioned. These less-used series are shown with a dark gray background in the chart. The orthography does not mark gemination, so the pair of words qärräbä 'he approached', qäräbä 'he was near' are both written ቀረበ . Since such minimal pairs are very rare, this presents no problem to readers of the language. Tigrinya people One view believes that the name comes from

442-467: Is situated 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of Addis Ababa and about 180 kilometres (110 mi) south of the Tigray Regional capital city, Mekelle . Topographically, Alamata is divided into western highland and eastern lowland. The western part (Tsetsera and Merewa) is categorized under the northern highlands of Ethiopia , having an altitude range of 2,000–3,000 metres (6,600–9,800 ft). It

476-703: The Italians . Arbegnoch under British leadership, liberated the town from Italian control during the Second World War on 5 May 1941; it was at the southern edge of the Woyane rebellion of 1943. On 14 December 1895, Emperor Menilek's passed through Alamata on their way northwards against the Italians. Arbegnoch under British leadership, liberated the town from Italian control during the Second World War on 5 May 1941; it

510-672: The Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples respectively. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions. Although it differs markedly from the Geʽez (Classical Ethiopic) language, for instance in having phrasal verbs, and in using a word order that places the main verb last instead of first in the sentence, there is a strong influence of Geʽez on Tigrinya literature, especially with terms relating to Christian life, Biblical names, and so on. Ge'ez, because of its status in Eritrean and Ethiopian culture, and possibly also its simple structure, acted as

544-459: The pharyngeal consonants . The charts below show the phonemes of Tigrinya. The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. When the IPA symbol is different, the orthography is indicated in brackets. The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. When the IPA symbol is different, the orthography

578-425: The uvular place of articulation (although it is represented in this article as [xʼ] ). All of these possible realizations – velar ejective fricative , uvular ejective fricative , velar ejective affricate and uvular ejective affricate – are cross-linguistically very rare sounds. Since these two sounds are completely conditioned by their environments, they can be considered allophones of /k/ and /kʼ/ . This

612-452: The Ethiopian government to return artifacts removed from the site, though their efforts have been rebuffed. Hawulti , a pre-Aksumite or early Aksumite era obelisk, is situated here. Rock art near Qohaito appears to indicate habitation in the area since the fifth millennium BC, while the town is known to have survived until the sixth century. Mount Emba Soira , Eritrea's highest mountain, and

646-565: The United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In Australia, Tigrinya is one of the languages broadcast on public radio via the multicultural Special Broadcasting Service . Tigrinya dialects differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically. No dialect appears to be accepted as a standard. Even though the most spread and used in, for example books, movies and news is the Asmara dialect. For

680-520: The area suitable for agriculture and it covers 75% of the woreda. Alamata is located in the endoreic basin of the Afar Triangle . The streams near Alamata do not reach the ocean. A mixed farming system with the predominant of crop production is practiced in the district. The major food crops grown in the area are cereals (sorghum, teff, and maize), pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and root crops. A 458 kilometres (285 mi) high voltage transmission line

714-452: The consonant and the vowel. In the table below the columns are assigned to the seven vowels of Tigrinya; they appear in the traditional order. The rows are assigned to the consonants, again in the traditional order. For each consonant in an abugida, there is an unmarked symbol representing that consonant followed by a canonical or inherent vowel . For the Ethiopic abugida, this canonical vowel

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748-432: The consonants, with the exception of the pharyngeal and glottal , can be geminated. The velar consonants /k/ and /kʼ/ are pronounced differently when they appear immediately after a vowel and are not geminated . In these circumstances, /k/ is pronounced as a velar fricative . /kʼ/ is pronounced as a fricative, or sometimes as an affricate . This fricative or affricate is more often pronounced further back, in

782-550: The ethnic sense of the word in Tigrinya, Tigre , Amharic and Ge'ez. The Jeberti in Eritrea also speak Tigrinya. Tigrinya is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea (see Demographics of Eritrea ), and the fourth most spoken language in Ethiopia after Amharic , Oromo , and Somali . It is also spoken by large immigrant communities around the world, in countries including Sudan , Saudi Arabia , Israel, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden,

816-531: The fourth most spoken language in Ethiopia after Amharic . Tigrinya dialects differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically. The oldest settled pastoral and agricultural community lived in Ona (the villages and towns around Asmara ) around 800 BC. It was the oldest known indigenous culture in the Horn Africa. Archaeologist Peter Schmidt compared the Asmara settlement to Athens and Rome. The language known as Tigre

850-525: The mention of a tribe called Tigretes. The word kebessa (in the form khebsi) has also been found in Ancient Egyptian inscriptions in reference to puntites, however concentrating later on during the Ptolemaic period, the word khebsi roughly translates to "those who cut or detach the incense from the tree". Tigrinya is a North Ethiopic language . It is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea, and

884-473: The representation of Tigrinya sounds, this article uses a modification of a system that is common (though not universal) among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages , but differs somewhat from the conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet . Tigrinya has a fairly typical set of phonemes for an Ethiopian Semitic language. That is, there is a set of ejective consonants and

918-549: The table. When it is necessary to represent a consonant with no following vowel, the consonant + ə form is used (the symbol in the sixth column). For example, the word ʼǝntay 'what?' is written እንታይ , literally ʼǝ-nǝ-ta-yǝ. Since some of the distinctions that were apparently made in Ge'ez have been lost in Tigrinya, there are two rows of symbols each for the consonants ‹ḥ›, ‹s›, and ‹sʼ›. In Eritrea, for ‹s› and ‹sʼ›, at least, one of these has fallen into disuse in Tigrinya and

952-403: The town in 1988. Based on the 2007 national census, Alamata has a total population of 33,214, of whom 16,140 are men and 17,074 women. 82.35% of the population said they were Orthodox Christians , and 16.96% were Muslim . The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 26,179 of whom 12,094 were males and 14,085 were females. Alamata is located in the southern zone of Tigray. It

986-450: The usual seven-vowel system. Unlike many of the modern Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya has preserved the two pharyngeal consonants which were apparently part of the ancient Geʽez language and which, along with [ xʼ ] , voiceless velar ejective fricative or voiceless uvular ejective fricative , make it easy to distinguish spoken Tigrinya from related languages such as Amharic, though not from Tigre, which has also maintained

1020-448: The word tägärät ( ተገረት ), meaning "she ascended". The word tägäru ( ተገሩ ) "they ascended" describes the ascension of the earliest indigenous people to the mountainous highlands of Eritrea as the plateau's first settlers. The Tigrinya tribe were first mentioned around the 8th to 10th centuries, in which period manuscripts preserving the inscriptions of Cosmas Indicopleustes (fl. 6th century) contain notes on his writings including

1054-682: Was at the southern edge of the Woyane rebellion of 1943. The first reports of crop failure in Wollo, were made in October 1971 by the chief municipal officer of Alamata; this report was handled very indifferently by his superiors who did not respond until July 1972, when they asked for a revised report. Alamata was garrisoned by the Derg during the Ethiopian Civil War . The Tigray People's Liberation Front captured

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1088-565: Was believed to be spoken in the region around 1000 BC. D'mt (Daamat) was believed to be home to a settled community in Southern Eritrean and Tigray from around 8th century BC to 4th century BC. There is little archaeological evidence of the D'mt Kingdom. Metera was a major city in the Dʿmt and Aksumite kingdoms. Since Eritrean independence, the National Museum of Eritrea has petitioned

1122-580: Was constructed to transport electricity from Alamata to Legetafo in central Ethiopia. The Weldiya–Mekelle Railway will have a station in Alamata. This article about a location in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tigrinya language Tigrinya ( ትግርኛ , Təgrəñña ), sometimes spelled Tigrigna , is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken in Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia 's Tigray Region by

1156-558: Was reported to be the first of its kind. Tigrinya (along with Arabic) was one of Eritrea's official languages during its short-lived federation with Ethiopia . In 1958, it was replaced by the Southern Ethiopic language Amharic prior to its annexation. Upon Eritrea's independence in 1991, Tigrinya retained the status of working language in the country. Eritrea was the only state in the world to officially recognize Tigrinya until 2020, when Ethiopia made changes to recognize Tigrinya on

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