Berichte und Kommentare
257
A-nth
tropos 79.1984
This goes a long way towards explaining the groups’
similarities, while at the same time allowing for their
deepseated differences believing mutual comprehension.
The Formative Period in Tigrinya Linguistics
Jack Fellman
Tigrinya is a Northern Semitic-Ethiopic language spo
ken by some 3-3.5 million predominantly Monophysitic
Christian agriculturalists in Eritrea and the northern Abyssi
nian highland plateau. This area corresponds largely to that
°f the ancient kingdom of Axum, and indeed Tigrinya is
often considered, both by her speakers and by professional
linguists, as the direct successor of Classical Ethiopie (Ge’ez),
the linguistic symbol of historic Ethiopian civilization.
The most complete and detailed descriptive grammar of
Tigrinya is the 1941 Documents tigrigna (éthiopien septen
trional) by the noted éthiopisant Wolf Leslau, a student of the
late “father of Ethiopie studies,” Marcel Conen. This work
marked the culmination of over a century of study of
Tigrinya which may be termed “the formative period in
Tigrinya linguistics.” It is this formative period that this
paper wishes briefly to treat. We restrict ourselves, however,
to book-length grammars and dictionaries. Sketches, out
lines, and the like may be found in Leslau 1965: 165-191 and
1970: 477-482 passim.
The earliest documentation of Tigrinya is that provided
hy travelers and missionaries at the beginning of the last
century. The material - mostly lists of words and phrases -
collected by men like Henry Salt, Charles Веке, Christian
Lefebvre, and the translations of parts of the Old and New
Testaments were used by the noted Semitist Franz Praetorius
ln his monumental 367-page Grammatik der Tigrina-Sprache
ln Ahessinien of 1871. This work is the first grammar of
Tigrinya, abd is to this day “a model of accuracy, exhausti-
Ve ness, and sound method” (Ullendorff 1973: 19). It is
heavily comparative and historical in nature, and is geared to
l he experienced Semitist and éthiopisant rather than the
indent. It is not, however, based on first-hand acquaintance
Wl th the language. Further, since it is based heavily on
biblical translations, the language-type described tends to be
somewhat stilted and artificial. After Praetorius, several
^orks were produced based on first-hand knowledge of
Tgrinya in situ, the best ones by missionaries, who knew the
language well. We note in particular J. Schreiber’s Manuel de
I a langue tigrai, published in two volumes in Vienna
1887—1893. A better grammar is Padre Mauro da Leonessa’s
Grammatica analitica della lingua tigray, published in Rome
111 1928. This 294-page work gives quite a good description of
the language, and is the first grammar (with the exception of
Praetorius, but vide supra) to give extended coverage to
s yntax.
The Italian interlude in Ethiopia (ca. 1870-1940), of
T^hich Leonessa was part, produced several works on
bgrinya, but none are of scientific value. An exception is
Ludovico de Vito’s Grammatica elementare della lingua
tl grigna, published in Rome in 1895. De Vito was an officer
ln the Italian army, and this 85-page work served his men
In conclusion, the Ethiopian Semitic tongues form a
chain of closely related but independent languages. This is a
result in particular of the breakup and fissuring of original
dialect continua in the historical period.
(and still can serve the modern student of Tigrinya) quite
well. Much better linguistically is Carlo Conti Rossini’s
Lingua tigrina, published in Milan in 1940. This work, as it
were, closes the formative period in Tigrinya grammatical
studies. Mention should, perhaps, also be made of a grammar
of Tigrinya in Tigrinya, which appeared at this time: Ya’qob
Gabra lyasus’ Haddis mdgdmmdriya ziwdsp ? zdllo mdshaf
sdwasssw, published in Asmara in 1934 (revised edition
1948).
As to dictionaries of Tigrinya, several collections of
words and small vocabularies of the early 19th century are
available, as are several vocabularies produced during the
Italian interlude. None have scientific value, except perhaps
for the 1896 Vocabulario della lingua tigrigna by the above
Ludovico de Vito. The best works, again, were produced by
missionaries. We note the above J. Schreiber, who, with P. S.
Coulbeaux, published in Vienna in 1915 a 504-page Diction-
naire de la langue tigrai, a most abundant work, which,
unfortunately, only covers the first part of the alphabet. A
more complete and better dictionary is Francesco da Bassa-
no’s Vocabolario tigray-italiano et italiano-tigray, published
in Rome in 1918. This is still at present the best dictionary of
Tigrinya available, but by now is clearly passe. (A new
dictionary is reportedly in preparation by Rainer Maria
Vogt.)
In conclusion, one notes that the formative period in
Tigrinya grammar and lexicography down to 1940 laid the
foundations for the scientific study of the language. Since
then, very little further was produced. (Perhaps we should
mention here the 1957 Tigrinya-Amharic dictionary Mdgzd-
bd qalat tsgrsnna amhar^nna, an 855-page work published
by Abba Yohannas Gabra Egzi’abahar in Asmara, as an
outstanding exception. More recently, the above Rainer
Maria Voigt published Das tigrinische Verbalsystem in 1977,
an exemplary work.) The decline of interest in Tigrinya
linguistics is probably due to the main role played by
Amharic, Tigrinya’s sister Ethiopian-Semitic language, in the
development of Ethiopia after World War. II. This, natural
ly, steered interest toward Amharic studies. With the surge of
recent Eritrean nationalism, however, the status of Tigrinya
in the province is growing at the expense of Amharic, and we
may assume that, to that extent, interest in Tigrinya
linguistics will be renewed.
References Cited
Leslau, Wolf
1965 An Annotated Bibliography of the Semitic Languages of
Ethiopia. The Hague: Mouton and Co.
1970 “Ethiopic and South Arabian.” In: T. A. Sebeok (ed.), Current
Trends in Linguistics 6: 467-527. The Hague: Mouton and
Co.
Ullendorff, Edward
1973 The Ethiopians. London: Oxford University Press. [Paper
back, 3 rd ed.]