📖 Language Change in Tigrinya. A historical Study Based on Early Tigrinya Texts.

Tigrinya is one of the major languages of Ethiopia, placed in the north Ethio-Semitic (NES)language subgroup of the Ethiopian Semitic language family which also includes Tigre and Ge''ez. Several attempts have been made to explain the linguistic features of the Tigrinya language and to identify its parent language and discuss its connection with Ge''ez. This study examines some historical linguistic features of early Tigrinya (Ethiosemitic). The aim of this investigation is to analyze and describe sounds, words and phrases of the old forms of the language gathered from early dictionaries, grammar books and manuscripts, mainly from two late nineteenth-century works by D?bt?ra F?ss?ha-Giyorgis, Tarix ityop''ya "Ethiopian history" and a travel diary entitled T''obla?ta "impression" , and to compare them to the present-day language (Modern Standard Tigrinya).