SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This dissertation aims to study the origin and development of Tigrinya as a written language---a topic that has so far received little scholarly attention. As time and the easy accessibility of all the relevant material are limiting factors, this investigation is necessarily selective. Chapter One takes stock of all available writing in the Tigrinya language from its beginning in the middle of the last century up to 1974. Chapter Two briefly investigates the development of written Tigrinya to serve varying functions and ends and the general direction that its development took. Chapter Three provides a glimpse of the breadth and variety of literature incorporated in the Eritrean Weekly News published in Asmara by the British Information Services from 1942 to 1952. The E W N represented the sudden birth and development of a secular writing and provided a tradition and a reservoir of literature on which Tigrinya fiction later drew. Chapters Four, Five and Six deal with Tigrinya fictional literature on the basis of selected themes v. g. historical and political themes (Chapter Four), prostitution and approbation against dissolute life (Chapter Five), and education and success (Chapter Six).