Tigray

Tigray, people of central Eritrea and of the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The Tigray speak Tigrinya, a Semitic language related to Geʿez and to Tigré, the language of a separate people (the Tigre) inhabiting northwestern Eritrea. In Eritrea the Tigray are also sometimes called Tigrinya, although linguists who work in Semitic languages note that -nya is an Amharic suffix meaning “language of.” In any event, the political climate in Eritrea and Ethiopia makes agreement on nomenclature difficult at best.

The Tigray are descendants of a Semitic people who intermixed with the Cushitic inhabitants of the region and founded the Christian kingdom of Aksum, which had its capital in the historic region of Tigray. The Tigray are a sedentary agricultural people. Most, along with the neighbouring Amhara people, are adherents of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo (Coptic) Church or the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Despite the religious and cultural similarities between the Tigray and the Amhara, linguistic differences and political rivalry—often erupting into warfare—have separated the two groups.

In the early 21st century the Tigray accounted for about half of the population of Eritrea and less than one-tenth of the population of Ethiopia.