Tuesday, October 02, 2007 - American Club Talk on "Geez Language and Heritage" by Abba Ghirmay Abraha generates keen interest in Eritrean heritage.

Abba Ghirmai Addresses Audience

The monthly meeting of the American Club, on September 27, 2007, featured a presentation on “Geez Language and Heritage,” by Abba Ghirmai, O. Cist from the Catholic Theological Institute.

Abba Ghirmai presented an informative talk about the origins and evolution of the Geez language, the only African language that has its own alphabet. Abba Ghirmai offered a scholarly comparison of the various Semitic languages, as he provided an intellectual assessment of Geez language contributions to Eritrean society.  Geez culture was described as “the center of gravity” for the development of civilization in the Horn of Africa.

As he surveyed historical and philosophical books written in this distinctive language, Abba Ghirmai pointed out that Geez has an alphabet that combines both consonants and vowels into one symbol. It also has its own numbers and calendar. Geez, he said, is the mother language of Tigre, Tigrinya and Amharic languages spoken in Eritrean and Ethiopia.

This two and a half hour event was attended by over 150 patrons. The audience offered many questions and comments on the Geez language. Some questioned the reason for studying a “dead language,” while others encouraged the audience to take the Geez language and heritage seriously and studiously, to preserve this precious and rich heritage.

The next meeting of the American Club will be held on Thursday, October 25, 6:30 pm, at the Eritro-German auditorium, when Mr. Mussie Fessahaye, Vision Eritrea Program Manager, will talk about “The Impact of Integrated Food Security to Alleviate Household Food Insecurity Situation in Eritrea.”