According to linguists, the first
Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the Neolithic period from the family's proposed
urheimat ("original homeland") in the
Nile Valley, or the
Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the
Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there. Eritrea's population now comprises nine
ethnic groups, most of whom speak languages from the
Semitic and
Cushitic branches of the Afro-Asiatic family. Estimates of numbers of speakers given below are from
SIL Ethnologue unless otherwise noted.
Afro-Asiatic languages The languages spoken in Eritrea are
Tigrinya,
Tigre, and
Dahlik (formerly considered a dialect of Tigre). Together, they are spoken by around 70% of local residents: •
Tigrinya, spoken as a first language by the
Tigrinya people. As of 2006, there were around 2.54 million speakers. •
Tigre, spoken by the
Tigre people. As of 2006, there were around 1.05 million speakers. •
Dahlik, spoken in the
Dahlak Archipelago. Variously regarded as either a divergent dialect of Tigre or a separate language, it was assigned its own
ISO 639-3 code in 2013. As of 2012, there were around 2,500 speakers. Other Afro-Asiatic languages belonging to the family's
Cushitic branch are also spoken in the country. •
Hadhrami Arabic, with about 100,000 speakers as of 2006. •
Hijazi Arabic, spoken by the
Rashaida. As of 2006, there were around 24,000 speakers. •
Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic with about 18,000 speakers as of 2006. by many old Eritreans and few of their children mainly in Asmara and Massawa.
English was introduced in the 1940s under the British military administration of Italian Eritrea. It is now used as the
de facto working language. ==Official status==