r/Tigray

edit to clarify I do not have a decided stance on if Tigray should be independent or not, I don't know enough about what answer is the best outcome for Tigrayans. I just want the emoji.

Obviously this is not super important or anything, but I keep getting frustrated that there is no Tigray emoji on phones in the default emojis. I wanna show my Tigrayan pride more easily in spots where you can only put limited text and emojis 🔴🟡 (I mean I know a lot of people use the circles but :P).

😅 I promise I actually talk a lot about serious issues in real life and this is not a particularly serious issue lol. I've been informing friends and honestly anyone who will listen about what's going on in Tigray based on updates I hear from family.

I guess I just wanted to hear if other people are also a little annoyed that there isn't a dedicated emoji for it in the phone when you wanna use one for a little bit of flair in your text.

Selam everyone, I’m Eritrean and would like to hear from people in Tigray about what’s going on there. I heard something about Mekelle. Are there really Eritrean soldiers in Tigray right now? What is this war about now?

Also, what else is going on in Tigray? I saw a video of a child from Tigray kidnapped by the RSF who Abiy is heavily helping via UAE. It seems like Tigray is in the middle of a lot of strife from different directions.

Mom’s birthday is in a few weeks. She never says if she wants something and she lives frugally so I really don’t know what to get any ideas? Any habesha moms on here? I asked her and she did the whole “nooo, you’re enough!” thing so I’m just like, bruh…..anyway thank you 🙏🏽. Edit: Thanks everyone

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If withdrawing is the current strategy. Let ENDF mobilize along Eritrean borders. Let the long arm of Addis stretch north and let them deal with whatever issues they have.

I've been studying Tigrigna over the last few years and have been able to memorize the entire fidel for both reading and writing. What I have noticed after memorizing all the characters is that reading and writing Tigrigna is much easier and simpler than reading and writing in English. The Tigrigna fidel comes from Ge'ez which is an abugida writing system, where every character represents a consonant combined with a vowel sound. Each character can be sounded out alone and is unaffected by adjacent characters. There are no hidden characters or counter-intuitive pronunciation rules that change the sound the characters make depending on placement, meaning, etc., like it is in English.

For example, the word "selam" is written in the Tigrigna exactly as it sounds: ሰ(se) + ላ(la) + ም(m). No unnecessary letters or special rules applied. In English, the word "hello" has two ls for seemingly no reason. If you are a native Tigrigna speaker learning English for the first time you might not understand why "helo" is incorrect and "hello" is correct. The only reason I know which one is correct is simply because I was taught that two ls is the correct spelling in school, even though "helo" and "hello" sound the same phonetically.

Let's look at the word "peace". In Tigrigna, "selam" means "peace", and can only be spelled one way no matter what: ሰላም. Even spelling "peace" phonetically in Tigrigna can only be done one way: ፒ(pee) + ስ(s). In English, "peace" and "piece" have the same exact sound, but have different meanings due to the spelling. Why? Idk. Why is "peece" incorrect spelling when it sounds exactly the same? What is the difference between "ee" and "ea"? Matter of fact, why is adding a silent "e" after the "c" necessary? You can see how someone who is learning English for the first time could be confused by all these rules in the writing system of English.

Now, obviously there are some characters in the Ge'ez language families that share the same sound but are used more predominantly depending on language or regional dialect, such as ሰ(Tigrigna) and ሠ(Amharic), or ጸ(Eritrea) and ፀ(Tigray/Amhara), but those are pretty much the only two caveats. English has way more caveats and rules you need to memorize, so coming from someone who speaks English as a first language, reading and writing in Tigrigna is much easier and simpler in this regard.

I'm saying all this to tell you guys to not be intimidated by the number of characters used in Tigrigna. Learn it, memorize it, and you will see how easy it is to read and write Tigrigna!

I haven’t been to mekelle since 2007. I just now today noticed how different the skyline looks (pre-war and currently). Was there a construction boom at some point??? Thank you.

After having spoken to family living in Mekelle on different sides of the city, I'm getting mixed reports. One of them said that the TPF were the ones primarily in control while the other said that the ENDF were present in some areas especially the outskirts. There's also a strong atmosphere of fear especially among the youth because they're getting harassed and accused of being members of the TDF, etc.

Time will tell whether this occupation of Mekelle and the rest of the towns and cities they go on to occupy will be as brutal as before but there's a small and hopeful chance they'll avoid this as they seem to be a little more aware that committing atrocities against Tigray's civilians only fuels support for the resistance. However given they were carpet bombing civilians areas and attacking humanitarian trucks right before Tigray responded, they may still be as stupid and genocidal as before.

Sometimes Ethiopia feels like a book stuck on repeat.

We keep returning to familiar conflicts, familiar arguments, and familiar consequences, while somehow expecting a different outcome.

If the old hypothesis keeps producing the same result, why not test a new one?

Maybe the next chapter deserves dialogue, peace, and development instead.

♾️🇪🇹