English-Tigrinya-Amharic Dictionary - Debessai, Woldu T

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Résumé :
This trilingual book has 8,000 word entries with transliteration. It is a vocabulary powerhouse, with the 5,000 most commonly used English words (written and/or spoken), plus a combined total of 3,000 Tigrinya and Amharic word entries. In order to help with phonetic pronunciation, English words are written in Geez scripts (), while Tigrinya and Amharic word meanings are Romanized. Thus, it is a great reference book for ESL/ELL students to use for standardized testing. It is equipped with a concise yet informative introduction of the Tigrinya and Amharic languages. Both Tigrinya and Amharic are Semitic (Afro-Asiatic) languages derived from an ancient Ethiopian language, Geez; moreover, both languages share the same unique Geez alphabet, albeit with some pronunciation differences. Both languages are written from left to right. The quantity and uniqueness of the letters in the alphabet might be intimidating at the beginning, but there are some easy patterns that enable learning them faster. Once you have mastered the alphabet, it is rare to misspell words of Tigrinya or Amharic Tigrinya and Amharic are official languages in Eritrea and Ethiopia respectively; Tigrinya is spoken in both countries. The total population who speak the two languages in the two countries, including those who speak them as a second language, is estimated to be about 55 million people.

Biographie:
Dr. Woldu Tekle Debessai is a former university educator with extensive knowledge of the Amharic, Tigrinya, and English languages. He is originally from Eritrea, which is where he completed his primary school education. At the invitation of his dear, late uncle, Abraha Debessay, he moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he attended two of the best private schools in the country: the Nativity Boys' School and the General Wingate Secondary School. He completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Alemaya University of Agriculture in Ethiopia, where he worked as a professor for ten years. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, USA. He has lived in Canada for more than 20 years and his work experience include interpreting/translating Tigrinya and or Amharic languages to English and vice versa for various Canadian government agencies.Currently, Dr. Debessai is semi-retired and decided to share his knowledge of English, Tigrinya, and Amharic by writing this dictionary to help anyone wishing to learn or enhance their vocabulary of the languages. He is blessed to be the father of an adult daughter, Rita, and two teenage sons, Matthew and Aaron. The author lives in Burnaby, BC Canada with his lovely wife, Elsa, and sons. He can be reached via email at woldat97@gmail.com.