From: Berhane Alazar (erigram@comcast.net)
Date: Sat Sep 05 2009 - 19:47:18 EDT
Thanks Yonatan,
There is more to be said about proudly using one's heritage especially
since Eritrea is blessed with languages that use uniquely and
unequivocally home grown alphabets and numerical system. I am writing
this note, however, for it gives me some pride to learn some young
people, like you, are keeping what I call the awareness flame well and
alive. Your message is especially significant, to me, for I am concerned
that some of our Eritrean youngsters may wrongly believe that the Geez
numerals belong to the Amharic language. While I can not blame our
youngsters for thinking like that [it is the adults fault], nothing
could be further than the truth. For example, today I heard an Erina
reporter stating "Mr. Semere" when reporting the Zagre award "Ziena" in
Tigrigna. There is no justification for that. How about "Ato Semere"? Is
that too simple for a word for the reporter to state "Mr. Semere"
instead or is it one of the things that we have been getting inundated
by some as the "Modern" life style? Modern or not, it is imperative that
we use our own languages properly as far as we can.
Berhane Alazar