| Pidgin Italian of Ethiopia | |
|---|---|
| Simplified Italian of Ethiopia (SIE) | |
| Region | Ethiopia |
| Era | 19th to late-20th centuries |
Italian-based pidgin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
The Pidgin Italian of Ethiopia (also called Simplified Italian of Ethiopia or SIE) was a pidgin language used by some Ethiopians in the 20th century to speak in a form of Italian. It was used mainly in the north of Ethiopia (Tigrinya and Amhara regions) and in the capital, Addis Ababa, when Ethiopia was part of the Italian empire up to World War II. It remained in use among some old Ethiopians and Eritreans until the 2020s.
SIE, according to linguist Habte-Mariam Marcos, was a relatively variable form of Italian, simply modified in pronunciation, limited in vocabulary and sharply reduced in grammar. [1]
In SIE there it is lack of articles and full use of infinitives, while SIE's morphology and syntax use little subordination and plenty of parataxis.
The phonology of the Pidgin Italian of Ethiopia is characterized by huge interference from Tigrinya and Amharic, the two Semitic languages spoken respectively in southern Eritrea and central northern Ethiopia by the majority of the population.
It seems likely that the Italians simplified the grammar of the language they used with underlings at this stage, but they did not borrow vocabulary and grammatical forms from Amharic and Tigrinya, since it does not show up in the simplified Italian used today [2]
According to Mauro Tosco, Tigrinya has borrowed most of its automotive technical vocabulary through SIE; for example, Italian molla ('spring' in English) is moollo, pompa ('pump') is boomba, and freno ('brake') is fariino. [3] Furthermore, the Italian language is very present in Amharic in the lexical fields of contemporary food (names of dishes and pastries) and automobiles (what must be learned to get a driver's licence). [4]
Historian E. Aiello thinks that in 1940 the percentage of the local population able to speak SIE was 26% in Addis Ababa and nearly 10% in northern Ethiopia. As of 2023 [update] , fewer than 100 old Ethiopians can understand and/or speak SIE.
Indeed, according to Hoffman Samuel, the Pidgin italian of Ethiopia has the following characteristics:
"The SIE has these characteristics: The Italian phonological system is rearranged, also on the basis of the interference of the local languages. At the vowel level there is a general raising at the end of the word (ottu<eight) and centralization of front vowels (regaso<boy), moreover the epenthesis with /1/ is common for the consonant links at the beginning of the word ( la skola<school) and the simplification of the diphthongs (apples<honey). As far as the consonants are concerned, however, there is a tendency to sonorization (borta<porta) and to the passage from African affricates (des<dieci). From the morphosyntactic point of view we note the absence of articles and co-pula; absence of agreement and reduction of the verbal system to the forms of the infinitive (non-completive) and of the past participle (completive), with the use of adverbs for the creation of the present, future and conditional, as well as the obligatory use of the personal pronoun and use of the pre-position b5r<per as a mark of the dative (as also happened in the lingua franca); morphological doubling with semantic value. of the meaning of some lexemes, as well as fusion of words and articles due to the reanalysis of the words (l'ospedale<the hospital)." [5]
Some of the most used SIE's words loanworded from Italian:
Karta - map
Gazetta - newspaper
Mastika - chewing gum
Gomma - tyre
Fabrika - factory
Siminto - cement
Kubbanyya - company
Musika - music
Conserva - tomato paste
Formajo - cheese
Not only SIE but also Ethiopian languages such as Amharic and Tigrinya have many words borrowed from the Italian language, for example gettone ('token'), bigli from Italian biglie ('glass marbles'), borsa ('bag'), machìna from Italian macchina ('car'), carburatore ('carburetor') and others.
The following are some phrases showing loan words borrowed from Italian into SIE:
| Pidgin Italian of Ethiopia / SIE | Standard Italian | lit. English |
|---|---|---|
| rɛgasi mɛnjato | I ragazzi hanno mangiato | 'Boys have eaten' |
| ıjo lɛwrato tirobbo | Io ho lavorato troppo | 'I have worked too much' |
| ıjo berduto soldi kwello tu dato ber me | Io ho perduto soldi quelli dati per me | 'I have lost money you have given for me' |
 Italian language in the world | |
|---|---|
| Italian languages & dialects | |
| Pidgin & Mixed | |
1 autochthonous | |
Etiopia italiana | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main authorities |  | |
| Governors | ||
| General History |
| |
| Infrastructures | ||
| Related articles | ||
| Related personalities | ||
| Colonial troops | ||
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