Tigrinya Voice Over Agency

Working with translation and production companies

Adding audio visual services to your mix will create many new sales opportunities for your team.

Matinée has over 40 years of experience working alongside translation and production companies. So you can be sure our project managers are fully at home with the technical process of supervising and delivering localised material, in a professional and timely manner. We can add translation, voiceover and subtitling to your company’s offering, which will appear seamless to your clients and yet mesh easily with the processes in your own departments.

If you are a translation company, we will send you some helpful guidelines when providing us with copy or scripts, and we can either work from your translations or handle the whole project for you, including translation. If you are a production company, we will provide translations or subtitles in your preferred format; whether that’s subtitle-ready files (XML or PNG), or burnt in as fully-subtitled videos. Voiceover recordings can be supplied as edited files, or we can remix with the original music and effects and provide a finished video, ready to go.

Working seamlessly with your team, we can take on all or part of the process, according to your needs, and help widen your service offering.

A short history on the Tigrinya language

Tigrinya (also spelled Tigrigna, also called Tigray or Tigrai) belongs to the Ethiopic sub-group of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. It is closely related to the ancient language of Ethiopia, Ge’ez (now extinct), and also to Tigre.

The earliest written example of Tigrinya dates back to the 13th century – a text of local laws found in southern Eritrea. Tigrinya literature was strongly influenced by Ge’ez, especially in relation to Christian/Biblical writing. Ge’ez was used as literary medium for Tigrinya until relatively recently.

Which countries have Tigrinya as a national language?

Tigrinya is an official language in Eritrea (along with Arabic and English). It is recognised as a minority language in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

How many people speak Tigrinya as their first language?

It is estimated that approximately 6.7 million people speak Tigrinya as their first language – 4.2 million in Ethiopia (where it is the third most spoken language after Amharic and Oromo) and 2.5 million in Eritrea (where it is the most widely spoken language).

There are significant Tigrinya-speaking communities in Sudan, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Canada, Australia and the United States.

Did you know…

• Tigrinya is written using the Ge’ez script, which was originally used for the now-extinct Ge’ez language. It has 32 letters and is read from left to right.
• Tigrinya is spoken by the ethnic Tigray-Tigrinya people who live in the Horn of Africa. In northern Ethiopia its speakers are called Tigray; in southern Eritrea they are called Tigrinya.

The Eritrean and Ethiopian economies

The Eritrean economy has faced significant problems, such as the legacy of 30+ years of war and chronic drought. As with many other African nations, a large proportion of the population (nearly 80%) is engaged in subsistence farming.

However, the country’s economy has experienced a fast growth rate in recent years, and this is expected to continue. Eritrea has considerable natural resources including copper and gold.

The Ethiopian economy – also fast-growing – is also largely based on agriculture, which accounts for around 46% of GDP and employs 85% of the workforce.

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country, and around 50% of the population is under 18. Job creation has not kept up with population growth, and this means that, despite recent improvements to the economy, Ethiopia remains one of the world’s poorest countries.