Abyssinian shotel for coment

roanoa · 8th December 2007, 07:38 AM

You have opened the Pandora box.... Shotel. Well, for starters there is a village in Eritrea named Shotel. So the word exists, at least in the Tygrinian language spoken in Eritrea and Tigrai. It may not exist in Amharic and therefore it may not be known in Ethiopia. My mother-in-law (she was a full-blood Eritrean) told me that shotel meant "big knife". So she knew the word. I can see, though, that the term may have been used only in a few areas of Abyssinia and then lost along the way. Gurade is a different story. It may be pronounced GURADE, GORADE or GORADIE, but it is the correct word, both in Amharic and Tygrinian, for sword, though the term SE'F (from the Arabic SAIF) is widely used. I guess that Se'f really means "sword" and Gurade means "sabre". Gurage is an Ethnic group and the word has nothing to do with swords. I am not surprised by the fact that a lot of Ethiopians know absolutely nothing about these things. Nobody I ever talked to even understood a single word of Ge'ez. Again, my mother-in-law, who knew the whole Bible almost by heart, understood Ge'ez, and was able to translate a few inscriptions. The new generations don't even know who Ras Alula was.... Blame it to the DERG, I guess. Bottom line is that I will continue to used these terms as I am convinced they are historically and ethnically correct.

8th December 2007, 07:38 AM	#30
roanoa Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 235	You have opened the Pandora box.... Shotel. Well, for starters there is a village in Eritrea named Shotel. So the word exists, at least in the Tygrinian language spoken in Eritrea and Tigrai. It may not exist in Amharic and therefore it may not be known in Ethiopia. My mother-in-law (she was a full-blood Eritrean) told me that shotel meant "big knife". So she knew the word. I can see, though, that the term may have been used only in a few areas of Abyssinia and then lost along the way. Gurade is a different story. It may be pronounced GURADE, GORADE or GORADIE, but it is the correct word, both in Amharic and Tygrinian, for sword, though the term SE'F (from the Arabic SAIF) is widely used. I guess that Se'f really means "sword" and Gurade means "sabre". Gurage is an Ethnic group and the word has nothing to do with swords. I am not surprised by the fact that a lot of Ethiopians know absolutely nothing about these things. Nobody I ever talked to even understood a single word of Ge'ez. Again, my mother-in-law, who knew the whole Bible almost by heart, understood Ge'ez, and was able to translate a few inscriptions. The new generations don't even know who Ras Alula was.... Blame it to the DERG, I guess. Bottom line is that I will continue to used these terms as I am convinced they are historically and ethnically correct.