If you’re looking to learn Tigrinya then you may be wondering if the popular language learning platform Duolingo has a Tigrinya course.
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Does Duolingo Have A Tigrinya Course?
Despite the importance and long history of the Tigrinya language, Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Tigrinya course.
Tigrinya is a fascinating Semitic language with a long and vibrant history. Today it is spoken by approximately 9.9 million people, mainly in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.
Many people who are looking to learn a new language use Duolingo, a fun language learning platform that features bite-size lessons on various languages.
Duolingo is known to be a fun, free and easy way to learn a new language.
Why Is Tigrinya Not On Duolingo?
It’s hard to say exactly why Duolingo hasn’t yet produced a Tigrinya course as Tigrinya is a very widely spoken language with almost 10 million speakers.
Duolingo has produced courses on much smaller languages (in terms of number of speakers).
They have courses on small minority languages such as Scottish Gaelic which only has 57,000 speakers total!
Additionally, they have made a Klingon course of which there are no native speakers as this is a fictional language.
By this standard, it’s definitely not the number of speakers of the language that is a problem.
Less Popular Language
One reason why Duolingo may have not yet produced a Duolingo Tigrinya course is that there isn’t enough demand.
Tigrinya isn’t a popular language for native English speakers to learn. Relatively few people are interested in learning the language compared with other languages and Duolingo produces courses based on demand.
This is a shame because it’s certain that there is some demand for English speakers wanting to learn Tigrinya (you wouldn’t be on this page if there wasn’t!).
Eritrean and Ethiopian people who speak Tigrinya can be found all over the world and so the demand for the language is slowly rising.
Duolingo is currently working on other languages which they believe will be more popular with their users.
African languages in general are very lacking on Duolingo. Currently they only have one African language available for learning (Swahili) – the reason for this is also likely to be lack of demand.
When Will Tigrinya Be Available On Duolingo?
The Duolingo Incubator is a feature where you can see what languages Duolingo are currently working on producing a course for.
The Duolingo courses are created by volunteers. You can contribute to a course on the Duolingo Incubator page if you’re fluent in more than one language.
This page simply shows which courses are currently being produced so you can apply to help build a course if you want to.
Having checked the Duolingo Incubator, I can see that currently Tigrinya isn’t a course they’re working on.
This means that Duolingo Tigrinya isn’t going to be released any time soon as they’re not even working on producing a course.
Within the incubator, on their language list they do say ‘more languages will be available for teaching soon’ however it is unclear how long we may be waiting for more courses to be added.
How Do Duolingo Decide On Which Courses To Create?
Duolingo themselves state that they decide on new courses based on the Duolingo forums.
They suggest the best way to get them to add a new language is by visiting their forum section and searching for suggestions that have been made in the past.
You then should add an upvote or comment to these posts. The more upvotes the more likely Duolingo will take notice and build a course.
If you want to help then you can upvote this Duolingo forum post to show Duolingo that people want a Tigrinya course.
Alternatives To Duolingo To Learn Tigrinya
Whilst Duolingo is a fantastic resource for learning a new language, don’t let their lack of a Tigrinya course stop you from learning the language if you want to.
There are plenty of fantastic courses out there for learning Tigrinya – both free and paid.
Free Alternatives For Learning Tigrinya
Memrise
Memrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help its users learn their chosen language.
There are a few free Tigrinya courses that will teach you the alphabet, vocabulary and phrases in Tigrinya.
It’s really interactive and gradually introduces new words slowly so you have time to consolidate them all. There’s also plenty of opportunities to practice what you’ve learnt.
YouTube
YouTube is a fantastic resource for learning any language and the best part is that it’s absolutely free.
There are lots of great videos on YouTube that will teach you Tigrinya. I’d recommend checking out the channel ‘The Habby’.
This channel has tons of videos on Tigrinya that cover topics like grammar, phrases and vocabulary.
Check out one of their most popular videos below:
Paid Alternatives For Learning Tigrinya
Tigrinya Textbook
If you’re looking for a standard textbook to help you with Tigrinya then the Essential Guide To Tigrinya book is one of the best out there.
This book goes into detail into grammar, vocabulary, phrases and even has some interesting cultural notes.
It’s a great reference point and explains the language in clear, easy to understand terms.
uTalk
The online platform uTalk offers a Tigrinya course.
They focus on game-based learning and state that their course uses native speakers and features more than 2,500 everyday words.
The course will teach you a range of relevant Tigrinya vocabulary and get you speaking the language straight away.
Thanks for reading this post on whether Duolingo currently has a Tigrinya course.
Even though Duolingo doesn’t currently have a Tigrinya course, there are still lots of other ways that you can learn Tigrinya.
Check our other Tigrinya content here.
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