Home to 4 dialects represented on Dialect Atlas, spanning 4 language families.
An Ethiopic Semitic language and the most-spoken language of Eritrea, also widely used in northern Ethiopia (Tigray). Written in the Ge'ez script.
also: Bedawi
The northernmost Cushitic language, spoken across the Red Sea hills of Sudan, Eritrea, and Egypt. Sometimes classified as its own North Cushitic branch within the Afroasiatic family.
also: Xasa
A Semitic Afroasiatic language of the Eritrean lowlands and adjoining eastern Sudan. Around 1 million speakers; closely related to Tigrinya but mutually unintelligible.
also: Qafar
A Cushitic Afroasiatic language of the Afar people, spoken across the Afar Triangle of north-eastern Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, and Djibouti. Around 2 million speakers.