By Kasay T. Areki (aka Reqiq)
Sept 28 2010

Not long the word transformation is getting a frequent word on every house hold of our society, Ethiopian. Because of the eagerness and ambition to the five years development and transformation plan that we all want to see implement, I believe it is very important and historical to find or create, to this popular word, transformation, a counterpart or better Ethiopian word in order our whole society to sense the whole meaning behind it. Hence, I have tried my best to find, not create, a word which is already exist in our rich Ethiopian language. Since transformation is not creating from none, I believe finding or building on what we have will satisfy the word, transformation itself and the whole concept and the counterpart word our own that we can come up with. Consequently, I will explain how I relate the counterpart word from what we have and make sense the whole concept of transformation as follows briefly.

Before defining the whole word as one, it is very important to break down the word from where it gets build; Trans and Form. And these are the few definitions related or close to the concept and word I am targeting for as follows.

Trans:
A Latin noun or prefix, meaning “across, over, beyond, through, on the other side to form through that is, a new transfigure”:
From the above we can define the word, Trans as something moved forward and the counterpart word in Amharic can be “EDIGET”. Let us keep this in mind and let’ move to the next.

Form: (as noun)
1) A category of things:
Distinguished by some common characteristic or quality; Example sculpture.
2) The visual appearance of something.
From this we can come up with the counterpart word for this concept in Amharic is “HinTsa”. (Sim)/noun in Amarigna and Tigrigna

Form (as verb):
“Give a shape or form”; Example: form the young child’s character.
“Shape a figure”; Example: work the metal into a sword.
“Establish or impress firmly in the mind”; Example: we imprint our ideas into our children.
From the above form definitions on its verb form, we can come up the counterpart Amharic/Tigrigna word: “HinTseT”. (Gis)/Verb Amarigna/Tigrigna.

Before heading to the targeted counterpart Amharic word for transformation, let’ see a few of what the English dictionary define (trans-form/tion) as one word:

Transformation (noun):
1) A qualitative change
2) The act of changing in form or shape or appearance
3) Addition, change, change-over, re-formation, revolution, transfiguration
It might be important to define the opposite of transformation in order to create uniformity in our language related to this magical word. Here it goes,

Deformation (noun):
A change to the worse; that means” W’DIQET “in Amharic which is the opposite of “EDIGET”; Hence, I believe there is a uniformity here on the counterpart word for “Trans” which is “EDIGET” in Amharic.
Now, it is time to relate both the above defined Amharic words together as the “Trans” and “Form” related to form one word, transformation;” EDIGET-H’N’TSE’T”. Are we done here? No, because, it doesn’t sound right and has an awkward flow when you say it.

When we relate the two words to form one word, our Geez language has the magic to make one. Just one example: as the counterpart word for Library is “BETE-METSAHAFIT” in Amharic and Tigrigna, which comes from the words “BET” and “METSAHFIT”, we can make the two words the same way following the GEEZ norm by changing the first Word To “EDIGETE” instead of “EDIGET” to make the word “EDIGETE-HN’TSE’T” or the visa versa changing the “HN’TSET” TO “HN’TSETE” to make “HN’TSETE-EDIGET”.

In conclusion, I am suggesting the government, the academics, the clergies and all the people of Ethiopia to consider using our own words as such I came up with to replace the transformation to ““EDIGETE-HN’TSE’T” or the visa versa “HN’TSETE-EDIGET”” or to something Ethiopian when we are speaking to the people whom do not speak the English language. Because, I believe that knowing the meaning of this important word precisely by all the people of Ethiopia will transform our development plan faster.
Thank you;

HN’TSETE-EDIGET LE ETHIOPA
H’N’TSETE-EBYET N’ETHIOPIA (Tigrigna)

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