Languages of Eritrea
The main languages spoken in Eritrea are Tigrinya, Tigre, Kunama, Bilen, Nara, Saho, Afar, Beja. Tigrinya, Arabic, English language and historically Italian language serve as working languages. Tigrinya is the most widely spoken language in the country with 2,540,000 total native speakers of a population of 5,254,000 in 2006. The remaining residents primarily speak other languages from the Afroasiatic family, Nilo-Saharan languages or Indo-European languages. Ethno-linguistic demographics. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the Neolithic period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile  Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there. Eritrea's population now comprises nine ethnic groups, most of whom speak languages from the Semitic and Cushitic branches of the Afro-Asiatic family. Estimates of numbers of speakers given below are from SIL Ethnologue unless otherwise noted. Afro-Asiatic languages. The languages spoken in Eritrea are Tigrinya, Tigre, and Dahlik (formerly considered a dialect of Tigre). Together, they are spoken by around 70% of local residents: Other Afro-Asiatic languages belonging to the  family's Cushitic branch are also spoken in the country. They are spoken by around 10% of residents and include: Nilo-Saharan languages. In addition, languages belonging to the Nilo-Saharan language family are spoken as a mother tongue by the Kunama and Nara Nilotic ethnic minorities that live in the north and northwestern part of the country. Around 187,000 individuals speak the Kunama language, while around 81,400 people speak the Nara language. As of 2006, this corresponds with around 3.5% and 1.5%, respectively, of total residents. Foreign languages. Arabic is mostly found in the form of Modern Standard Arabic  as an educational language taught in primary and secondary schools, but there are native speakers of dialectal variants of Arabic, as follows: Italian was introduced in the 19th century by the colonial authorities in Italian Eritrea but is now used in commerce at times. It serves as the mother tongue of a few Italian Eritreans, but is still understood and spoken as a "pidgin" by many old Eritreans mainly in Asmara and Massawa. English was introduced in the 1940s under the British military administration of Italian Eritrea. It is now used as the de facto working language. Official status. The  1997 Constitution of Eritrea does not define any official languages. It states that "the equality of all Eritrean languages is guaranteed" without providing a conclusive list of the languages in question. The CIA Factbook cites Tigrigna, Arabic and English as official languages, alongside ethnic Eritrean languages like Tigre, Afar and other Cushitic languages, as well as the Nilo-Saharan Kunama. SIL Ethnologue lists Tigrigna as the de facto language of national identity, Arabic as the de facto national language, and English as the de facto working language. The Eritrean embassy in Sweden says, "The main working languages are Tigrigna and  Arabic. English is the medium of instruction from middle school level upwards." Writing and literacy. According to the Ministry of Information of Eritrea, an estimated 80% of the country's population is literate. In terms of writing systems, Eritrea's principal orthography is Ge'ez, Latin script and Arabic script. Ge'ez is employed as an abugida for the two most spoken languages in the country: Tigrigna and Tigre. It first came into usage in the 6th and 5th centuries BC as an abjad to transcribe the Semitic Ge'ez language. Ge'ez now serves as the liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo  Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Churches. The Latin script is used to write the majority of the country's other languages excluding Arabic. The Arabic script has also been used to write Afar, Beja, Saho and Tigre in the past. However, Tigre is mostly written in Ge'ez script now while the Latin script is used to write the other languages. For example, "Qafar Feera", a modified Latin script, serves as an orthography for transcribing Afar.