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Tigre (ትግሬ,[4][5]Təgré[6]), also known as Tigrayit (ትግራይት),[1] is an Ethio-Semitic language spoken in the Horn of Africa, primarily by the Tigre people of Eritrea.[7] It is believed to be the most closely related living language to Ge'ez, which is still in use as the liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Tigre has a lexical similarity of 71% with Ge’ez and of 64% with Tigrinya.[1] As of 1997, Tigre was spoken by approximately 800,000 Tigre people in Eritrea.[8] The Tigre mainly inhabit western Eritrea, though they also reside in the northern highlands of Eritrea and its extension into the adjacent parts of Sudan, as well as Eritrea's Red Sea coast north of Zula. There is a small number of Tigre speakers in Sudan, as well as communities of speakers found in the diaspora.[1]
The Tigre people are not to be confused with their neighbors to the south, the Tigrinya people of Eritrea and the Tigrayans of Ethiopia, both of whom speak Tigrinya. Tigrinya is also derived from the parent Geʽez tongue[citation needed], but is quite distinct from Tigre despite the similarity in name.
Dialects
There are several dialects of Tigre, some of them are; Mansa’ (Mensa), Habab, Barka, Semhar, Algeden, Senhit (Ad-Tekleis, Ad-Temariam, Bet-Juk, Marya Kayah) and Dahalik, which is spoken in the Dahlak Archipelago. Intelligibility between the dialects is above 91% (except Dahalik), where intelligibility between Dahalik and the other dialects is between 24% and 51%.[9]
Tigre speakers in Sudan also call the language "hāsā".[6] However the term 'Hasa', and in other variations of names such as 'Xasa' or 'Khasa' is considered pejorative by the Tigre.[9]
Vocabulary
Numerals
The cardinal and ordinal numbers in Tigre are as follows:
Number
Cardinal
Ordinal
Masculine
Feminine
Neutral
Masculine
Feminine
1
አሮ, ’aro
ሐቴ, ḥate or ሐንቴ, ḥante
አወል, ’awel
አወላይ, ’awelay
አወላይት, ’awelayit
ቀዳም, q’edam
ቀዳማይ, q’edamay
ቀዳሚት, q’edamit
2
ክልኤ, kili’ē
ከልእ, kel’
ከለኣይ, kele’ay
ከለኣይት, kele’ayt
3
ሰለአስ, sel’ās
ሰልስ, sals
4
አርበዕ, ’arbaʽe
ረብዕ, rabʽe
5
ሐምስ, ḥams or ሐሙስ, ḥamus
ሐምስ, ḥams
6
ስእስ, si’es or ሱስ, sus
ሰድስ, sads
7
ሰቡዕ, sebuʽi
ሰብዕ, sabʽe
8
ሰመን, seman
ሰምን, samn
9
ሰዕ, siʽe
ተስዕ, tasʽe
10
ዐስር, ʽasr
ዐስር, ʽasr
11
ዐስር-ሐተ, ʽasr-hatte
20
ዕስረ, ʽisra
21
ዕስረ ወሐተ, ʽisra w ḥate
30
ሰለሰ, selasa
40
አርበዐ, arbaʽa
50
ሐምሰ, ḥamsa
100
ምእት, mi’et
200
ክልኤ ምእት, kil’e mi’et
300
ሰለአስ ምእት, seles mi’et
1000
አልፍ, ’alf
Ordinal numbers have both feminine and masculine form. To describe the masculine form -ay is added and respective -ayt to describe the feminine form.
Phonology
Tigre has preserved the two pharyngeal consonants of Ge'ez. The Ge'ez vowel inventory has almost been preserved except that the two vowels which are phonetically close to [ɐ] and [a] seem to have evolved into a pair of phonemes which have the same quality (the same articulation) but differ in length; [a] vs. [aː]. The original phonemic distinction according to quality survives in Tigrinya. The vowel [ɐ], traditionally named "first order vowel", is most commonly transcribed ä in Semitic linguistics.
The phonemes of Tigre are displayed below in both International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols (indicated by the IPA brackets) and the symbols common (though not universal) among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages. For the long vowel /aː/, the symbol 'ā' is used per Raz (1983). Three consonants, /p, p', x/, occur only in a small number of loanwords, hence they are written in parentheses.
As in other Ethiopian Semitic languages, the phonemic status of /ə/ is questionable; it may be possible to treat it as an epenthetic vowel that is introduced to break up consonant clusters.
Consonant length is phonemic in Tigre (that is, a pair of words can be distinct by consonant length alone), although there are few such minimal pairs. Some consonants do not occur long; these include the pharyngeal consonants, the glottal consonants, /w/, and /j/. In this language, long consonants arise almost solely by gemination as a morphological process; there are few, if any, long consonants in word roots. Gemination is especially prominent in verb morphology.
Grammar
These notes use the spelling adopted by Camperio (1936 – see bibliography) which seems to approximate to Italian rules.
Nouns are of two genders, masculine and feminine.
Indefinite article: masculine uoro አሮ e.g. uoro ennas አሮ እነስ – a man; feminine hatte ሐተ e.g. hatte sit ሐተ እሲት – a woman.
The definite article, "the", when expressed, is la ለ e.g. ለጸሐይ ወ ለወርሕ – the sun and the moon.
As we might expect from a Semitic language, specifically feminine forms, where they exist, are often formed of an element with t:
Personal pronouns distinguish "you, masculine" and "you, feminine" in both singular and plural:
አነ ʼana – I, me
እንታ ʼənta – you, singular, masculine
እንቲ ʼənti – you, singular, feminine
ህቱ hətu – he, him, it (masc.)
ህታ həti – she, her, it (fem.)
ሕነ hənna – we, us
እንቱም ʼəntum – you, plural, masculine
እንትን ʼəntən – you, plural, feminine
ህቶም hətom – they, them, masculine
ህተን həten – they, them, feminine
The possessive pronouns appear (a) suffixed to the noun, (b) as separate words:
my – (a) -ya የ example: kətābya ክታብየ- my book; (b) nāy ናየ with masculine nouns; nāya ናየ with feminine nouns;
your (sing. mas. & fem.) – (a) -ka ካ example: kətābka ክታብካ- your book; (b) with masc. nāyka ናይካ, with fem. nāyki ናይኪ;
his – (a) -u -ኡ example kətābu ክታቡ – his book; (b) with masc. nāyu ናዩ, with fem. nāya ናያ;
our – (a) -na ና example kətābna ክታብና – our book; (b) with masc. nāyna ናይና, with fem. nāyna ናይና;
your (pl. masc. & fem.) – (a) -kum ኩም (a) -kən ክን example kətabkum ክታብኩም/ክታብክን- your book; (b) with masc. nāykum ናይኩም, with fem. nāykən ናይክን;
their – -om -ኦም example kətābom ክታቦም- their book; (b) with masc. nāyom,ናዮም with fem. nāyan ናየን.
The verb "to be":
ana halleco (o) tu – አና ሀለኮ I am; negative: ihalleco ኢሀለኮ- I'm not;
enta halleco (o) tu – እንታ ህሌካ you (sing. masc.) are; neg. ihalleco ኢሀለኮ- you're not;
enti hallechi tu – እንቲ ሀሌኪ you (sing. fem.) are; neg. ihalleco ኢሀለኮ;
hötu halla tu ህቱ ሀላ- he is; neg. ihalla ኢሀላ;
höta hallet tu ህታ ሀሌት – she is; neg. ihallet ኢሀሌት;
henna hallena tu ሕና ሀሌና – we are; neg. ihallena ኢሀሌና;
entum hallecum tu እንቱም ሀሌኩም- you (pl. masc.) are; neg. ihallecum ኢሀሌኩም;
entim hallechen tu እንትን ሀሌክን- you (pl. fem.) are; neg. ihallecum ኢሀሌክን;
hötön hallaa tom ህተን ሀሌያ- they (masc.) are; neg. ihallao ኢሀሌያ;
hötön halleia ten ህተን ሀሌያ – they (fem.) are; neg. ihallao ኢሀሌያ.
The verb "to be", past tense:
...alco ዐልኮ- I was; negative: iálco ኢዐልኮ- I wasn't;
...alca ዐልካ- you (sing. masc.) were; neg. iálca ኢዐልካ;
...alchi ዐልኪ- you (sing. fem.) were; neg. iálca ኢዐልኪ;
...ala ዐላ- he was; neg. iála ኢዐላ;
...alet ዐለት- she was; neg. iállet ኢዐለት;
...alna ዐልና- we were; neg. iálna ኢዐልና;
...alcum ዐልኩም- you (pl. masc.) were; neg. iálcum ኢዐልኩም;
...alchen ዐልክን- you (pl. fem.) were; neg. iálcum ኢዐልክን;
...alou ዐለው- they (masc.) were; neg. iálou ኢዐለው;
...alaia ዐለያ- they (fem.) were; neg. iáleia ኢዐለያ.
The verb "to have":
Uoro chitab bi-e ዎሮ ኪታብ ብየ – I have a book
Uoro chitab bö-caዎሮ ክታብ ብካ- You (sing. masc.) have a book,
and so on, with the last word in each case:
...be-chi ብኪ – you (sing. fem.), etc.
...bu ቡ – he...
...ba በ – she...
...be-na ብና- we...
...be-cum ብኩም- you (pl. masc.)...
...be-chin ብክን- you (pl.fem.) ...
...bom ቦም- they (masc.)...
...ben በን- they (fem.)...
The verb "to have": past tense, using a feminine noun as an example:
Hatte bēt álet-ilu ሐተ ቤት ዐልት እሉ – He had a house
Hatte bēt álet-ilkaሐተ ቤት ዐልት እልካ- You (sing. masc.) you had a house,
and so on, with the last word in each case:
...el-ki እልኪ – you (sing. fem.) had a house,
...álet-ollu ዐለት እሉ- he had, etc.
...el-la ዐለት እላ- she had...
...ilna ዐለት እልና- we had...
...elkum ዐለት እልኩም- you pl. masc.) had ...
...el-k-n ዐለት እልክን- you (pl. fem.) had ...
...el-om ዐለት እሎም- they (masc.) had ...
...el-len ዐለት እለን- they (fem.) had ...
Writing system
Since around 1889, the Geʽez script (Ethiopic script) has been used to write the Tigre language. Tigre speakers formerly used Arabic more widely as a lingua franca.[10] The Bible has been translated into the Tigre language.[11]
The Ge'ez script is an abugida, with each character representing a consonant and vowel combination. Ge'ez and its script are also called Ethiopic. The script has been modified slightly to write Tigre and is mainly employed by the Eritrean government and Christian speakers.
The Arabic script is an abjad, meaning only consonants are represented by each character, and diacritics are used for vowels. This script is used more commonly by Muslim speakers.
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↑ Littmann, Enno; Höfner, Maria (1962). Wörterbuch der Tigrē-Sprache: Tigrē-Deutsch-Englisch (in German). Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
↑ Munzinger, Werner (1865). Vocabulaire de la langue tigré (in French). Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
1 2 Булах, Мария, ed. (2013). Семитские языки. Эфиосемитские языки. Языки мира / Российская академия наук, Институт языкознания (in Russian). Москва: Academia. p.217. ISBN978-5-87444-366-5.
Camperio, Manfredo. Manuale Pratico della Lingua Tigrè, Hoepli, Milano, 1936.
Beaton, A.C. & A. Paul (1954). A grammar and vocabulary of the Tigre language (as spoken by the Beni Amer). Khartoum: Publications Bureau.
Elias, David L. (2005). Tigre of Habab: Short Grammar and Texts from the Rigbat People. Ph.D dissertation. Harvard University.
Elias, David L. (2014). The Tigre Language of Gindaˁ, Eritrea: Short Grammar and Texts. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 75.) Brill.
Leslau, Wolf. (1945) Short Grammar of Tigré. Publications of the American Oriental Society, Offprint Series, No. 18. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
Leslau, Wolf. (1945), "The Verb in Tigré", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 65/1, pp.1–26.
Leslau, Wolf. (1945), "Grammatical Sketches in Tigré (North Ethiopic): Dialect of Mensa", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 65/3, pp.164–203.
Leslau, Wolf. (1948), "Supplementary observations on Tigré grammar", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 68/3, pp.127–139.
Littmann, E. (1897), "Die Pronomina in Tigré", in: Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 12, pp.188–230, 291–316.
Littmann, Enno. (1898), "Das Verbum der Tigre-Sprache", in: Zeitschrift für Assyrologie 13, pp.133–178; 14, pp.1–102.
Littmann, Enno. (1910–15). Publications of the Princeton expedition to Abyssinia, 4 vols. in 4, Leyden.
Littmann, Enno. and Höfner, Maria. (1962) Wörterbuch der Tigrē-Sprache: Tigrē-Deutsch-Englisch. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Nakano, Aki'o & Yoichi Tsuge (1982). A Vocabulary of Beni Amer Dialect of Tigre. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.
Palmer, F.R. (1956). "'Openness' in Tigre: a problem in prosodic statement", in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 18/3, pp.561–577.
Palmer, F.R. (1961). "Relative clauses in Tigre", in: Word 17/1, pp.23–33.
Palmer, F.R. (1962). The morphology of the Tigre noun. London: Oxford University Press.
Raz, Shlomo. (1980). "Tigre syntax and Semitic Ethiopian", in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43/2, pp.235–250.
Raz, Shlomo. (1980). "The morphology of the Tigre verb (Mansaʿ dialect)", in: Journal of Semitic Studies 25/1, pp.66–84; 25/2, pp.205–238.
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