This article describes the Grammar of Tigrinya, a South Semitic language which is spoken primarily in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and is written in Ge'ez script.
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Like other Afro-Asiatic languages, Tigrinya has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, and all nouns belong to either one or the other. Grammatical gender in Tigrinya enters into the grammar in the following ways:
Some noun pairs for people distinguish masculine and feminine by their endings, with the feminine signaled by t. These include agent nouns derived from verbs — ከፈተ käfätä 'open', ከፋቲ käfati 'opener (m.)', ከፋቲት käfatit 'opener (f.)' — and nouns for nationalities or natives of particular regions — ትግራዋይ t́ǝgraway 'Tigrean (m.)', ትግራወይቲ t́ǝgrawäyti 'Tigrean (f.)'.
Grammatical gender normally agrees with biological gender for people and animals; thus nouns such as ኣቦ ’abbo 'father', ወዲ wäddi 'son, boy', and ብዕራይ bǝ‘ǝray 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such as ኣደ addä 'mother', ጓል gʷal 'daughter, girl', and ላም lam or ላሕሚ lah.mi 'cow' are feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological gender, and the words ተባዕታይ täba‘tay 'male' and ኣንስተይቲ anǝstäyti must be placed before the nouns if the gender is to be indicated.
The gender of most inanimate nouns is not predictable from the form or the meaning. Grammars sometimes disagree on the genders of particular nouns; for example, ጸሓይ ṣäḥay 'sun' is masculine according to Leslau,[1] feminine according to Amanuel.[2] This disagreement seems to be due to dialectal differences.
Tigrinya has singular and plural number, but nouns that refer to multiple entities are not obligatorily plural. That is, if the context is clear, a formally singular noun may refer to multiple entities: ሓሙሽተ ḥammuštä 'five', ሰብኣይ säb’ay 'man', ሓሙሽተ ሰብኣይ ḥammuštä säb’ay, 'five men'. It is also possible for a formally singular noun to appear together with plural agreement on adjectives or verbs: ብዙሓት bǝzuḥat 'many (pl.)', ዓዲ ‘addi 'village'; ብዙሓት ዓዲ bǝzuḥat ‘addi 'many villages'. The conventions for when this combination of singular and plural is or is not possible appear to be complex.[1]
As in Arabic, Tigre, and Ge'ez, noun plurals are formed both through the addition of suffixes to the singular form ("external" plural) and through the modification of the pattern of vowels within (and sometimes outside) the consonants that make up the noun root ("internal" or "broken" plural). In some cases suffixes may also be added to an internal plural. The most common patterns are as follows. In the designation of internal plural patterns, "C" represents one of the consonants of the noun root. Note that some nouns (for example, ዓራት ‘arat 'bed') have more than one possible plural.
Among the completely irregular plurals are ሰበይቲ säbäyti 'woman', ኣንስቲ ’anǝsti 'women' and ጓል gʷal 'girl, daughter', እዋልድ ’awalǝd 'girls, daughters' (alongside ኣጓላት ’agʷalat).
Tigrinya has two ways to express the genitive relationships that are expressed in English using possessives (the city's streets), of phrases (the streets of the city), and noun-noun compounds (city streets).
In most languages, there is a small number of basic distinctions of person, number, and often gender that play a role within the grammar of the language. Tigrinya and English are such languages. We see these distinctions within the basic set of independent personal pronouns, for example, English I, Tigrinya ኣነ anä; English she, Tigrinya ንሳ nǝssa. In Tigrinya, as in other Semitic languages, the same distinctions appear in three other places within the grammar of the languages as well.
| ንኣልማዝ | ርእየያ |
| nǝ’almaz | rǝ’yä-yya |
| Almaz-ACC | I-saw-her |
| 'I saw Almaz' | |
| ንኣልማዝ | ማዕጾ | ኸፊተላ |
| nǝ’almaz | ma‘s'o | xäfitä-lla |
| for-Almaz | door | I-opened-for-her |
| 'I opened the door for Almaz' | ||
In each of these four aspects of the grammar, independent pronouns, subject–verb agreement, object-pronoun suffixes, and possessive suffixes, Tigrinya distinguishes ten combinations of person, number, and gender. For first person, there is a two-way distinction between singular ('I') and plural ('we'), whereas for second and third persons, there is a four-way distinction for the four combinations of singular and plural number and masculine and feminine gender ('you m. sg.', 'you f. sg.', 'you m. pl.', 'you f. pl.', 'he', 'she', 'they m.', 'they f.').
Like other Semitic languages, Tigrinya is a pro-drop language. That is, neutral sentences, in which no element is emphasized, normally use the verb conjugation rather than independent pronouns to indicate the subject, and incorporates the object pronoun into the verb: ኤርትራዋይ እዩ ’erǝtraway ’ǝyyu 'he's Eritrean,' ዓዲመያ ‘addimäyya 'I invited her'. The Tigrinya words that translate directly as 'he' and 'I' do not appear in these sentences, while the word 'her' is indicated by the 'a' at the end of the verb (thus, the person, number, and (second or third person) gender of the subject and object are all marked by affixes on the verb). When the subject in such sentences is emphasized, an independent pronoun is used: ንሱ ኤርትራዋይ እዩ nǝssu ’erǝtraway ̈’ǝyyu 'he's Eritrean,' ኣነ ዓዲመያ anǝ ‘addimäyya 'I invited her'. When the object is emphasized, instead of an independent pronoun, the accusative marker nǝ- is used with the appropriate possessive suffix: ንኣኣ ዓዲመያ nǝ’a’a ‘addimäyya 'I invited her'.
The table below shows alternatives for many of the forms. In each case, the choice depends on what precedes the form in question. For the possessive suffixes, the form depends on whether the noun or preposition ends in a vowel or a consonant, for example, ከልበይ kälb-äy 'my dog', ኣዶይ ’addo-y 'my mother'. For the object pronoun suffixes, for most of the forms there is a "light" (non-geminated) and a "heavy" (geminated) variant, a pattern also found in a number of other Ethiopian Semitic languages, including Tigre and the Western Gurage languages. The choice of which variant to use is somewhat complicated; some examples are given in the verb section.
| English | Independent | Object pronoun suffixes | Possessive suffixes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | Prepositional | |||
| I | ኣነ anä |
-(n)ni | -(l)läy | -(ä)y |
| you (m. sg.) | ንስኻ nǝssǝxa |
-(k)ka | -lka | -ka |
| you (f. sg.) | ንስኺ nǝssǝxi |
-(k)ki | -lki | -ki |
| he | ንሱ nǝssu |
-(’)o, (w)wo, yyo | -(l)lu | -(’)u |
| she | ንሳ nǝssa |
-(’)a, (w)wa, yya | -(l)la | -(’)a |
| we | ንሕና nǝḥǝna |
-(n)na | -lna | -na |
| you (m. pl.) | ንስኻትኩም nǝssǝxatkum |
-(k)kum | -lkum | -kum |
| you (f. pl.) | ንስኻትክን nǝssǝxatkǝn |
-(k)kǝn | -lkǝn | -kǝn |
| they (m.) | ንሳቶም nǝssatom |
-(’)om, -(w)wom, -yyom | -(l)lom | -(’)om |
| they (f.) | ንሳተን nǝssatän |
-än, -’en, -(w)wän, -yyän | -(l)län | -än, -’en |
Within second and third person, there is a set of additional "polite" independent pronouns, for reference to people that the speaker wishes to show respect towards. This usage is an example of the so-called T-V distinction that is made in many languages. The polite pronouns in Tigrinya are just the plural independent pronouns without -xat- or -at: ንስኹም nǝssǝxum 'you m. pol.', ንስኽን nǝssǝxǝn 'you f. pol.', ንሶም nǝssom 'he pol.', ንሰን nǝssän 'she pol.'. Although these forms are most often singular semantically — they refer to one person — they correspond to second or third person plural elsewhere in the grammar, as is common in other T-V systems.
For second person, there is also a set of independent vocative pronouns, used to call the addressee. These are ኣታ atta (m. sg.), ኣቲ atti (f. sg.), ኣቱም attum (m. pl.), ኣተን attän.
For possessive pronouns ('mine', 'yours', etc.), Tigrinya adds the possessive suffixes to nat- (from the preposition nay 'of'): ናተይ natäy 'mine', ናትካ natka 'yours m. sg.', ናትኪ natki 'yours f. sg.', ናታ nata 'hers', etc.
For reflexive pronouns ('myself', 'yourself', etc.), Tigrinya adds the possessive suffixes to one of the nouns ርእሲ rǝ’si 'head', ነፍሲ näfsi 'soul', or ባዕሊ ba‘li 'owner': ርእሰይ rǝ’säy / ነፍሰይ näfsäy / ባዕለይ ba‘läy 'myself', ርእሳ rǝ’sa / ነፍሳ näfsa / ባዕላ ba‘la 'herself', etc.
Like English, Tigrinya makes a two-way distinction between near ('this, these') and far ('that, those') demonstrative pronouns and adjectives. Besides singular and plural, as in English, Tigrinya also distinguishes masculine and feminine gender.
| Number | Gender | Near | Far |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Masculine | እዚ ǝzi |
እቲ ǝti |
| Feminine | እዚኣ ǝzi’a |
እቲኣ ǝti’a |
|
| Plural | Masculine | እዚኦም / እዚኣቶም ǝzi’(at)om |
እቲኦም / እቲኣቶም ǝti’(at)om |
| Feminine | እዚኤን / እዚኣተን ǝzi’en, ǝzi’atän |
እቲኤን / እቲኣተን ǝti’en, ǝti’atän |
Tigrinya adjectives may have separate masculine singular, feminine singular, and plural forms, and adjectives usually agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. The plural forms follow the same patterns as noun plurals; that is, they may be formed by suffixes or internal changes or a combination of the two. Some common patterns relating masculine, feminine and plural forms of adjectives are the following. Note that ä in the patterns becomes a after pharyngeal or glottal consonants (as elsewhere in Tigrinya).
Adjectives modifying plural animate nouns must be plural, but adjectives modifying plural inanimate nouns may be singular: ጻዕዳ ክዳውንቲ s'a‘da kǝdawǝnti 'white clothes' ('white' singular, 'clothes' plural). However, nouns referring to multiple entities may be singular when the context makes the plurality clear, and these singular nouns may be modified by plural adjectives: ክልተ ሃብታማት ሰበይቲ kǝlǝttä habtamat säbäyti 'two rich women' (lit. 'two rich (pl.) woman').
Adjectives are used less often in Tigrinya than in English. Most adjectives have a corresponding verb that is derived from the same consonantal root, and this verb often appears where English would have an adjective. For example, ከቢድ käbbid 'heavy' ከበደ käbädä 'be, become heavy', ሕማቕ ḥǝmmax' 'bad', ሓመቐ ḥammäx'ä 'be, become bad'. In particular, an adjective may be replaced by the relative perfect form of the corresponding verb: ሕማቕ ሰብኣይ ḥǝmmax' säb’ay 'a bad man, ዝሓመቐ ሰብኣይ zǝḥammäx'ä säb’ay 'a bad man' (lit. 'man who became bad').
As with the demonstrative pronouns, the Tigrinya demonstrative adjectives divide into expression for near ('this, these') and far ('that, those') referents, with separate forms for the four combinations of singular and plural number and masculine and feminine gender. Like other adjectives, demonstrative adjectives precede the noun, but they are often accompanied by a second copy or slightly modified form that follows the noun. The vowel beginning the form following the noun is often dropped and in writing may then be represented by an apostrophe: እዚ ሰብ'ዚ ǝzi säbzi 'this man'.
| Number | Gender | Near | Far |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Masculine | እዚ ǝzi ... (እዚ ǝzi) | እቲ ǝti ... (እቲ ǝti) |
| Feminine | እዛ ǝza ... (እዚኣ ǝzi’a) | እታ ǝta ... (እቲኣ ǝti’a) | |
| Plural | Masculine | እዞመ ǝzom ... (እዚኦም ǝzi’om) | እቶም ǝtom ... (እቲኦም ǝti’om) |
| Feminine | እዘን ǝzän ... (እዚኤን ǝzi’en) | እተነ ǝtän ... (እቲኤን ǝti’en) |
Like other Semitic languages, Tigrinya has no indefinite article (English a), but has a definite article (English the). In Tigrinya, as in Tigre, but unlike in the Southern Ethiopian Semitic languages such as Amharic, this takes the form of a word that appears at the beginning of the noun phrase. The definite article is derived from, and almost identical to, the distal demonstrative adjective (English 'that'), as can be seen in the table below.
| Number | Gender | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Masculine | እቲ ǝti |
| Feminine | እታ ǝta | |
| Plural | Masculine | እቶም ǝtom |
| Feminine | እተን ǝtän |
When the definite article is preceded by the accusative marker/preposition ን nǝ or the preposition ብ bǝ, the vowel sequence ǝ+ǝ merges into the vowel ä: በቲ መጋዝ bäti mägaz 'with the saw'. After other prepositions, the initial vowel of the article is often dropped: ካብቲ እተሓደረሉ ቦታ kabti ǝttäḥadärällu bota 'from the place where he spent the night'.
In Tigrinya, as in other Semitic languages, a verb is a complex object, the result of selections by the speaker/writer along at least four separate dimensions.
In addition to these basic dimensions of variation characterizing all Tigrinya verbs, there are four additional possible modifications.
Tigrinya has both simple and compound prepositions. The main simple prepositions are the following.
| ኣብ ab | 'on, in, at' |
| ብ bǝ | 'with' (instrument), 'by' (means, agent), 'in' (duration) |
| ን nǝ | 'for (the benefit of), to the detriment of' |
| ናይ nay | 'of' |
| ምስ mǝs | 'with' (accompaniment) |
| ካብ kab | 'from' |
| ናብ nab | 'to, toward' |
| ከም käm | 'like, as' |
| ብዘይ bǝzäy | 'without' |
| ምእንቲ mǝ’ǝnti, ስለ sǝlä | 'for, because of, on the part of' |
| ድሕሪ dǝḥri | 'after' |
| ቅድሚ qǝdmi | 'before' |
| ክሳዕ kǝsa‘, ክሳብ kǝsab, ስጋዕ sǝga‘ | 'until' |
| ብዛዕባ bǝza‘ba | 'about' (concerning) |
With personal pronouns as objects, the pronouns take the form of possessive suffixes. In some cases, these are suffixed to a modified version of the preposition, and for the third person forms, there may be various possibilities: ንዕኡ nǝ‘ǝ’u ንእኡ nǝ’ǝ’u ንኡ nǝ’u 'for him'.
The compound prepositions consist of one of the simple prepositions, usually ኣብ ab, followed by a relational noun or a form related to a noun. Some compound prepositions alternate with simple prepositions consisting only of the second word: ድሕሪ dǝḥri ኣብ ድሕሪ ab dǝḥri 'after, behind', ቅድሚ qǝdmi ኣብ ቅድሚ ab qǝdmi 'before, in front of'. Other examples: ኣብ ውሽጢ ab wǝšt'i 'inside', ኣብ ጥቓ ab t'ǝx'a 'near', ኣብ ልዕሊ ab lǝ‘ǝli 'above, on', ኣብ ትሕቲ ab tǝḥti 'below', ኣብ ማእከል ab ma’käl 'in the middle of, among', ኣብ መንጎ ab mängo 'between'.