Tigre language

Tigre
ትግረ (Tigre) / ትግሬ (Tigrē) / ኻሳ (Xasa)[1]
Native to Eritrea
Native speakers
 1.05 million in Eritrea (2006)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-2 tig
ISO 639-3 tig
Glottolog tigr1270[3]

Tigre (Ge'ez: ትግረ? tigre or ትግሬ tigrē), better known in Eritrea by its autonym Tigrayit (ትግራይት), and also known by speakers in Sudan as Xasa (Arabic: الخاصية‎‎ ḫāṣiyah), is an Afroasiatic language spoken in Northeast Africa. It belongs to the North Ethiopic subdivision of the family's South Semitic branch and is primarily spoken by the Tigre people in Eritrea. Along with Tigrinya, it is believed to the most closely related living language to Ge'ez language, which is still in use as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. As of 1997, Tigre was spoken by approximately 800,000 Tigre people in Eritrea.[4] The Tigre mainly inhabit western Eritrea, though they also reside in the northern highlands of Eritrea and its extension into the adjacent part of Sudan, as well as Eritrea's Red Sea coast north of Zula.

The Tigre people are not to be confused with their neighbors to the south, the Tigrayans of Ethiopia and Tigrinyas in Eritrea. The northernmost Ethiopian province, which is now named the Tigray Region, is a Tigrayan ethnic enclave. Tigrinya is also derived from the parent Ge'ez tongue, but is quite distinct from Tigre despite the similarity in name.

Sounds

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 and Amharic. 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.

Consonants
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Pharyngeal Glottal
Nasal m n
Stop voiceless (p) t č [tʃ] k ʔ
voiced b d ǧ [dʒ] ɡ
ejective (pʼ) tʼ č' [tʃʼ] kʼ
Fricative voiceless f s š [ʃ] (x) ħ h
voiced z ž [ʒ] ʕ
ejective sʼ
Approximant l y [j] w
Rhotic r
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ə [ɨ] u
Mid e o
Open a, ā [aː]

Consonant length

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.

As we might expect from a Semitic language, specifically feminine forms, where they exist, are often formed of an element with t:

In a similar way, sound-changes can also mark the difference between singular and plural:

Personal pronouns distinguish "you, masculine" and "you, feminine" in both singular and plural:

The possessive pronouns appear (a) suffixed to the noun, (b) as separate words:

The verb "to be":

The verb "to be", past tense:

The verb "to have":

and so on, with the last word in each case:

The verb "to have": past tense, using a feminine noun as an example:

and so on, with the last word in each case:

Writing system

Traditionally, the Arabic script was used to write Tigre, at least among Muslims. The Ge'ez script has been used since the 1902 translation of the New Testament by Tewolde-Medhin Gebre-Medhin, Dawit Amanuel, and Swedish missionaries. Many Muslim Tigres still use the Arabic alphabet.

Ge'ez script

Ge'ez script is an abugida with each character representing a consonant+vowel combination. Ge'ez and its script are also called Ethiopic. The script has been modified slightly to write Tigre.

Tigre Ge'ez Script
 äuiaeəowäwiwawewə
h ሀሁሂሃሄህሆ 
l ለሉሊላሌልሎ 
ḥ ሐሑሒሓሔሕሖ 
m መሙሚማሜምሞ 
r ረሩሪራሬርሮ 
s ሰሱሲሳሴስሶ 
š ሸሹሺሻሼሽሾ 
ḳ ቀቁቂቃቄቅቆቈቊቋቌቍ
b በቡቢባቤብቦ 
t ተቱቲታቴትቶ 
č ቸቹቺቻቼችቾ 
ḫ ኀኁኂኃኄኅኆኈኊኋኌኍ
n ነኑኒናኔንኖ 
ʾ አኡኢኣኤእኦ 
k ከኩኪካኬክኮኰኲኳኴኵ
w ወዉዊዋዌውዎ 
ʿ ዐዑዒዓዔዕዖ 
z ዘዙዚዛዜዝዞ 
ž ዠዡዢዣዤዥዦ 
y የዩዪያዬይዮ 
d ደዱዲዳዴድዶ 
ǧ ጀጁጂጃጄጅጆ 
g ገጉጊጋጌግጎጐጒጓጔጕ
ṭ ጠጡጢጣጤጥጦ 
č̣ ጨጩጪጫጬጭጮ 
p̣ ጰጱጲጳጴጵጶ 
ṣ ጸጹጺጻጼጽጾ 
f ፈፉፊፋፌፍፎ 
p ፐፑፒፓፔፕፖ 
 äuiaeəowäwiwawewə

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Tigre alphabet and pronunciation". Omniglot. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  2. ↑ Tigre at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Tigre". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Eritrean census figure cited by Ethnologue.

Bibliography

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