Tigre language

Tigre, also known as Tigrayit, is an Ethio-Semitic language spoken in the Horn of Africa, primarily by the Tigre people of Eritrea. 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. As of 1997, Tigre was spoken by approximately 800,000 Tigre people in Eritrea. 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.
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, but is quite distinct from Tigre despite the similarity in name.

Dialects

There are several dialects of Tigre, some of them are; Mansa’, Habab, Barka, Semhar, Algeden, Senhit and Dahalik, which is spoken in the Dahlak Archipelago. Intelligibility between the dialects is above 91%, where intelligibility between Dahalik and the other dialects is between 24% and 51%.
Tigre speakers in Sudan also call the language "hāsā". However the term 'Hasa', and in other variations of names such as 'Xasa' or 'Khasa' is considered pejorative by the Tigre.

Vocabulary

Numerals

The cardinal and ordinal numbers in Tigre are as follows:
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 and seem to have evolved into a pair of phonemes which have the same quality but differ in length; vs.. The original phonemic distinction according to quality survives in Tigrinya. The vowel, 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 symbols and the symbols common among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages. For the long vowel, the symbol 'ā' is used per Raz. 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 is questionable; it may be possible to treat it as an epenthetic vowel that is introduced to break up consonant clusters.

	Front	Central	Back
Close
Mid
Open		,

Consonant length

Consonant length is phonemic in Tigre, although there are few such minimal pairs. Some consonants do not occur long; these include the pharyngeal consonants, the glottal consonants,, and. 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

Nouns are of two genders, masculine and feminine.

Indefinite article: masculine woro አሮ e.g. woro 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 with other Semitic languages, specifically feminine forms, where they exist, are often formed of an element with an affix:

masculine: አድግ ʼadəg- donkey, ass; feminine: እድግሀት ʼədgəhat – she-ass;
masculine: ከልብ kalb – dog; feminine: ከልበት kalbat – bitch;
masculine: ከድመይ kadmay – serving man; ከድመይት kadmayt – serving-woman;
masculine: መምበ mamba – lord, master; መምበይት mambayt – lady, mistress.

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

ነጉስ nəgus – king; negüs – kings;
በሐር bäḥär – sea; አብሑር ʼäbhur – seas;
እሲት ʼəsit – woman; አንስ ʼäns – women;
ወለት wälät – girl; አዋልድ ʼäwaləd – girls;
መሆር mähor – foal, colt; አምሁር ʼämhur – foals, colts;
ነቢ näbi – prophet; ነቢያት näbiyat – prophets;
በገዐት baga‘āt – one sheep; አበግዕ ʼäbagəʽ – sheep, plural;
አርዌ ʼärwē – Snake; አረዊት ʼärawit – snakes, plural;
ሖግ ḥog – foot; ሐነግ ḥanag – feet; plural
እገር ʼəgər – foot; አእጋር ʼä’əgār feet; plural
አዘን ʼäzän – ear; አእዛን ʼäʼəzān – ears;
ሰዐት säʽät – hour; ሰዓታትsäʽatat – hours;
አንፍ ʼänəf – nose; አንፎታት ʼänfotāt – noses;
ህዳይ həday – wedding; ህዳያት hədayat – weddings;
አብ ʼāb – father; አበው ʼābaw – fathers;
እም ʼəm – mother; እመወት ʼəmawat – mothers;
ኮኮብ kokob – star;ከዋክብ kawākəb – stars;
ጓነ gʷāna – foreigner;ጓኖታት gʷānotāt – foreigners;
ረአስ raʼas – head; አርእስ ʼarʼəs – heads;
ጸፍር ṣəfər – paw, hoof; አጸፍር ʼāṣfār – claws, hooves;
ከብድ kabəd – belly; አክቡድ ʼākbud – bellies.
ልበስ ləbas- ልበሰት ləbasat clothes

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
ህታ həta – she, her, it
ሕነ ḥənna – 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 suffixed to the noun, as separate words:

my – -ya የ example: kətābya ክታብየ- my book; nāy ናየ with masculine nouns; nāya ናየ with feminine nouns;
your – -ka ካ example: kətābka ክታብካ- your book; with masc. nāyka ናይካ, with fem. nāyki ናይኪ;
his – -u -ኡ example kətābu ክታቡ – his book; with masc. nāyu ናዩ, with fem. nāya ናያ;
our – -na ና example kətābna ክታብና – our book; with masc. nāyna ናይና, with fem. nāyna ናይና;
your – -kum ኩም -kən ክን example kətabkum ክታብኩም/ክታብክን- your book; with masc. nāykum ናይኩም, with fem. nāykən ናይክን;
their – -om -ኦም example kətābom ክታቦም- their book; with masc. nāyom,ናዮም with fem. nāyan ናየን.

The verb "to be":

ana halleko tu – አና ሀለኮ I am; negative: ihalleko ኢሀለኮ- I'm not;
enta halleko tu – እንታ ህሌካ you are; neg. ihalleko ኢሀለኮ- you're not;
enti halleki tu – እንቲ ሀሌኪ you are; neg. ihalleko ኢሀለኮ;
hətu halla tu ህቱ ሀላ- he is; neg. ihalla ኢሀላ;
həta hallet tu ህታ ሀሌት – she is; neg. ihallet ኢሀሌት;
henna hallena tu ሕና ሀሌና – we are; neg. ihallena ኢሀሌና;
entum hallekum tu እንቱም ሀሌኩም- you are; neg. ihallekum ኢሀሌኩም;
entim halleken tu እንትን ሀሌክን- you are; neg. ihallekum ኢሀሌክን;
hətən hallaa tom ህተን ሀሌያ- they are; neg. ihallao ኢሀሌያ;
hətən halleia ten ህተን ሀሌያ – they are; neg. ihallao ኢሀሌያ.

The verb "to be", past tense:

...ʿalko ዐልኮ- I was; negative: iʿalko ኢዐልኮ- I wasn't;
...ʿalka ዐልካ- you were; neg. iʿalka ኢዐልካ;
...ʿalki ዐልኪ- you were; neg. iʿalka ኢዐልኪ;
...ʿala ዐላ- he was; neg. iʿala ኢዐላ;
...ʿalet ዐለት- she was; neg. iʿallet ኢዐለት;
...ʿalna ዐልና- we were; neg. iʿalna ኢዐልና;
...ʿalkum ዐልኩም- you were; neg. iʿalkum ኢዐልኩም;
...ʿalken ዐልክን- you were; neg. iʿalkum ኢዐልክን;
...ʿalou ዐለው- they were; neg. iʿalou ኢዐለው;
...ʿalaia ዐለያ- they were; neg. iʿaleia ኢዐለያ.

The verb "to have":

woro kitab bye ዎሮ ኪታብ ብየ – I have a book
woro kitab bəka 'ዎሮ ክታብ ብካ- You have a book,

and so on, with the last word in each case:
...bəki ብኪ – you, etc.
...bu ቡ – he...
...ba በ – she...
...bəna ብና- we...
...bəkum ብኩም- you...
...bəkin ብክን- you ...
...bom ቦም- they...
...ben በን- they...
The verb "to have": past tense, using a feminine noun as an example:
ḥätte bet ʿalet ilu ሐተ ቤት ዐልት እሉ – He had a house
ḥätte bet ʿalet ilka ሐተ ቤት ዐልት እልካ- You you had a house,
and so on, with the last word in each case:

...ʿalet əlki ዐለት እልኪ – you had a house,
...ʿalet əllu ዐለት እሉ- he had, etc.
...ʿalet əlla ዐለት እላ- she had...
...ʿalet əlna ዐለት እልና- we had...
...ʿalet əlkum ዐለት እልኩም- you pl. masc.) had...
...ʿalet əlkən ዐለት እልክን- you had...
...ʿalet əlom ዐለት እሎም- they had...

...ʿalet əllen' ዐለት እለን- they had...

Writing system

Since around 1889, the Geʽez script has been used to write the Tigre language. Tigre speakers formerly used Arabic more widely as a lingua franca. The Bible has been translated into the Tigre language.

Ge'ez script

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.

Arabic script

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.

Isolated	IPA	Transcription
	none or
		b
		p
		t
		s
		j
		ḥ
		x
		d
		z
		r
		z
		ž
		s
		š
		c
		s’
		d
		t’
		z
		c’
		ʕ
		g
		f
		p’
		q
		k
		l
		m
		n
		h
		w
		y

Diacritic/Letter	IPA	Transcription
		a
		i
		u
	none or	none or ə
,		a
		e
		o

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Tigre text	English text
ክሎም ውላድ ሚንኣደም ምን አምዕል ተውሊደቶም እንዴ አንበተው ሑር ወአክልሕድቶም። አክልሕድ ላቱ ሕቁቅ ወሕሽመት ቦም። ደሚር ወእህትማም ለትሀየበው ኽሉቃም ሰበት ቶም ኖስ-ኖሶም አድሕድ እግል ለሐሽሞ ወልርሐሞ ወጅቦም።	All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
	All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Basic sentences:

Tigre text	Translation
ሐየት እት ልርእው፣ እብ አሰሩ ሐዙው	When they see a lion, they seek it through its tracks.
ህኩይ ድራሩ ንኩይ	Lazy's dinner is less
ህግየ ፍ’ደት ምን ገብእ። አዚም ደሀብ ቱ	When speaking is an obligation, silence is golden
ምህሮ ኖርቱ ወቅዌት ጽልመት፣	Knowledge is brightness and ignorance darkness.

Other samples:

Tigre text

ሐል ክም እም ኢትገብእ ወጸሓይ ወርሕ ክም አምዕል

ለኢልትሐሜ ኢልትሐመድ፣

ለቤለ ለአሰምዕ ወለዘብጠ ለአደምዕ፣

ሐሊብ መ ውላዱ ሔሰዩ፣

ሐምቅ ሐምቁ ምን ረክብ ዜነት ለአፈግር፣

ምስል ብርድ አከይ ፍርድ