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’ (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%.

Tigre speakers in Sudan also call the language "hāsā". 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.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Tigre Ge'ez script

|-valign=top

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|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|ሀ||ሁ||ሂ||ሃ||ሄ||ህ||ሆ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|ለ||ሉ||ሊ||ላ||ሌ||ል||ሎ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|ሐ||ሑ||ሒ||ሓ||ሔ||ሕ||ሖ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|መ||ሙ||ሚ||ማ||ሜ||ም||ሞ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|ረ||ሩ||ሪ||ራ||ሬ||ር||ሮ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|ሰ||ሱ||ሲ||ሳ||ሴ||ስ||ሶ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|ሸ||ሹ||ሺ||ሻ||ሼ||ሽ||ሾ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

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|ቀ||ቁ||ቂ||ቃ||ቄ||ቅ||ቆ||ቈ||ቊ||ቋ||ቌ||ቍ

|-style="font-size:2em"

!style="font-size:0.5em"|

|በ||ቡ||ቢ||ባ||ቤ||ብ||ቦ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

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|ተ||ቱ||ቲ||ታ||ቴ||ት||ቶ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

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|ቸ||ቹ||ቺ||ቻ||ቼ||ች||ቾ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

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|ኀ||ኁ||ኂ||ኃ||ኄ||ኅ||ኆ||ኈ||ኊ||ኋ||ኌ||ኍ

|-style="font-size:2em"

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|ነ||ኑ||ኒ||ና||ኔ||ን||ኖ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

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|አ||ኡ||ኢ||ኣ||ኤ||እ||ኦ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

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|ከ||ኩ||ኪ||ካ||ኬ||ክ||ኮ||ኰ||ኲ||ኳ||ኴ||ኵ

|-style="font-size:2em"

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|ወ||ዉ||ዊ||ዋ||ዌ||ው||ዎ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

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|ዐ||ዑ||ዒ||ዓ||ዔ||ዕ||ዖ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

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|ዘ||ዙ||ዚ||ዛ||ዜ||ዝ||ዞ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

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|የ||ዩ||ዪ||ያ||ዬ||ይ||ዮ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

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|ደ||ዱ||ዲ||ዳ||ዴ||ድ||ዶ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

|-style="font-size:2em"

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|ጀ||ጁ||ጂ||ጃ||ጄ||ጅ||ጆ||colspan="6" style="background:#cccccc"| 

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|ገ||ጉ||ጊ||ጋ||ጌ||ግ||ጎ||ጐ||ጒ||ጓ||ጔ||ጕ

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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.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Tigre Arabic script

!Isolated

!IPA

!Transcription

|

|none or

|style="background:#cccccc"| 

|

|ḥ

|

|ž

|

|š

|

|s’

|

|t’

|

|c’

|

|ʕ

|

|p’

|

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Tigre Arabic script (vowels)

!Diacritic/Letter

!IPA

!Transcription

|

|none or

|none or ə

|,

|

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

{| class="wikitable"

!Tigre text

!English text

| rowspan="2" |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:

{| class="wikitable"

!Tigre text

!Translation

|When they see a lion, they seek it through its tracks.

|Lazy's dinner is less

|When speaking is an obligation, silence is golden

|Knowledge is brightness and ignorance darkness.

Other samples:

{| class="wikitable"

!Tigre text

References

External links

Online Tigre Language Tutorial By Omar M. Kekia
Woldemikael, Tekle M. 2003. Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea. African Studies Review, Apr 2003.
Modaina: History and Language of the Tigre-Speaking Peoples
Tigre in Mozilla Common Voice

Bibliography

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.
Raz, Shlomo. (1983). Tigre grammar and texts. Malibu, California, USA: Undena Publications.
SALEH MAHMUD IDRIS. (2015). A Comparative Study of the Tigre Dialects, Semitica et Semitohamitica Berolinensia, 18 (Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 2015)
Sundström, R. (1914). "Some Tigre texts", in: Le Monde Orientale 8, pp. 1–15.
Voigt, Rainer (2008), "Zum Tigre", in: Aethiopica (International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies), volume 11, Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag 2008, pp. 173–193.
Voigt, Rainer and Saleh Mahmud Idris. Zu einer neuen Grammatik des Tigre. Aethiopica 19 (2016, pub. 2017), 245–263.

Dialects

Ge'ez script

Arabic script

Sample text

See also

References

External links

Bibliography