Tigrinya (ትግርኛ,Təgrəñña), sometimes spelledTigrigna, is anEthio-Semitic language commonly spoken inEritrea and in northernEthiopia'sTigray Region by theTigrinya andTigrayan peoples respectively.[3] It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions.
Although it differs markedly from theGeʽez (Classical Ethiopic) language, for instance in having phrasal verbs, and in using a word order that places the main verb last instead of first in the sentence, there is a strong influence of Geʽez on Tigrinya literature, especially with terms relating to Christian life, Biblical names, and so on.[4] Ge'ez, because of its status in Eritrean and Ethiopian culture, and possibly also its simple structure, acted as a literary medium until relatively recent times.[5][page needed]
The earliest written example of Tigrinya is a text of local laws found in the district of Logosarda,Debub Region in Southern Eritrea, which dates from the 13th century.[citation needed]
In Eritrea, duringBritish administration, the Ministry of Information put out a weekly newspaper in Tigrinya that cost 5 cents and sold 5,000 copies weekly. At the time, it was reported to be the first of its kind.[6]
Tigrinya (along with Arabic) was one of Eritrea's official languages during its short-livedfederation with Ethiopia. In 1958, it was replaced by the Southern Ethiopic languageAmharic prior to Eritrea's annexation. Upon Eritrea's independence in 1991, Tigrinya retained the status of working language in the country. Eritrea was the only state in the world to officially recognize Tigrinya until 2020, when Ethiopia made changes to recognize Tigrinya on a national level.
There is no general name for the people who speak Tigrinya. In Eritrea, Tigrinya speakers are officially known as theBəher-Təgrəñña ('nation of Tigrinya speakers') orTigrinya people. In Ethiopia, aTigrayan, that is a native ofTigray, who also speaks the Tigrinya language, is referred to in Tigrinya astəgraway (male),təgrawäyti (female),tägaru (plural). Bəher roughly means "nation" in the ethnic sense of the word in Tigrinya,Tigre, Amharic and Ge'ez. TheJeberti in Eritrea also speak Tigrinya.
Tigrinya is the most widely spoken language in Eritrea (seeDemographics of Eritrea), and the fourth most spoken language in Ethiopia afterAmharic,Oromo, andSomali. It is also spoken by large immigrant communities around the world, in countries includingSudan,Saudi Arabia, Israel, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In Australia, Tigrinya is one of the languages broadcast on public radio via the multiculturalSpecial Broadcasting Service.[7]
Tigrinya dialects differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically.[8] No dialect appears to be accepted as a standard. Even though the most spread and used in, for example books, movies and news is the Asmara dialect.
For the representation of Tigrinya sounds, this article uses a modification of a system that is common (though not universal) among linguists who work onEthiopian Semitic languages, but differs somewhat from the conventions of theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.
Tigrinya has a fairly typical set of phonemes for an Ethiopian Semitic language. That is, there is a set ofejective consonants and the usual seven-vowel system. Unlike many of the modern Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya has preserved the twopharyngeal consonants which were apparently part of the ancientGeʽez language and which, along with[xʼ], voicelessvelar ejective fricative or voicelessuvular ejective fricative, make it easy to distinguish spoken Tigrinya from related languages such as Amharic, though not from Tigre, which has also maintained thepharyngeal consonants.
The charts below show the phonemes of Tigrinya. The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. When theIPA symbol is different, the orthography is indicated in brackets.
The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. When theIPA symbol is different, the orthography is indicated in brackets.
Gemination, the doubling of a consonantal sound, is meaningful in Tigrinya, i.e. it affects the meaning of words. While gemination plays an important role in the morphology of the Tigrinya verb, it is normally accompanied by other marks. But there is a small number of pairs of words which are only differentiable from each other by gemination, e.g./kʼɐrrɐbɐ/, ('he brought forth');/kʼɐrɐbɐ/, ('he came closer'). All consonants, with the exception of thepharyngeal andglottal ones, can be geminated.[10]
Thevelar consonants/k/ and/kʼ/ are pronounced differently when they appear immediately after a vowel and are notgeminated. In these circumstances,/k/ is pronounced as a velarfricative./kʼ/ is pronounced as a fricative, or sometimes as anaffricate. This fricative or affricate is more often pronounced further back, in theuvular place of articulation (although it is represented in this article as[xʼ]). All of these possible realizations –velar ejective fricative,uvular ejective fricative,velar ejective affricate anduvular ejective affricate – are cross-linguistically very rare sounds.
Since these two sounds are completely conditioned by their environments, they can be consideredallophones of/k/ and/kʼ/. This is especially clear from verb roots in which one consonant is realized as one or the other allophone depending on what precedes it. For example, for the verb meaning'cry', which has the triconsonantal root √b-k-y, there are forms such asምብካይ/məbkaj/ ('to cry') andበኸየ/bɐxɐjɐ/ ('he cried'), and for the verb meaning'steal', which has the triconsonantal root √s-r-kʼ, there are forms such asይሰርቁ/jəsɐrkʼu/ ('they steal') andይሰርቕ/jəsɐrrəxʼ/ ('he steals').
What is especially interesting about these pairs of phones is that they are distinguished in Tigrinya orthography. Because allophones are completely predictable, it is quite unusual for them to be represented with distinct symbols in the written form of a language.
A Tigrinya syllable may consist of a consonant-vowel or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence. When three consonants (or one geminated consonant and one simple consonant) come together within a word, the cluster is broken up with the introduction of anepenthetic vowel-ə-, and when two consonants (or one geminated consonant) would otherwise end a word, the vowel-i appears after them, or (when this happens because of the presence of a suffix)-ə- is introduced before the suffix.For example,
Root
ከብድ √k-b-d
ልብ √l-b-b
-ኢ-i'∅'
ከብዲkäbdi'stomach'
ልቢləbbi'heart'
-አይ-äy'my'
ከብደይkäbdäy'my stomach'
ልበይləbbäy'my heart'
-ካ-ka'your (masc.)'
ከብድኻkäbdəxa'your (masc.) stomach'
ልብኻləbbəxa'your (masc.) heart'
-ን…-ን-n… -n'and'
ከብድን ልብንkäbdən ləbbən'stomach and heart'
Stress is neither contrastive nor particularly salient in Tigrinya. It seems to depend on gemination, but it has apparently not been systematically investigated.
A Tigrinyanoun is treated as eithermasculine or feminine. However, most inanimate nouns do not have a fixed gender.
Tigrinya nouns haveplural, as well as singular, forms, though the plural is not obligatory when the linguistic or pragmatic context makes the number clear. As in Tigre and Geʼez (as well as Arabic), noun plurals may be formed through internal changes ("broken" plural) as well as through the addition ofsuffixes. For example,ፈረስfäräs'horse',ኣፍራሰʼafras'horses'.
Adjectives behave in most ways like nouns. Most Tigrinya adjectives, like those in Tigre and Ge'ez, have feminine and plural (both genders) forms. For example,ጽቡቕṣǝbbuq̱'good (m.sg.)',ጽብቕቲṣǝbbǝq̱ti'good (f.sg.)',ጽቡቓትṣǝbbuq̱at'good (m./f. pl.)'
Possessive adjectives take the form of noun suffixes:ገዛgäza'house',ገዛይgäza-y'my house',ገዛኺgäza-ḵi'your (f.sg.) house'.
Verbs are based on consonantalroots, most consisting ofthree consonants: √sbr'break',ሰበረsäbärä'he broke',ይሰብርyǝsäbbǝr'he breaks',ምስባርmǝsbar'to break'.
Within thetense system there is a basic distinction between the perfective form—conjugated with suffixes and denoting the past—and the imperfective form—conjugated with prefixes and in some cases suffixes—and denoting the present or future:ሰበሩsäbär-u'they broke',ይሰብሩyǝ-säbr-u'they break'.
As in Ge'ez and Amharic, there is also a separate "gerundive" form of the verb, conjugated with suffixes and used to link verbs within a sentence:ገዲፍካ ተዛረብgädifka täzaräb'stop (that) and speak (m.sg.)'.
Verbs also have a separatejussive/imperative form, similar to the imperfective:ይስበሩyǝ-sbär-u'let them break'.
Through the addition ofderivational morphology (internal changes to verb stems and/or prefixes), verbs may be madepassive,reflexive,causative,frequentative,reciprocal, or reciprocal causative:ፈለጡfäläṭ-u 'they knew',ተፈልጡtä-fälṭ-u 'they were known',ኣፈልጡʼa-fälṭ-u 'they caused to know (they introduced)',ተፋለጡtä-faläṭ-u 'they knew each other',ኣፋለጡʼa-f-faläṭ-u 'they caused to know each other'.
Verbs may take directobject andprepositional pronoun suffixes:ፈለጠኒfäläṭä-nni 'he knew me',ፈለጠለይfäläṭä-lläy 'he knew for me'.
Negation is expressed through the prefixay- and, inindependent clauses, the suffix-n:ኣይፈለጠንʼay-fäläṭä-n 'he didn't know'.
Thecopula and the verb of existence in the present areirregular:ኣሎʼallo 'there is, he exists',እዩʼǝyyu 'he is',የለን orየልቦንyällän oryälbon 'there isn't, he doesn't exist',ኣይኰነንʼaykʷänän 'he isn't, it isn't',ነበረnäbärä 'he existed, he was, there was',ይኸውንyǝ-ḵäwwǝn 'he will be',ይነብርyǝ-näbbǝr 'he will exist, there will be'.
The verb of existence together with object suffixes for the possessor expresses possession ('have') and obligation ('must'):ኣሎኒʼallo-nni 'I have, I must' (lit. 'there is (to) me').
Relative clauses are expressed by a prefix attached to the verb:ዝፈለጠzǝ-fäläṭä 'who knew'
Cleft sentences, with relative clauses normally following the copula, are very common:መን እዩ ዝፈለጠmän ʼǝyyu zǝ-fäläṭä 'who knew?' (lit. 'who is he who knew?').
There is anaccusative marker used ondefinitedirect objects. In Tigrinya this is the prefixnǝ-. For example,ሓጐስ ንኣልማዝ ረኺቡዋḥagʷäsnǝ’almaz räḵibuwwa 'Hagos met Almaz'.
As in othermodern Ethiopian Semitic languages, the defaultword order in clauses is subject–object–verb, and noun modifiers usually (though not always in Tigrinya) precede their head nouns.
Tigrinya grammar is unique within theEthiopian Semitic language family in several ways:
For second-person pronouns, there is a separate vocative form, used to get a person's attention:ንስኻnǝssǝḵa 'you (m.sg.)',ኣታʼatta 'you! (m.sg.)'.
There is a definite article, related (as in English) to the demonstrative adjective meaning 'that':እታ ጓልʼǝta gʷal 'the girl'.
The gerundive form is used for past tense, as well as for the linking function as in Ge'ez and Amharic:ተዛሪቡtäzaribu '(he) speaking, he spoke'.
Yes–no questions are marked by the particleዶdo following the questioned word or the verb, if there is none:ሓፍተይዶ ርኢኺḥaftäydo rǝʼiḵi 'did you (f.sg.) see my sister?'.
The negative circumfixʼay- -n may mark nouns, pronouns, and adjectives as well as verbs:ኣይኣነንʼay-ʼanä-n 'not me',ኣይዓብይንʼayʽabǝy-ǝn 'not big'
Tigrinya has an unusually complextense–aspect–mood system, with many nuances achieved using combinations of the three basic aspectual forms (perfect, imperfect, gerundive) and various auxiliary verbs including the copula (እዩʼǝyyu, etc.), the verb of existence (ኣሎʼallo, etc.), and the verbsነበረnäbärä 'exist, live',ኮነkonä 'become',ጸንሔs'änḥe 'stay'.
Tigrinya has compound prepositions corresponding to the preposition–postposition compounds found in Amharic:ኣብ ልዕሊ ዓራትʼab lǝʽli ʽarat 'on (top of) the bed',ኣብ ትሕቲ ዓራትʼab tǝḥti ʽarat 'under the bed'
Unlike most Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya has only one set ofapplicative suffixes, used both for thedative andbenefactive and forlocative and adversative senses:ተቐሚጣሉtäq̱ämmiṭa-llu 'she sat downfor him' or 'she sat downon it' or 'she sat downto his detriment'.
Tigrinya is written in theGeʽez script, originally developed for Geʽez. The Ethiopic script is anabugida: each symbol represents a consonant+vowel syllable, and the symbols are organized in groups of similar symbols on the basis of both the consonant and the vowel.[10] In the table below the columns are assigned to the seven vowels of Tigrinya; they appear in the traditional order. The rows are assigned to the consonants, again in the traditional order.
For each consonant in an abugida, there is an unmarked symbol representing that consonant followed by a canonical orinherent vowel. For the Ethiopic abugida, this canonical vowel isä, the first column in the table. However, since the pharyngeal and glottal consonants of Tigrinya (and other Ethiopian Semitic languages) cannot be followed by this vowel, the symbols in the first column for those consonants are pronounced with the vowela, exactly as in the fourth column. These redundant symbols are falling into disuse in Tigrinya and are shown with adark gray background in the table. When it is necessary to represent a consonant with no following vowel, theconsonant+ə form is used (the symbol in the sixth column). For example, the wordʼǝntay 'what?' is writtenእንታይ, literally ʼǝ-nǝ-ta-yǝ.
Since some of the distinctions that were apparently made in Ge'ez have been lost in Tigrinya, there are two rows of symbols each for the consonants ‹ḥ›, ‹s›, and ‹sʼ›. In Eritrea, for ‹s› and ‹sʼ›, at least, one of these has fallen into disuse in Tigrinya and is now considered old-fashioned. These less-used series are shown with a dark gray background in the chart.
The orthography does not mark gemination, so the pair of wordsqärräbä 'he approached',qäräbä 'he was near' are both writtenቀረበ. Since suchminimal pairs are very rare, this presents no problem to readers of the language.
^Ministry of Information (1944). The First to be Freed—The record of British military administration in Eritrea and Somalia, 1941–1943 (Report). London: His Majesty's Stationery Office.
^Leslau, Wolf (1941).Documents Tigrigna (Éthiopien Septentrional): Grammaire et Textes. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.
^Buckley, E. (1994). "Tigrinya vowel features and vowel coalescence".University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics.1 (1): 2.
^abRehman, Abdel (18 February 2024). "Introduction Pages to the Tigrinya Language".English Tigrigna Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Tigrinya Language. Asmara: Simon Wallenberg Press.ISBN978-1-84356-006-7.
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