Tigrinya language
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{{language |name=Tigrinya |nativename=ትግርኛ təgrəña |pronunciation=/tɨg.rɨ.ɲa/ |states=Eritrea, Ethiopia |region=Eritrea, Tigray (northern Ethiopia) |speakers=6.75 million1, 2, 3 |familycolor=Afro-Asiatic |fam2=Semitic |fam3=South Semitic |fam4=Ethiopic |fam5=North Ethiopic |nation=Eritrea |iso1=ti|iso2=tir|iso3=tir}}
Tigrinya (also spelt Tigrigna) is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in central Eritrea, where it is one of the main working languages (Eritrea does not have official languages), and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, where it also has official status, and among groups of emigrants from these regions, including some of the Beta Israel now living in Israel. Tigrinya should not be confused with the related Tigre language, which is spoken in a region in Eritrea to the west of the region where Tigrinya is spoken.
Contents |
Speakers
There is no generally agreed on name for the people who speak Tigrinya. The name of the language, which its speakers as well as others use to refer to it, is derived from the region in Ethiopia where most of its speakers live, Tigray; the suffix Template:IPA means 'language of'. A native of Tigray is referred to in Tigrinya as Template:IPA (male), Template:IPA (female), Template:IPA (plural). In Eritrea, Tigrinya Muslims are known as Jebertis.
In Ethiopia, Tigrinya is the third most spoken language, after Oromo
and Amharic.
In Eritrea, Tigrinya is by far the most spoken language. (See Demographics of Eritrea.)
Tigrinya dialects differ phonetically, lexically, and grammatically.Template:Ref However, speakers and readers apparently have no difficulty understanding each other. So far no dialect appears to be accepted as a standard. This article does not pretend to cover dialectal variation.
Sounds and orthography
Consonant and vowel phonemes
Tigrinya has a fairly typical set of phonemes for an Ethiopian Semitic language. That is, there is a set of ejective consonants and the usual seven-vowel system. Unlike many of the modern Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya has preserved the two pharyngeal consonants which were apparently part of the ancient Ge'ez language and which, along with the velar or uvular ejective fricative [x'] make it easy to distinguish spoken Tigrinya from related languages such as Amharic, though not from Tigre, which has also maintained the pharyngeal consonants.
The charts below show the phonemes of Tigrinya. The consonant /v/ appears in parentheses because it occurs only in recent borrowings from European languages. For the representation of Tigrinya sounds, this article uses a modification of a system that is common (though not universal) among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages, but it differs somewhat from the conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet. When the IPA symbol is different, it is indicated in brackets in the charts.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Mid | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Low | Template:IPA |
Gemination
Gemination is significant in Tigrinya. That is, consonant length can distinguish words from one another. Although gemination plays a significant role in verb morphology, it is usually accompanied by other features, and there are few pairs of Tigrinya words that are distinguished only by gemination: Template:IPA 'he approached', Template:IPA 'he was near'. All consonants except the pharyngeal and glottal consonants can geminate.
Allophones
The velar consonants /k/ and /k'/ are pronounced as fricatives (or in the case of /k'/ sometimes as an affricate) when they appear immediately after a vowel and are not geminated. In the case of /k'/, the fricative or affricate is more often pronounced further back, in the uvular place of articulation (though it will be represented in this article with [x']). This velar or uvular ejective fricative (or affricate) is a very unusual sound, perhaps unique to Tigrinya. Since these two sounds are completely conditioned by their environments, they can be considered allophones of /k/ and /k'/. 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 {bky}, there are forms such as ምብካይ Template:IPA 'to cry' and በኸየ bäxäyä 'he cried', and for the verb meaning 'steal', which has the triconsonantal root {srk'}, there are forms such as ይሰርቁ Template:IPA 'they steal' and ይሰርቕ Template:IPA '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 in the written form of a language with distinct symbols.
Syllables
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 an epenthetic vowel /Template:IPA/, 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) Template:IPA is introduced before the suffix. For example,
- ከብዲ käbdi 'stomach', ልቢ Template:IPA 'heart'
- -äy 'my', ከብደይ käbdäy 'my stomach', ልበይ Template:IPA 'my heart'
- -ka 'your (masc.)', ከብድኻ Template:IPA 'your (masc.) stomach', ልብኻ Template:IPA 'your (masc.) heart'
- -n...-n 'and', ከብድን ልብን Template:IPA '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.
Orthography
Tigrinya is written in the Ge'ez abugida, originally developed for the now-extinct Ge'ez language. In order to view the Ethiopic characters below, you will need a Unicode Ge'ez font, such as GF Zemen Unicode. The Ge'ez writing system is an abugida: each symbol represents a consonant+vowel syllable, and the symbols are organized in groups of similar symbols both on the basis of the consonant and the vowel. In the table below the columns are assigned to the seven vowels of Tigrinya (and Ge'ez); 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 vowel. For the Ge'ez abugida, this canonical vowel is /ä/, 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 in the rows for those consonants are pronounced with the vowel /a/, exactly as in the fourth row. These redundant symbols are falling into disuse in Tigrinya and are shown with a gray background in the table. When it is necessary to represent a consonant with no following vowel, the consonant+Template:IPA form is used (the symbol in the sixth column). For example, the word Template:IPA 'what?' is written እንታይ, literally Template:IPA.
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 /h/, /s/, and /s'/. For /s/ and /s'/, 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 gray background in the chart.
The orthography does not mark gemination, so the pair of words Template:IPA 'he approached', Template:IPA 'he was near' are both written ቀረበ. Since such minimal pairs are very rare, this presents no problem to readers of the language.
| ä | u | i | a | e | Template:IPA | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| h | ሀ | ሁ | ሂ | ሃ | ሄ | ህ | ሆ |
| l | ለ | ሉ | ሊ | ላ | ሌ | ል | ሎ |
| ḥ | ሐ | ሑ | ሒ | ሓ | ሔ | ሕ | ሖ |
| m | መ | ሙ | ሚ | ማ | ሜ | ም | ሞ |
| s | ሠ | ሡ | ሢ | ሣ | ሤ | ሥ | ሦ |
| r | ረ | ሩ | ሪ | ራ | ሬ | ር | ሮ |
| s | ሰ | ሱ | ሲ | ሳ | ሴ | ስ | ሶ |
| Template:IPA | ሸ | ሹ | ሺ | ሻ | ሼ | ሽ | ሾ |
| k' | ቀ | ቁ | ቂ | ቃ | ቄ | ቅ | ቆ |
| kʷ' | ቈ | ቊ | ቋ | ቌ | ቍ | ||
| x' | ቐ | ቑ | ቒ | ቓ | ቔ | ቕ | ቖ |
| xʷ' | ቘ | ቚ | ቛ | ቜ | ቝ | ||
| b | በ | ቡ | ቢ | ባ | ቤ | ብ | ቦ |
| v | ቨ | ቩ | ቪ | ቫ | ቬ | ቭ | ቮ |
| t | ተ | ቱ | ቲ | ታ | ቴ | ት | ቶ |
| Template:IPA | ቸ | ቹ | ቺ | ቻ | ቼ | ች | ቾ |
| h | ኀ | ኁ | ኂ | ኃ | ኄ | ኅ | ኆ |
| n | ነ | ኑ | ኒ | ና | ኔ | ን | ኖ |
| ñ | ኘ | ኙ | ኚ | ኛ | ኜ | ኝ | ኞ |
| ’ | አ | ኡ | ኢ | ኣ | ኤ | እ | ኦ |
| k | ከ | ኩ | ኪ | ካ | ኬ | ክ | ኮ |
| kʷ | ኰ | ኲ | ኳ | ኴ | ኵ | ||
| x | ኸ | ኹ | ኺ | ኻ | ኼ | ኽ | ኾ |
| xʷ | ዀ | ዂ | ዃ | ዄ | ዅ | ||
| w | ወ | ዉ | ዊ | ዋ | ዌ | ው | ዎ |
| ‘ | ዐ | ዑ | ዒ | ዓ | ዔ | ዕ | ዖ |
| z | ዘ | ዙ | ዚ | ዛ | ዜ | ዝ | ዞ |
| Template:IPA | ዠ | ዡ | ዢ | ዣ | ዤ | ዥ | ዦ |
| y | የ | ዩ | ዪ | ያ | ዬ | ይ | ዮ |
| d | ደ | ዱ | ዲ | ዳ | ዴ | ድ | ዶ |
| Template:IPA | ጀ | ጁ | ጂ | ጃ | ጄ | ጅ | ጆ |
| g | ገ | ጉ | ጊ | ጋ | ጌ | ግ | ጎ |
| gʷ | ጐ | ጒ | ጓ | ጔ | ጕ | ||
| t' | ጠ | ጡ | ጢ | ጣ | ጤ | ጥ | ጦ |
| Template:IPA | ጨ | ጩ | ጪ | ጫ | ጬ | ጭ | ጮ |
| p' | ጰ | ጱ | ጲ | ጳ | ጴ | ጵ | ጶ |
| s' | ጸ | ጹ | ጺ | ጻ | ጼ | ጽ | ጾ |
| s' | ፀ | ፁ | ፂ | ፃ | ፄ | ፅ | ፆ |
| f | ፈ | ፉ | ፊ | ፋ | ፌ | ፍ | ፎ |
| p | ፐ | ፑ | ፒ | ፓ | ፔ | ፕ | ፖ |
Grammar
Nouns
Gender
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:
- Verbs agree with their subjects in gender (unless the subject is first person).
- Second and third person personal pronouns (you, he, she, they, etc. in English) are distinguished by gender.
- Adjectives and determiners agree with the nouns they modify in gender.
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 Template:IPA 'Tigrean (m.)', ትግራወይቲ Template:IPA '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 Template:IPA 'ox' are masculine, while nouns such as ኣደ addä 'mother', ጓል Template:IPA 'daughter, girl', and ላም lam 'cow' are feminine. However, most names for animals do not specify biological gender, and the words ተባዕታይ täba‘tay 'male' and ኣንስተይቲ Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA 'sun' is masculine according to Leslau,Template:Ref feminine according to Amanuel.Template:Ref This disagreement seems to be due to dialectal differences.
Number
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 Template:IPA 'five', ሰብኣይ Template:IPA 'man', ሓሙሽተ ሰብኣይ Template:IPA, 'five men'. It is also possible for a formally singular noun to appear together with plural agreement on adjectives or verbs: ብዙሓት Template:IPA 'many (pl.)', ዓዲ ‘addi 'village'; ብዙሓት ዓዲ Template:IPA 'many villages'. The conventions for when this combination of singular and plural is or is not possible appear to be complex.Template:Ref
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 Template:IPA 'bed') have more than one possible plural.
- External plural
- -at, -tat
- ዓራት Template:IPA 'bed', ዓራታት Template:IPA 'beds
- እምባ Template:IPA 'mountain', እምባታት Template:IPA 'mountains'
- -ot (following deletion of -a or -ay)
- ጐይታ Template:IPA 'master', ጐይቶት Template:IPA 'masters'
- ሓረስታይ Template:IPA 'farmer', ሓረስቶት Template:IPA 'farmers'
- Template:IPA, Template:IPA (sometimes with deletion of final -t)
- ገዛ Template:IPA 'house', ገዛውቲ Template:IPA 'houses'
- ዓራት Template:IPA 'bed', ዓራውቲ Template:IPA 'beds'
- Internal plural
- Template:IPA
- ፈረስ färäs 'horse', ኣፍራሰ Template:IPA 'horses'
- እዝኒ Template:IPA 'ear', ኣእዛን Template:IPA 'ears'
- Template:IPA
- ንህቢ Template:IPA 'bee', ኣናህብ Template:IPA 'bees'
- በግዕ Template:IPA 'sheep' (s.), ኣባግዕ Template:IPA 'sheep' (p.)
- CäCaCu
- ደርሆ därho 'chicken', ደራሁ därahu 'chickens'
- ጕሒላ Template:IPA 'thief', ጕሓሉ Template:IPA 'thieves'
- Template:IPA
- መንበር mänbär 'chair', መናብር Template:IPA 'chairs'
- ሓርማዝ Template:IPA 'elephant', ሓራምዝ Template:IPA 'elephants'
- Template:IPA for the plural of agent and instrument nouns derived from verbs
- ቀላቢ Template:IPA 'feeder', ቀለብቲ Template:IPA 'feeders'
- ኣገልጋሊ Template:IPA 'server', ኣገልገልቲ Template:IPA 'servers'
- መኽደኒ Template:IPA 'cover', መኽደንቲ Template:IPA 'covers'
- Template:IPA
- ክዳን Template:IPA 'clothing', ክዳውንቲ Template:IPA 'articles of clothing'
- ሕጻን Template:IPA 'infant', ሕጻውንቲ Template:IPA 'infants'
- Template:IPA
- መጽሓፍ Template:IPA 'book', መጻሕፍቲ Template:IPA 'books'
- ኮኸብ Template:IPA 'star', ከዋኽብቲ Template:IPA 'stars'
- Template:IPA, where "C*" represents a single root consonant
- ወረቐት Template:IPA 'paper', ወረቓቕቲ Template:IPA 'papers'
- ተመን tämän 'snake', ተማምን Template:IPA 'snakes'
Among the completely irregular plurals are ሰበይቲ Template:IPA 'woman', ኣንስቲ Template:IPA 'women' and ጓል Template:IPA 'girl, daughter', እዋልድ Template:IPA 'girls, daughters' (alongside ኣጓላት Template:IPA).
Expression of possession, genitive
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).
- Prepositional phrases with the preposition ናይ nay 'of'
- ሓደ Template:IPA 'one', ሰብ säb 'person', ቈልዓ Template:IPA 'child', ናይ ሓደ ሰብ ቈልዓ Template:IPA 'one person's child'
- መስተዋድድ Template:IPA 'preposition', ተሰሓቢ Template:IPA 'object', ናይ መስተዋድድ ተሰሓቢ Template:IPA 'object of a preposition'
- Noun-noun constructions, with the "possessor" following the "possessed thing"
- ጓል Template:IPA 'daughter', ሓወይ Template:IPA 'my brother', ጓል ሓወይ gʷal ḥawwäy 'my brother's daughter (niece)'
- መዓልቲ Template:IPA 'day', ሓርነት Template:IPA 'freedom', መዓልቲ ሓርነት ኤርትራ Template:IPA 'Eritrean Liberation Day'
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
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 Template:IPA; English she, Tigrinya ንሳ Template:IPA. In Tigrinya, as in other Semitic languages, the same distinctions appear in three other places within the grammar of the languages as well.
- Subject-verb agreement
- All Tigrinya verbs agree with their subjects; that is, the person, number, and (second and third person) gender of the subject of the verb are marked by suffixes or prefixes on the verb. Because the affixes that signal subject agreement vary greatly with the particular verb tense/aspect/mood, they are normally not considered to be pronouns and are discussed elsewhere in this article under verb conjugation.
- Object pronoun suffixes
- Tigrinya verbs often have additional morphology that indicates the person, number, and (second and third person) gender of the object of the verb.
ንኣልማዝ ርእየያ Template:IPA Template:IPA Almaz-ACC I-saw-her 'I saw Almaz'
- While suffixes such as -yya in this example are sometimes described as signaling object agreement, analogous to subject agreement, they are more often thought of as object pronoun suffixes because, unlike the markers of subject agreement, they do not vary significantly with the tense/aspect/mode of the verb. For arguments of the verb other than the subject or the object, there is a separate set of related suffixes which usually have a dative, benefactive, or adversative meaning ('to', 'for', 'against').
ንኣልማዝ ማዕጾ ኸፊተላ Template:IPA ma‘s'o xäfitä-lla for-Almaz door I-opened-for-her 'I opened the door for Almaz'
- Suffixes such as -lla in this example will be referred to in this article as prepositional object pronoun suffixes because they correspond to prepositional phrases such as 'for her', to distinguish them from the direct object pronoun suffixes such as -yya 'her'.
- Possessive suffixes
- Tigrinya has a further set of morphemes which are suffixed to either nouns or prepositions. These signal possession on a noun and prepositional object on a preposition. They will be referred to as possessive suffixes.
- ገዛ gäza 'house', ገዛይ gäza-y 'my house', ገዛኣ gäza-’a 'her house'
- ብዛዕባ Template:IPA 'about', ብዛዕባይ Template:IPA 'about me', ብዛዕብኣ Template:IPA 'about her'
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 do not have independent pronouns: ኤርትራዋይ እዩ Template:IPA 'he's Eritrean,' ዓዲመያ ‘addimäyya 'I invited her'. The Tigrinya words that translate 'he', 'I', and 'her' do not appear in these sentences (though the person, number, and (second or third person) gender of the subject and object are marked by affixes on the verb). When the subject in such sentences is emphasized, an independent pronoun is used: ንሱ ኤርትራዋይ እዩ Template:IPA 'he's Eritrean,' ኣነ ዓዲመያ Template:IPA 'I invited her'. When the object is emphasized, instead of an independent pronoun, the accusative marker Template:IPA is used with the appropriate possessive suffix: ንኣኣ ዓዲመያ Template:IPA '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 Template:IPA | -(n)ni | -(l)läy | -(ä)y |
| you (m. sg.) | ንስኻ Template:IPA | -(k)ka | -lka | -ka |
| you (f. sg.) | ንስኺ Template:IPA | -(k)ki | -lki | -ki |
| he | ንሱ Template:IPA | -(’)o, (w)wo, yyo | -(l)lu | -(’)u |
| she | ንሳ Template:IPA | -(’)a, (w)wa, yya | -(l)la | -(’)a |
| we | ንሕና Template:IPA | -(n)na | -lna | -na |
| you (m. pl.) | ንስኻትኩም Template:IPA | -(k)kum | -lkum | -kum |
| you (f. pl.) | ንስኻትክን Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| they (m.) | ንሳቶም Template:IPA | -(’)om, -(w)wom, -yyom | -(l)lom | -(’)om |
| they (f.) | ንሳተን Template:IPA | -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 Template:IPA 'you m. pol.', ንስኽን Template:IPA 'you f. pol.', ንሶም Template:IPA 'he pol.', ንሰን Template:IPA '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.
Reflexive pronouns
For reflexive pronouns ('myself', 'yourself', etc.), Tigrinya adds the possessive suffixes to one of the nouns ርእሲ Template:IPA 'head', ነብሲ näbsi 'soul', or ባዕሊ ba‘li 'owner': ርእሰይ Template:IPA / ነብሰይ näbsäy / ባዕለይ ba‘läy 'myself', ርእሳ Template:IPA / ነብሳ n̈äbsa / ባዕላ ba‘la 'herself', etc.
Demonstrative pronouns
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 Template:IPA | እቲ Template:IPA |
| Feminine | እዚኣ Template:IPA | እቲኣ Template:IPA | |
| Plural | Masculine | እዚኦም / እዚኣቶም Template:IPA | እቲኦም / እቲኣቶም Template:IPA |
| Feminine | እዚኤን / እዚኣተን Template:IPA | እቲኤን / እቲኣተን Template:IPA |
External links
- Ethnologue entry for Tigrinya
- Jeberti.com Information about Jebertis and their history.
- Sites with Tigrinya text or sound files (all require a Ge'ez Unicode font such as GF Zemen Unicode).
- Tigrinya classes for children of Tigrinya-speaking immigrants in Sweden, including teaching materials.
- Asmarino: Eritrean exile site.
- Meskerem: "Eritrean opposition" website.
- Eritrean government site with links to Haddas Ertra, the daily Tigrinya newspaper in Asmara, Eritrea.
- Christian recordings in Tigrinya: Global Recordings website.
Bibliography
- Template:NoteAmanuel Sahle (1998) Template:IPA. Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press. ISBN 1-56902-096-5
- Dan'el Täxlu Räda (1996, Eth. Cal.) Template:IPA. Template:IPA
- Eritrean People's Liberation Front (1985) Dictionary, English-Tigrigna-Arabic. Rome: EPLF.
- Kane, Thomas L. (2000) Tigrinya-English Dictionary (2 vols). Springfield, VA: Dunwoody Press. ISBN 1-881265-68-4
- Template:NoteLeslau, Wolf (1941) Documents Tigrigna (Éthiopien Septentrional): Grammaire et Textes. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.
- Mason, John (Ed.) (1996) Template:IPA, Tigrinya Grammar. Lawrenceville, NJ, USA: Red Sea Press. ISBN 0-932415-20-2 (ISBN 0-932415-21-0, paperback)
- Praetorius, F. (1871) Grammatik der Tigriñasprache in Abessinien. Halle. ISBN 3-487-05191-5 (1974 reprint)
- Täxästä Täxlä et al. (1989, Eth. Cal.) Template:IPA. Addis Ababa: Template:IPA.
- Ullendorff, E. (1985) A Tigrinya Chrestomathy. Stuttgart: F. Steiner. ISBN 3-515-04314-4
- Template:NoteVoigt, Rainer Maria (1977) Das Tigrinische Verbalsystem. Berlin: D. Reimer.
- Ze'im Girma (1983) Template:IPA. Asmara: Government Printing Press.
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