The Tigre Language of Ginda?, Eritrea: Short Grammar and Texts

by David Elias

Overview

In The Tigre Language of Gindaˁ, Eritrea, David L. Elias documents the dialect of the Tigre language that is spoken in the town of Gindaˁ in eastern Eritrea. While the language of Tigre is spoken by perhaps one million people in Eritrea and Sudan, the population of Gindaˁ is fewer than 50,000 people. Elias describes basic aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicography. In contrast to other dialects of Tigre, of which approximately a dozen have been identified, Tigre of Gindaˁ exhibits the only recorded examples in Tigre of gender-specific first person possessives, e.g. ʕənye ‘my eye’ (masc) vs. ʕənče ‘my eye’ (masc/fem), and a new form of the negative of the verb of existence, yahallanni ‘there is not’. Contact with Arabic and Tigrinya has resulted in numerous loanwords and a few biforms in Tigre of Gindaˁ.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004271197
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	05/15/2014
Series:	Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics , #75
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

David L. Elias, Ph.D. (2005), Harvard University, is an independent scholar of African history and languages. He has taught at Harvard University, the University of Asmara (Eritrea), the University of Montana, and Marymount University (Arlington, VA).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

List of Tables x

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Tigre 1

1.2 Tigre of Ginda' 1

1.3 The Literature 3

1.4 The Informants 4

1.5 Research Methodology and Text Presentation 5

1.6 Limitations 7

1.7 Abbreviations 8

2 Phonology 13

2.1 Table of Consonants 13

2.2 Ejectives 13

2.3 Plosives 15

2.4 Fricatives 16

2.5 Affricates 17

2.6 Nasals 17

2.7 Flaps/Trills 18

2.8 The Lateral/ 18

2.9 Semi-vowels 19

2.10 Table of Vowels 20

2.11 i, ut e, and o 20

2.12 ∂ 20

2.13 a and a 22

2.14 Diphthongs 25

2.15 VyV Sequences 27

2.16 Stress 28

2.17 Sentence Boundary Jumping 30

2.18 Morphophonemics 31

3 Morphology-Pronouns, Nouns, and Adjectives 35

3.1 Independent Personal Pronouns 35

3.2 Independent Genitive Pronoun 37

3.3 Independent Deictics and Reflexives 38

3.4 Affixed Nominative Pronouns 39

3.5 Suffixed Genitive Pronouns 39

3.6 Suffixed Object Pronouns 41

3.7 The Relative Particle 44

3.8 Interrogative Pronouns and Pro-adjectives 45

3.9 Nouns-Base Forms and Gender 46

3.10 Nouns-Number 51

3.11 Nouns-Definiteness 54

3.12 Derived Nouns 55

3.13 Days of the week 57

3.14 Adjectives-Gender and Number 58

3.15 Denominative Adjectives 59

3.16 Numerals 60

4 Morphology-Verbs 65

4.1 The Copula 65

4.2 The Verb of Existence 68

4.3 Possession and Compulsion 71

4.4 The Reference Form and De-verbal Forms 73

4.5 The Four Conjugations 74

4.6 Compound Verbal Constructions 80

4.7 Overview of Verbal Stems 85

4.8 A Stem Verbs 86

4.9 B Stem Verbs 94

4.10 C Stem Verbs 96

4.11 D, Q, and D/Q Stem Verbs 100

4.12 B Passive Stem Verbs 101

4.13 t&rmcgreve;-A/B Stem Verbs 105

4.14 C Passive and t&rmcgreve;-C Stem Verbs 110

4.15 Q Passive, t&rmcgreve;-Q, and t&rmcgreve;-D/Q Stem Verbs 113

4.16 'a-A, 'a-B, and 'at-C Stem Verbs 115

4.17 Other Verbal Patterns 119

4.18 The Negative of the Verb 121

5 Morphology-Adverbs, Prepositions, and Conjunctions 123

5.1 Adverbs 123

5.2 Prepositions 131

5.3 Conjunctions 145

6 Syntax 157

6.1 Noun Phrases 157

6.2 Prepositional Phrases, Adverbs, and Adverbial Expressions 168

6.3 Nominal, Adverbial, and Existential Clauses 174

6.4 Simple Sentences 177

6.5 Subordinate Clauses 190

6.6 Relative Clauses 203

6.7 Interrogative Clauses 223

7 Lexicography and Language Contact 229

7.1 Arabic 229

7.2 Tigrinya 248

7.3 Other Languages 250

Appendices 253

Appendix I 253

Appendix II 273

Bibliography 277

Subject Index 287