Tigre is a member of the Ethiopic branch of South Semitic languages. It is spoken by about 1 million people mainly in western and northern Eritrea, and also in neighbouring areas of Sudan. It is thought to have descended from Ge'ez, the liturgical language used in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
Tigre is also known as Tigré (ትግሬ) or Tigrayit (ትግራይት). Dialects include Mansa’, Habab, Barka, Semhar, Algeden, Senhit and Dahalik. They are all more or less mutually intelligible, except Dahalik, which is more divergent. Tigre is closely related to Ge'ez and Tigrinya.
Muslim Tigre people tend to write their language with the Arabic script, while Christian Tigres and the Eritrean government use a version of the Ge'ez / Ethiopic alphabet, which was devised for a Tigre translation of the New Testament published in 1902.
Download alphabet charts for Tigre (Excel)
Corrections and improvements provided by Michael Peter Füstumum
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።
kəlom wəlad minəʼadäm mən ʼäməʻəl täwəlidätom ʼənədē ʼänəbätäw ḥur waʼäkələḥədətom. ʼäkələḥəd latu ḥəquq waḥəšəmät bom. dämir waʼəhətəmam lätəhäyäbäw xəluqam säbät tom nosə-nosom ʼädəḥəd ʼəgəl läḥäšəmo walərəḥämo waǧəbom.
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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Tigre | Numbers
Information about the Tigre language and people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigre_language
https://www.speaktigre.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigre_people
Online Tigre lessons
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~gasmerom/Eritrean_languages/tigre/
Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic (Algerian), Arabic (Bedawi), Arabic (Chadian), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Gulf), Arabic (Hassaniya), Arabic (Hejazi), Arabic (Lebanese), Arabic (Modern Standard), Arabic (Moroccan), Arabic (Najdi), Arabic (Sudanese), Arabic (Syrian), Aramaic, Argobba, Assyrian / Neo-Assyrian, Canaanite, Chaha, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hadhramautic, Harari, Hebrew, Himyaritic, Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Maltese, Mandaic, Nabataean, Neo-Mandaic, Phoenician, Punic, Qatabanic, Sabaean, Sabaic, Silt'e, Syriac, Tigre, Tigrinya, Turoyo, Ugaritic, Western Neo-Aramaic
Aari, Amharic, Argobba, Awngi, Bench, Blin, Chaha, Dizin, Ge'ez, Gumuz, Hamer(-Banna), Harari, Inor, Sidama, Silt'e, Tigre, Tigrinya, Xamtanga
Page last modified: 15.01.24
[top]
You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, and if you like what you see on this page, you can use the buttons below to share it with people you know.
If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.
Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com
[top]
