Arabic influences on Tigre

A preliminary evaluation

Bibliographic Data

ID2766684
AuthorsMaria Bulakh (0000-0001-5490-6674, Russian State University for the Humanities, corresponding author), Leonid Kogan (0000-0002-1195-6636, Russian State University for the Humanities, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume74
Issue1
Pages1-39
Publication date2011-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0041-977X • E-ISSN: 1474-0699
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0041977x10000698
OpenAlexW2113567060
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited25

Tigre, an Ethio-Semitic language spoken in Eritrea by a predominantly Muslim population, is known to have remained in intensive contact with Arabic since at least the nineteenth century. In the present article we attempt to survey the lexical and grammatical features of Tigre which are potentially attributable to Arabic influence. The genealogical proximity of Arabic and Ethio-Semitic complicates the task, as borrowed features and common retentions are not always easily distinguishable. In the lexical domain, the Arabic impact is undoubtedly conspicuous: thus, even in the core vocabulary Arabic loanwords are more prominent than in any other Ethio-Semitic language. Nevertheless, for many individual lexemes the borrowing hypothesis remains to be substantiated. Recent Arabic influence is probably responsible for a few relatively superficial features of Tigre phonetics and morphology. Several more deeply-rooted features may in principle be due to a more ancient and more intensive contact with Arabic: the specific influence of the ejectives on the vowels; the grammatical categories of singulative and diminutive; the diversity of verbal noun patterns in the basic stem; and several types of broken plural formation

Arabic · Linguistics · Noun · Plural · Population · Semitic languages · Sociology · Vocabulary · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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