Outline

Tigrign has a set of phonemes, that is, there is a set of ejective consonants  and the usual seven-vowel system. The consonant /v/ occurs only in recent borrowing from European languages.

Fidelat Tigrigna ordered by shape are grouped into five categories to make it easiler to teach. The letters in a group follow similar rules and should make it easier for students to cover many letters at the same time. The set of the ejective consonants and the usual seven-vowel system and their classification in categories  and groups  are  given below:

In Tigrigna language “questions” can be made using at least more than two types.

Type 1: the first anticipate the answer “Yes-እወ” or “No ኣይኾነን” and is formed simply by using the question intonation; raising the pitch of your voice at the end of the sentences. This is in contrast to the simple statement intonation where the pitch drops towards the end of the sentence. Note that the order of the words is not altered in Tigrigna

Greetings in Tigrigna are basically of two types. There are few that could be used in all occasions like “dehan’do”, “selam” and so on; other expressions are related to the time of day when the greetings is expressed.

Exercise 1./ ልምምድ 1

The following is an informal conversation between Yonas (Y) and Lulya (L). They are old friends who met by chance in a street. /እዚ ዝስዕብ ዘይዕላዊ ዝርርብ ኮይኑ ኣብ ሞንጎ ዮናስን ሉልያን ናይ ቀደም መሓዙት ኣብ መገዲ ምስ ተራኸቡ

Vocabularies/ቃላት

Daily routines/መዓልታዊ ዝደጋገም 

In Tigrigna there is no definite article used in quite the same way as the English ‘the “, it uses instead the demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative adjective as an article.

This demonstrative pronoun corresponds to the English pronouns before noun or adjective. As you have seen from the personal pronouns, Tigrigna has got also two genders in relation to demonstrative pronouns like izi geza (m) and iza computer (f). There are also demonstrative pronouns for plural and formal ones.

Likewise, there is also demonstrative pronouns that correspond to the English “that” iti geza means that house and itia computer means that computer (m). There are also forms for plural as well as for formal ones.

ግሲ/Verb

Prepositions in Tigrigna are of two kinds of Prepositions

• Prepositions used as prefix
• Prepositions used as suffix

We will deal first with prepositions used as prefix. These are again of two types.

1. One-syllable only. They are small in number. These are always written joined on the front of the word they go with.

2. Example/ምሳሌ

3. ትግርኛ-	English
   ን’ሲነማ	To cinema
   ብ’ኮምፑዩተር	By computer
   ብ’ፒሮ	With pen
   ብ’ርሳስ	With pencil
   ምሳ’ኺ	With you

ሀ. Greeting questions/ ናይ ሰላምታ ሕቶታት

ርእሰ-ምልላይ Self -introduction

Classroom items  ቓላት - ናይ ክፍሊ አቊሑት

House/ገዛ

Family / ስድራቤት

The human body 1/ናይ ሰውነት ክፍሊ 1

The human body 2/ ክፍሊ ሰውነት  2

Time & season & weather/ ግዜ ክፍለ ዓመት ኩነታት ኣየር

Buying and Selling /ምግዛአንምሻጥን

Transportation and Communication/ መጞአአዚንመረካከቢን

Maps and Directions / ካርታን: መምርሒ

Health and Health Issue /ብዛዕባ ጥዕና

Sports and Games / ስፖርት ኣትለቲካዊውድድር

Society and Literature /ሕብረተ-ሰብ ምስስነ-ጽሑፍ    

ባዓላት መርዓናይሐጎስመግለጺመመረቕታ/ Ceremonies and Marriage and naming 

ቱሪስት/Tourism

Art and Crafts / ኣርትንጥበብንሞያን

ታሪኽ ምንጋር ምስናይ ሙዚቃ ምሳርሂ / The Story telling and Music

The environment / ከባቢ

Animals 1 /እንስሳታት

Animals 2 / እንስሳት

Animals/እንስሳታት  The birds/ ጨራሩ