Schreiber Jules. Manuel de la Langue Tigraï

Publisher: Alfred Hoelder
Publication date: 1887
Number of pages: 256For other uses please see Tigre (disambiguation) Tigre (Ge'ez ትግረ tigre or ትግሬ tigrē; sometimes written as Tigré, also known as Xasa in Sudan; Arabic الخاصية ḫāṣiyah) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Northeast Africa. It belongs to the North Ethiopic subdivision of the family's South Semitic branch, and is primarily spoken by the Tigre people in Eritrea. Along with Tigrinya, it is believed to be one of the direct descendants of the ancient Ge'ez language (Ethiopic), a Semitic tongue which is still in use as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. As of 1997, Tigre was spoken by approximately 800,000 Tigre people in Eritrea.[2] The Tigre are nearly all found in western Eritrea, with the remainder inhabiting the adjacent part of Sudan. In Eritrea, they reside in the central and northern plateau and the Red Sea shores north of Zula. The Tigre people are not to be confused with their neighbors to the south, the Tigray-Tigrinya people of Eritrea and Ethiopia. The northern Ethiopian province which is now named the Tigray Region is a territory of the Tigrayans. Tigrinya is also derived from the parent Ge'ez tongue, but is quite distinct from Tigre despite the similarity in name.