A Comparative Study of the Tigre Dialects

This comparative study deals with the dialects of the Tigre, the fifth largest Semitic language, spoken in Eritrea and in eastern parts of the Sudan. It intends to provide an empirical basis for a comparative analysis of regional varieties of the Tigre language at different linguistic levels (lexicon, phonology,morphology and syntax) based on text corpus, lexicon, and data from published sources. It is based on field work carried out in different parts of Eritrea in 2011 and 2012. The presentation of the analysis includes maps, tabulated lexical and grammatical comparisons, spectrograms, interlinearized texts, illustrative examples and their analytical interpretations.

In a summary, the most decisive lexical, phonological and morphological isoglosses divide the Tigre dialects into three major dialect blocks, i.e. the north-western dialects of ?abab, ?Ad-Tekles, Marya Qaya?, Marya ?allam, Beni-?Am?r, and the south-eastern dialects of Zula and Massawa, G?nda?, Mas?alit, and a third block in the centre of the Tigre land which contains the dialects of Mansa? and Bet-Guk. S??e and D?rfo change affiliation from one block to the other depending on the tribal background of the people included in the sample. ?Algaden most often affiliates with the first blockwith certain peculiarities of its own. Dahal?k is the most divergent variety and it deserves to be treated separately.