Tigré
Afro-Asiatic family · Semitic branch · Africa
Tigré is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Presence of Uncommon Consonants, WALS codes Tigré as “Pharyngeals”, a value held by 21 of the 567 languages coded, Arabic (Egyptian) and Berber (Middle Atlas) among them.
Within the Semitic branch, all 7 other languages coded for Epistemic Possibility have the value “Verbal constructions”; Tigré has “Other”.
Contrast Tigré with Amharic or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Tigré, rarest first.
- Order of Demonstrative and NounTwo or more of above types with none dominant67 of 1,225
- Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
- Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Inside the Afro-Asiatic family
Tigré matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 25 of the 51 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (49%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 23rd from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Tigré; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Tigré for 51 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 45 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tigré shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Glottalized Consonants | Ejectives only | 58 of 567 |
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately large | 94 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Moderate preference for suffixing | 123 of 969 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Genders | Two | 50 of 257 |
| Indefinite Articles | Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article | 112 of 534 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic and formal assignment | 59 of 257 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive suffixes | 355 of 902 |
Noun phrases 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + normal negative | 55 of 496 |
| The Perfect | Other perfect | 80 of 222 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 112 of 222 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | No overlap | 105 of 207 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 121 of 222 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant | 93 of 659 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause precedes noun (RelN) | 141 of 824 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Noun-genitive (NGen) | 468 of 1,249 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | 479 of 1,154 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | 511 of 1,184 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object precedes verb (OV) | 712 of 1,518 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |