Raz Sh. Tigre Grammar and Texts. - Malibu: Undena Publications,
1983. - VII + 148 p.
This work comprises two parts: the first part consists of a concise descriptive grammar of the Mansac dialect of the Tigre language; the second part contains a selection of new Tigre texts. The motive for the present work is the state of research of the Tigre language: practically none of the grammatical works of the earlier period of Tigre studies are of descriptive value to the student of Tigre, some of them now being linguistic curiosities of primarily historical value, while others were written by people who lacked the required skill of qualification for the task. Most of the credit for scholarly grammatical work on Tigre goes to E. Littmann, W. Leslau, and F. R. Palmer, the latter two having made the strongest impact in their endeavours to bring Tigre studies into the domain of mode linguistic research. W. Leslau's Short grammar of Tigre (1945) is the only valuable grammar of the language available. Leslau's treatise is mainly based on Littmann's Publications of the Princeton expedition to Abyssinia (1910-1915), vol. I, and on certain of Littmann's articles. Leslau made an attempt to supplement Ms work with fresh material. This he collected while on a short visit to Keren in Eritrea and published as Supplementary observations on Tigre grammar (1948). The only attempt to produce a comprehensive work on Tigre grammar, Grammatica della lingua tigre (Asmara 1919), is worthless to descriptive linguistics, since (a) the grammatical framework used is that of Italian, and (b) many features of the data given are foreign to the Tigre language. The scarcity of Tigre grammars is paralleled by a scarcity of Tigre texts. E. Littmann's Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia (1910-1915), the result of an expedition to Eritrea that he undertook in the autumn and winter of 1905/06 is still the best available collection of Tigre texts. Other texts of scholarly value were published by members of the Swedish Evangelical Mission in Eritrea. These are (a) folk tales, biblical tales, customs and rites, law, history of the Mansac people, medicines and diseases, poetry, a student reader, etc. , and (b) Bible translations. The most prominent text published in book form by the Swedish Mission is Kal^e Mansac "The two Mansa'. K. G. Roden, the head of the Missionary Station at Galab devoted a considerable period— between his arrival in Galab in 1890 and the publication of fol'e Mansac in 1913-to collecting material for the book. The Revd. G. R. Sundstrom was another member of the Swedish Mission whose contribution was significant. A contribution to the corpus of Tigre texts was also made by C. Conti Rossini who was helped in his work by members of the Swedish Mission. In the last fifty years only two scholarly contributions to the existing corpus of Tigre texts have been made, both published in 1961 but recorded at a much earlier period. These are: Tigre games° by W. Leslau which was recorded by him during his stay in Keren in 1947, and Ad Sek which was edited and prepared for publication by M. Hofner. The only valuable dictionary of Tigre in existence—E. Littmann's Worterbuch der Tigre-Sprache —incorporates most vocabularies and glossaries published previously. Littmann's Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia was the main text used, but almost all other published texts are represented as well. It also includes material produced by Sundstrom, Naffac wad'Etman, and others, which thus saw the light of publication for the first time in this dictionary. M. Hofner should be credited with most of the work of editing. The survey provided up to this point is intended as a general picture of the nature and scope of published material in Tigre. For a detailed bibliographical survey the reader is advised to consult with Leslau's The Semitic languages of Ehiopia}^ pp. 145-
164. Coming back to the present work, my intention has been to go beyond the existing corpus of texts in order to attempt a fresh treatment of Tigre grammar. The linguistic material was collected by me in the field during summer 1969 and winter 1970. While the major part of my stay was in Asmara and Massawa, I managed a few visits to some Tigre speaking areas. On arrival at Asmara I discovered that the Ethiopian Radio was broadcasting from there in Tigre, half an hour per evening. The three native speakers of Tigre responsible for these broadcasts became my first "informants. " One of them, Musse Bekit, a native of Galab, became my assistant and main "informant" during my stay in Ethiopia and proved of particular help in introducing me to members of his family and to further "informants. " Another of them, Legam Ishaq, a native of Mehlab, had previous experience of being an "informant" for Tigre and had worked in this capacity with F. R. Palmer during the early fifties. I collected further material by engaging in informal conversation, from people engaged in various jobs, such as waiters, doormen, etc. Finally I spent six days on the Red Sea, on a fishing boat, whose crew consisted almost entirely of native speakers of Tigre. This trip enabled me to gain access to material which would otherwise be very difficult to obtain. Since my first submitted account on the subject of Tigre grammar,12 I have had many opportunities to put it to test with the help of colleagues and students. I have also managed to go through a fairly large number of transcribed tapes from the collection I made in Eritrea, and chose some of these for the textual part of the book. I hope that the present work will serve as a useful work tool to the student of Tigre.
This work comprises two parts: the first part consists of a concise descriptive grammar of the Mansac dialect of the Tigre language; the second part contains a selection of new Tigre texts. The motive for the present work is the state of research of the Tigre language: practically none of the grammatical works of the earlier period of Tigre studies are of descriptive value to the student of Tigre, some of them now being linguistic curiosities of primarily historical value, while others were written by people who lacked the required skill of qualification for the task. Most of the credit for scholarly grammatical work on Tigre goes to E. Littmann, W. Leslau, and F. R. Palmer, the latter two having made the strongest impact in their endeavours to bring Tigre studies into the domain of mode linguistic research. W. Leslau's Short grammar of Tigre (1945) is the only valuable grammar of the language available. Leslau's treatise is mainly based on Littmann's Publications of the Princeton expedition to Abyssinia (1910-1915), vol. I, and on certain of Littmann's articles. Leslau made an attempt to supplement Ms work with fresh material. This he collected while on a short visit to Keren in Eritrea and published as Supplementary observations on Tigre grammar (1948). The only attempt to produce a comprehensive work on Tigre grammar, Grammatica della lingua tigre (Asmara 1919), is worthless to descriptive linguistics, since (a) the grammatical framework used is that of Italian, and (b) many features of the data given are foreign to the Tigre language. The scarcity of Tigre grammars is paralleled by a scarcity of Tigre texts. E. Littmann's Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia (1910-1915), the result of an expedition to Eritrea that he undertook in the autumn and winter of 1905/06 is still the best available collection of Tigre texts. Other texts of scholarly value were published by members of the Swedish Evangelical Mission in Eritrea. These are (a) folk tales, biblical tales, customs and rites, law, history of the Mansac people, medicines and diseases, poetry, a student reader, etc. , and (b) Bible translations. The most prominent text published in book form by the Swedish Mission is Kal^e Mansac "The two Mansa'. K. G. Roden, the head of the Missionary Station at Galab devoted a considerable period— between his arrival in Galab in 1890 and the publication of fol'e Mansac in 1913-to collecting material for the book. The Revd. G. R. Sundstrom was another member of the Swedish Mission whose contribution was significant. A contribution to the corpus of Tigre texts was also made by C. Conti Rossini who was helped in his work by members of the Swedish Mission. In the last fifty years only two scholarly contributions to the existing corpus of Tigre texts have been made, both published in 1961 but recorded at a much earlier period. These are: Tigre games° by W. Leslau which was recorded by him during his stay in Keren in 1947, and Ad Sek which was edited and prepared for publication by M. Hofner. The only valuable dictionary of Tigre in existence—E. Littmann's Worterbuch der Tigre-Sprache —incorporates most vocabularies and glossaries published previously. Littmann's Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia was the main text used, but almost all other published texts are represented as well. It also includes material produced by Sundstrom, Naffac wad'Etman, and others, which thus saw the light of publication for the first time in this dictionary. M. Hofner should be credited with most of the work of editing. The survey provided up to this point is intended as a general picture of the nature and scope of published material in Tigre. For a detailed bibliographical survey the reader is advised to consult with Leslau's The Semitic languages of Ehiopia}^ pp. 145-
164. Coming back to the present work, my intention has been to go beyond the existing corpus of texts in order to attempt a fresh treatment of Tigre grammar. The linguistic material was collected by me in the field during summer 1969 and winter 1970. While the major part of my stay was in Asmara and Massawa, I managed a few visits to some Tigre speaking areas. On arrival at Asmara I discovered that the Ethiopian Radio was broadcasting from there in Tigre, half an hour per evening. The three native speakers of Tigre responsible for these broadcasts became my first "informants. " One of them, Musse Bekit, a native of Galab, became my assistant and main "informant" during my stay in Ethiopia and proved of particular help in introducing me to members of his family and to further "informants. " Another of them, Legam Ishaq, a native of Mehlab, had previous experience of being an "informant" for Tigre and had worked in this capacity with F. R. Palmer during the early fifties. I collected further material by engaging in informal conversation, from people engaged in various jobs, such as waiters, doormen, etc. Finally I spent six days on the Red Sea, on a fishing boat, whose crew consisted almost entirely of native speakers of Tigre. This trip enabled me to gain access to material which would otherwise be very difficult to obtain. Since my first submitted account on the subject of Tigre grammar,12 I have had many opportunities to put it to test with the help of colleagues and students. I have also managed to go through a fairly large number of transcribed tapes from the collection I made in Eritrea, and chose some of these for the textual part of the book. I hope that the present work will serve as a useful work tool to the student of Tigre.