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Abstract

The present work is intended as a linguistic description of the Mansa' dialect of the Tigre language. The Introduction provides a survey of previously published material in the subject. Phonetics and Phonology (§ 1). / a / is counted among the vowel-phonemes (§ 1.3). e is excluded from the phonemic inventory: its role is in conserving the syllabic structure typical of Tigre. In order to describe the accentual system and the assimilation process, a basic arbitrary unit of measurement has been established (the 'stress unit', § 1.5). Its boundaries are subject to the sandhi habits of the language. Vowel variations are to be stated in terms of stress (§ 1.4), and assimilation to other vowels (§ 1.7), but also to consonants (§ 1,7.3 (e), (f)). The Morphology of the Noun (§ 2). Morphological and syntactic features necessary to the classification and analysis of the Tigre noun (§§2.1- 2.1.4) and basic forms which underlie the various types of formation (§§ 2.2-2.2.3) are given. Semantic categories which are, morphologically, suffixed derivatives of basic forms, are dealt with in §§ 2.6-2.6.5. Verbal formations which are, morphologically, nouns are treated in §§ 2.7-2.7.4. Pronominal suffixes in conjunction with nouns (§ 2.10) and the definite article (§ 2.11) conclude the chapter. Throughout the chapter a distinction is made between countable and uncountable nouns; the former occur in the singular and are statable lexically. Pronouns (§ 3). These form a heterogeneous group of words; some of them are lexical entities which are also used as pronouns. Tigre pronouns are not mutually exclusive as qualifiers (§ 3.8(iv)). The Morphology of the Verb (§ 5). The description of verb formation necessitates the recognition of four types of inflexion according to stem. These types of inflexion are referred to in this work as A, B, C, D,where type A, qatla, is taken as representing the 'simple' stem, the other types being qattala, qatala and qatatala. Verbs of each of the four types may occur with a preformative - prefixed to the stem of the verb. Such a preformative is functional in the system where it is a derivative of another co-existing verb-form. Compounds which function as verb-class members are treated in § 5.11. The Tigre language makes wide use of pronominal suffixes in conjunction with verbs. These take various phonemic shapes, but with each person a common element is encountered in all forms (§ 5.12). Nominal Sentences are encountered in Tigre in the case of those utterances which do not contain a finite verb or verb equivalent (§ 9.3). However, the relation between subject and predicate usually has a formal expression (§ 4.1). Linguistic forms which serve in the expression of Existence and Possession are treated in §§ 4.2 et seq, where lexical and idiomatic meanings of auxiliaries in tense-compounds are also given. The Tense System. There are three morphological categories of the Tigre verb: perfect, imperfect and jussive. The perfect and imperfect constitute the temporal category of indicative, while the jussive is a modal non-temporal category. The major distinction of category be-tween the perfect and imperfect can be seen in terms of the temporal contrast past (perfect forms)/non-past (imperfect forms). A detailed discussion of the various uses of the modal categories is provided in §§ 6.2-6.8.2. More specific time relations can be expressed by means of a complex. Three major syntactical structures are to be noted: (a) the imperfect form + halla, 'ala, canta and nabra (§§ 6.9-6.12.2), (b) the perfect form + halla, 'ala and (§§ 6.14-6.15.3), and (c) the participle form + halla, `ala and (§§6.16-6.16.5). In the case of (b), two different constructions are to be considered: (1) 'endo + perfect + auxiliary; (2) perfect + ka + auxiliary. The Numerals, the ordinal numbers which are morphologically particples, and the cardinal numbers,are described in § 7.