Editing Tigrinya language (section)

== Phonology ==
For the representation of Tigrinya sounds, this article uses a modification of a system that is common (though not universal) among linguists who work on [[Ethiopian Semitic languages]], but differs somewhat from the conventions of the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]].

=== Consonant phonemes ===
Tigrinya has a fairly typical set of phonemes for an Ethiopian Semitic language. That is, there is a set of [[ejective consonant]]s and the usual seven-vowel system. Unlike many of the modern Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya has preserved the two [[pharyngeal consonant]]s which were apparently part of the ancient [[Geʽez language]] and which, along with {{IPAblink|xʼ}}, voiceless [[velar ejective fricative]] or voiceless [[uvular ejective fricative]], make it easy to distinguish spoken Tigrinya from related languages such as Amharic, though not from Tigre, which has also maintained the [[pharyngeal consonant]]s.

The charts below show the phonemes of Tigrinya. The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. When the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbol is different, the orthography is indicated in brackets.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ [[Consonant]]s
|-
! rowspan="2" colspan="2"|
! rowspan="2" |[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br>[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]/<br />[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" |[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Pharyngeal consonant|Pharyngeal]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! <small>Plain</small>
! <small>[[Labialization|Lab.]]</small>
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|m}}
|{{IPA link|n}}
|{{IPA link|ɲ}} {{grapheme|ñ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
!rowspan="3"|[[Plosive]]
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiceless]]</small>
|{{IPA link|p}}
|{{IPA link|t}}
|{{IPA link|tʃ}} {{grapheme|č}}
|{{IPA link|k}}
|{{IPA link|kʷ}}
|
|{{IPA link|ʔ}} {{grapheme|’}}
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|{{IPA link|b}}
|{{IPA link|d}}
|{{IPA link|dʒ}} {{grapheme|ǧ}}
|{{IPA link|ɡ}}
|{{IPA link|ɡʷ}}
|
|
|-
!<small>[[Ejective consonant|ejective]]</small>
|{{IPA link|pʼ}} {{grapheme|p̣}}
|{{IPA link|tʼ}} {{grapheme|ṭ}}
|{{IPA link|tʃʼ}} {{grapheme|č̣}}
|{{IPA link|kʼ}} {{grapheme|q}}
|{{IPA link|kʷʼ}} {{grapheme|qʷ}}
|
|
|-
!rowspan="3"|[[Fricative]]
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiceless]]</small>
|{{IPA link|f}}
|{{IPA link|s}}
|{{IPA link|ʃ}} {{grapheme|š}}
|{{IPA link|x}}{{efn|name=x_allophones|The [[fricative]] sounds {{IPA|[x]}}, {{IPA link|[xʷ]}}, {{IPA|[xʼ]}} and {{IPA link|[xʷʼ]}} occur as [[#Allophones|allophones]] of the corresponding velar plosives.}} {{grapheme|ḵ}}
|{{IPA link|xʷ}}{{efn|name=x_allophones}} {{grapheme|ḵʷ}}
|{{IPA link|ħ}} {{grapheme|ḥ}}
|{{IPA link|h}}
|-
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|{{IPA link|v}}{{efn|The consonant /v/ occurs only in recent borrowings from European languages.}}
|{{IPA link|z}}
|{{IPA link|ʒ}} {{grapheme|ž}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|ʕ}} {{grapheme|{{ayin}}}}
|
|-
!<small>[[Ejective consonant|ejective]]</small>
|
|{{IPA link|tsʼ}} {{grapheme|ṣ}}
|
|{{IPA link|xʼ}}{{efn|name=x_allophones}} {{grapheme|q̱}}
|{{IPA link|xʷʼ}}{{efn|name=x_allophones}} {{grapheme|q̱ʷ}}
|
|
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Approximant]]
|
|{{IPA link|l}}
|{{IPA link|j}} {{grapheme|y}}
|
|{{IPA link|w}}
|
|
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
|{{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|
|
|}
{{notelist}}

=== Vowel phonemes ===
The sounds are shown using the same system for representing the sounds as in the rest of the article. When the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbol is different, the orthography is indicated in brackets.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+[[Vowel]]s<ref>{{cite journal |last=Buckley |first=E. |year=1994 |title=Tigrinya vowel features and vowel coalescence |journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=2}}</ref>
|-
!
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[Close vowel|Close]]
|{{IPA link|i}}
|{{IPA link|ɨ}} {{grapheme|ə}}
|{{IPA link|u}}
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|{{IPA link|e}}
|{{IPA link|ɐ}} {{grapheme|ä}}
|{{IPA link|o}}
|-
![[Open vowel|Open]]
|
|{{IPA link|a}}
|
|}

=== Gemination ===
[[Consonant length|Gemination]], the doubling of a consonantal sound, is meaningful in Tigrinya, i.e. it affects the meaning of words. While gemination plays an important role in the morphology of the Tigrinya verb, it is normally accompanied by other marks. But there is a small number of pairs of words which are only differentiable from each other by gemination, e.g. {{IPA|/kʼɐrrɐbɐ/}}, ({{gloss|he brought forth}}); {{IPA|/kʼɐrɐbɐ/}}, ({{gloss|he came closer}}). All consonants, with the exception of the [[Pharyngeal consonant|pharyngeal]] and [[glottal consonant|glottal]] ones, can be geminated.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last=Rehman |first=Abdel |title=English Tigrigna Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Tigrinya Language |location=Asmara |publisher=Simon Wallenberg Press |chapter=Introduction Pages to the Tigrinya Language |date=18 February 2024 |isbn=978-1-84356-006-7}}</ref>

=== Allophones ===
The [[velar consonant|velar]] consonants {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/kʼ/}} are pronounced differently when they appear immediately after a vowel and are not [[gemination|geminated]]. In these circumstances, {{IPA|/k/}} is pronounced as a velar [[fricative consonant|fricative]]. {{IPA|/kʼ/}} is pronounced as a fricative, or sometimes as an [[affricate consonant|affricate]]. This fricative or affricate is more often pronounced further back, in the [[uvular consonant|uvular]] place of articulation (although it is represented in this article as {{IPA|[xʼ]}}). All of these possible realizations – [[velar ejective fricative]], [[uvular ejective fricative]], [[velar ejective affricate]] and [[uvular ejective affricate]] – are cross-linguistically very rare sounds.

Since these two sounds are completely conditioned by their environments, they can be considered [[allophone]]s of {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/kʼ/}}. This is especially clear from verb roots in which one consonant is realized as one or the other allophone depending on what precedes it. For example, for the verb meaning {{gloss|cry}}, which has the triconsonantal root √b-k-y, there are forms such as {{lang|ti|ምብካይ}} {{IPA|/məbkaj/}} ({{gloss|to cry}}) and {{lang|ti|በኸየ}} {{IPA|/bɐxɐjɐ/}} ({{gloss|he cried}}), and for the verb meaning {{gloss|steal}}, which has the triconsonantal root √s-r-kʼ, there are forms such as {{lang|ti|ይሰርቁ}} {{IPA|/jəsɐrkʼu/}} ({{gloss|they steal}}) and {{lang|ti|ይሰርቕ}} {{IPA|/jəsɐrrəxʼ/}} ({{gloss|he steals}}).

What is especially interesting about these pairs of phones is that they are distinguished in Tigrinya orthography. Because allophones are completely predictable, it is quite unusual for them to be represented with distinct symbols in the written form of a language.

=== Syllables ===
A Tigrinya syllable may consist of a consonant-vowel or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence. When three consonants (or one geminated consonant and one simple consonant) come together within a word, the cluster is broken up with the introduction of an [[epenthesis|epenthetic]] vowel {{transliteration|ti|-ə-}}, and when two consonants (or one geminated consonant) would otherwise end a word, the vowel {{transliteration|ti|-i}} appears after them, or (when this happens because of the presence of a suffix) {{transliteration|ti|-ə-}} is introduced before the suffix.
For example,

{|class=wikitable
!Root
! {{lang|ti|ከብድ}} √k-b-d
! {{lang|ti|ልብ}} √l-b-b
|-
!{{lang|ti|-ኢ}} {{transliteration|ti|-i}} {{gloss|∅}}
|{{lang|ti|ከብዲ}} {{transliteration|ti|käbdi}} {{gloss|stomach}}
|{{lang|ti|ልቢ}} {{transliteration|ti|ləbbi}} {{gloss|heart}}
|-
!{{lang|ti|-አይ}} {{transliteration|ti|-äy}} {{gloss|my}}
|{{lang|ti|ከብደይ}} {{transliteration|ti|käbdäy}} {{gloss|my stomach}}
|{{lang|ti|ልበይ}} {{transliteration|ti|ləbbäy}} {{gloss|my heart}}
|-
!{{lang|ti|-ካ}} {{transliteration|ti|-ka}} {{gloss|your (masc.)}}
|{{lang|ti|ከብድኻ}} {{transliteration|ti|käbdəxa}} {{gloss|your (masc.) stomach}}
|{{lang|ti|ልብኻ}} {{transliteration|ti|ləbbəxa}} {{gloss|your (masc.) heart}}
|-
!{{lang|ti|-ን…-ን}} {{transliteration|ti|-n… -n}} {{gloss|and}}
|colspan="2"|{{lang|ti|ከብድን ልብን}} {{transliteration|ti|käbdən ləbbən}} {{gloss|stomach and heart}}
|}

Stress is neither contrastive nor particularly salient in Tigrinya. It seems to depend on gemination, but it has apparently not been systematically investigated.