u/BeteSemati

Although all are apart of the same 'Northern' branch of Ethio-Semitic, Tigre presents to us a few differences when compared to Ge'ez & Tigrinya. First we identify that whilst Ge'ez used both gendered forms for its numerals, the modern equivalents only use one or the other.

• Ge'ez: masculine & feminine forms
• Tigrinya: masculine form dominant
• Tigre: feminine form dominant

As Semitic languages tend to use masculine form cardinals as the 'main' numbers (even though #3-10 are gender polarized, feminine forms), Tigrinya seems to have the logical evolutionary pattern here. As all its cardinals are in masculine form. With the exception of the feminine cardinal #1 (ḥanti ሓንቲ), which is in both Tigrinya & Tigre.

Even so, knowing what we know about feminine form numerals in Semitic languages, we still see a few oddities in the Tigre language, that seem to be later innovations that happened independent of Ge'ez & Tigrinya.

These differences, can be compiled into a highland/lowland split when considering numerical evolution of North Ethio-Semitic languages. As a result, the modern Tigrinya & Tigre languages, have their current numerals due to their respective evolutionary phases, which I have identified below.

• North Ethio-Semitic
  • Highland evolutionary phase [Ge'ez & Tigrinya]
  • Lowland evolutionary phase [Tigre]

Here, I've identified the aspects of both evolutionary phases;

1. Highland Evolutionary Path [Ge'ez & Tigrinya]
   1. Uses both gendered forms [Ge'ez only]
   2. retains the archaic form *səds- for it's cardinal numbers (only elsewhere seen in Akkadian & Sabaic).
   3. Ge'ez & Tigrinya therefore have 2 feminine form number 6s (səs ስስ & səds ስድስ) & two forms for number 60 (səsa ስሳ & sədsa ስድሳ).
   4. In my previous article we discussed how sədsa ስድሳ, is likely the original.
   5. Tigrinya is masculine dominant
   6. Tigrinya observes consonantal shift between š (ሸ) & s (ሰ) from numbers 5-9
   7. Tigrinya lost the glottal sound within number 2
   8. Amharic influence had weakened the of labial /b/ (በ) to /w/ (ወ) in number 7
   9. number seven (7) säbʕätu ሰብዐቱ » old Tigrinya: šebʕate ሸብዓተ » Tigrinya: šewʕate ሸውዓተ
   10. for a similar phenomenon, view the word for ‘people’ in; Ge'ez: sebat (ሰባት), Amharic: sewoč ሰዎች
2. Lowland Evolutionary Path [Tigre]
   1. Tigre is feminine dominant
   2. Tigre has lost the t- prefix in number 9 (siʕə ሰዕ)
   3. Tigre has created a unique number 90, from the new number 90 (səʕa ስዓ)
   4. Tigre retains the original number 90, with the t- prefix that is seen in both Ge'ez & Tigrinya, but doesn’t have the corresponding digit (#9) form.
   5. This shows us a split in the evolutionary path. At some point Tigre abandoned the t- prefix, but retained other aspects of the language that still had the t- prefix, such as the original number 90.
   6. Tigre uses both genders for number 2, but Ge'ez & Tigrinya only use one gender (feminine). Tigre must then have either;
   7. Retained an extremely archaic gender polarized #2 *kil- form that no other Ethio-Semitic language (not even Ge'ez) retained.
   8. Gender polarized the feminine form cardinal into the masculine form, similar to what happened with numbers 3-10. It’s possible this form was related to the ordinal form (2nd - kalʔay ካልኣይ), which is used and found in all 3 languages. But this masculine form Tigre uses is unique to it.
   9. Tigre does not retain the original *səds- form in it’s cardinal numbers. (Tigre # 6 - səs ስስ), but it does retain this form in it’s ordinal numbers (Tigre 6th - sadsay ሳድሳይ). The loss of the -d- in this root is an innovation not a retention.
   10. Tigre has never before seen numbers for cardinal number 1, that is not seen in either Ge'ez or Tigrinya. This number is used for masculine cardinal #1 in Tigre, yet has both a masculine & feminine form.
   11. masculine (masculine) cardinal 1 (Tigre) - woro ዎሮ
   12. masculine (feminine) cardinal 1 (Tigre) - worot ዎሮት
   13. Tigre has added a glottal stop within its number 3, but did not add one within its number 30 (#3 sälʔas ሰለአስ » #30 säläsä ሰለሰ)
   14. Common to both sides, is the use of the epenthesized form for the feminine number 1 ḥanti ሓንቲ, and the loss of the alep prefix.

Please read my full article about this topic on my Substack

Thank you

Although the popular opinion from linguists of the 18th & 19th Centuries was to generally considered Ge’ez (& MSA) as descendants of Sabaic (Sayhadic in general), this opinion began to shift around the 1970s, and was clearly ruled out by the mid 1990s through the works of German linguist Norbert Nebes (1994).

Through his work, Nebes identified a verb class used in both Ge’ez (Ethio-Semitic family in general), & Modern South Arabian languages that is a conservative Semitic feature. The only other language that uses this class is Akkadian (East Semitic in general), whilst Sabaic, Arabic & Hebrew lacked this verb class. Showing us that an innovation occurred, likely after the ancestors of Akkadian, Modern South Arabian & Ge’ez had split from the Ancestral Semitic language at that time.

Another feature that is unique to these 3 Semitic branches, that likely represents conservative linguistic feature prior to innovation, is the use of the plural feminine form suffix to form tens numerals. Following gender polarity for numbers 3-10 in Semitic languages, the feminine form cardinal (masculine form numeral) is then used as a base to form its respective 10s numeral.

This suffix is observed as -a in both Ge’ez & Akkadian. Here is an example of how a tens numeral is made in these two languages, using #3 -> #30.

Akkadian # 3 šalāš + -a (fem. suffix) = # 30 šalāša
Ge’ez #3 śälas ሠላስ + -a (fem. suffix) = #30 śälasa ሠላሳ

Semitic languages either use feminine form, or masculine form suffixes to create their 10s. The only language branches that use feminine form suffixes are the 3 prior mentioned Semitic branches:

1. Akkadian (East & Old Semitic)
2. Modern South Arabian (West & Middle Semitic)
3. Ge’ez (West & Middle Semitic)

The remaining Semitic languages (Arabic, Sabaic, Hebrew…) all use masculine form suffixes, and are all West & Late Semitic languages. We should point out that in various MSA languages, masculine form suffixes have been adopted via Arabic influence, rendering Ge’ez & Akkadian as the purest forms of the initial feminine form 10s numerals in elder Semitic branches.

It’s interesting to note, that the traditional East-West Semitic branching, once again becomes hazy when we discuss Ethio-Semitic & Modern South Arabian languages. Who don’t seem to fit in with the other West Semitic languages, or the East Semitic languages, or even with each other. Yet again, another strictly conservative feature in Semitic is only observed in East Semitic, MSA, & Ge’ez.

Whatever the origin of Ge’ez is, it has a different origin than Sabaic (after the diversification of Semitic languages). Sabaic seems to have more relation to Arabic, whilst Ge’ez & MSA languages seem to have a more common origin than they do with Sabaic.

This once again, emphasizes the independence of the Ge’ez (Ethio-Semitic) language family amongst the Semitic languages, and invalidates any grouping of “South Semitic languages”.

Ge’ez, MSA, & Sayhadic are all independent branches of Semitic.

To see more, please read my article on Substack.