Semitic Cognates In Tigrinya

The Semitic languages belong to a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (including Somali, Hausa, Oromo, Aramaic, etc.). Tigrinya belongs to the wide African Semitic (Afro-Semitic) branch, specifically the Northern Afro-Semitic branch. It's closely related, if not a descendant of the Ge'ez language (the oldest attested Afro-Semitic language). With 9.85M speakers (as of 2020), it's primarily spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Written in the Ge'ez alphabet, like Amharic or Tigre, the Ge'ez alphabet is an abugida: A script where a base letter has a diacritic or modification which represents a vowel.

ex. ከ [kɐ] -> ኩ [ku], ኪ [ki], ካ [ka], ኬ [ke], ክ [kɨ]/[k], ኮ [ko]

Cognates: Words that share the same etymology (or words that come from the same root). Cognates don't share the same word forms as each other, but the similarities are there if you look for it.

Ex. "More" Italian: Più - Piedmontese: Pì , both deriving from Latin "Plus."

Here are a few cognates Tigrinya shares with other Semitic languages:

All - ኩሉ ['kulu] (Amharic: ሁሉም ['hulum], Syriac: ܟܠ ['kul], Maltese: Kull ['kul:])

Water - ማይ ['maj] (Arabic: ماء ['mæʔ], Hebrew: מַיִם ['majm], Maltese: Ilma ['ɪlma])

Hand - ኢድ ['id] (Amharic: እጅ ['ʔɨdʒ:], Hebrew: יד ['jad], Maltese: Id ['i:t])

Three - ሰለስተ [se'leste] (Arabic: ثلاثة [θæ'læ:θæ], Hebrew: שָׁלוֹשׁ [ʃa'loʃ])

Sky - ሰማይ ['semaj] (Amharic: ስማይ ['səmaj], Syriac: ܫܡܝܐ ['ʃmaj:ɑʔ])

Eagle - ንስሪ ['nɨsri] (Hebrew: נֶשֶׁר ['ne.ʃeʁ], Syriac: ܢܫܪܐ ['neʃɾɑʔ], Ge'ez/Amharic: ንስር ['nɨsr])