Tigre ( tigre or tigrē), better known in Eritrea by its autonym Tigrayit (), is an Eritrean Semitic language spoken in the Horn of Africa. It belongs to the Semitic branch and is primarily spoken by the Tigre people in Eritrea. Along with Tigrinya, it is believed to be the most closely related living language to Ge'ez, which is still in use as the liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Tigre has a lexical similarity of 71% with Ge’ez and of 64% with Tigrinya. As of 1997, Tigre was spoken by approximately 800,000 Tigre people in Eritrea. The Tigre mainly inhabit western Eritrea, though they also reside in the northern highlands of Eritrea and its extension into the adjacent part of Sudan, as well as Eritrea's Red Sea coast north of Zula. The Tigre people are not to be confused with their neighbors to the south, the Tigrinya people of Eritrea and the Tigrayans of Ethiopia, who speak Tigrinya. Tigrinya is also derived from the parent Geʽez tongue, but is quite distinct from Tigre despite the similarity in name. Dialects There are several dialects of Tigre, some of them are; Mansa’ (Mensa), Habab, Barka, Semhar, Algeden, Senhit (Ad-Tekleis, Ad-Temariam, Bet-Juk, Marya Kayah, Maria Tselam) and Dahalik, which is spoken in Dahlak archipelago. Intelligibility between the dialects is above 91% (except Dahalik), where intelligibility between Dahalik and the other dialects is between 24% to 51%. Numeral Cardinal Numbers 1. ḥate ሐተ or ḥante ሐንተ (f); አሮ 'aro (m) 2. kili’ē ክልኤ 3. sel'ās ሰለአስ 4. 'arbaʽe አርበዕ 5. ḥams ሐምስ or ḥamus ሐሙስ 6. si'es ስእስ or sus ሱስ 7. sebuʽi ሰቡዕ 8. seman ሰመን 9. siʽe ሰዕ 10.ʽasir ዐስር 11.ʽasir-hatte ዐስር-ሐተ 12.ʽasir-kil'e ዐስር-ክልኤ ... 20. ʽisra ዕስረ 21. ʽisra w ḥate ዕስረ ወሐተ 22. ʽisra w kili’ē ዕስረ ወክልኤ ... 30. selasa ሰለሰ 31. selasa w ḥate ሰለሰ ወሐተ ... 40. arbaʽa አርበዐ 41. arbaʽa w ḥate አርበዐ ወሐተ ... 50. ḥamsa ሐምሰ 51. ḥamsa w ḥate ሐምሰ ወሐተ ... 100. mi'et ምእት 200. kil'e miʽet ክልኤ ምእት 300. seles miʽet ሰለአስ ምእት ... 1000. 'alf አልፍ Ordinal Numbers Ordinal numbers have both feminine and masculine form. The gender-neutral ordinal numbers are described in the section below. To describe the masculine form –“ay” is added and respective -ayt to describe the feminine form. 1st አወል awel: አወላይ/አወላይት awelay/awelayit (m/f) or ቀዳም q’edam :