The Modern South Arabian Languages

Abstract

0.1. In the South of the Arabian Peninsula, in the Republic of the Yemen and in the Sultanate of Oman, live some 200,000 Arabs whose maternal language is not Arabic but one of the socalled Modern South Arabian Languagues (MSAL). This designation is very inconvenient because of the consequent ambiguity, but a more appropriate solution has not been found so far. Although there exists a very close relationship with other languages of the same Western South Semitic group, the MSAL are different enough from Arabic to make intercomprehension impossible between speakers of any of the MSAL and Arabic speakers. The MSAL exhibit many common features also with the Semitic languages of Ethiopia; their relationships with Epigraphic South Arabian (SahaydicLanguages, according to Beeston) remain a point of discussion. There are six MSAL: Mehri (=M), HarsVsi (=H), BaT©ari (=B), HobyOt (=Hb), Jibbsli (=J), SoqoTri (=S. As regards the number of speakers and the geographical extension, Mehri is the main language. It is spoken by the Mahra tribes (about 100,000 speakers) and some Beyt Kathir, in the mountains of Dhofar in Oman, and in the Yemen, in the far eastern Governorate, on the coast, between the border of Oman and the eastern bank of Wadi Masilah, and not in the Mukalla area, contrary to Johnstone's statement (1975:2); in the North-West of the Yemen, Mehri is spoken as far as Thamud, on the border of the Rubo al-Khali. The Yemenite Mehri speakers distinguish two groups among the Mehri dialects; they call the variety of Mehri spoken at the West of Ras Fartak [mehrIyIt], and [mehriyOt] the Mehri of the Sharqiya, the eastern area (including the Mehri of Dhofar). Johnstone (1975:2) quotes mIhrIyyIt as the name of the language in Dhofar, and makes a distinction between a southern Mehri dialect, including the Mehri of the Yemen, and a northern Mehri dialect (Dhofar Mehri). The Mahra inhabitants of the desert steppe of the Yemen, as well as in the mountains of Dhofar in Oman, are semi-nomads who breed camels, cows and goats. Some bedouins in the Yemen are owners of four-wheel drive cars which enable them to trade with other countries of the Peninsula, providing supplies for numerous shops in the coastal towns and villages of the Mahra. In the area of Qishn, bedouins cultivate palm-trees. H1©IrsnyIt] is spoken by the Harssis and the ‘Ifsr, in the area of Jiddat al-Harssis (north-east of Dhofar). The number of speakers was put at no more than 600 by Johnstone (1977:x), but this reckoning was made during the period when many Harssis had left their region to go and work in oil wells. Since then, the founding of the National park in Jiddat alHarssis provided employment and gave the possibility to many emigrants to come back, and thus putting off the danger of the disappearance of their language which was quite real in the seventies.