The Modern South Arabian languages, also known as Eastern South Semitic languages, are a group of endangered languages spoken by small populations inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen (including Socotra) and Oman. Together with the Ethiosemitic and Sayhadic languages, the Western branch, they form the South Semitic sub-branch of the Afroasiatic language family's Semitic branch.

Mehri and Hobyot are spoken in both Yemen and Oman. Soqotri is only spoken in the Yemeni archipelago of Socotra, and the Harsusi, Bathari, and Shehri languages are only spoken in Oman. They are no longer considered to be descendants of the Old South Arabian language, as was once thought, but instead "nephews".

Languages

  • Mehri: It is the largest Modern South Arabian language. As of 2024, there are about 250,300 speakers of this language, 190,000 of whom live in Yemen. The language is spoken by the Mehri people.
  • Shehri: also called Jibbali, meaning "of the Mountains", is spoken in the Dhofar Governorate of Oman, with an estimated 10–30,000 speakers; it was used by the revolutionaries during the Dhofar Rebellion along the border with Yemen in the 1960s and 1970s.
  • Harsusi: under 1,000 speakers in the Jiddat al-Harasis of Oman.

Semiticists are nearly unanimous in the opinion that Proto-Semitic contained three plain sibilants, referred to by the shorthand *s1, *s2, and *s3, and confusing also as š, ś, and s. The realizations of these phonemes in earlier times is debated, these three plain sibilants have been preserved in Mehri and Shehri, on the other hand in Arabic and merged into Arabic and became Arabic .

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="2" |Proto-Semitic

!Soqotri

!Mehri

!Shehri (Jibbali)

! colspan="2" |Standard Arabic

|-

!s₁ (š)

!

|<br />(<small>sometimes</small> , )

|<br />(<small>sometimes</small> )

|,

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" |<big></big>

|-

!s₃ (s)

!

| colspan="3" |

|-

!s₂ (ś)

!

| colspan="3" |

|

|<big></big>

|-

!ṣ́

!

| colspan="3" |

|

|<big></big>

|-

!ṯ̣

!

|

| colspan="2" |

|

|<big></big>

|-

!ṯ

!

|

| colspan="3" |

|<big></big>

|-

!ḏ

!

|

| colspan="3" |

|<big></big>

|}

Origins

Militarev identified a Cushitic substratum in Modern South Arabian, which he proposes is evidence that Cushitic speakers originally inhabited the Arabian Peninsula alongside Semitic speakers (Militarev 1984, 18–19; cf. also Belova 2003). According to Václav Blažek, this suggests that Semitic peoples assimilated their original Cushitic neighbours to the south who did not later emigrate to the Horn of Africa. He argues that the Levant would thus have been the Proto-Afro-Asiatic Urheimat, from where the various branches of the Afro-Asiatic family subsequently dispersed. To further support this, Blažek cites analysis of rock art in Central Arabia by Anati (1968, 180–84), which notes a connection between the shield-carrying "oval-headed" people depicted on the cave paintings and the Arabian Cushites from the Old Testament, who were similarly described as carrying specific shields.

Reconstruction

Proto-Modern South Arabian reconstructions by Roger Blench (2019):

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Gloss !! singular !! plural

|-

| one || *tʕaad, *tʕiit ||

|-

| two || *ṯrooh, *ṯereṯ ||

|-

| three || *ʃahṯayt ||

|-

| four || *ʔorbaʕ, *raboot ||

|-

| five || *xəmmoh ||

|-

| six || m. *ʃɛɛt, f. *ʃətəət ||

|-

| seven || m. *ʃoobeet, f. *ʃəbət ||

|-

| eight || m. θəmoonit, f. θəmoonit ||

|-

| nine || m. *saʕeet, f. *saaʕet ||

|-

| ten || m. *ʕɔ́ɬər, f. *ʕəɬiireet ||

|-

| head || *ḥəəreeh ||

|-

| eye || *ʔaayn || *ʔaayəəntən

|-

| ear || *ʔeyðeen || *ʔiðānten

|-

| nose || *nəxreer || *nəxroor

|-

| mouth || *xah || *xwuutən

|-

| hair || *ɬəfeet || *ɬéef

|-

| hand/arm || *ḥayd || *ḥaadootən

|-

| leg || *faaʕm || *fʕamtən

|-

| foot || *géedəl || *(ha-)gdool

|-

| blood || *ðoor || *ðiiriín

|-

| breast || *θɔɔdɛʔ || *θədií

|-

| belly || *hóofəl || *hefool

|-

| sea || *rɛ́mrəm || *roorəm

|-

| path, road || *ḥóorəm || *ḥiiraám

|-

| mountain || *kərmām || *kərəəmoom

|-

| rock, stone || *ṣar(fét) || *ṣeref

|-

| rock, stone || *ṣəwər(fet) || *ṣəfáyr

|-

| rock, stone || *ʔoobən ||

|-

| rock, stone || *fúdún ||

|-

| fish || *ṣódəh || *ṣyood

|-

| hyena || *θəbiiriin ||

|-

| turtle || *ḥameseh || *ḥoms(tə)

|-

| louse || *kenemoot || *kenoom

|-

| man || *ɣayg || *ɣəyuug

|-

| woman || *teeθ ||

|-

| male child || *ɣeg ||

|-

| child || *mber ||

|-

| water || *ḥəmooh ||

|-

| fire || *ɬəweeṭ || *ɬewṭeen

|-

| milk || *ɬxoof || *ɬxefən

|-

| salt || *məɮḥɔ́t ||

|-

| night || *ʔaṣeer || *leyli

|-

| day || *ḥəyoomet || PWMSA *yiim

|-

| net || PWMSA *liix || *leyuux

|-

| wind || *mədenut || *medáyten

|-

| I, we || *hoh || *nəhan

|-

| you, m. || *heet || *ʔəteem

|-

| you, f. || *hiit || *ʔeteen

|-

| he, they m. || *heh || *həəm

|-

| she, they f. || *seeh || *seen

|}

References

Bibliography

  • The Modern South Arabian Languages , by M.C.Simeone-Senelle