South Arabian

South Arabian is a technical designation within Semitic linguistics for one of two main branches of South Semitic. (The other branch, Ethiopian, covers all South Semitic languages spoken on the African continent.) Geographically, the term "South Arabian'" covers South Semitic languages spoken on the southern Arabian peninsula in modern Yemen and Oman and the island of Soqotra, part of Yemen - i.e. those not found in Africa. All the contemporary South Arabian languages are spoken by tiny populations under constant pressure from the dominant position of Arabic in the surrounding populations. Literacy in these languages among native speakers is practically nil.

Related Topics:
Semitic - South Semitic - Ethiopian - Arabian peninsula - Yemen - Oman - Soqotra - Arabic

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Old South Arabian, though little heard of today, was the language of the great civilizations of South Arabia (e.g. Sheba and Merib) with a written form of the language found on rock inscriptions showing it to be the forerunner of the modern Ethiopic alphabet still in use in Ethiopia.

Related Topics:
Old South Arabian - Sheba - Merib - Ethiopic alphabet - Ethiopia

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Of the Modern South Arabian languages, Mehri is the largest with 70,643 speakers in Yemen, 50,763 in Oman, and 14,358 farther afield due to emigration in Kuwait. Population total for all countries is 135,764 (SIL 2000). The Muslim ethnic goup itself is called Mahra.

Related Topics:
Modern South Arabian - Mehri - Yemen - Oman - Kuwait - Mahra

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Soqotri is another relatively numerous example, with speakers on the island of Soqotra isolated from the pressures of Arabic on the mainland. According to the 1990 census in Yemen, the number of speakers there was 57,000 (including, perhaps, Soqotris living on the mainland). The population total for all countries (including work emigrants) is estimated at 64,000.

Related Topics:
Soqotri - Soqotra - Yemen

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Shehri, with an estimated 25,000 speakers, is best known as the language of the rebels during the rebellion in Oman's Dhofar province along the Yemeni border in the 1970s.

Related Topics:
Shehri - Oman - Dhofar

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