| Mehri | |
|---|---|
| مهريّت,Mahrīyyt | |
| Native to | Yemen,Oman |
| Region | South Arabia |
| Ethnicity | Mehri |
Native speakers | c. 190,000 in Yemen,c. 250,300 total (2024)[1] |
| Dialects | |
| Modified version of theArabic script | |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Mehri Language Centre for Studies and Research |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gdq |
| Glottolog | mehr1241 |
| ELP | Mehri |
.svg) | |
 Mehri is classified as "definitely endangered" by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger[3] | |
Mehri (endonym:مهريّت,romanized: Mahrīyyt) is aModern South Arabian language (MSAL) spoken primarily by theMehri tribes in theMahra Governorate ofYemen and theDhofar Governorate ofOman, as well as by smaller diaspora communities inSaudi Arabia,United Arab Emirates,Qatar andKuwait. It is the most spoken language of the MSAL group, a subgroup of theSemitic branch of theAfroasiatic family. It is one of six distinct languages within the MSAL group, which also includesShehri,Harsusi,Hobyot,Bathari, andSoqotri.
Mehri and its sister languages were spoken in the southernArabian Peninsula before the spread ofArabic along withIslam in the 7th century CE. Today it is also spoken by Mehri residents inArab states of the Persian Gulf originally from Yemen, as well as nationals with aYemeni heritage. Given the dominance of Arabic in the region over the past 1400 years and the frequent bilingualism with Arabic among Mehri speakers, Mehri is at some risk of extinction. Up to the 19th century, speakers lived as far north as the central part of Oman.[4] It is primarily a spoken language, with little existing vernacular literature and almost no literacy in written Mehri among native speakers.
Mahris consider 2 October to be the Mehri Language Day.[5]
Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani noted that "the Mahri speak a barbarous tongue like foreigners". Elsewhere, Hamdani showed extensive knowledge of Arabian dialects, each of which was rated in its distance from classical Arabic.[6]
Today, Mehri exists in two main dialects, Yemeni Mehri (also known as Southern Mehri) and Omani Mehri (also known as Dhofari Mehri and Nagd Mehri). Omani Mehri is spoken by a smaller population and shows no significant variation within itself, but Yemeni Mehri is further divided into western and eastern dialects.[7]
Unlike otherESSLs, Mehri 'emphatic' consonants are not simplyejectives. They may also bepharyngealized, as in Arabic, so it is possible for Mehri to attest to a transition from proto-Semitic ejective consonants to the pharyngealized emphatics that are found in manySemitic languages.[8]
The consonant inventory is as follows:
The vowel inventory is as follows:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː | uː | |
| Mid | eː | ə | oː |
| ɛ ɛː | |||
| Open | a aː |
Voiced obstruents, or at least voiced stops, devoice inpausa. In this position, both the voiced and emphatic stops areejective, losing the three-way contrast (/kʼ/ is ejective in all positions). Elsewhere, the emphatic and (optionally) the voiced stops arepharyngealized. Emphatic (but not voiced)fricatives have a similar pattern, and in non-pre-pausal position they are partially voiced.
The difference in place of the laterals is not clear. It may be that the approximant isdenti-alveolar, like the alveolarocclusives, and the lateral fricatives apical, or it may be that the latter are palato-alveolar oralveolo-palatal. The fricatives are typically transcribedś, etc.
/dʒ/ is only in Arabic loans. It is not clear if the rhotic is a trill or a tap.
The following are the personal pronouns of Mehri:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | hōh | kīh | nḥah | |
| 2nd person | MASC | hēt | tīh | tām |
| FEM | hīt | tān | ||
| 3rd person | MASC | hēh | hīh | hām |
| FEM | sēh | sān | ||
The following are the possessive suffix versions of those pronouns:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | -ī | -kī | -(a)n | |
| 2nd person | MASC | -(a)k | -kam | |
| FEM | -(a)š | -kan | ||
| 3rd person | MASC | -(a)h | -hī | -ham |
| FEM | -(a)s | -san | ||
The independent pronouns can also be placed after thegenitiveexponent (ð-) to convert them into possessive pronouns ("mine" etc).[10]
Mehri, like other Modern South Arabian languages, possesses a rich oral tradition, but not a written one.[11][12] There exist two main approaches to writing the language: using the standard Arabic alphabet or using a modified Arabic alphabet that contains additional letters to represent sounds unique to Mehri.[13]
The most common approach is using the unmodified Arabic alphabet. However, standard Arabic’s deficiencies with respect to ESS result in this approach representing multiple phonemes with the same letters. (Note that, in both Arabic and modified Arabic systems, the vowels are not explicitly differentiated, but are differentiated by the readers through context.)[13]
The modified Arabic alphabet has a few systems, none of which are standardized.[14][15][16] The most commonly used modified Arabic additional letters as documented in use (e.g., in text messages, email, etc.) by the Modern South Arabian Languages Centre at the University of Leeds;[17] a proposed set of additional letters for the Arabic alphabet to adapt it to be able to be a good systemic for writing ESS languages (including Mehri) by that same centre; and a separate set of additional letters proposed by Almahrah.net for the same purpose are given (along with IPA phonetic transcription and romanizations) in the columns of the table below.
| Romanization | IPA | Workaround letters[17][18] | Leeds proposed letters[17][18] | Almahrah.net proposed letters[15] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ś | ɬ | ث | پ | ڛ |
| ṣ̌ | ʃˤ | ض | ڞ | |
| ṯ̣ / ḏ̣ | θ̬ˤ~θʼ | ظ | ڟ | |
| ź | ɬ̬ˤ~ɬ̠ʼ~ʒ | ذ | چ /ڌ | چ |
| g | ɡ | ج | ||
| ḳ | kʼ | ق | ||
| ē / ɛ̄ | ɛ(ː) | ي | ێ | |
| Official language | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main foreign language | ||
| Minority languages | ||
| Varieties of Arabic | ||
| Sign languages | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
