The structure of Mehri

To James

Contents

Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... XXIII

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... XXVII

0 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1

0.1 Background ................................................................................. 1 0.1.1 Modern South Arabian ................................................................ 1 0.1.2 Background to the study .............................................................. 1 0.2 The study ..................................................................................... 3 0.3 Data sources ................................................................................ 5 0.4 Language consultants .................................................................. 5 0.4.1 Mahriyōt speakers ....................................................................... 5 0.4.2 Mehreyyet speakers ..................................................................... 6 0.5 Data collection and methodology ................................................ 6 0.5.1 Presentation of data ..................................................................... 7 0.6 Texts ............................................................................................ 8

1 Overview of phonetics and phonology .............................................................. 10

1.1 The melody ................................................................................. 10 1.1.1 Consonants .................................................................................. 10 1.1.1.1 Description of the consonants ..................................................... 12 1.1.1.2 Phonological patterning of the ‘emphatics’ ................................. 14 1.1.1.3 Gemination .................................................................................. 17 1.1.1.3.1 Lexical geminates........................................................................ 17 1.1.1.3.2 Phonologically motivated gemination ......................................... 17 1.1.1.3.3 Morphologically motivated gemination ...................................... 19 1.1.2 Vowels ........................................................................................ 22 1.1.2.1 Short vowels ................................................................................ 22 1.1.2.2 Long vowels ................................................................................ 24 1.1.2.3 Diphthongs and diphthongisation ................................................ 28 1.2 Prosodic phenomena ................................................................... 33 1.2.1 Syllable structure ......................................................................... 33 1.2.2 Phonotactics ................................................................................ 33 1.2.3 Word stress .................................................................................. 34 1.2.3.1 Exceptions to the stress algorithm ............................................... 34 1.3 Phonological processes ............................................................... 35 1.3.1 Melodic processes ....................................................................... 35 1.3.1.1 /l/ vocalisation in Mehreyyet ....................................................... 35

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1.3.1.2 /r/ deletion in Mehreyyet ............................................................. 38 1.3.2 Prosodic processes....................................................................... 38 1.3.2.1 Syncope ....................................................................................... 38 1.3.2.2 Epenthesis ................................................................................... 38 1.3.2.3 Long-vowel shortening ............................................................... 39 1.3.2.4 Degemination .............................................................................. 42 1.3.2.5 *V–V reduction ........................................................................... 42 1.3.2.6 Coronal elision ............................................................................ 43 1.3.2.7 Syllable contact and sonorant metathesis .................................... 43 1.3.2.8 Pre-pausal glottalisation .............................................................. 44

2 Grammatical categories ..................................................................................... 47

2.1 Grammatical and morphological categories ................................ 47 2.2 Non-concatenative and concatenative morphology ..................... 48 2.3 Nouns .......................................................................................... 53 2.3.1 Proper nouns ................................................................................ 54 2.3.1.1 Personal names ............................................................................ 54 2.3.1.2 Tribe names ................................................................................. 55 2.3.1.3 Place names ................................................................................. 55 2.3.1.4 Names of months ......................................................................... 56 2.3.1.5 Names of stars ............................................................................. 56 2.3.1.6 Camel lines .................................................................................. 57 2.3.2 Common nouns ........................................................................... 57 2.3.2.1 Concrete nouns ............................................................................ 58 2.3.2.1.1 Count nouns ................................................................................ 58 2.3.2.1.2 Collective nouns .......................................................................... 60 2.3.2.1.3 Mass nouns .................................................................................. 60 2.3.3 Abstract nouns ............................................................................. 61 2.3.4 Diminutive nouns ........................................................................ 62 2.3.5 Definiteness ................................................................................. 63 2.4 Pronouns ...................................................................................... 65 2.4.1 Personal pronouns ....................................................................... 65 2.4.1.1 Independent pronouns ................................................................. 66 2.4.1.2 Dependent pronouns .................................................................... 67 2.4.1.2.1 (a)-type pronouns ........................................................................ 68 2.4.1.2.2 (b)-type pronouns ........................................................................ 70 2.4.1.2.3 (c)-type pronouns ........................................................................ 74 2.4.2 Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns .............................................. 77 2.4.3 Indefinite pronouns ..................................................................... 78 2.4.4 Demonstrative pronouns ............................................................. 79 2.4.4.1 Diminutive demonstrative pronouns ........................................... 80 2.4.5 Interrogative pronouns ................................................................ 80

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2.5 Verbs ........................................................................................... 81 2.5.1 True verbs ................................................................................... 82 2.5.1.1 Verb stems ................................................................................... 82 2.5.1.2 Terminology ................................................................................ 82 2.5.1.3 Aspect and mood ......................................................................... 84 2.5.1.3.1 Perfect aspect .............................................................................. 84 2.5.1.3.2 Imperfect aspect and mood ......................................................... 86 2.5.1.3.2.1 Indicative ..................................................................................... 86 2.5.1.3.2.2 Subjunctive .................................................................................. 89 2.5.1.3.2.3 Conditional .................................................................................. 91 2.5.1.4 Voice ........................................................................................... 92 2.5.1.5 The expression of time ................................................................ 93 2.5.2 Future participle .......................................................................... 98 2.5.3 Valency ....................................................................................... 100 2.6 Modifiers ..................................................................................... 103 2.6.1 Adjectives .................................................................................... 103 2.6.1.1 Basic declinable adjectives .......................................................... 105 2.6.1.2 Diminutive adjectives .................................................................. 106 2.6.1.3 Undeclinable adjectives............................................................... 107 2.6.1.4 Elatives ........................................................................................ 107 2.6.2 Non-numerical quantifiers........................................................... 109 2.6.3 Numerical quantifiers .................................................................. 109 2.6.3.1 Cardinals ..................................................................................... 109 2.6.3.2 Ordinals ....................................................................................... 112 2.6.3.3 Fractions ...................................................................................... 113 2.7 Prepositions ................................................................................. 114 2.8 Adverbs ....................................................................................... 115 2.8.1 Diminutive adverbs ..................................................................... 121 2.8.2 Interrogative adverbs ................................................................... 122 2.8.2.1 wkōh ............................................................................................ 123 2.8.2.2 hībōh ........................................................................................... 123 2.8.2.3 mayt ~ maytan ............................................................................. 124 2.8.2.4 hȭ ~ ḥȭ ........................................................................................ 124 2.8.2.5 kam .............................................................................................. 124 2.8.3 Adverbial particles ...................................................................... 125 2.8.3.1 bār ............................................................................................... 125 2.8.3.2 ʕād (ād) ....................................................................................... 126 2.8.3.3 fōna ............................................................................................. 127 2.8.3.4 āśam-PRONOUN ........................................................................... 128 2.8.3.5 mad .............................................................................................. 128 2.8.4 Epistemic adverbs ....................................................................... 128 2.8.5 Modal particles ............................................................................ 128 2.8.5.1 sād ~ sadī wa-lū ~ waddar wa-lū ................................................ 129

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2.8.5.2 taww ............................................................................................ 130 2.8.5.3 yḳāʕan.......................................................................................... 130 2.9 Minor categories .......................................................................... 130 2.9.1 Conjunctions ............................................................................... 131 2.9.2 Accusative affix ta- ..................................................................... 131 2.9.3 Adjunctions ................................................................................. 132 2.9.4 Disjuncts ...................................................................................... 132 2.9.5 Other particles and affixes ........................................................... 132 2.9.5.1 ḏa- ............................................................................................... 133 2.9.5.2 Existential particle ....................................................................... 134 2.9.5.3 Vocative particle ......................................................................... 134 2.9.5.4 Negative and positive response particles ..................................... 134 2.9.5.5 Frozen imperatives ...................................................................... 135 2.9.5.6 Exclamations ............................................................................... 136 2.9.5.6.1 šnaykam bi- ................................................................................. 136 2.9.5.6.2 ḥayšawf ........................................................................................ 136 2.9.5.6.3 (ya)ḥḳab....................................................................................... 136 2.9.5.6.4 kān ............................................................................................... 136 2.9.5.6.5 yā maCCaC ................................................................................. 137

PHRASE STRUCTURE

3 Attribution ......................................................................................................... 138

3.1 Adjectival and demonstrative attribution .................................... 138 3.1.1 Adjectival attribute ...................................................................... 138 3.1.2 Attribution to dual nouns ............................................................. 139 3.1.3 Undeclinable adjectives ............................................................... 140 3.1.4 Intensifiers as attributes ............................................................... 141 3.1.5 Cardinal attributes ....................................................................... 142 3.1.6 Demonstrative attribute ............................................................... 143 3.1.7 Diminutive nouns ........................................................................ 143 3.1.8 Multiple adjectival attributes ....................................................... 144 3.1.9 PP attribute .................................................................................. 146 3.1.10 ḏa-phrase ..................................................................................... 148 3.1.10.1 Possession ................................................................................... 148 3.1.10.2 Kinship ........................................................................................ 149 3.1.10.3 Membership and position ............................................................ 150 3.1.10.4 Measure and content .................................................................... 150 3.1.10.5 Description .................................................................................. 150 3.1.10.6 Origin .......................................................................................... 151 3.1.10.7 Partition ....................................................................................... 152 3.1.10.8 Apposition ................................................................................... 155

Contents

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3.1.10.9 Subjective/objective relationships ............................................... 156 3.1.10.10 Attributive PPs and adverbs ........................................................ 156 3.1.10.11 Attribution to positional adverbs ................................................. 157 3.1.10.12 Verbal attributes .......................................................................... 158 3.1.10.13 Pre-posed attributive phrase ........................................................ 158 3.1.10.14 Lack of head noun ....................................................................... 158 3.2 Attributive clauses ....................................................................... 159 3.2.1 Definite head noun ...................................................................... 159 3.2.2 Indefinite head noun .................................................................... 159 3.2.3 Mandatory syndetic linkage of attributive clause ........................ 160 3.2.4 Anaphora in the attributive clause ............................................... 161 3.2.5 Lack of head noun ....................................................................... 163 3.3 Noun attribution and apposition .................................................. 163 3.3.1 Appellation .................................................................................. 164 3.3.2 Designation ................................................................................. 164 3.3.3 Identification ............................................................................... 165 3.3.3.1 Definite apposed term–definite appositive .................................. 166 3.3.3.2 Indefinite apposed term–definite appositive ............................... 166 3.3.3.3 Indefinite apposed term–indefinite appositive ........................... 167 3.3.4 Exemplification ........................................................................... 168 3.3.5 Reformulation ............................................................................. 169 3.3.6 Emphatic apposition .................................................................... 170 3.3.6.1 Apposition of independent pronouns .......................................... 170 3.3.6.2 kall ............................................................................................... 172 3.3.6.3 waḥś- and ḥnōf- ........................................................................... 174 3.3.6.4 baʕś (bāś) .................................................................................... 174 3.3.6.5 zammāt (azammēt) ...................................................................... 175

4 Annexion ........................................................................................................... 176

4.1 Nominal annexion ....................................................................... 177 4.1.1 Nouns obliged to take noun annexes ........................................... 177 4.1.1.1 bar and bart ................................................................................. 177 4.1.1.2 bīt (bīt ~ bayt).............................................................................. 178 4.1.1.3 baʕl (baʔl ~ bāl) ......................................................................... 180 4.1.1.4 mant ~ bant ~ bāt (bātī ~ baʔtī) .................................................. 182 4.1.2 Nouns obliged to take personal pronoun annexes ....................... 182 4.1.2.1 ḥnōf- ............................................................................................ 182 4.1.2.2 waḥś- ........................................................................................... 183 4.1.3 Nouns which optionally take noun annexes ................................ 183 4.1.3.1 Quantifiers ................................................................................... 183 4.1.3.2 Cardinal numerals ....................................................................... 186 4.1.4 Occasional annexion phrases ...................................................... 188

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4.2 Prepositional annexion ................................................................ 189 4.2.1 Clitic prepositions ....................................................................... 189 4.2.2 Phonologically independent prepositions .................................... 190 4.2.3 Allomorphs and cooccurrence restrictions ................................. 191 4.2.4 Prepositional phrases in context .................................................. 193

5 Complementation............................................................................................... 197

5.1 Objects ........................................................................................ 197 5.1.1 Word order .................................................................................. 199 5.1.2 Reflexive pronouns ..................................................................... 200 5.1.3 Reciprocal pronouns .................................................................... 200 5.1.4 Personal pronouns ....................................................................... 201 5.1.4.1 Direct suffixation......................................................................... 202 5.1.4.2 Suffixation via ta-........................................................................ 202 5.1.4.3 Word order .................................................................................. 204 5.1.5 Double objects ............................................................................. 204 5.1.6 PP and adverbial objects ............................................................. 205 5.1.7 Object clauses .............................................................................. 205 5.1.7.1 Verbs of utterance ....................................................................... 206 5.1.7.2 Verbs of perception ..................................................................... 207 5.1.7.2.1 Paratactic linkage ........................................................................ 207 5.1.7.2.2 Hypotactic linkage....................................................................... 209 5.1.7.3 Verbs of volition, ability, daring, deciding and manipulation ..... 210 5.1.7.3.1 Verbs of volition.......................................................................... 210 5.1.7.3.2 Verbs of ability ............................................................................ 212 5.1.7.3.3 Verb of daring ............................................................................. 212 5.1.7.3.4 Verbs of deciding, determining, persuasion and manipulation ... 212 5.1.7.4 Object clauses of other transitive verbs ....................................... 214 5.2 Complements ............................................................................... 214 5.2.1 Adverbial noun complements ...................................................... 214 5.2.2 The internal object ....................................................................... 215 5.2.3 PP complements .......................................................................... 216 5.2.3.1 Double PP complements ............................................................. 219 5.2.4 Predicative complements ............................................................. 221 5.2.4.1 Subjective complements .............................................................. 221 5.2.4.2 Objective complements ............................................................... 224 5.2.4.3 Prepositional annex complements ............................................... 228

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CLAUSE STRUCTURE

6 Predication ......................................................................................................... 229

6.1 The predicand and predicate ....................................................... 229 6.1.1 The predicand .............................................................................. 229 6.1.2 The predicate ............................................................................... 229 6.2 Nominal clauses .......................................................................... 230 6.2.1 Proper inclusion .......................................................................... 230 6.2.2 Equational clauses ....................................................................... 231 6.2.3 Clauses of attribution .................................................................. 233 6.2.4 Word order .................................................................................. 235 6.3 Locational clauses ....................................................................... 237 6.3.1 Existential clauses ....................................................................... 237 6.3.2 Clauses of possession .................................................................. 238 6.3.2.1 Focus on possessee ...................................................................... 238 6.3.2.1.1 Alienable possession ................................................................... 239 6.3.2.1.2 Inalienable possession ................................................................. 239 6.3.2.2 Focus on possessor ...................................................................... 242 6.3.3 Location clauses .......................................................................... 243 6.3.4 Clauses of accompaniment .......................................................... 244 6.3.5 Comparative clauses .................................................................... 245 6.4 Copula ......................................................................................... 245 6.4.1 Main clause to adverbial clause .................................................. 246 6.4.2 Following a focussed adverbial or topic ...................................... 246 6.4.3 Within a main clause ................................................................... 246 6.4.4 Future and past time .................................................................... 247 6.4.5 Modality ...................................................................................... 247 6.5 bār as modifier of the predicand ................................................. 248 6.6 Incomplete predication ................................................................ 249 6.6.1 Ellipsis of the predicate ............................................................... 249 6.6.2 Predicand-less predication........................................................... 249 6.7 Verbal clauses ............................................................................. 251 6.7.1 Agreement within verbal clauses ................................................ 251 6.7.2 Predicand-less verbal clauses ...................................................... 256 6.7.3 Word order .................................................................................. 256 6.7.3.1 SVO word order .......................................................................... 256 6.7.3.1.1 Narrative-initial ........................................................................... 257 6.7.3.1.2 Substantive predicand ................................................................. 257 6.7.3.1.3 Quantifiers, pronouns and demonstratives .................................. 258 6.7.3.2 VS(O) and VOS word order ........................................................ 260 6.7.3.2.1 VS(O)/VOS within narratives ..................................................... 260

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6.7.3.2.2 Indefinite predicand ..................................................................... 261 6.7.3.2.3 Coordinate complex predicands .................................................. 261 6.7.3.3 Word order in adverbial clauses .................................................. 262 6.7.3.4 VOS ~ VPPS in greeting routines ............................................... 263 6.8 Subject clauses ............................................................................ 263 6.9 Topic–comment clauses .............................................................. 266 6.9.1 Topic followed by independent pronoun ..................................... 266 6.9.2 Topic followed by annexion phrase ............................................ 266 6.9.3 Topic followed by VP ................................................................. 267 6.9.4 Double topics .............................................................................. 268 6.9.5 Post-posed topic .......................................................................... 269 6.9.6 Post-posed anaphoric pronoun .................................................... 269

7 Coordination ..................................................................................................... 271

7.1 Coordination facts ....................................................................... 271 7.1.1 Asymmetry between conjuncts ................................................... 272 7.1.2 Ellipsis in coordination ................................................................ 273 7.1.3 Anaphora in coordination ............................................................ 274 7.2 Syndetic coordination .................................................................. 275 7.2.1 Noun phrases ............................................................................... 275 7.2.1.1 Order and partial agreement in coordination of NPs ................... 277 7.2.2 Adjective phrases ........................................................................ 278 7.2.3 Adverbs and adverbial phrases .................................................... 279 7.2.4 Verb phrases ................................................................................ 279 7.2.5 Clauses ........................................................................................ 279 7.2.5.1 Nominal clauses .......................................................................... 279 7.2.5.2 Locational clauses ....................................................................... 280 7.2.5.3 Verbal clauses ............................................................................. 280 7.2.5.4 Negative phrases and clauses ...................................................... 281 7.2.5.5 Conjunction of clausal conjuncts of differing types .................... 281 7.2.6 Multiple conjuncts ....................................................................... 282 7.2.7 Embedded coordination ............................................................... 282 7.2.8 Coordinated attributes and distributive readings ......................... 283 7.2.9 The relationship between conjuncts ............................................ 284 7.2.9.1 Simultaneity ................................................................................ 284 7.2.9.2 Sequence ..................................................................................... 285 7.2.9.3 Consequence ............................................................................... 286 7.2.9.4 Adversity ..................................................................................... 287 7.2.9.5 Reason ......................................................................................... 288 7.2.9.6 Alternation................................................................................... 288 7.2.9.7 Listing ......................................................................................... 288 7.2.10 Adversative conjuncts ................................................................. 289

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7.2.10.1 lākan and lahinna ........................................................................ 289 7.2.10.2 ār and ār hīs ................................................................................ 291 7.2.10.3 amma, mākan, mākanay ~ mākanī .............................................. 292 7.2.10.4 madanī ......................................................................................... 293 7.2.11 Disjunctive conjunctions ............................................................. 294 7.2.11.1 Exclusive alternation ................................................................... 294 7.2.11.2 Inclusive alternation .................................................................... 295 7.2.11.3 Sequences of alternative conjuncts.............................................. 296 7.3 Polycoordination ......................................................................... 297 7.3.1 aw ... aw ~ walā ... walā ~ walī ... walī ....................................... 297 7.3.2 yā ... yā ........................................................................................ 297 7.3.3 swē ~ amma ... yā ........................................................................ 298 7.3.4 Pronoun ... yā .............................................................................. 298 7.3.5 Asyndetic polycoordination ........................................................ 298 7.3.6 Sequences of polycoordinated conjuncts..................................... 299 7.4 Asyndetic coordination ............................................................... 299 7.4.1 Apposition ................................................................................... 299 7.4.2 Asyndetic linkage of adjectives ................................................... 299 7.4.3 Counting ...................................................................................... 300 7.4.4 Alternation .................................................................................. 300 7.4.5 Reformulation ............................................................................. 301 7.4.6 Sequence ..................................................................................... 302 7.4.7 Reason or consequence ............................................................... 303 7.4.8 Adversity ..................................................................................... 304 7.4.9 Asyndetic linkage of imperatives ................................................ 304 7.4.10 Repetition .................................................................................... 304 7.4.10.1 Intensity ....................................................................................... 305 7.4.10.2 Intensity of number ..................................................................... 305 7.4.10.3 Repeated action ........................................................................... 306 7.4.10.4 Distributive effect........................................................................ 306 7.4.11 Asyndetic coordination within narratives .................................... 307

8 Negation ............................................................................................................ 310

8.1 Negation of the predicate ............................................................ 312 8.1.1 Predicate negation in Mahriyōt ................................................... 312 8.1.2 Predicate negation in Mehreyyet ................................................. 314 8.1.3 Indefinite pronoun predicand ...................................................... 319 8.1.4 Coordinated clauses .................................................................... 319 8.1.5 Negation within comment of topic–comment clause .................. 320 8.1.6 ʕād (ād) ... lā structures ............................................................... 323 8.1.6.1 ʕād (ād) la- .................................................................................. 324 8.1.6.2 l-ʕād (l-ād) .................................................................................. 324

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8.1.7 Word order .................................................................................. 325 8.2 Constituent negation .................................................................... 327 8.3 Absolute negation ........................................................................ 328 8.4 Negative command ...................................................................... 329 8.5 Exception clauses ........................................................................ 330 8.6 Fixed phrases and clauses and coordinated clauses and phrases . 333 8.6.1 Fixed negative phrases and clauses ............................................. 333 8.6.2 Coordinated negated clauses ....................................................... 334 8.6.3 Coordinated negated phrases ....................................................... 335 8.6.4 Coordinated positive–negative clauses and phrases .................... 335 8.6.5 Other cases of monopartite pre-negation ..................................... 335 8.7 Tag questions .............................................................................. 336 8.8 Negation through non-l-based particles ....................................... 337 8.8.1 man ~ mā ..................................................................................... 337 8.8.2 maḳāʕ (maḳā ~ maḳāʔ) ................................................................ 337 8.8.3 ġayr ~ ġār .................................................................................... 338 8.9 Emphasis of negation .................................................................. 338 8.9.1 śī .................................................................................................. 338 8.9.2 lōb and waylōb ............................................................................ 339 8.9.3 abdan ........................................................................................... 339 8.9.4 bahaw .......................................................................................... 340 8.10 Conclusion................................................................................... 340 8.11 Negation in context ..................................................................... 341 8.11.1 Ali Musallam cat story ................................................................ 341 8.11.1.1 Ali Musallam cat story. Translation ............................................ 344

9 Supplementation ................................................................................................ 347

9.1 Adverbs ....................................................................................... 347 9.1.1 Adverbs of time ........................................................................... 347 9.1.1.1 Point in time ................................................................................ 348 9.1.1.2 Days of the week and phrases with reference to the hour ........... 350 9.1.1.3 Boundary in time ......................................................................... 351 9.1.1.4 Duration....................................................................................... 352 9.1.1.5 Frequency .................................................................................... 353 9.1.2 Adverbs of place.......................................................................... 355 9.1.2.1 Location....................................................................................... 356 9.1.2.2 Direction ...................................................................................... 357 9.1.3 Adverbs of manner and comparison ............................................ 359 9.1.4 Adverbs of means and instrument ............................................... 360 9.1.5 Adverbs of degree and quantity ................................................... 361 9.1.5.1 Intensifiers ................................................................................... 361 9.1.5.1.1 Heighteners of intensity .............................................................. 361

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9.1.5.1.2 Lowerers of intensity ................................................................... 364 9.1.5.2 Quantifiers ................................................................................... 368 9.1.6 Adverbs of reason and purpose ................................................... 368 9.1.6.1 Purpose ........................................................................................ 368 9.1.6.2 Reason ......................................................................................... 368 9.1.7 Adverbs of focus ......................................................................... 369 9.1.7.1 Limiter adverbs: Exclusives ........................................................ 369 9.1.7.2 Limiter adverbs: Particularisers................................................... 372 9.1.7.3 Additive adverbs ......................................................................... 372 9.1.8 Epistemic adverbs ....................................................................... 373 9.1.8.1 bār ............................................................................................... 373 9.1.8.2 mxaṭṭar ........................................................................................ 373 9.1.8.3 śaf ................................................................................................ 374 9.1.8.4 madanī ......................................................................................... 375 9.1.8.5 xāf ................................................................................................ 375 9.1.8.6 adamm-PRONOUN ........................................................................ 376 9.1.8.7 walā ............................................................................................. 376 9.1.9 Disjuncts...................................................................................... 377 9.1.9.1 Content disjuncts ......................................................................... 378 9.1.9.1.1 xarāna ......................................................................................... 378 9.1.9.1.2 xayban ......................................................................................... 379 9.1.9.1.3 yaḥōl ~ yāḥōl ~ yaḥawl ............................................................... 379 9.1.9.1.4 hīs taww....................................................................................... 380 9.1.9.1.5 man ḥruh, bi-ʔaynha and wa-l-ḳayrab ........................................ 380 9.1.9.2 Filler disjuncts ............................................................................. 381 9.1.9.2.1 axah ............................................................................................. 381 9.1.9.2.2 hawba .......................................................................................... 381 9.2 Adverbial clauses ........................................................................ 382 9.2.1 Clauses of time ............................................................................ 382 9.2.1.1 miḏ ............................................................................................... 383 9.2.1.2 wat and hīs .................................................................................. 383 9.2.1.3 ḥbōr ............................................................................................. 384 9.2.1.4 at-tā (tā) ...................................................................................... 385 9.2.1.5 hān and hām ................................................................................ 386 9.2.1.6 man hīs ........................................................................................ 387 9.2.2 Clauses of place........................................................................... 387 9.2.3 Clauses of degree and quantity .................................................... 388 9.2.4 Clauses of manner and comparison ............................................. 389 9.2.5 Clauses of purpose and reason .................................................... 390 9.2.5.1 Clauses of purpose ...................................................................... 390 9.2.5.2 Clauses of reason......................................................................... 391 9.2.5.3 Paratactic linkage of clauses of purpose ...................................... 393 9.2.6 Clauses of negative purpose ........................................................ 394

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9.2.7 Clauses of concession .................................................................. 395 9.2.8 Clauses of condition and conditional sentences .......................... 395 9.2.8.1 Factual conditions ....................................................................... 396 9.2.8.1.1 Verbal protasis, future participle apodasis .................................. 396 9.2.8.1.2 Verbal protasis, imperfect apodasis ............................................. 396 9.2.8.1.3 Verbal protasis, non-verbal apodasis ........................................... 398 9.2.8.1.4 Non-verbal protasis, future participle apodasis ........................... 398 9.2.8.1.5 Non-verbal protasis, imperfect apodasis ..................................... 398 9.2.8.1.6 Non-verbal protasis, non-verbal apodasis ................................... 398 9.2.8.1.7 Word order .................................................................................. 398 9.2.8.2 Counterfactual conditions............................................................ 399 9.2.8.3 Paratactic conditional clauses ..................................................... 400 9.2.9 Clauses of universal condition-concession .................................. 400 9.2.9.1 Time ............................................................................................ 401 9.2.9.2 Place ............................................................................................ 401 9.2.9.3 Identity ........................................................................................ 401 9.2.10 Clauses of circumstance .............................................................. 402 9.2.10.1 Circumstantial event or state is simultaneous with main clause .................................................................................. 402 9.2.10.2 Circumstance results from event or state anterior to main clause .................................................................................. 405

10 Oral texts ......................................................................................................... 406

10.1 Mahriyōt texts ............................................................................. 406 10.1.1 Text 01. Bā Nuwās and the bean ................................................. 406 10.1.1.1 Text 01. Bā Nuwās and the bean. Translation ............................. 409 10.1.2 Text 02. Sea story ........................................................................ 414 10.1.2.1 Text 02. Sea story. Translation .................................................... 415 10.2 Mehreyyet texts from mountain region around Dhofar ............... 418 10.2.1 Text 01. Father story ................................................................... 418 10.2.1.1 Text 01. Father story. Translation ............................................... 421 10.2.2 Text 02. The hajj by foot ............................................................. 425 10.2.2.1 Text 02. The hajj by foot. Translation ......................................... 427 10.2.3 Text 03. Ship story ...................................................................... 429 10.2.3.1 Text 03. Ship story. Translation .................................................. 432 10.2.4 Text 04. Cat story ........................................................................ 435 10.2.4.1 Text 04. Cat story. Translation .................................................... 438 10.3 Mehreyyet text from Šlaym ......................................................... 441 10.3.1 Text 01. Camel beauty competitions ........................................... 441 10.3.1.1 Text 01. Camel beauty competitions. Translation ....................... 443 10.4 Mehreyyet texts from Rabkūt ...................................................... 447 10.4.1 Text 01. Hyena story ................................................................... 447

Contents

XIX

10.4.1.1 Text 01. Hyena story. Translation ............................................... 449 10.4.2 Text 02. Wadi story ..................................................................... 452 10.4.2.1 Text 02. Wadi story. Translation ................................................. 458 10.4.3 Text 03. Hajj story....................................................................... 465 10.4.3.1 Text 03. Hajj story. Translation .................................................. 465 10.4.4 Text 04. Goats ............................................................................. 467 10.4.4.1 Text 04. Goats. Translation ......................................................... 467 10.4.5 Text 05. The car .......................................................................... 469 10.4.5.1 Text 05. The car. Translation ...................................................... 469

References ............................................................................................................ 471

Index ..................................................................................................................... 477

Tables

Chapter 1

Table 1: Mahriyōt consonants ............................................................................ 10 Table 2: Mehreyyet consonants ......................................................................... 11 Table 3: Mahriyōt paradigm of aḥḥōḏar ‘to be embarrassed’ ........................... 20 Table 4: Mehreyyet diphthongs ......................................................................... 32

Chapter 2

Table 1: Consonantal roots and templates ......................................................... 49 Table 2: Mahriyōt diminutive demonstratives and locatives ............................. 50 Table 3: Mehreyyet elatives ............................................................................... 50 Table 4: Mahriyōt nominal broken plurals ........................................................ 50 Table 5: Mahriyōt nominal broken plurals 2...................................................... 51 Table 6: Mahriyōt mood distinctions ................................................................. 51 Table 7: Mahriyōt gender–number distinctions ................................................. 52 Table 8: Mehreyyet gender–number distinctions ............................................... 52 Table 9: Mahriyōt derivation of plural diminutives ........................................... 53 Table 10: Mahriyōt paradigm of xdōm ‘to work’ perfect aspect .......................... 53 Table 11: Mehreyyet paradigm of xdūm ‘to work’ perfect aspect ....................... 53 Table 12: Mahriyōt living objects ........................................................................ 59 Table 13: Mehreyyet living objects ..................................................................... 59 Table 14: Mahriyōt non-living objects................................................................. 59 Table 15: Mehreyyet non-living objects .............................................................. 60 Table 16: Mahriyōt mass nouns ........................................................................... 61 Table 17: Mehreyyet mass nouns ........................................................................ 61 Table 18: Abstract nouns ..................................................................................... 61 Table 19: Mehreyyet definite article .................................................................... 64 Table 20: Mahriyōt independent pronouns .......................................................... 66 Table 21: Mehreyyet independent pronouns ........................................................ 66 Table 22: Mahriyōt (a)-type dependent pronouns ................................................ 68 Table 23: Mahriyōt object pronouns to sbōṭ ‘he/they f. hit’ ................................ 68 Table 24: Mahriyōt object pronouns to fīn ‘before, in front of’ ........................... 69 Table 25: Mahriyōt object pronouns attached to ta- ............................................ 69 Table 26: Mehreyyet (a)-type dependent pronouns ............................................. 69 Table 27: Mehreyyet object pronouns to wzūm ‘he/they f. gave’ ........................ 70 Table 28: Mehreyyet dependent pronouns to sār ‘behind’ .................................. 70 Table 29: Mehreyyet object pronouns attached to ta- .......................................... 70

Tables

XXI

Table 30: Mahriyōt (b)-type dependent pronouns ............................................... 71 Table 31: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to singular noun bayt ‘house’ ............. 71 Table 32: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to singular noun jaḥlēt ‘clay pot’........ 71 Table 33: Mahriyōt dependent pronouns to ḳbēl ‘in front of’ .............................. 72 Table 34: Mahriyōt object pronouns to ṯabrōt ‘she broke’ .................................. 72 Table 35: Mehreyyet (b)-type dependent pronouns ............................................. 72 Table 36: Mehreyyet possessive pronouns to singular noun ībīt ‘camel’ ............ 73 Table 37: Mehreyyet dependent pronouns to ḳbāt ‘in front of’ ........................... 73 Table 38: Mehreyyet object pronouns to yikōb ‘he thought’ ............................... 73 Table 39: Mehreyyet object pronouns to radīw ‘they m. threw’ ......................... 73 Table 40: Mehreyyet object pronouns to śillōh ‘they m.DUAL took’ ................... 74 Table 41: Mahriyōt (c)-type dependent pronouns................................................ 75 Table 42: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to xlōwaḳ ‘dresses’ ............................. 75 Table 43: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to śēf ‘hair’ ......................................... 75 Table 44: Mahriyōt dependent pronouns to twēl ‘towards’ ................................. 76 Table 45: Mehreyyet (c)-type dependent pronouns ............................................. 76 Table 46: Mehreyyet possessive pronouns to ḥabūn ‘children’ ........................... 76 Table 47: Mehreyyet possessive pronouns to ḥādūtan ‘hands’ ........................... 77 Table 48: Mehreyyet dependent pronouns to nxālī ‘under’ ................................. 77 Table 49: Mahriyōt reciprocal pronouns .............................................................. 78 Table 50: Mehreyyet reciprocal pronouns ........................................................... 78 Table 51: Mahriyōt demonstrative pronouns ....................................................... 79 Table 52: Mehreyyet demonstrative pronouns..................................................... 79 Table 53: Mahriyōt subject pronoun suffixes perfect aspect ............................... 85 Table 54: Mehreyyet subject pronoun suffixes perfect aspect ............................. 85 Table 55: Mahriyōt paradigm of ksūh ‘to find’ perfect aspect ............................. 86 Table 56: Mehreyyet paradigm of ksūh ‘to find’ perfect aspect .......................... 86 Table 57: Mahriyōt subject pronoun affixes indicative ....................................... 87 Table 58: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes indicative ..................................... 87 Table 59: Mahriyōt paradigm of wkōb ‘to enter’ indicative ................................ 87 Table 60: Mehreyyet paradigm of wkūb ‘to enter’ indicative .............................. 88 Table 61: Mahriyōt subject pronoun affixes indicative L-, B-type Š- And B-type T-stems............................................................................. 88 Table 62: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes indicative L-, B-type Š- and B-type T-stems .............................................................................. 88 Table 63: Mahriyōt paradigm of assōfar ‘to travel’ indicative ............................ 89 Table 64: Mehreyyet paradigm of (a)sōfar ‘to travel’ indicative ........................ 89 Table 65: Mahriyōt subject pronoun affixes subjunctive ..................................... 89 Table 66: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes subjunctive basic verb types A and B ...................................................................................... 90 Table 67: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes subjunctive derived verbs, basic stem passive verb ............................................................. 90 Table 68: Mahriyōt paradigm of sbōṭ ‘to hit TRNS’ imperfect ............................. 90

Tables

XXII

Table 69: Mehreyyet paradigm of akkalūh (< *haklūh) ‘to bring [camels/goats] back early evening’ imperfect ..................................... 91 Table 70: Future participles: Basic verbs ............................................................. 99 Table 71: Future participles: Derived verbs ......................................................... 100 Table 72: Mahriyōt basic declinable adjectives ................................................... 105 Table 73: Mehreyyet basic declinable adjectives................................................. 106 Table 74: Diminutive colour adjectives ............................................................... 107 Table 75: Non-numerical quantifiers ................................................................... 109 Table 76: Cardinal numerals 1–10 ....................................................................... 110 Table 77: Mehreyyet cardinal numerals 11–20 .................................................... 110 Table 78: Ordinals ............................................................................................... 113 Table 79: Fractions .............................................................................................. 113 Table 80: Adverbs of location/direction .............................................................. 117 Table 81: Adverbs of time: Adjuncts, basic adverbs ........................................... 118 Table 82: Adverbs of time: Adjuncts, grammaticalised adverbs ......................... 119 Table 83: Adverbs of time: Conjuncts ................................................................. 120 Table 84: Adverbs of manner/degree ................................................................... 120 Table 85: Adjunctions .......................................................................................... 132

Chapter 4

Table 1: Mahriyōt prepositions .......................................................................... 192 Table 2: Mehreyyet prepositions ....................................................................... 193

Abbreviations

Abbreviations to morphemic glossing

ACC accusative ADJ adjective CONJ conjunction DEF definite DUAL dual F feminine FUT future IMP imperative IMPF imperfect IND indicative INDEF indefinite INDFPRON indefinite pronoun INTR intransitive M masculine NEG negative PART particle PRF perfect PL plural S singular SUBJ subjunctive TRNS transitive 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person

Abbreviations within body of grammar

adj adjective AP adjective phrase AdvP adverbial phrase C consonant CV consonant–vowel sequence cf. see cp. compare DO direct object DIM diminutive

Abbreviations

XXIV

e.o. each other f feminine fut future ind indicative JC Jespersen’s Cycle lit. word-for-word translation LVS long vowel shortening m masculine MSAL Modern South Arabian languages NP noun phrase O object o.s. oneself P preposition pl plural PP prepositional phrase s singular S subject So sonorant s.o. someone s.th. something subj subjunctive s.where somewhere usu. usually v. versus V verb; vowel VP verb phrase 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person

Abbreviations within transcribed texts and data examples A Arabic lexeme H Hobyōt lexeme / pause within oral text; delineation of relevant item within data examples // longer pause within oral text # pause within extracted data examples < derived from > becomes * underlying form; etymological form ? attested form but considered weak; questionable form [text] delineation of relevant section within data examples [...] elided section of text

Abbreviations

XXV

[section] added section to translation or transcription

Abbreviated codes to data examples Dialect and dialect sub-group

M Mehreyyet Mo Mahriyōt Ndēt Mehreyyet from Ndēt Nīsaḥ Mehreyyet from Nīsaḥ Rabkūt Mehreyyet from Rabkūt Šlaym Mehreyyet from Šlaym

Text type

ES elicited speech e-mail e-mail data N narrative NS natural unrecorded speech PES partially elicited speech R rhyme trans translation txt SMS text message

Other

MA Mohammed al-Mahri

Acknowledgements

Consultants

It is unfortunately impossible to mention all the many Mehris who assisted me in this work. First and foremost I thank my second family, the family of the late Ahmed Bakheit bar Ngēma al-Mahri in Salalah, for befriending me and assisting at all times with queries and problems. Saeed Ahmed bar Ngēma al-Mahri invited me to Salalah in December 2009, and assisted with sometimes the oddest of queries both in Salalah, and later in Bromley Cross and Salford while he studied for his MA in Arabic/English translation and interpreting between 2011–2012. Mohammed Ahmed bar Ngēma al-Mahri provided much of the data, including instrumental phonetic data, assisted in data collection and analysis, came to the UK for five weeks in early summer 2011 to assist in preparing the book for publication, and has constantly answered my queries at a distance by telephone, SMS and e-mail. Ali Ahmed bar Ngēma al-Mahri provided several texts, a great deal of data and helped with my very many queries. Mahdi Ahmed bar Ngēma al-Mahri provided one of the texts. The whole family helped not only while I was in Salalah, but also at a distance, answering at times almost daily text-message and telephone queries. Within Salalah, I also thank the dearly missed Musallam Bakheit bar Masḥayt al-Mahri, brother of Ahmed Bakheit bar Ngēma al-Mahri, for conversations about camel terminology and husbandry, Khalid Muhammad bar Hadayyah al-Mahri from Šlaym for the text about camel beauty competitions and for answering questions about camel husbandry, Ali Musallam, T.M. Johnstone’s informant, who provided several texts and answered queries during my visits to Salalah, and Shēl Mḥād.

The family of the late Musallam Saʕīd Shagi al-Mahri in Rabkūt I thank for hosting me on four occasions in Rabkūt, for providing texts and for keeping in touch through phone calls and text messages. From Rabkūt, I also thank Shēl Shagi al-Mahri for some wonderful texts, including one reproduced here, and for answering text-message and telephone queries, and Ahmad Xamīs. I thank the people of Nīsaḥ for data and for allowing me to attend a naydaf ceremony in October 2010.

Askari Saʕd Ḥugayrān from al-Ghaydhah I thank for providing data, and helping in data collection and analysis. I thank his family for receiving me in their house for six weeks in 2008. I also thank all Alexander Sima’s language consultants, the majority of whom I had the good fortune to meet during my stay in Mahrah in 2008.

I thank the Mehri students at the University of Sultan Qaboos, Muscat, for providing narrative and elicited data during March 2010, and Dr Mohamed Saad al-Muqadam, Head of History at SQU and originally from Ḥawf, for his enthusiasm, for answering queries and for putting me in touch with Mehri students who were able to answer additional queries and provide various types of data.

Acknowledgements

XXVIII

Colleagues

Of my colleagues, I thank first and foremost the dearly missed Alexander Sima, who first awakened my interest in Mehri during my visiting professorship at the University of Heidelberg, 2003–2004.

I also thank the following: Domenyk Eades, for reading several of the chapters during his first full year at the University of Salford, and for providing pertinent, detailed comments; Alex Bellem, for providing detailed comments on the phonology chapter, without which it would probably be unreadable, for undertaking the daunting task of formatting and indexing the book when my stress levels were sky high, and for encouraging me when things got tough; Miranda Morris, for her encouragement and enthusiasm, for answering numerous questions about the cultural lexis, and for providing comments on a complete draft of the book; my husband and colleague James Dickins, for reading several of the chapters despite his heavy workload during his first year as Professor of Arabic at the University of Leeds; Otto Jastrow for his advice and encouragement, and for accepting this book within Semitic Viva, a series which is becoming increasingly important in Modern South Arabian studies; and my HuLSS colleagues at Salford for allowing me time to work on the book from September 2011.

I also thank Werner Arnold, Jan Retsö, Geoffrey Khan, Barry Heselwood, Aaron Rubin, Chris Lucas, Diane Blakemore, Paul Rowlett, Saeed alQumairi, Sam Liebhaber, Munira Al-Azraqi, Samia Naïm, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Krauss and Jens Fetkenheuer for their support and advice at various times during the project, and Claudia Cooper for hosting me in Muscat on several occasions.

Importantly, I would like to acknowledge my fellow researchers on Mehri and other Modern South Arabian languages for laying the foundations of research on MSAL, and particularly: Alexander Sima, T.M. Johnstone, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, Antoine Lonnet, Ewald Wagner, Harry Stroomer, Aaron Rubin, Miranda Morris, Sam Liebhaber, and Mohammed Dublan al-Mahri.

All remaining errors and inconsistencies in the book are, of course, my own responsibility.

Funders

Thanks are due to the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust for a Senior Research Fellowship, 2010–2011, which allowed me the time to conduct fieldwork and write up the book; to the University of Salford for a RISF grant, which enabled me to conduct two periods of fieldwork, purchase phonetic equipment used to collect and analyse the phonetic data, and bring Mohammed Ahmed bar Ngēma al-Mahri over to Salford to work on the book; and the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh for a grant that funded the formatting of the text, indexing, and the publication subvention.

Janet C.E. Watson Bromley Cross, May 2012

0 Introduction

0.1 Background

0.1.1 Modern South Arabian

The six so-called Modern South Arabian languages (henceforth MSAL) belong to the Semitic language family and are believed to be either southern members of the west Semitic branch (Rubin 2010: 7; Moscati et al 1969) or eastern members of the south Semitic branch (Faber 1997: 6). Of the six MSAL, Mehri has the largest number of speakers and is spoken over the widest area – across eastern Yemen from Qishn in the west into Dhofar in Oman and up into the southern extremities of central Saudi Arabia. The other five MSAL are Soqoṭri, spoken exclusively on the Yemeni island of Soqotra; Śḥerɛt, also known as Jibbāli, spoken within Dhofar in Oman; Ḥarsūsi, spoken in Jiddat al-Ḥarāsīs in Oman; Hobyōt, spoken in a small area straddling the border of Yemen and Oman; and the highly endangered Baṭḥari, spoken by a handful of speakers in a small region of Dhofar. The number of speakers of Mehri is particularly difficult to estimate, partly because it is spoken within three separate states, and partly because the number of speakers is not equal to the number of Mehri tribal members: many Mehris, particularly in Yemen, no longer speak Mehri and many speakers lack complete competence in Mehri. Estimates range from 100,000 to 180,000 (cf. e.g. Rubin 2010: 1; Sam Liebhaber, p.c.). The number of speakers of the other MSAL are estimated at 60,000 for Soqoṭri, between 10–30,000 for Śḥerɛt, under 1,000 each for Ḥarsūsi and Hobyōt, and under 100 for Baṭḥari.

0.1.2 Background to the study

This is the first study of the linguistic structure of Mehri based primarily on first-hand fieldwork data since the two grammatical studies by the Viennese Expedition in the early twentieth century (Jahn 1905; Bittner 1909–1914). The syntax of Wagner (1953) took as data material collected by the Viennese Expedition in the early twentieth century, and Rubin’s (2010) The Mehri language of Oman is based on Johnstone’s texts published by Stroomer (1999). This is also the first comparative description of two Mehri dialects, and the first grammatical description of the eastern Yemeni dialect of Mehri, Mahriyōt, spoken in Ḥawf: Wagner (1953) examines western Yemeni Mehri, and Rubin (2010) the Mehri of the Omani Najd (Mehreyyet).

The initial idea behind this project was to focus on the syntax of the eastern Yemeni dialect of Mahriyōt, following the publication of Sima (2009) and my own work with Sima’s informants in Ḥawf and al-Ghaydhah in eastern Yemen in 2008.

0 Introduction

2

Projects rarely materialise as first envisaged, however, and for two principal reasons the syntax of Mahriyōt became a comparative study of the structure of Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet, the Mehri of Oman. The political situation in Yemen in 2009–2010 which left me waiting for a research permit to revisit Mahrah coincided with the kind and completely unexpected offer to help me find accommodation and language consultants in Salalah by Saeed Ahmed bar Ngēma al-Mahri. I spent a month in Salalah December 2009–January 2010. After this visit working closely with Mehreyyet language consultants, I realised that many aspects of the syntax, morphology and phonology of Mehreyyet had not been covered in publications to date due, principally, to the type of materials referred to – narrative texts covering a limited number of topics. This meant that many features of Mehreyyet were absent in linguistic descriptions to date, including constraints on, and the range and frequency of, asyndetic coordination, the syntax and range of elative use, the form and function of diminutive numerals, the form of the definite article in Mehreyyet, the distinction between morphological and syntactic definiteness, wider use of the conditional mood than previously assumed, and constraints on monopartite versus bipartite negation. In terms of the phonology, Johnstone’s texts in Stroomer (1999) had been delivered in reading style, often almost word-by-word, thus failing to capture typical connected speech phenomena such as long vowel shortening, degemination, syncope and epenthesis. Furthermore, interesting cross-dialectal differences in morphological categories and sub-categories highlighted the need for a comparative study of morphology. It was at this time that the focus of my work changed from the study of a single dialect to a comparative study of Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet. I followed up the initial fieldwork with three separate 4–6 week fieldwork periods in Dhofar in March 2010, September 2010 and January 2011. In May 2011, Mohammed al-Mahri came to Salford for five weeks to check the texts and examples, and to provide further syntactic and instrumental phonetic data.

A fresh study of Mehreyyet also provided new insights into specific features of Mahriyōt: Mehreyyet, contrary to previous assumptions, geminates some initial aspirates (ṯ, t, k, s, f, etc.) in definite nouns, at least optionally; this, together with native-speaker judgements, suggests that the initial gemination of aspirates in nouns after certain particles in Mahriyōt noted in Sima (2009) is a remnant of definiteness marking. Interesting dialectal differences exist in all areas of the grammar and show Mahriyōt to occupy a stage between the conservative Mehreyyet and the least conservative western Yemeni Mehri.

Firstly, the realisation of the emphatics /ḳ/, /ṣ/ and /ṭ/ is more consistently ejective in Mehreyyet than in either Mahriyōt or western Yemeni Mehri.

In terms of number marking, both Mehreyyet and Mahriyōt exhibit dual pronouns and dual verbal inflections in contrast to western Yemeni Mehri. However, Mehreyyet is the only dialect to exhibit a gender distinction in the third person dual verbal inflection.

0.2 The study

3

In terms of object suffixation, the future participle in Mehreyyet may only take object pronouns indirectly through the accusative affix ta-;1 in Mahriyōt, the masculine singular future participle may take a direct object pronoun, but all other future participles take an object pronoun indirectly through ta-. In the western Yemeni Mehri texts of the Viennese Expedition, by contrast, significantly more cases of direct suffixation are attested for both genders and numbers than indirect suffixation via ta-.

In Mahriyōt, objects may be suffixed to any verb, though indirect suffixation via ta- is preferred in the case of first and second person perfect; in the case of masculine plural verbs ending in -am, suffixation is almost invariably direct. In Mehreyyet, however, indirect suffixation is mandatory to all verb stems that end neither in 3fs -ōt or -ēt/-āt, nor a root consonant, nor a vowel/glide.

In terms of negation, Mahriyōt clearly occupies a stage between Mehreyyet and western Yemeni Mehri: Mehreyyet exhibits significantly more bipartite negation than Mahriyōt, and Mahriyōt exhibits bipartite negation in contexts for which only monopartite post-negation is possible in western Yemeni Mehri.

Mahriyōt also exhibits structures unattested in Mehreyyet, such as ‘What X!’ phrases reminiscent of Arabic: maṭwalk ‘How tall you m.s. are!’ and shows greater Arabic influence both in terms of the number of Arabic terms used, and the length and frequency of Arabic phrases within texts. For example, while Mehri cardinal numbers are typically used for both lower and higher cardinals in Mehreyyet, Mahriyōt speakers, in common with speakers of western Yemeni Mehri, almost invariably use Arabic numerals for cardinals above 10.

Spoken in and around the same area as Hobyōt, Mahriyōt, particularly the sub-dialect of Rēhan (Sima texts 76–110), shows influence in all areas of grammar from both Hobyōt and Śḥerɛt. In the phonology, this is seen in the large number of short round vowels and the pharyngeal realisation of *ʕ. In the lexis, this influence is observed in words such as lē pl. lhaytan ‘cow’ (Śḥerɛt lē pl. lhōti, Hobyōt lēʔ pl. lhētə, Simeone-Senelle 1997: 413), nṣarōmah ‘now’ (Hobyōt nāṣʌnɔ, Simeone-Senelle 1997: 393), mant ‘area’ (Hobyōt munt, Śḥerɛt mut), the occasional use of xōm ‘to want’ (Hobyōt xōm). In the syntax, one of the Mahriyōt constructions for the future mad-pronoun–subjunctive verb, also attested in Hobyōt (med), is unattested in either of the other main Mehri dialect groups. In terms of agreement, Mahriyōt in contrast with the majority of Mehreyyet dialects treats lē ‘cow’ as feminine, but its plural lhaytan ‘cows’ as masculine, as does Śḥerɛt with lhōti and Hobyōt with lhētə (Simeone-Senelle 1997: 413).

0.2 The study

The study is a descriptive, data-driven account of the structure of two dialects of Mehri, with reference where appropriate to western Yemeni Mehri and four of the other five MSAL, Hobyōt, Śḥerɛt, Ḥarsūsi and Soqoṭri. The book is divided into ten

1 Termed ‘particle’ in Simeone-Senelle (1997, etc.) and other works.

0 Introduction

4

chapters, of which chapter 10 presents a selection of oral texts. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the phonetics and phonology, laying particular focus on areas that have either not been covered in previous works – such as the interaction of various connected speech phenomena, degemination and coronal assimilation – or that have been inadequately covered – such as word stress, constraints on /l/ vocalisation in Mehreyyet, realisation of the definite article in Mehreyyet, noun-initial gemination in Mahriyōt. For further information and data on areas which have been covered, including the phonetic realisation and the phonological patterning of emphatics, the reader is referred to relevant previous literature and to work in progress. Chapter 2 deals with parts of speech and all aspects of word formation, including issues not discussed elsewhere in the literature, such as diminutive demonstratives, adverbs and numerals. Chapters 3–5 examine form and function in phrase structure, and divides into chapters on attribution, annexion and complementation. Chapter 6 examines clause structure. Negation, coordination and supplementation, which affect both phrases and clauses, are examined in the final three chapters.

Chapter 1 draws on insights from descriptive and generative approaches to phonetics and phonology, including Venneman (1988) and Clements (1990), and specifically to the phonetics and phonology of Semitic languages, including Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle (1997), Wagner (2001), Watson (2002, 2011), Watson & Asiri (2008), Watson & Bellem (2010, 2011). Chapter 2 describes morphological categories and values accepted within descriptive and generative accounts of morphology, such as Haspelmath & Sims (2010), and specifically Semitic morphology, including Watson (2002), Voigt (2009), Woidich (2006) and others.

The phrase structure chapters 3–5 are based primarily on relationships established for Semitic languages, including Wagner (1953) in his syntax of Mehri, Cowell (1964) in his study of Syrian Arabic, and Watson (1993) in her syntax of San’ani Arabic. Each phrasal unit comprises three aspects: two constituents (the head or modified term, and the modifier), of which the modifier may be absent, the syntactic relationship between the constituents (attribution, apposition, annexion or complementation), and the semantic implications of that relationship in specific instances. In Mehri, as in Arabic, the head typically occupies the left-most position, but the modifier may be fronted for emphasis or contrast.

Chapter 6 on clause structure draws on categories established by Beeston (1970), Bohas, Guillaume & Kouloughli (1990) and Dickins (2010) within Semitic studies, and categories examined by Payne (1997), Clarke (1978), Quirk & Greenbaum (1973) and others within general linguistics. The section on word order in this chapter owes much to insights by Dahlgren (1998) on word order patterns in Arabic and to Owens & Dodsworth (2009a, 2009b) on word order constraints in Arabic and other Semitic languages. Chapter 7 on coordination draws on insights and categories in Zhang (2010) and semantic relationships in Quirk & Greenbaum (1973). Chapter 8 on negation which examines among other things constraints on bipartite and monopartite negation benefited greatly from insights by Lucas (2009) and Lucas & Lash (2010) on stages of Jespersen’s Cycle in Berber, Arabic and MSAL. Chapter 9

0.4 Language consultants

5

on supplementation draws on general categories established in Quirk & Greenbaum (1973) for general linguistics, and Wagner (1953), Watson (1993), Cowell (1964), Bernards (2007) and others for Semitic linguistics.

0.3 Data sources

This work draws on data from a variety of sources. Secondary sources include Sima (2002, 2005, 2009) and Watson (2009) for Mahriyōt, Stroomer (1999) and Johnstone (1987) for Mehreyyet. The few examples of western Yemeni Mehri data are taken from Wagner (1953), Bittner (1909–1914), Alfadly (2007) and Simeone-Senelle (1997, etc.). Some western Yemeni Mehri data was checked with a native speaker, Saeed alQumairi, to whom I am very grateful. Primary sources for both Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet include traditional folktales, oral histories, descriptions of traditional culture, rhymes, elicited speech in the form of word lists, partially elicited speech such as word explanations, translations of sentences from English or Arabic, and speech within natural settings; this latter, extracted from my own in situ transcriptions, includes short stories, rhymes, imperatives, vocatives, and greeting exchanges. The total number of primary recordings for Mehreyyet is 197, of which 100 have been fully transcribed and translated in collaboration with Mehreyyet speakers; for Mahriyōt, 18 additional texts to the 110 in Sima (2009) have been recorded, of which 10 have been transcribed and translated in collaboration with Mahriyōt speakers. When not conducting fieldwork in Dhofar, I have maintained communication with my Mehreyyet consultants through SMS text messaging, e-mailing and phone calls, and built up a data-base of over 3,000 SMS text messages in Arabic script. Thus, for the first time in research on a Modern South Arabian language, traditional data is augmented by a set of electronic informal written data using Arabic script,2 principally SMS text messages and some e-mails. Within the book, text messages and e-mails are given in the original Arabic script followed by roman transliteration and translation. Note that at this stage no attempt is made to produce a standardised codification of Mehri.

0.4 Language consultants 0.4.1 Mahriyōt speakers

In addition to the 18 Mahriyōt speakers who provided the texts in Sima (2009), I recorded the speech of five language consultants – three men and two women – all in their 40s, and all brought up to adulthood in the village of Jōdab on the coast near the Yemen–Oman border. Four of the Mahriyōt speakers I recorded in al-Ghaydhah, the capital of al-Mahrah, Yemen, one in Salalah, Oman. Three of these speakers are completely bilingual in Arabic and Mehri, the other two learnt Arabic late in life. Four of them also have knowledge of Hobyōt, although they can no longer be said to be bilingual in the two languages. Askari Ḥugayrān, for example, who collaborated

2 This is not, of course, the first time Arabic script has been used to write Mehri in publications

(cf. Simeone-Senelle, Lonnet & Bakheith 1984; Liebhaber 2011).

0 Introduction

6

in the publication of Sima (2009), was brought up speaking Hobyōt and later learnt Mehri. He can still speak and understand Hobyōt, but Mehri rather than Hobyōt is his primary language today.

0.4.2 Mehreyyet speakers

My 23 Mehreyyet language consultants ranged in age from 17 to c. 80. They include, to my great luck, Johnstone’s informant Ali Musallam, who provided many narratives and explanations. Most of those up to the age of c. 50 had been educated to secondary level, some to sixth-grade primary level. Older informants, with very few exceptions, had not obtained formal education beyond Qur’anic studies. A few younger consultants had attended or are currently attending university. All young to middle-aged, and some older, Mehreyyet speakers are bilingual in Arabic and Mehri. Mehreyyet speakers from the mountain region are also mainly bilingual in Mehri and Śḥerɛt, with many, including Mohammed Ahmed Bakheit al-Mahri, brought up within mixed Mehri–Śḥerɛt families. Those speakers who are not bilingual generally understand Śḥerɛt. With few exceptions, speakers from Rabkūt and Šlaym are not bilingual in Mehri and Śḥerɛt, but many understand at least some Śḥerɛt due to the proximity of the mountains and regular interaction with Śḥerɛt speakers.

0.5 Data collection and methodology

The Mahriyōt data recorded in al-Ghaydhah in 2008 were collected directly onto a Sony laptop using a USB microphone, using Adobe Audition 1.5 software. The Mehreyyet oral data were recorded on an Olympus LS-10 voice recorder, a Marantz PMD661 recorder with a Shure PG58 dynamic microphone, or through a headset-mounted microphone directly onto a Sony laptop using Adobe Audition 1.5 software. The three different recording methods proved invaluable and were appropriate for different recording situations – in outdoor environments with little background noise both the Marantz PMD661 and the Olympus LS-10 were acceptable. The Marantz PMD661, which potentially provided the best recordings, was used where informants were comfortable with a large microphone, the Olympus LS-10 in other situations or where unplanned recordings were made during visits or trips by car. The Marantz PMD661 was used for recording indoors if there was no extraneous outside noise from children or traffic, a vain hope in many houses in Salalah. Recording onto the Sony laptop through a head-set mounted microphone was ideal for indoor situations with extraneous noise. All sound files were saved in uncompressed WAV format with a 44 100 sample rate and 16-bit resolution. Sound files were transcribed with the aid of the computer-based acoustic programme PRAAT http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/. Acoustic analysis for chapter 1 was also conducted using the PRAAT programme. Further instrumental phonetic analysis to be published in future work was conducted by Barry Heselwood and Alex Bellem with Mohammed al-Mahri at the University of Leeds phonetics laboratory using electropalatography (EPG) and laryngography; in November 2011, I collected

0.5 Data collection and methodology

7

further laryngographic data from four other adult male native speakers in Dhofar and Muscat. The laryngography was particularly useful in confirming my initial impressions of the frequent non-ejective realisation of emphatics.

0.5.1 Presentation of data

Within the text, Mahriyōt words and particles are given before the equivalent Mehreyyet forms. Where the Mehreyyet form of a lexeme or particle differs minimally from that of Mahriyōt, the Mehreyyet form is placed in round brackets after the Mahriyōt form, e.g. ʕād (ād) ‘still’.

In order to be able to present a large range of data from the two dialects, linear morphemic glossing has been provided minimally where word structure is crucial in the chapters dealing with phonetics and phonology, morphology and phrase structure. Where word order is crucial, as in for example the chapter on negation, word-for-word translations are presented before the idiomatic translation.

The relevant portion of the example is divided off by a forward slash /. Thus, in discussing baʔl ‘owner of’ as an annexed term, the annexed term baʔlī is divided from the annex abayt in the following example by a forward slash:

baʔlī / abayt ‘the people of the house/the house owners’ M.NS

Frequently the section within which the relevant part lies is itself part of a larger text. In this case, the relevant section is highlighted in brackets. Thus, in the following example, the annexion phrase banī daydī [son.MPL uncle-1S] is placed in square brackets with the annexed term divided by a slash from the annex:

imših ġbark [banī / daydī] ‘yesterday I met my male paternal cousins’ M.PES.MA

Similarly, when a relevant phrase does not occur at the right or left edge of the example, the phrase is placed in brackets, as in waḥśī ‘on my own’ below:

w-hōh [waḥśī] ḥläkmäh ‘and I was on my own there’ Sima33:22

The transcription of my own Mahriyōt data is maximally phonemic: thus, the open vowels transcribed in Sima (2009) as ä and ǟ are transcribed in my Mahriyōt data as a and ā respectively. The examples cited from Sima (2009) have been presented in the form given in Sima, but have been translated into English rather than given in the original German. The German translations in Sima (2009) are generally idiomatic, and I judged that illustrative examples should be translated closer to the original in this book. In the examples cited from Stroomer (1999), I follow Rubin (2010) in replacing ‘e’ by Johnstone’s original schwa.

In the body of the text and the gloss, Mehri personal names are presented in three different ways: the romanised form in the case of commonly romanised names, such as Ali, Ahmad, Khalid; the romanised (passport) form chosen by particular consultants, as with Saeed alQumairi, Saeed al-Mahri, Mohamed Saad al-Muqadam; in other cases, in transcription with capitalised initial letters, as in Ḥugayrān, Saʕīd,

0 Introduction

8

Xamīs. Similarly place names in the body of the text and the gloss are given in the standard romanised form, where available, as in Salalah, Muscat, Mecca, Dhofar, and otherwise in transcription with initial capitals, as in Rabkūt, Ndēt. In the gloss to examples from Sima, proper names are transcribed as in the example.

Contextual examples cited are coded for ease of reference. The set of abbreviations used is provided under Abbreviations above. In general, Mahriyōt (Mo) examples precede similar Mehreyyet (M) examples. Text types are coded as: N (narrative), NS (natural unrecorded speech), PES (partially elicited speech), ES (elicited speech), R (rhyme), txt (SMS text message). The code for examples taken from previously unpublished data is provided in the form of:

DIALECTGROUP.TEXTTYPE.(DIALECT).(TEXT)

e.g. M.NS = Mehreyyet, natural speech, Mo.NS = Mahriyōt, natural speech, M.N = Mehreyyet, narrative, M.txt = Mehreyyet, SMS text message, Mo.R = Mahriyōt, rhyme

Most Mehreyyet examples come from dialects spoken around the mountain region and today into Salalah. These are principally examples from my main consultants, Johnstone’s consultant, Ali Musallam, Mohammed Ahmed Bakheit al-Mahri, Ali Ahmed Bakheit al-Mahri, Saeed Ahmed Bakheit al-Mahri, Mahdi Ahmed Bakheit al-Mahri and their close relatives and acquaintances. Where examples come from other areas, including the region of Šlaym, the desert village of Rabkūt, the mountain village Nīsaḥ, or Ndēt near Mazyūnah by the Yemeni border, the data code includes dialect:

e.g. M.NS.Rabkūt, M.NS.Ndēt, M.N.Šlaym, M.N.Nīsaḥ

The Mahriyōt data includes material from Jōdab and the far more Hobyōt-influenced dialect of Rēhan. All material additional to Sima (2009) was recorded from speakers born and raised in Jōdab. For this reason, data coding for Mahriyōt does not include dialect source. Sima texts 1–75 are from speakers from Jōdab, texts 76–110 from speakers from Rēhan. Examples cited from previously published sets of texts, principally Sima (2009), but also Stroomer (1999) are followed by the text and line number reference, as in:

Sima2:25 = Sima 2009, text 2, line 25

0.6 Texts

A small selection of the texts recorded in 2008 for Mahriyōt and since 2009 for Mehreyyet have been provided in chapter 10. Space restrictions have necessarily limited the number of texts. For this reason, I have presented a selection of text types from speakers of different ages and educational levels. Text types here include folktales, narratives, historical accounts of individuals, and descriptive accounts of animals or animal husbandry and food preparation. In view of the large number of texts in Sima (2009), only two additional Mahriyōt texts have been presented here.

0.6 Texts

9

Examples taken from the narratives provided in transcription and translation in chapter 10 are coded with the text number and line number following the code for text type (and speaker origin where the speaker is from Rabkūt, Ndēt, Nīsaḥ or Šlaym). Thus the example: ʕamōram maxṭār bā nwās ‘they say that once Bā Nuwās’ Mo.N.01.01 is a Mahriyōt narrative, text 01, line 01; wadak bīkam la-ḥō syēra lā ‘I don’t know where you m.pl. are going’ M.N.03.06 is a Mehreyyet narrative, text 03, line 06. The example wa-mġōran nakan ḥadḥayd ḏakm amḳay man bayn ḥawōdī ṯrayt ‘and then we came on that middle path between the two wadis’ M.N.Rabkūt02.43 is a Mehreyyet narrative, Rabkūt text 02, line 43.

For illustrative purposes, the translation provided in the body of the grammar is not always identical to the more idiomatic translation provided in the set of narratives in chapter 10. This is particularly the case where aspects of word order or morpho-lexical identity are focussed: in discussing topical clauses with double topics, for example, ḥaybīt aḏarwats āds ṭawran bīs arḥūmat is translated as ‘the camel, its f. hump also a [part in] conformation’3 M.N.Šlaym01.16, and the corresponding translation of the narrative in chapter 10 is ‘the camel’s hump also has a [part in] conformation’. Similarly, in discussing predication, sān ḏa-ḥmūh wa-sān ḏa-jalʕaym is translated as ‘they f. are for water and they f. are for bean stew’ Mo.N.01.15, and its corresponding more idiomatic translation in chapter 10 is ‘some [were] for water, and some for bean stew’.

3 Lit. ‘beauty’.

1 Overview of phonetics and phonology

1.1 The melody

1.1.1 Consonants

Table 1: Mahriyōt consonants

labial

dental

alveolar

pal-alveolar

palatal

velar

uvular

pharyngeal

glottal

PL

OS

IVE

voiced b d (g)1

voiceless t k ʔ

emphatic ṭ ḳ

affricate j

FR

ICA

TIV

E

voiced ḏ z ġ ʕ

voiceless f ṯ s š x ḥ h

emphatic ṯ ṣ š 2 L

AT

ER

AL

voiced l

voiceless ś

emphatic ś 3

nasal m n

rhotic r

glide w y

1 Marginal phoneme. Only in Arabic loans. 2 Transcribed as /č/ in Sima (2009). 3 /ź/ in Johnstone (e.g. 1975a) and Sima (2009), due to partial voicing; /ś/ in Lonnet & Simeone-

Senelle (e.g. 1997), as it is phonologically the emphatic counterpart to /ś/.

1.1 The melody

11

Table 2: Mehreyyet consonants

labial

dental

alveolar

pal-alveolar

palatal

velar

uvular

pharyngeal

glottal

PL

OS

IVE

voiced b d g

voiceless t k ʔ

emphatic ṭ ḳ

FR

ICA

TIV

E

voiced ḏ z (ž)4 ġ ʕ

voiceless f ṯ s š x ḥ h

emphatic ḏ ṣ š

LA

TE

RA

L

voiced l

voiceless ś

emphatic ś

nasal m n

rhotic r

glide w y

4 Marginal phoneme.


12

1.1.1.1 Description of the consonants

The main differences between the two dialect groups lie in the presence of a palato-alveolar affricate, /j/ (IPA [ʤ]), in Mahriyōt, which corresponds to a velar plosive, /g/, in Mehreyyet; in the realisation of /ʕ/; and in the realisations of the emphatics /ṣ/, /ṭ/, /ṯ/ (/ḏ/) and /ś/. Both dialect groups differ from western Yemeni Mehri in maintaining the plain interdentals /ḏ/ and /ṯ/.

/b/ Voiced labial stop. IPA [b].

/m/ Voiced labial nasal. IPA [m].

/f/ Voiceless labio-dental fricative. IPA [f].

/w/ Voiced labio-velar approximant. IPA [w].

/ḏ/ Voiced interdental fricative. IPA [ð].

/ṯ/ Voiceless interdental fricative. IPA [θ].

/ṯ/ (Mehreyyet /ḏ/) Emphatic interdental fricative. In both dialects, it is pharyngealised, and varies in voicing between IPA [θˁ] and [ðˁ]; however, it is generally more voiced than voiceless in Mehreyyet and more voiceless than voiced in Mahriyōt.

/d/ Voiced alveolar stop. IPA [d].

/t/ Voiceless alveolar stop. IPA [t].

/ṭ/ Emphatic alveolar stop. In both dialect groups, /ṭ/ is realised with pharyngealisation. In Mehreyyet, it may be realised as ejective (IPA [t’]), with pharyngealised non-ejective variants in certain environments (IPA [tˁ]), particularly before non-high back vowels and in intervocalic position. In Mahriyōt, /ṭ/ is almost invariably realised as pharyngealised non-ejective (IPA [tˁ]), except in utterance-final position. /ṭ/ occasionally neutralises with /t/ and, more commonly, /d/ in both dialect groups.

/n/ Voiced alveolar nasal. IPA [n].

/l/ Voiced alveolar lateral. IPA [l].

/r/ Voiced alveolar tap. IPA [ɾ]. When geminate realised as a trill [r]. As simplex consonant may also be realised as trill in pre-pausal position, as in: aba[r]k# ‘the knee’, bɛ[r]# ‘camels’ (M), tōma[r]# ‘dates’. Before coronals, /r/ may form a retroflex cluster with the following coronal in both dialects, as in ba[ɽɳ] ‘we already’ (cf. Simeone-Senelle 1997: 384, 2011b: 1080).

/z/ Voiced alveolar fricative. IPA [z].

/s/ Voiceless alveolar fricative. IPA [s].

1.1 The melody

13

/ṣ/ Emphatic alveolar fricative. In both dialect groups, /ṣ/ is pharyngealised and realised with considerable laryngeal tension, usually IPA [sˁ]. In Mehreyyet, /ṣ/ is often realised with additional affrication and glottalisation resulting in ejective tokens (IPA [ʦ’]), particularly in utterance-initial and utterance-final position. In both dialect groups, the glottalic or laryngeal tension is weakened significantly intervocalically, neutralising on occasions with either /s/ or /z/.

/j/ Voiced palato-alveolar affricate in Mahriyōt. IPA [ʤ]. The cognate of Mehreyyet /g/.

/ž/ Voiced palato-alveolar fricative. IPA [ʒ]. Marginal phoneme in Mehreyyet. Attested initially in very few lexemes, such as: žambayyat ‘dagger’, žūdaytan ‘bright white pl.’, žūmaḥ ‘he ran’, žaymaḥ ‘running.N’.

/š/ Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative. IPA [ʃ].

/š/ Emphatic palato-alveolar fricative. In both dialect groups, /š/ is realised with significant pharyngealisation, as IPA [ʃˁ]. In certain environments, particularly utterance-initially and utterance-finally, /š/ may be realised with affrication in Mahriyōt (IPA [ʧˁ]) and with affrication and occasional glottalisation in Mehreyyet (IPA [ʧˁ] ~ [ʧ’]).

/ś/ Voiceless lateral fricative. IPA [ɬ].

/ś/ Emphatic lateral fricative. Generally realised as pharyngealised. Often has a lateral sonorant offglide. Intervocalically /ś/ may be realised as a pharyngealised lateral sonorant, IPA [ɫ], and in Mehreyyet spoken around Mazyūnah is frequently realised as a pharyngealised lateral sonorant in other environments.

/y/ Voiced palatal approximant. IPA [j].

/g/ Voiced velar stop in Mehreyyet. IPA [g]. The cognate of Mahriyōt /j/. Among some speakers, /g/ has palatal and palato-alveolar realisations. Attested in Mahriyōt in some Arabic loan words.

/k/ Voiceless velar stop. IPA [k].

/ḳ/ Emphatic velar stop. In both dialect groups, the unmarked realisation is ejective, IPA [k’]. In some environments, however, particularly intervocalically, /ḳ/ is realised as non-ejective and at least partially neutralises with /k/ or, more commonly, /g/.

/ġ/ Voiced uvular fricative. IPA [ɣ]. Among some speakers in both dialect groups, /ġ/ may be realised as a uvular stop [q], as in a[q]awf ‘the top’ (M.N.Šlaym01.02), for example.


14

/x/ Voiceless uvular fricative. IPA [χ]. In some environments, particularly before back vowels, /x/ has voiceless uvular trill realisations in both dialect groups.

/h/ Voiceless glottal fricative. IPA [h].

/ʔ/ Glottal stop. IPA [ʔ]. Often realised without complete glottal closure as creaky vowel in both dialect groups. For Mehreyyet, this is the reflex of weak /ʕ/ (see below).

/ḥ/ Voiceless pharyngeal fricative. IPA [ħ].

/ʕ/ Voiced pharyngeal approximant. IPA [ʕ]. The dialect groups differ in that etymological *ʕ is far more regularly realised with pharyngeal constriction in Mahriyōt than in Mehreyyet. Speakers of Mehreyyet describe weak /ʕ/ (*ʕayn), which has little pharyngeal constriction and may be realised as creak, contrasting with strong *ʕayn, which exhibits perceptible pharyngeal constriction. These both contrast with non-realisation of etymological *ʕ. Weak *ʕayn is transcribed as /ʔ/, strong *ʕayn as /ʕ/. Weak *ʕ often alternates with lack of realisation. Thus, *baʕl ‘owner; possessor’ is realised both as baʔl and bāl. Both are transcribed in this book. In some lexemes, strong *ʕ alternates both with weak *ʕ and creaky voice or no realisation, as in ʕaylīg ~ ʔaylīg ~ aylīg ‘young male camel’ and ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat ~ aynat ‘a little’. Where *ʕ in Mehreyyet has weak pharyngeal realisation, minimal pairs exist, such as: tōmar ‘dates’ versus tʔōmar ‘you m.s. say/she says’. Words in which *ʕ is articulated strongly include: bʕayr pl. baʕyūr ‘male camel’, ʕaydīd in ingēf ʕaydīd [lit. the dust has been swept away] ‘Well done!’; within paradigms of a few lexemes, *ʕ has a strong reflex in some inflections, but not in others: thus, the adjective āfayf ‘dignified’ has an initial /ʕ/ in the plural inflections ʕīfōf ‘dignified m.pl.’, ʕīfaftan ‘dignified f.pl.’ that is generally not realised in the singular: āfayf ‘dignified m.s.’, āfift ‘dignified f.s.’; in some derivations, *ʕ has a strong realisation in one lexeme, but not in another lexeme derived from it. Thus, hāśēh ‘he gets him up’ lacks /ʕ/, but ʕiśś ‘he gets up’ retains /ʕ/. In some lexemes, including ʕiśś, /ʕ/ may also be articulated weakly as creak or as a glottal stop. In the imperfect, /ʕ/ is not articulated: yāśūś ‘he gets up’.

1.1.1.2 Phonological patterning of the ‘emphatics’

In terms of phonation, the consonants are typically classified as voiced or voiceless in the literature. However, the phonological patterning of consonants in both dialect groups indicates that the pertinent laryngeal distinction is not one of voicing, but rather of aspiration. The traditional Semitic term ‘emphatic’ is used here simply as a convenient label to describe a set of obstruents that share a secondary ‘back’ articulation, on the one hand, and that contrast in terms of phonation both with fully voiced obstruents, and with aspirated, or fully voiceless, obstruents, on the other.

1.1 The melody

15

For Mehri, the emphatics have been shown by Johnstone (1975a, 1987, etc.) and Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle (1997) to be neutral in terms of voicing and to have both voiced and voiceless allophones. The emphatic stops differ from the aspirated stops /t/, /k/ in lacking a long voicing lag before vowels, and in failing to be aspirated in utterance-final position (Watson & Bellem 2010, 2011). As shown in previous works (Johnstone 1975a; Sima 2009; Watson & Bellem 2010, 2011), the voiced and emphatic consonants pattern together in terms of phonation in the phonology and the morphophonology in both dialect groups.

The emphatics share with the laryngeal /h/, the pharyngeals /ḥ, ʕ/ and the uvulars /x, ġ/ an articulation in the guttural region, secondary in the case of the emphatics, and pattern together in terms of the vowel allophones they take (Johnstone 1987: xiv; Sima 2009; Watson & Bellem 2010, 2011). With the exceptions mentioned below (1.1.2.3), the long high vowels /ī/ and /ū/ are realised as closing diphthongs (IPA [ɑj] and [ɑw]) following /h/ or any of the pharyngeals, uvulars or emphatics, the long vowels /ē/ and /ā/ are realised as low and back following pharyngeals, uvulars or emphatics (IPA [ɑ:]); in all other environments, /ā/ is realised as between IPA [ε:] and [æ:], and /ē/ as mid-front (around IPA [e:]) (cf. Sima 2009 for Mahriyōt). Thus, the diminutive of naxrīr ‘nose’ is realised as nax[ɑ:]rēr, as opposed to the diminutive of kabkīb ‘star’, which is realised as kab[æ:]kēb. The vowel in the feminine singular suffixes -ēt and -ēta is similarly realised as [ɑ:] after a pharyngeal, uvular or emphatic consonant, and transcribed as -ā (cf. 1.1.2.2), but as [e:], transcribed as -ē, elsewhere:

farḥ[ɑ:]t ‘happiness’; faśś[ɑ:]t ‘silver’; warḳ[ɑ:]t ‘sheet; leaf’ v. kūṯ[e:]t ‘story’; ṭabal[e:]t ‘metal box’

mšawnax-[ɑ:]ta [rest/relax.FUT-FS]; maśtawḳ-[ɑ:]ta [miss/long.for.FUT-FS] v. mšukf-[e:]ta [sleep. FUT-FS]

And the elative, rare in Mahriyōt, but common in Mehreyyet, has the form aCC[ɑ:]C where Cii is a pharyngeal, uvular or emphatic (and when Cii = sonorant following /ḳ/ or /w/ following /ṭ/) and aCC[e:]C elsewhere:

arḥ[ɑ:]m ‘better looking; kinder’; aḳl[ɑ:]l ‘fewer’, cf. akṯ[e:]r ‘greater’; axṯ[e:]m ‘thinner’, aṣl[e:]ḥ ‘fatter’

In Mehreyyet, *ʕ usually attracts a low back allophone of /ē/ and /ā/ (IPA [ɑ:]), even when *ʕ has no phonological reflex, as in: m[ɑ:]śēś ‘getting up’, [ɑ:]farūt ‘red f.s.’ (cf. Mahriyōt ʕ[ɑ:]farūt).

Following Watson (2002: 37–39), in Sima (2009) and here I describe the class of emphatics, pharyngeals and uvulars for convenience as gutturals on the grounds that they share a guttural place which lowers and backs adjacent vowels.

Johnstone (1975b) is frequently cited as the first work to mention ejective reflexes of the emphatic consonants in Modern South Arabian. Leslau in the discussion following Johnstone’s paper delivered at the Hamito-Semitic conference


16

in 1970 described the findings as a ‘minor revolution in so far as Semitic is concerned’ (Johnstone 1975b: 157). However the discovery of ejective reflexes of MSAL emphatics was made over a century earlier: Fresnel, the acknowledged western discoverer of the new MSAL language family, describes a set of consonants in Śḥerɛt that are ‘crachées par une emission violente et subite de l’air comprimé dans le larynx’ (Fresnel 1838: 545).5

The realisation of the emphatics in Mehri is not invariably ejective, however, and for this reason I use the term ‘emphatic’ rather than either ‘ejective’ or ‘glottalic’ to describe this set of sounds. In Sima (2009) and Watson & Bellem (2010, 2011), we demonstrate for Mahriyōt that, with the exception of the velar ejective /ḳ/, the emphatics are pharyngealised with ejective realisations resulting solely from predictable pre-pausal glottalisation in utterance-final position.

The emphatics in Mehreyyet are more mixed, with /ḳ/ showing ejective tokens in all but some intervocalic environments, /ṣ/ showing ejective tokens word initially and utterance finally, and /ṭ/ showing ejective tokens utterance finally and in word-initial position except before the low vowel /ā/ and the back vowels /ō/ and /aw/. In neither dialect are /š/ or /ś/ regularly realised as ejectives, though they are glottalised pre-pausally, and /ḏ/ ~ /ṯ/ is pharyngealised in all environments.

In both dialects, ejective and non-ejective tokens of the emphatics tend to be accompanied by considerable pharyngealisation and non-ejective tokens are almost invariably pharyngealised; thus, /ṭ/ in wṭōmah ‘like this’ and ṭawr ‘once, one time’ is pharyngealised. In the case of /ṭ/, initial ejective tokens in Mehreyyet may be quite front, as in the initial segment in ṭwādēd [one.DIM.M]. /ś/ and /š/ show occasional ejective tokens in Mehreyyet, though these are mainly restricted to utterance-final position and may be due to predictable pre-pausal glottalisation. Mehreyyet /ḏ/, like its Mahriyōt cognate /ṯ/, is realised as a pharyngealised interdental fricative with pre-glottalised tokens only in utterance-final position, resulting from pre-pausal glottalisation. In some dialects of Mehreyyet, including that of Ndēt by Mazyūnah on the Yemeni border, /ś/ is mainly realised as a pharyngealised lateral sonorant, particularly in intervocalic position (cf. Watson & Al-Azraqi 2011). Long vowels are often realised with creaky voice in the environment of emphatics (cf. Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle 1997; Simeone-Senelle 1997 for Qishn dialect; Lonnet 2009), particularly when falling between two emphatics:

aṣṭ[aw]ṭ ‘I hurt’; [ā]śamī ‘I used to’

5 Fresnel’s work regarding the articulation of the emphatics and the lateral sibilants was then

dismissed by later scholars, including Maltzan (1871: 199). The lateral sibilants were later acknowledged by the Viennese Expedition, but Bittner’s study of Śḥerɛt (1915b: 5) mentions no articulations that can be interpreted as ejective and notes no differences between Mehri and Śḥerɛt emphatics. For an annotated discussion of Fresnel’s work, cf. Lonnet (1991).

1.1 The melody

17

In the emphatic system, it appears that Mehri6 falls midway between the ejective system of Ethio-Semitic and the pharyngealised system of most modern dialects of Arabic: some emphatics are mainly ejective in their realisation, some are always pharyngealised, and in contrast to Ethio-Semitic, all emphatics exhibit the backing characteristics of the emphatics of most dialects of Arabic.

1.1.1.3 Gemination

With the exception of the glottal stop and /ʕ/ in Mehreyyet, all consonants in the two dialect groups may be realised as simplex or geminate. Geminates are either lexical or derived (cf. Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle 1997: 356–357). Non-lexical geminates are derived phonologically, as the result of assimilation or as a result of metathesis in certain derived verb types. A few instances of morphologically induced gemination are attested in the two dialects.

1.1.1.3.1 Lexical geminates

Underlying geminates are attested in certain lexemes, including Mehreyyet: sinnawrat ‘cat’ and ġiggīn ‘boy’ and as C2 in geminate verbs, as in Mehreyyet: ḥiss ‘he felt’, ʕiśś ‘he stood up’, śill ‘he took’, and Mahriyōt ʕuśś ‘he stood up’, śull ‘he took’. Johnstone (1975a, etc.) and Rubin (2010: 21) claim that gemination does not occur word-finally in Mehreyyet and that a final geminate is simplified. In these works, ridd ‘he came back’ is transcribed as rəd and hamm ‘name’ as ham. There may indeed be no significant difference in closure duration between unreleased geminate and simplex plosives; however, acoustic evidence from fricatives and released final stops provides strong indication that final geminate verbs do indeed end in final geminates phonetically, and that these contrast in length with simplex counterparts.7

1.1.1.3.2 Phonologically motivated gemination

Derived geminates result from a number of anticipatory assimilation processes, including assimilation of /t/ to a coronal obstruent in the T-stem verb (2.5.1.2), as in: faśśaḥ < *fatśaḥ ‘to be embarrassed’ and ḳaṭṭā < ḳatṭā ‘to be cut’ (cf. Rubin 2010: 110–111; Simeone-Senelle 2011b: 1082); from assimilation, particularly in Mahriyōt, of the continuous aspectual marker ḏa- (cf. 2.9.5.1) to /t/ of the subject prefix: at-takōtab < *ḏa-tkōtab ‘you m.s. are/she is writing’ (Mo), at-tašwilfan < *ḏa-tašwilfan ‘you f.s. are becoming accustomed to’ (cf. ḏ-išwalfan ‘he is becoming accustomed to’) (Mo). Assimilation of ḏa- to /t/ of the subject prefix is less common in Mehreyyet, but is frequently attested, as in at-tabaḳśan ‘they f. are running’, kisk

6 And probably the MSAL language family as a whole: according to Leonid Kogan (p.c.),

Soqoṭri exhibits an ejective velar, but pharyngealised /ṭ/ and fricative emphatics (cf. Naumkin & Porkhomovskij 1981, which describes ejective stops and pharyngealised fricatives for Soqoṭri).

7 Cf. Bellem & Watson (in preparation).


18

tīs at-tabayk ‘I found her crying’, but mōn ḏīma tbayk ‘Who’s that crying f.s.?’) (cf. ḏi-ybayk ‘he is crying’).

In the case of verb stems with an initial sibilant, including Š-stem verbs (2.5.1.2), /t/ of the subject prefix may optionally assimilate to, or merge with, the sibilant in Mahriyōt, as in: tašwōḳaʕ ~ aššwōḳaʕ ~ aššwōḳaʕ ‘you m.s./she sit/s, lie/s’, tašnōwaḥ ~ aššnōwaḥ ~ aššnōwaḥ ‘you m.s./she hit/s, attack/s’, taślūl ~ aśślūl ‘you m.s./she take/s’, tasḥōṭ ~ assḥōṭ ‘you m.s./she slaughter/s’. Assimilation of the aspectual marker ḏa- may also give geminate [šš] or [šš] in the case of š-initial or Š-stem verbs, as in: aš-šajhōm ~ aš-šajhōm ‘you m.s./she are/is going early morning’.

Optional anticipatory assimilation of the attributiviser or the aspectual marker ḏa- to a coronal consonant other than /t/ also occurs. Coronal assimilation is more common in Mahriyōt than in Mehreyyet, where assimilation is usually partial, rarely resulting in a surface geminate. Examples from Mahriyōt include:

*ḏa-śīwōṭ > ś-śīwōṭ > aś-śīwōṭ ‘of the fire’

*ḏa-šaṣwūl > š-šaṣwūl > aš-šaṣwūl ‘he who examines’

*ḏa-dīrām > d-dīrām > ad-dīrām ‘he who was killed’

*ḏa-ṣayrab > ṣ-ṣayrab > aṣ-ṣayrab ‘of the harvest period’

*ḏa-tašwalfan > t-tašwalfan > at-tašwalfan ‘you m.s./she become/s used to IND’

Examples from Mehreyyet include: as-sēh (< *ḏa-sēh) ‘that she’, ṣ-ṣaṭṭak in akays amśarḥiya ṣ-ṣaṭṭak tēsan ‘I find my teeth hurt’, and faḳḥ as-sɛt ~ faḳḥ ḏa-sɛt ‘half an hour’.

Finally, in case the morphology concatenates /h/ and /ḥ/ or /h/, /h/ assimilates totally to /ḥ/ (or /h/), assuming the pharyngeal element of the pharyngeal fricative where a pharyngeal fricative is involved. In the Mahriyōt texts, this most commonly occurs where the preposition ha- ‘to, for’ is followed by a noun with initial /ḥ/. The resulting geminate usually then takes a prosthetic vowel, [a]. Examples include:

ḥōm laʕmōl däḳf hä-ssäkni aw aḥ-ḥabunyä ‘I want to make a hut for my family or for my children’ Sima17:10

mġōrän ykōläṯ aḥ-ḥābū ‘then he told the people’ Sima41:21

Rubin (2010: 16–17) claims that the concatenation of two guttural aspirates results in /h/ deletion in Mehreyyet; however, the concatenation of /h-ḥ/ frequently results in geminate [ḥḥ] and the concatenation of /h-h/ in geminate [hh]:

amark aḥ-ḥanōfī ‘I said to myself’ M.PES

amark aḥ-ḥabinya ‘I told my children’ M.PES

amark ah-harbātya ‘I told my friends’ M.PES

1.1 The melody

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Prothesis of [a] in the case of guttural merging and gemination is represented in text messages by addition of alif, as in:

klmn olpq krsا]usvnم ]اxyz {| وا��~ان imših ʕamlan ḥaflah [aḥ-ḥāmay] w-agīrān kall nakʔam ‘yesterday we held a party for my mother and all the neighbours came’ M.txt

1.1.1.3.3 Morphologically motivated gemination

The cognate of the Semitic D-stem in Mehri is realised with a long vowel rather than with a medial geminate consonant, and so the typical morphological gemination of Arabic is not attested here within verb stems. However, morphologically motivated gemination is found in three cases, two of which involve the aspirated consonants.

In both dialects, medial gemination results in the case of geminate roots in T-, H- and Š-stem triliteral and quinquiliteral verbs and future participles where *C2C3VC3 > C2C2VC3, as in Mehreyyet: ḳattal < *ḳatlal ‘it m. spilt’, mattaḥ < *matḥaḥ ‘he oiled the skin’ (cf. imperfect yamtḥūḥ), and yihaggal < *yihaglal ‘he boils SUBJ’ (cf. imperfect yihaglūl), haśśab < *haśbab ‘Warm [the milk] m.s.!’, lšaddal ‘I should ask the way’ (cf. imperfect ašadlūl), and maśxawwal ‘will sit m.s.’ (cf. imperfect yiśxawlūl) (cf. Rubin 2010: 161; Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle 1997: 358).

Mahriyōt

In Mahriyōt,8 the L-stem (2.5.1.2), characterised by a long vowel following the first root consonant, and the basic quadriliteral verb, are also marked by gemination of the initial root consonant where that consonant is an aspirate.9 Thus, affōkar ‘to think’, attōfaġ ‘to wash o’s face with water’, axxanūṭ ‘to take [s.th.] out’, aḥḥōḏar ‘to be embarrassed’, akkōmal ‘to finish [s.th.]’, aśśarḳāʕ ‘to take a large step’, attartū r ‘to take s.th. violently’, which display gemination, contrast with D/L-stem and quadriliteral verbs with initial non-aspirated consonants, which do not, as in: awōḏan ‘he made the call to prayer’, aṣōfī ‘to cleanse’, aḳūnūm ‘to gather green fodder’ and abartūm ‘to amuse o.s.’. Gemination features throughout the paradigm, as seen in the paradigm of aḥḥōḏar ‘to be embarrassed’ below.

8 Occasionally also in Mehreyyet, with alternants such as sōfar ~ asōfar ~ assōfar ‘to travel; set

off’. 9 A similar phenomenon is attested in Śḥerɛt (Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle 1997: 359).


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Table 3: Mahriyōt paradigm of aḥḥōḏar ‘to be embarrassed’

Perfect Imperfect Subjunctive Singular 1 aḥḥaḏrak aḥḥaḏran laḥḥōḏar 2m aḥḥaḏrak taḥḥaḏran taḥḥōḏar 2f aḥḥaḏraš taḥḥiḏran taḥḥīḏar 3m aḥḥōḏar yaḥḥaḏran yaḥḥōḏar 3f aḥḥīḏ(a)rōt taḥḥaḏran taḥḥōḏar Dual 1 aḥḥaḏraki naḥḥaḏīroh laḥḥaḏīroh 2 aḥḥaḏraki taḥḥaḏīroh taḥḥaḏīroh 3 aḥḥēḏ(a)roh yaḥḥaḏīroh yaḥḥaḏīroh Plural 1 aḥḥaḏ(a)ran naḥḥaḏran naḥḥōḏar 2m aḥḥaḏrakam taḥḥaḏram taḥḥaḏram 2f aḥḥaḏrakan taḥḥaḏran taḥḥaḏran 3m aḥḥaḏram yaḥḥaḏram yaḥḥaḏram 3f aḥḥōḏar taḥḥaḏran taḥḥaḏran Participles ms maḥḥaḏīrōna fs maḥḥaḏīrīta mpl maḥḥaḏīrāya fpl maḥḥaḏīrūtan

Mehreyyet

The definite article is overtly and predictably expressed in Mehreyyet, but not in Mahriyōt, where frozen forms of the article exist (cf. Sima 2002). The different means of expressing the article in Mehreyyet are described in Sima (2002) and Rubin (2010) as prefixation of ḥV- generally in the case of nouns with etymological *ʔ and some plural forms, prefixation of hV- in some plural forms, prefixation of a-, and non-prefixation or prefixation of -0. Prefixation of ḥV- and hV- is lexically determined, as discussed in the above-mentioned works (cf. also 2.3.5). Prefixation of a- is said to be phonologically determined: a- is prefixed if the initial root consonant is voiced or glottalic (here ‘emphatic’) (i.e. if it is non-aspirated), or if it is /ʔ/ derived from etymological *ʕ (Johnstone 1975a: 98; Rubin 2010: 69). Rubin points out that data on the article is complicated by inconsistencies in the transcription of Johnstone’s texts: in some cases, Johnstone transcribes initial ə- before nominals with an initial aspirated consonant, as in: ʔayməl əfśēʔ ‘he made lunch’ (Stroomer12:4) and w-ʔāmōr heh ətōgər ‘and the merchant told him’ (Stroomer22:89), and in other cases the initial root consonant is geminated, as in: awaṣf ḏə-ttēṯ ‘the description of the woman’ (Stroomer55:13). Acoustic phonetic

1.1 The melody

21

analysis shows, however, both that nominals beginning with certain aspirated consonants do regularly take a- as the definite article – this is particularly the case with /ś/, as in: aśxōf ~ aśxawf ‘the milk’, aśḥayr ‘the mountains’, aśīḥaz ‘the frankincense’, aśōlaṯ ‘the third’ – and that some initial aspirated consonants are geminated in defined nouns. Impressionistically, certain aspirates are more likely to geminate than others: those more likely to geminate are /t/, /s/, /x/, /k/ and /ḥ/; those less likely to geminate are /f/, /ś/, /š/ and /h/; aspirate gemination is more likely to occur where a noun is focussed and/or where the noun occurs in non-utterance-initial position (particularly after the affixes bi-, ka- and ḏa-) and less likely to geminate utterance initially (as in the initial words in the first two examples below).

kansaydī ṣaṭṭak [akkansaydī] ‘my shoulder, my shoulder hurts’ M.ES.Ndēt

tōmar agōb bi-[ttōmar] ‘dates, I like dates’ M.ES

āgōb bi-[ffarahayn] ‘I like the horse’ M.ES

[axxaylī] śōm [axxaylak] ‘my uncle sold your uncle’ M.R

aftūk manh [attaywī] ‘he removed the flesh from it m.’ M.N.Rabkūt02.25

This finding is particularly interesting from a comparative point of view. Śḥerɛt exhibits gemination of certain (mainly aspirated) initial consonants following the article, as in: a-xxaf ‘the sole of a camel’s foot’, e-ffáʕm ‘the foot’, e-tté’ ‘the meat’ and i-yyúm ‘the day’ (Johnstone 1980; cf. also Hofstede 1998: 26). Johnstone (1970b) gives examples of geminate /t/ in the defined form of tεṯ ‘woman’ and tuwi ‘meat’ for Ḥarsūsi. For Mehri, Sima in his transcriptions of the Mahriyōt texts (Sima 2009) notes that nominal-initial aspirated (what he termed stimmlos ‘voiceless’) consonants are realised as geminates after certain clitics and affixes, and that nominal-initial non-aspirates (voiced and emphatic consonants) are not.10 These clitics and affixes include wa- [conj], ka- ‘with’, ba- ‘by, with’, la- ‘to’. Thus gemination of /x/ in wat ka-xxarf ‘in the monsoon period’ and /ś/ in wat ka-śśētū ‘in the winter’ contrasts with lack of gemination of the non-aspirates /ḳ/ in wat ka-ḳayṯ ‘in the hot period’ and /ṣ/ in wat ka-ṣayrab ‘in the harvest period’. In the introduction to Sima (2009), I describe affixes after which gemination occurs as ‘geminating particles’. Gemination, however, does not occur invariably after these affixes; gemination appears to be context-dependent and occurs where the nominal in question denotes either a previously mentioned entity or a general entity; thus gemination has some morphemic status.

It now appears not that the affixes themselves invoke gemination, but that the nominals with initial geminate aspirates are definite, and that definiteness is marked explicitly in non-utterance-initial position, as we see above for nominals with initial aspirate stops in Mehreyyet. Sima’s and my main informant for Mahriyōt, Askari Ḥugayrān, was generally clear where initial aspirates were realised as geminates and

10 These consonants include /ḥ/, which only occasionally geminates in the Mehreyyet data.


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where they were not, when we checked transcriptions. Where he had any doubt – because too little context was provided, for example – he often asked me whether l- was present in the script or not, meaning the Arabic l- of the definite article. l- is also mentioned by some of my Mehreyyet informants. l-, of course, was not present, but these comments are indicative of an association on the part of native speakers of gemination with definiteness. Mehreyyet speakers also describe gemination of initial aspirates explicitly as a marker of definiteness.

1.1.2 Vowels 1.1.2.1 Short vowels

The short vowels in the two dialects are: /a/, /i/, /u/ in Mahriyōt (Arnold & Sima 2003; Sima 2009: 10–14), and /a/ and /i/ in Mehreyyet.11 The low vowel /a/ in both dialect groups is relatively front and high in neutral environments, around cardinal vowel 3 ([ε]). The short high vowels have a greater functional load in Mahriyōt than in Mehreyyet, and vowel quality in Mehreyyet is often coloured by adjacent consonants: thus [u] is realised predictably in the environment of labio-velar consonants, as in: wzumk ‘I/you m.s. gave’, wkubk ‘I entered’, wuṣlak ‘I/you m.s. arrived’ versus ktabk ‘I/you m.s. wrote’. The few minimal pairs involving /a/ and /i/ in Mehreyyet include:

ḏikmah ‘that f.’ v. ḏakmah ‘that m.’

ḥiss ‘to feel’ v. ḥass ‘feeling’

śiff ‘hair’ v. śaff ‘foot/hoof print’

Mehreyyet has a few lexemes and stems in which /i/ is the lexical vowel. These include the stems of geminate verbs, where in Mahriyōt the vowel /u/ is attested (Sima 2009, see below), as in:

ridd ‘to return’; śiḳḳ ‘to break’ (e.g. śiḳḳə līn fēgar ‘dawn broke for us’); ʕiśś ‘to get up’; yiṣṣ ‘to be afraid’

/i/ is attested, sometimes as a variant of /a/, in the right-most syllable in a few words of the structure CVVCVC:

sɛtin ‘a short while ago’; wōgid ‘lots’; sēkin ~ sēkan ‘family; homestead; homestead’; mēkin ~ mēkan ‘lots’

It is attested in the prefix or stem of a few future participles:

tiḳyēta ‘will drink f.s.’; gihmīta ‘will go f.s.’; cf. katbīta ‘will write f.s.’

11 Johnstone (1975a, etc.) describes two short vowels for Mehreyyet: /a/ and /ə/. Impressionistic

and acoustic phonetic evidence indicates that phonologically the contrast is between a high and a low vowel and that schwa is realised either in unstressed position or in the environment of /r/.

1.1 The melody

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Native speakers of Mehreyyet distinguish two short vowels, which speakers literate in Arabic describe as fatḥa (/a/) and kasra (/i/). The vowel for the accusative affix ta-+third masculine singular (3ms) suffix is said to be fatḥa, for example, and that for the preposition bi-+3ms kasra.12 [o] occurs as an occasional allophone of /u/ in Mahriyōt or as a variant or allophone of /ō/ or /ū/ in both dialects:

yalloh ~ yallōh ‘last night’ Mo

illoh ~ illōh ‘last night’ M

wkoh ~ wkōh ‘why’

hoh ~ hōh ~ hūh ‘I’

What is transcribed for Mehreyyet as [u] results either from the shortening of /ō/ on suffixation, as in: śamuntah ‘will buy m.s. him’ (< *śamōna tah) or from colouring from an adjacent labio-velar consonant, as in: wzumk ~ wuzumk ‘I gave’. Short vowels are often realised as [ə] in unstressed position in both dialects or in Mehreyyet before /r/, as in bart > b[ə]rt ‘daughter of’.

In Mahriyōt, minimal pairs involving /i/ and /a/ include:

ḏikmah ‘that f.’ v. ḏakmah ‘that m.’

ḏihmah ‘that f.’ v. ḏahmah ‘that m.’ Mo.Rēhan

/i/ distinguishes second feminine singular (2fs) from second masculine singular (2ms) / third feminine singular (3fs) in the imperfect / subjunctive in many verbs (cf. Sima 2009). In some cases, [i] is derived from /ī/, but in others, as discussed in Sima (2009), it is not:

Imperfect

tawiḏnan ‘you f.s. call to prayer’ v. tawaḏnan ‘you m.s./she call/s to prayer’

tašwilfan ‘you f.s. become used to’ v. tašwalfan ‘you m.s./she become/s used to IND’

taffikran ‘you f.s. think’ v. taffakran ‘you m.s./she think/s’

Subjunctive

tšihfiḳ ‘you f.s. get married’ v. tšahfaḳ13 ‘she gets married’

tšibsil ‘you f.s. are embarrassed’ v. tšabsal ‘you m.s./she is/are embarrassed’

12 For these and other reasons, the monoconsonantal particles, including prepositions, are analysed

for Mehreyyet, contra Johnstone (1975a, etc.) and Rubin (2010), as having the template CV and not *C (cf. 2.7).

13 This verb only takes a feminine subject.


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tatixf ‘you f.s. come in the early evening’ v. tataxf ‘you m.s./she come/s in the early evening’

tixxanaṭ ‘you f.s. take s.th. out’ v. taxxanaṭ ‘you m.s./she take/s s.th. out’

In Mahriyōt, [u] contrasts with [i] only in cases where [u] is derived from /ū/ and [i] from /ī/ (Sima 2009):

šikf ‘Sleep f.s.!’ v. šukf ‘Sleep m.s.!’

tšikf ‘you f.s. sleep SUBJ’ v. tšukf ‘you m.s./she sleep/s SUBJ’

There are a few minimal pairs in which /u/ contrasts with /a/, including śuff ‘to grill’ v. śaff ‘foot/hoof print’, mudd ‘to stretch [s.th.]’ v. madd ‘pebbles’, muḥḥ ‘to rub fat in’ v. maḥḥ ‘fat; clarified butter’, śull ‘to sing’ v. śall ‘song’, and a few near-minimal pairs, such as humm ‘name’ v. hammūtan ‘names’. Elsewhere [a] is opposed to [u] in derived environments, as in:

ḳāt ‘gāt’ > ḳat-ham ‘their m. gāt’

ḳūt ‘food’ > ḳut-ham ‘their m. food’

yaślul-h ‘he takes it m. IND’ v. yaślal-h ‘he takes it m. SUBJ’

1.1.2.2 Long vowels

The long vowel phonemes are the monophthongs /ī/, /ē/, /ā/, /ō/, /ū/ and the diphthongs /ay/ and /aw/ in both dialect groups (for Mahriyōt, cf. Sima 2009: 14–16). In Mehreyyet, /ɛ/ occurs with low functional load. The high and high-mid long vowels ī and ē, on the one hand, and ū and ō, on the other, are often not functionally distinct, particularly in Mehreyyet. Frequently what are transcribed here as ō and ū, on the one hand, and ē and ī, on the other hand, are unconditioned variants of one phoneme (cf. Wagner 2001: 333; Rubin 2010: 22). This gives alternants such as: sīr-ōna ~ sīr-ūna [go.FUT-MS], riddūt ~ riddōt ‘she came back’ (M), sūb-ēta ~ sūb-īta [wait.FUT-F.S.] (M).

/ē/ versus /ā/

The long vowel phoneme /ē/ is around IPA [e:]. The low long vowel phoneme /ā/ is relatively high and front in neutral environments in both dialect groups, ranging between IPA [ε:] and [æ:]. Particularly in Mehreyyet, there are many fewer undisputed instances of /ā/ than /ē/. In most cases, what are transcribed here as ā and ē are allophones of a single phoneme: as seen above (1.1.1.2), ā is found to the exclusion of ē after gutturals. The phoneme /ā/ does, however, feature in certain lexemes and patterns: the penultimate long vowel in diminutive masculine singular nouns and adjectives, /ā/, contrasts with the final long vowel /ē/, as in: twālē [behind.DIM], ḥawārēḳ [hot.DIM], śwābēb [youth.DIM] (cf. 2.3.4). Both dialects also exhibit a few minimal pairs involving /ē/ and /ā/. These include Mahriyōt lē ‘cow’

1.1 The melody

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versus lā ‘no’; yaġlāb ‘he refuses’ versus yaġlēb ‘he beats [s.o., usu. in war]’ and Mehreyyet hām ‘if’ versus hēm ‘they m.’.

/ī/ versus /ē/

The vowels /ī/ and /ē/ are often phonetically very close, but there are a few true minimal pairs in both dialects. These include pairs such as ḏhēb ‘gold’ versus ḏhīb ‘flash flood; torrent’ in both dialect groups, Mahriyōt hēt ‘you m.s.’ versus hīt ‘you f.s.’, and Mehreyyet bady-īt [liar-FS] versus badyēt [liar.MPL], ūban-īt [white.ADJ-FS] versus ūbanēt [white.N], and śigarīt ‘steep road; mountain pass; defile‘ versus śigarēt ‘tree’. Despite the relative phonetic closeness of /ī/ and /ē/, the phonological distinction is easier to establish than that between /ē/ and /ā/: the distinction between /ī/ and /ē/ can be seen on vowel reduction (cf. Johnstone 1987: xiv), the behaviour of the long vowels after gutturals, and, in Mehreyyet, pre-suffixal diphthongisation of /ī/ but not /ē/ (cf. 1.1.2.3).

The feminine singular nominal ending -īt reduces to [i] before consonant-initial suffixes and -ēt to [a], as in:

Mahriyōt

ḥaybīt ‘camel mare’ > ḥaybit-k ‘your m.s. camel mare’

bahlīt ‘word’ > bahlit-s ‘her word’

jaḥlēt ‘cooking pot’ > jaḥlat-h ‘his cooking pot’

raḥbēt ‘town’ > raḥbat-k ‘your m.s. town’

Mehreyyet

ḥaybīt ‘the camel mare’ > ḥaybit-s ‘her camel mare’

ḳassēt ‘story’ > aḳassat-k ‘your m.s. story’

mdarsēt ‘school’ > amdarsat-k ‘your m.s. school’

Furthermore, certain long vowels feature in particular morphological templates: thus, /ī/ in fīʕal in the simple perfect verbal pattern contrasts with /ē/ in the nominal template fēʕal, as in the following, attested in the two dialect groups:

fīraḥ ‘to be happy’; śītam ‘to buy’; wīdaʕ (Mo) ~ wīda (M) ‘to know’; wīṣal ‘to arrive’;

sēkan ‘family; settlement; homestead’; fējar (Mo) ~ fēgar (M) ‘dawn’; fēśal ‘work’

In Mahriyōt always, and in Mehreyyet in certain paradigms, /ī/ in these cases reduces to [i]:


26

fīraḥ > firḥ-ak ‘I/you m.s. am happy’; śīṭam > śitm-ak ‘I/you m.s. bought’; wīdaʕ > widʕ-ak ‘I/you m.s. know’ (Mo); wīṣal > wiṣl-ak ‘I arrived’ (Mo)

In both dialect groups, by contrast, /ē/ in the nominal forms reduces to [a]:

sēkan > sakn-ak ‘your m.s. family’; fēśal > faśl-ak ‘your m.s. work’

After gutturals in both dialects, /ī/ is dipthongised to [ay], while /ē/ is backed to [ā], as in Mehreyyet ḳaṭ-ayta [tire.INTR.FUT-FS] (cf. sīr-īta [go.FUT-FS]) versus mšfaḳ-āta [marry.FUT-FS] (cf. mšukf-ēta [sleep.FUT-FS]). In Mehreyyet, /ī/ is also diphthongised to [ay] in words ending in -ī(C) on pronoun suffixation (cf. 1.1.2.4). Thus, dipthongisation of /ī/ in ḥaybīt ‘the camel’ > ḥaybaytī ‘my camel’ contrasts with non-dipthongisation of /ē/ in raḥbēt ‘town’ > arḥabētī ‘my town’.

With few exceptions, /ī/ is found to the exclusion of /ē/ in word-final position. The few words with word-final -ē include: lajrē (Mo) lagrē (M) ‘in order to’, ḥāmē ‘mother [of]’ and ḥabrē ‘son [of]’. What has been transcribed by Johnstone (1975a), Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle (1997), Simeone-Senelle (1997), Sima (2005, 2009), Rubin (2010) and others as word-final -i is phonologically -ī. Interestingly, Johnstone did not leave final -i (or final -a) without comment: he analysed these vowels phonologically not as short, but as ‘half-long’, noting that ‘[p]honetically all final ‘open’ syllables are closed by h or ʔ and this may contribute to the shortening of such vowels’ (Johnstone 1975a: 102). Wagner (2001: 332, fn. 2) in his review article of Stroomer (1999) suggests that word-final -i in the Johnstone texts is to be interpreted as -ī. There are, indeed, both phonetic and phonological reasons for analysing final -ī as long: -ī has the tenseness associated with long vowels and is significantly longer than /i/. It takes word stress in bisyllabic words and may take word stress in multisyllabic words (cf. 1.2.3).

/ō/ versus /ū/

Both dialects exhibit a few (near-)minimal pairs involving the long rounded back vowels /ō/ and /ū/, including:

ktūb ‘he wrote’ v. ktōb ‘book’ M

ḥbūr ‘cold’ v. ḥbōr ‘when, at the moment that’ M

xrū b ‘hot summer wind from the west’ v. xrōb ‘damage’ M

ḥilsōt ‘she desired [meat, fish]’ v. ḥilsūt ‘desire [for meat, fish]’ Mo

In Mahriyōt, a few verbal nouns of the pattern fʕūl14 contrast with a fʕōl 3ms perfect form of the verb, as in:

xrōj ‘he went out’ v. xr ūj ‘going out, exit’

A few unrelated minimal pairs involve one member as an Arabic loan:

14 A more common verbal noun pattern for the simple verb is faʕyūl.

1.1 The melody

27

frūś ‘duty prayer’ v. frōś ‘female camel calves’

In both dialect groups, near-minimal pairs are also found in some singular–plural nominal pairs, where -ōt is the feminine singular nominal suffix and -ūtan the feminine plural suffix, and in some perfect and imperfect verbal stems, as in:

Mahriyōt

lʕōt ‘nipple’, lʕūtan ‘nipples’

axxanūṭ ‘he took [s.th.] out’, yaxxanōṭ ‘he takes [s.th.] out’

nūkaʕ ‘he came’, ynōkaʕ ‘he comes IND’

šaxbūr ‘he asked’, yšaxbōr ‘he asks IND’

Mehreyyet

nūka ‘he came’, yinōka ‘he comes’

xdūm ‘he worked’, yixōdam ‘he works’

One area in which /ō/ and /ū/ and /ē/ and /ī/ differ is in their phonological behaviour in the environment of gutturals and emphatics. As we will see below, /ū/ and /ī/ are considerably more likely than /ō/ and /ē/15 to be diphthongised to [aw] and [ay] respectively when following a guttural or emphatic.

/ɛ/ as a phoneme in Mehreyyet

As discussed above, /ā/ is realised as [ε:] ~ [æ:] in neutral environments and as [ɑ:] in the environment of pharyngeals or gutturals, and in most words with an etymological *ʕ. Mehreyyet does, however, exhibit an occasional functional distinction between [ε:] and [ɑ:]. In some cases, [ε:] is realised unpredictably in words involving etymological *ʕ, as in: sɛt ‘a long time ago’, sɛtin ‘a short while ago’. In other cases, [ε:] is realised unpredictably following /ḥ/ where /l/ vocalisation applies (cf. 1.3.1.1), as in: ḥɛmak (< *ḥalmak) ‘I/you m.s. dreamt’. This leads to occasional minimal pairs involving words from the same etymological roots:

bɛr ‘camels’ v. bār ‘he went at night’ (< */b-ʕ-r/)

ḥɛmak (< *ḥalmak) ‘I/you m.s. dreamt’ v. ḥāmak (< *ḥalmak) ‘your m.s. dream’

abɛlī ‘my God’ v. bāl ~ baʔl ‘owner of’ (< */b-ʕ-l/)

15 Contra Johnstone (1987: xiv), however, there are at least alternants between [aw] and [ō]

following a guttural or emphatic, and in nominal forms in particular it is not always clear whether [ay] results from underlying /ē/ or /ī/. The 3fs perfect suffix -ūt is realised as -awt following a guttural or emphatic, as in: šfaḳ-awt ‘she got married’, but in the case of *ʕ is realised unexpectedly as -ōt, as in: ūḳ-ōt ‘she became’, ank-ōt ‘she came’.


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Near-minimal pairs are also attested: in the case of H- and Š-stem verbs with etymological *ʔ or *ʕ, /ā/ is realised in the stem-initial syllable of the perfect and indicative, but /ɛ/ in the stem-initial syllable of the subjunctive. The following examples are given in the 3ms form:

šāmūn, yišāmūn, tišɛman ‘to believe’; hārūs, yihārūs, yihɛras ‘to marry [man, a woman]’; hātūm, yihātūm, yihɛtam ‘to spend the night’

Due to the unpredictable occurrence of [ε:], /ɛ/ is treated as a phoneme and transcribed as such in those environments in which an allophone of /ā/ would be predicted to be realised as [ɑ:].

1.1.2.3 Diphthongs and diphthongisation

Both dialects have the closing diphthongs /ay/ and /aw/, though they have higher occurrence and greater functional load in Mehreyyet than in Mahriyōt.

Mahriyōt

In Mahriyōt, there are two main contexts for closing diphthongs ay and aw. Firstly, closing diphthongs occur to the immediate right of the gutturals, which include pharyngeals, laryngeals and emphatics (cf. 1.1.1.2), as contextual realisations of /ī/ and /ū/ (and occasionally /ō/) respectively:

malḥawt ‘salt; salt water’, also malḥōt

wasʕawt ‘it f. held’ v. barwōt ‘she gave birth’

ṣalḥayt ‘fat f.s.’ v. xaṯmīt ‘thin f.s.’

habʕayt ‘seven’ v. ṯamnīt ‘eight’

xaymah ‘five’ v. śīlaṯ16 ‘three’

Secondly, closing diphthongs result from long-vowel shortening before a glide, as in:

xlōwaḳ ‘clothes’ > xlawḳiya ‘my clothes’

wdōyam ‘huts’ > wdaymiya ‘my huts’

In some cases, diphthongs alternate with long high vowels in Mahriyōt, as in the following alternates:

ḥīb ~ ḥayb ‘father’; ḥīd ~ ḥayd ‘hand’; yaḥōl ~ yaḥawl ‘Indeed!’

Additionally, they sometimes fail to occur in the environment of gutturals or emphatics, as in the following:17

16 Used exclusively before the word yōm ‘day’. 17 In the Mahriyōt of Rēhan as opposed to that of Jōdab, diphthongisation is optional in many of

1.1 The melody

29

ḳīmat ‘price’ (cf. Mehreyyet ḳaymat); ṭīt ‘one f.’ (cf. Mehreyyet ṭayt); arḥīmat ‘beautiful f.s.’ (cf. Mehreyyet arḥaymat); ḥīmal ‘right’ (cf. Mehreyyet ḥaymal); aṯ-ṯīrak ‘on you m.s.’ (cf. Mehreyyet ḏayrak); ḳūt ‘food’ (cf. Mehreyyet ḳawt); ʕīśar ‘ten’ (cf. Mehreyyet ayśar); ʕīmal ‘to do’ (cf. Mehreyyet aymal)

As in Mehreyyet (cf. below), this is particularly the case where the guttural is initial in the template CVVCVVC. Unlike Mehreyyet, lack of diphthongisation occurs irrespective of whether the right-most long vowel falls within the stem or a suffix:

xīmīt ‘tent’ (cf. Mehreyyet xaymīt); ḥībīṭ ‘swelling’; yahśīrūr ‘it m. becomes green’; nśūlūl ‘to go septic’; śījāʕ ‘caves’ (cf. śayjaʕ ‘cave’)

The occasional lexemes in Mahriyōt where diphthongs have phonemic status include:

bayt ‘house; room’ v. bīt ‘tribe’

ʕayd ‘sardines’ v. ʕīd ‘festival’

kawm ‘pile’ v. kūm ‘[plant type]’

Mehreyyet

In Mehreyyet, diphthong allophones of /ī/ and /ū/ following gutturals and emphatics are more predictable than in Mahriyōt and include:

ḥayr ‘donkey’; śaygaʔ ‘cave’; ġayg ‘man’; tūṣaylī ‘you f.s. arrive SUBJ’; ṣayd ‘fish’; haytam ‘sky’; maḳṣayd ‘short cut’

xawr ‘sea inlet’; ḳawt ‘food’; ṣṭawṭ ‘pain’; šfaḳawt ‘she got married’ (cf. riddūt ‘she came back’); haḳṭawt ‘she [camel] gave birth’ (cf. haḳbalūt ‘she approached’); tanṭawṭ ‘you m.s./she are/is shaking’; faṣṣawt ‘she leant on’

The guttural or emphatic does not have to be directly contiguous with the long vowel to cause diphthongisation, particularly where the intervening segment is a sonorant, as in the examples below:

ṣwayr ‘stones’; ḳrawš ‘money’; ṣarfayt ‘large flat rock’; ḳannawn ‘small m.s.’; maḥṯaym ‘camel bridle/rope’

Several multisyllabic nouns ending in -ī diphthongise /ī/ > [ay] before pronoun suffixes, those ending in -īC diphthongise before vowel-initial pronoun suffixes:18

ṯīdī ‘breast’ > ṯīday-sa ‘her breast

these lexemes, including ones in which the guttural falls in initial position in the template CVVCVVC, as in: ṯayrōb ~ ṯīrōb ‘branches’ (cf. Sima 2009: 18).

18 Contra Rubin (2010: 35) not just before the first singular possessive suffix.


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rīkīb ‘riding/pack camel’19 > arīkayb-ah ‘his riding/pack camel’

ūšīn ‘tongue’ > ūšayn-ak ‘your m.s. tongue’

ḥagrīt ‘room’ > ḥagrayt-an ‘our room’

āḏamīt ‘back’ > āḏamayt-ī ‘my back’

kansīd ‘shoulder’ > (ak)kansayd-ī ‘my shoulder’

ḥanīd ‘the waterskin/milkskin’ > ḥanayd-ī ‘my waterskin/milkskin’

mandīl ‘tissue’ > amandayl-ək ‘your m.s. tissue’ Stroomer85:18

naxrīr ‘nose’ > anxarayr-ī ‘my nose’

/ō/ is usually unaffected by a preceding guttural or emphatic,20 but occasionally has a diphthong allophone or diphthong alternant, as in:

yixawnaḳ ‘he strangles IND’; yixawraḳ ‘he scratches IND’; aḳawdar ‘I can’; xfōf ~ xfawf ‘camel hooves’; śxawf ~ śxōf ‘milk’

Diphthongisation of /ī/ following a guttural or emphatic often fails to occur where the guttural or emphatic is initial in the template CVVCVVC within a stem.21 Examples include: ḥīṭār ‘kids’, ḥīdēd ‘tree [used to block an opening]’, ḥībōṭ ‘swellings’, ḏīrōb ‘sticks’, tanxīrūr ‘she snores’, xīfōf ‘light m.pl.’, xīṭām ‘[camel] bridle’, ḥīrīr ‘pens for goat kids’.

The phonemic status of diphthongs in Mehreyyet is seen in minimal pairs and lexemes in which diphthongs are lexical. Minimal pairs involving long high vowels and diphthongs include:

ḏīm ‘this m.’ v. ḏaym ‘this f.’

ḏēk ~ ḏīk ‘that m.’ v. ḏayk ‘that f.’

ḥīlam ‘they m. tricked’ v. ḥaylam ‘he dreamt’

In the perfect aspect of the pattern fʕūl, fʕawl indicating 3mpl contrasts with fʕūl indicating 3ms:22

19 Most commonly used for camels, but could be used to describe any riding or pack animal:

hāśan man rīkīb šūk ‘What sort of pack animal do you m.s. have?’, šay bʕayr ‘I have a male camel.’

20 Probably due to the fact that it already has the backness and relative lowness associated with the gutturals.

21 Cp. ḥaybīt ‘the camel’, xaymīt ‘tent’, etc., where the long vowel of the second syllable falls in a suffix.

22 As pointed out by Wagner (2001: 335), the distinction between 3ms and 3mpl in the perfect verb collapses when the second radical is a guttural: here is phonologically motivated diphthongisation of /ū/ in the case of 3ms and morphologically motivated diphthongisation in the case of 3mpl.

1.1 The melody

31

drūs ‘he learnt’ v. draws ‘they m. learnt’

syūr ‘he went’ v. syawr ‘they m. went’

ktūb ‘he wrote’ v. ktawb ‘they m. wrote’

wzūm ‘he gave’ v. wzawm ‘they m. gave’

Note that where the second root C is a guttural, the distinction between 3ms and 3mpl may be lost in the perfect aspect of verbs of the pattern fʕūl (cf. Wagner 2001: 335):

ḥṣawb h-amśabawt ‘he/they m. put small pebbles on the fire [for roasting meat]’

nḳawl ‘he/they m. chose; moved [s.th.]’

ḥṭawb ‘he/they m. fetched wood’

My data does show (cf. Wagner 2001: 335), however, that the plural may be marked additionally by the suffix -am:

ḥṣawbam h-amśabawt ‘they m. put small pebbles on the fire [for roasting meat]’

nḳawlam ‘they m. chose; moved [s.th.]’

ḥṭawbam ‘they m. fetched wood’

In the imperfect verb of the pattern yfʕōl, the diphthong /ay/ (and in the geminate verb /aw/) indicates masculine plural and, in the case of /ay/, contributes towards indication of 2fs:

yḥōm ‘he wants’ v. yḥaym ‘they m. want’

tḥōm ‘you m.s./she wants’ v. tḥaym(ī) ‘you m.pl./you f.s. want’

yardūd ‘he goes back IND’ v. yardawd ‘they m. go back’

/ē/ contrasts with /ay/ in the indicative in final weak verbs, as in:

tbayd ‘you m.s./she lie/s’ v. tbēdī ‘you f.s. lie’

tbayn ‘you m.s./she build/s’ v. tbēnī ‘you f.s. build’

There are a number of other cases where diphthongs in Mehreyyet are phonologically unmotivated and must therefore be considered lexical. These include the feminine dual future suffix, which takes the diphthong -aw-:

sīr-awtī [go.FUT-F.DUAL]; gar-awtī [drink.FUT-F.DUAL]

When suffixed to monosyllabic nouns and prepositions that do not contain a diphthong, the first singular possessive/object pronoun is realised as -áy in


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Mehreyyet as opposed to -ī in Mahriyōt. Similarly the adjectival suffix is realised as -áy in Mehreyyet and -ī in Mahriyōt, as in the table below:

Table 4: Mehreyyet diphthongs

Mehreyyet Mahriyōt gloss ḥabr-áy ḥabr-ī my son ḥām-áy ḥām-ī my mother b-áy b-ī with me š-áy š-ī with me hin-áy hn-ī with me fanw-áy fn-ī in front of me min-áy mn-ī from me xarf-áy xarf-ī monsoon [adj] ṣarb-áy ṣarb-ī post-monsoon [adj] amḳ-áy ʕamḳ-ī average, middle karkam-áy karkam-ī yellow

Where the noun or preposition contains a diphthong, the first singular pronoun is realised as -ī in Mehreyyet, as it is in Mahriyōt: ḥayb-ī ‘my father’, ḏayr-ī ‘on top of me’ (cf. Mahriyōt aṯ-ṯīr-ī ‘on me’).

In lexemes where *ʕ is no longer realised, /ay/ occurs to the exclusion of /ī/ in Mehreyyet, and the diphthong must now be considered lexicalised. Examples include:

ankayta ‘will come f.s.’ (cf. sīrīta ‘will go f.s.’)

aymal ‘to do’ (cf. fīraḥ ‘to be happy’, cf. Mahriyōt ʕīmal)

kalaynī (but also kalānī) ‘in the evening’ (cf. Mahriyōt kalʕaynī)

ībayt ‘seven’ (cf. Mahriyōt hibʕayt)

Finally, in Mehreyyet there are several lexemes in which diphthongs occur in a non-guttural or emphatic environment, though minimal pairs are difficult to find. These include ṯrayt ‘two f.’ (cf. Mahriyōt ṯrīt), taywī ‘meat’ (cf. Mahriyōt tīwī), ḳannawn ‘small’ (cf. Mahriyōt ḳannūn), ḳanyawn ‘children’, mayt(an) ‘when’, rawn ‘goats’, śaymal ‘left’, sinnawrat ‘cat’, ṯabarayn ‘hyena’, bakawrah ‘camel stick’, frayś ‘female camel calf’, and adjectives on the pattern CCayC, such as ksayf ‘short’, mdayd ‘stretched out’. In a few lexemes, aw occurs as free variant to ō, as in: lawb ~ lōb ‘indeed’, bawmah ~ bōmah ‘here’ (cf. Mahriyōt būmah), rawram ~ rōram ‘sea’

1.2 Prosodic phenomena

33

1.2 Prosodic phenomena

1.2.1 Syllable structure

In both dialect groups the syllable inventory comprises light open syllables (CV), heavy open and closed syllables (CVV and CVC), and superheavy syllables (CVVC and CVCC). Light open and heavy syllables are unrestricted in their distribution. CVVC is attested word-internally in derived environments and word-finally. CVCC tends to be restricted to word-final position. In certain derived environments, word-internal CVVC and word-final CVVCC are attested, as in Mahriyōt: ʕād-š ‘you f.s. are still’, bayt-san ‘their f. house’ and Mehreyyet w-ād-š ‘and you f.s. still’, ḳbāt-k ‘in front of you m.s.’ and aḳbāt-kam ‘your m.pl. tribe’. Non-final light open syllables tend to be subject to syncope in context, and initial CC and CCC consonant clusters are attested in both dialects in certain environments.

1.2.2 Phonotactics

Initial consonant clusters in both dialects occur where the sonority hierarchy23 is obeyed, e.g. where an obstruent is followed by a liquid or glide:

ṯrōh ‘two m.’; dwīl (Mo), dwayl ‘old’ (M); flān ‘so-and-so’; frayś ‘female camel calf’ (M); myēta ‘will die m.pl.’ (M)

Consonant clusters are common when contiguous fricatives are involved, including where an initial sibilant is followed or preceded by another fricative. Syllable boundaries in multisyllabic words are marked below by ‘.’:

fśē ‘lunch’; śxaw.wal ‘Sit m.s.!’; šfa.ḳawt ‘she got married’

Where an initial fricative is following by a plosive, as in:

fṭāṭ ‘spot’; xṭark ‘I/you m.s. reckon’; fḳayr ‘poor’

Or where a plosive is followed by a fricative, as in:

ṭhask ‘I slipped’; khāk ‘you m.s. did right’ (M); ksayf ‘short’ (M)

In rapid speech, syncope often produces initial consonant clusters where one of the above sequences results. This is particularly noticable in the case of ka-initial time adverbs:

ka-ṣōbaḥ ~ k-ṣōbaḥ ‘in the morning’ (Mo); k-aṣayrab ~ k-ṣayrab ‘in the post-monsoon period’ (M); k-axxarf ~ k-xarf ‘in the monsoon period’ (M); k-aśētū ~ k-śētū ‘in the winter’ (M)

In other cases, consonant clusters – as for example in verbs of the template fʕūl ~ fʕōl – are split by a very short intrusive vowel (for intrusive vowels, cf. Hall 2006):

k[ə]tabk ‘I wrote’; l[ə]badk ‘I hit’ (Mo); k[ə]tīw ‘dark’ (M)

23 For discussion of the sonority hierarchy, cf. Clements (1990).


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When my data or data from Sima (2009) is referred to in this book, word-initial CC is to be read as a consonant cluster except where the phonotactics of the language demand epenthesis of schwa.

1.2.3 Word stress

The two dialect groups share the following word stress algorithm:24

(a) Word-final CVVC or CVCC • śxōf ‘milk’; maġˈrāb ‘sunset’; kasˈyōh (Mo), kisˈyōh (M) ‘they DUAL found’ • ḥabs ‘prison’; śxawaˈlalk ‘I/you m.s. sat, remained’ (Mo); ḳīˈmath ‘its m.

price’; aṣˈṭawṭ ‘I hurt’ (M)

(b) Word-final diphthong (/ay/) in Mehreyyet, or CVV in disyllables25 • ḥāˈmay ‘my mother’; ḥabˈray ‘my son’; ṣarˈbay ‘related to ṣayrab’; mūˈsē

‘rain’ (M) • ḥabˈrī ‘my son’; fīˈḳō ‘blanket, cover’; malˈsē ‘rain’ (Mo)

(c) If (a) and (b) fail to apply, stress the rightmost non-final heavy syllable: CVC, CVV or CVVC • ˈśxaw.wal ‘Sit m.s.!’; ˈfaś.śam ‘they m. escaped’ • ˈśī.nak ‘I/you m.s. saw’; ṭādīˈdā.yan ‘each other 1mpl’ • ˈbayt.san ‘their f. house’; ˈʕād.san ‘they f. still’ (Mo)

(d) If (a), (b) and (c) fail to apply, stress the initial CV syllable • ˈhi.mak ‘I/you m.s. heard’ (M), ˈna.kak ‘I/you m.s. came’ (M)

1.2.3.1 Exceptions to the stress algorithm

The T-stem CatCaC verb (2.5.1.2) takes initial stress in the perfect aspect even on suffixation of consonant-initial pronoun suffixes, as in: ˈwatxafkam ‘you m.pl. are/came in the early evening’; ˈfaśśaḥkan ‘you f.pl. are embarrassed’; or where sonorant metathesis results in a long vowel in penultimate position, as in: ˈśatūḳak līkam ‘I miss you m.pl.’, ḏa-ˈġatīḏak ‘I am angry’ (M) (cf. 1.3.2.7).

As in Yemeni Arabic (Naïm-Sanbar 1994; Watson 2002, 2011), non-final syllables involving long segments – long vowels or geminate consonants – may attract stress from a final CVVC syllable, as in ˈġiggīn in the example below:

ā ˈġig.gīn sīr haśśab aśxōf ‘Boy! Go and heat up the milk!’ M.PES

Similarly, multisyllabic words ending in -ī may alternate between final and non-final stress, as in Mehreyyet:

ˈā.śa.mī ~ ā.śaˈmī ‘I used to’

anxarayˈrī ~ anxaˈrayrī ‘my nose’ M.ES.Ndēt

24 Cf. also Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle (1997: 354–355). 25 But not in Mehreyyet ˈḥay.bī ‘my father’.

1.3 Phonological processes

35

kansayˈdī ~ ṣaṭṭak akkanˈsaydī ‘my shoulder’ ~ ‘my shoulder hurts’ M.ES.Ndēt

Even in lexemes where *ʕ has no phonetic realisation in Mehreyyet, *ʕ counts for word stress.26 In the following examples, the penultimate syllable is stressed as if it were a heavy (CVC or CVV) syllable, as if *ʕ given in the bracketed reconstructed forms were still present:

yiˈnakam tah (< *yinakʕam tah) ‘they m. come to him’; yiˈtabam (< *yitabʕam) ‘they m. follow’


Phonological processes are discussed below in terms of melodic processes (processes that affect the quality of segments) and prosodic processes (processes that affect syllable structure and word stress).

1.3.1 Melodic processes

Melodic processes include diphthongisation, discussed above, and /l/ vocalisation and /r/ deletion in Mehreyyet.

1.3.1.1 /l/ vocalisation in Mehreyyet

One of the principle phonological features that distinguishes Mehreyyet from all Yemeni dialects of Mehri is the lack of realisation of /l/ before a consonant in a syllable coda. Mahriyōt has just three words in which *CVlC is realised with /l/ vocalisation, namely kōb ‘dog; wolf’ (pl. ḥaklēb), jōd ‘skin’27 and ḏōban ‘mid-morning’ (chapter 2, table 81). Western Yemeni Mehri has no trace of historical or synchronic /l/ vocalisation, and /l/ is realised in these and all other lexemes (kelbît ‘Hündin’, jeld ‘Haut’, Bittner 1909: 101, 95). In Mahriyōt, kōb and jōd must be taken as historical borrowings from neighbouring dialects in which /l/ vocalisation is an active process.

/l/ vocalisation is mentioned by other researchers (e.g. Johnstone 1987: xiii; Simeone-Senelle 1997: 385, 2011b: 1080; Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle 1997; Rubin 2010: 17–19), but has never been completely satisfactorily described. In the coda of an unstressed syllable and in the word kōb (*kalb) ‘dog; wolf’, /l/ is vocalised to [w] (*xalfēt > xawfēt ~ xūfēt ‘window’, sūsalēt ‘chain’ v. salāsal ‘chains’); in the coda of a stressed syllable, the sequence *Vl is realised as [ɑ:] or [ɛ:] (*ḥalm > ḥām ‘dream’, *ḥalmak > ḥɛmak ‘I/you m.s. dreamt’). Vocalisation or loss of /l/ is

26 As, for example, in Sudanese Arabic where *h of the 3fs and 3pl object and possessive

pronouns suffixes counts for word stress: baˈlada ‘her country’ and baˈladum ‘their country’ with penultimate stress contrast with ˈbaladu ‘his country’ and ˈbaladak ‘your m.s. country’ with antepenultimate stress (James Dickins, p.c.).

27 gād in Mehreyyet.


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blocked before the glides /y/ and /w/, at times before /t/ and /ṭ/, and does not occur when /l/ is the left leg of a geminate (cf. Rubin 2010: 19):

gilwōt ‘she became ill’; twalya ‘towards me’; šalṭafīs ‘and he was nice to her’; dallak ‘I found my way’

In Arabic loans, /l/ vocalisation generally fails to occur, as in: sulṭān ‘sultan’,28 and ittaṣalk ‘I/you m.s. phoned’ is more common than the Mehrised form itsāk.

Before gutturals /h/ and /ḥ/, /l/ vocalisation/loss is restricted:29 /l/ is realised in malḥāt ‘salt’, aḥōm laḳfalham ‘I want to lock them m.’, but vocalises before /h/ in twāha ‘towards him’ (< *twōl-ha) and yḥōm yiślāham ‘he wants to take them m.’ (< *yiślēl-ham). There is at least one minimal pair which differs only in that /l/ vocalises before /ḥ/ in the one lexeme, but not in the other:

aṣāḥak ‘I/you m.s. repaired’ (< *ṣalḥak) v. ṣalḥak ‘I/you m.s. became fat’

/l/ vocalisation appears to be a lexical process. That is to say, /l/ is vocalised when it occurs in pre-consonantal position within roots, before subject, object and possessive pronoun suffixes, and before the feminine plural suffix -tan:

Within roots

ḥām < *ḥalm ‘dream’; ḳāb < *ḳalb ‘heart’; ḥūḳāḳ ‘dark red/bay s.’, cf. ḥlōḳaḳ ‘dark red/bay pl.’; kōb ‘dog’, cf. klēb ‘dogs’; awāmak ‘I/you m.s. have prepared’, cf. awōlam ‘he has prepared’; sāmak ‘I was saved’, cf. sīlam ‘he was saved’

Before subject pronoun suffixes

ḥwāk ‘I/you m.s. understood’, cf. ḥwūl ‘he understood’; ġfāk ‘I/you m.s. cheered up’, cf. ġfūl ‘he cheered up’; śxawalāk ‘I/you m.s. sat/stayed’, cf. śxawalūl ‘he sat/stayed’; ḏ-aḥtawāk ‘you’ve m.s. gone mad’, cf. ḏ-aḥtawūl ‘he’s gone mad’

Before object pronoun suffixes

bhēl aḥwāsan ‘words I understand them f.’, cf. aḥwūl ‘I understand’; abɛlī yiślāk ‘May God take you!’, cf. yiślēl ‘he takes SUBJ’

Before possessive pronoun annexes

nʕāša ‘your f.s. shoes’, cf. nʕāl ‘shoes’; nxāka ‘beneath you m.s.’, cf. nxalya ‘beneath me’

28 But cf. the personal name sūṭānah < Arabic sulṭānah. 29 But, contra Rubin (2010: 19), not blocked.


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Before feminine plural suffix

ṭīwātan ‘old f.pl’, cf. ṭīwōl ‘tall m.pl.’; dīwātan ‘old f.pl’, cf. dīwōl ‘old m.pl.’; ḥīwātan30 ‘mad f.pl.’, cf. ḥawyēl ‘mad m.pl.’

There are two exceptions to /l/ vocalisation before object pronoun suffixes. First, stem-final /l/ is realised where the verb is inflected for masculine plural, as in: yaḥwīlsan ‘they m. understand them f.’ versus yaḥwāsan ‘he understands them f.’. Secondly, stem-final /l/ is realised in the subjunctive (and imperative) before consonant-initial object suffixes in H-stem verbs (cf. 2.5.1.2), as in: hām aḥōm [lhaḥwalsan] aḥwāsan ‘if I want to understand them f., I understand them f.’, haḥwalsan ‘Understand m.s. them f.!’, hanhayk [lhaddalsan] ‘I forgot to let them f. know’, and lhawṣalsan ‘Should I take them f.?’ Note that in affixation to a verb inflected for m.pl. or an H-stem verb in the subjunctive/imperative, object suffixes of the form -C elsewhere are realised as -aC, as in: yāmīlas ‘they m. do it f.’ versus yāmās ‘he does it f.’; šaḥlīlas ‘they m. occupied it f.’ versus šaḥlās ‘he occupied it f.’; and hanhayk [lhaddalaš] ‘I forgot to tell you f.s.’.

/l/ vocalisation does not occur post-lexically: thus, /l/ vocalisation does not occur when /l/ occurs in pre-consonantal position as a result of degemination and syncope or from sonorant metathesis. Thus in fluent speech, kallas lā is realised with degemination, syncope and epenthesis as kalsə lā ‘all of it not’.31 Optional sonorant metathesis (1.3.2.7), results in coda /l/ in words such as: ġaflat ~ ġafalt ‘caravan’ and aḥōm lhaflat ~ lhafalt ‘I want to escape’. Similarly pre-consonantal /l/ is not vocalised where the negative clitic la- is realised as (a)l-: al-taḳtalōb bay lā ‘Don’t m.s. worry about me!’; al-takēban ār ṯrayt ‘only two f. should come in’ (M.NS); or where the preposition la- is realised as al-: al-sayb ḏa- ‘in the direction of’; faḳḥ al-faḳḥ ‘half and half’; ʔaynat al-ʔaynat ‘little by little’;32 or where /l/ of the 1s subjunctive, which is realised as either la- or al-, occurs in coda position, as in: aḥōm al-sēr ‘I should go’; ḥōm əl-sōfər ‘ditto’ (Stroomer74:12); aḥōm al-šaxbarak ‘I want to ask you m.s.’.

Mehreyyet dialects also differ regarding /l/ vocalisation/loss within Dhofar: around Ndēt by Mazyūnah on the Yemeni border, the /l/ of the 1s subjunctive is subject to vocalisation, giving forms such as: ḥōm awsēr (< *al-sēr) ‘I should go’, āgōb watēh ttōmar ‘I like eating dates’ (< *al-tēh);33 by contrast, root-final /l/ may fail to vocalise in inflected verbs, as in: ġafalk ‘I cheered up’ as opposed to Nagd and the more eastern ġafāk.

30 Mainly Ndēt and Mazyūnah. In Nagd and mountains ḥawlūtan. 31 Compare the grammaticalised indefinite pronoun kāśīyan ‘everything’ (< *kall śīyan). 32 But in adverbs resulting from the grammaticalisation of PPs, /l/ vocalisation has occurred

historically, giving ūbōh ‘to here’ (< *la-bōh) and ūfnōhan ‘in front; to the front’ (< *la-fnōhan).

33 /l/ vocalisation of the 1s subjunctive may be due to Hobyōt influence (M. Morris, p.c.).


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1.3.1.2 /r/ deletion in Mehreyyet

In Mehreyyet, coda /r/ is elided in a few lexical items. In the two examples below, /r/ is elided or vocalised in coda position in the singular, but not when it occurs in syllable-onset position in the plural:

ḳāš pl. ḳrawš ‘riyal’; ḳōn pl. ḳrūn ‘conical-shaped mountain’

/r/ is also frequently deleted word-finally before a sibilant, a phenomenon frequently reflected in text messages:

�x ھ��u �~داد ��r ا��o�vأ�� al-wīḳaʔ haynī lardēd layš lā [ā sɛtin] (*ār sɛtin) ‘I wasn’t able to reply to you f.s. until a little while ago’ M.txt

1.3.2 Prosodic processes

The principle prosodic processes in the dialects are syncope, epenthesis, long vowel shortening, degemination and *V–V reduction. I also examine the elision of coronals in fluent speech, sonorant metathesis and pre-pausal glottalisation.

1.3.2.1 Syncope

Syncope motivated by a constraint on non-final light open syllables is frequent in both dialects. In Mehreyyet, syncope may take place when a- of the definite article is prefixed to a nominal with an initial CV syllable, as in:

ḏa.nūb ‘tail’ > a-ḏ.nūb ‘the tail’

ma.śxawlīl > a-m.śxawlīl ‘the sitting’

In rapid speech, morpheme-final vowels are deleted within the phonological word or phrase, as in the /a/ of the masculine singular future suffix in the following examples:

sbū sadduntah (< *saddōna tah) ‘a week will be enough for him’ M.NS

śamuntah ‘I will sell it m.’ (< *śamōna tah) M.NS

hām šūk ībīt ṭarḥuntīs (< *ṭarḥōna tīs) bi-ġayr xīṭām lā ‘if you m.s. have a camel, you can’t leave it f. without a bridle’ M.NS

Morphological concatenation and the predilection of the language for reduction of non-final short open syllables may produce impermissible consonant clusters. These impermissible clusters may be repaired by a combination of epenthesis, long vowel shortening, *V–V reduction, degemination and coronal deletion.

1.3.2.2 Epenthesis

The epenthetic vowel is a reduced form of the open vowel /a/, and is transcribed here as [ə]. CV-type epenthesis within the phonological word takes place when a form ending in -CC is concatenated to a C-initial form within the phonological


39

word, as in the following examples attested in both dialect groups. In data from my database, epenthesis within the phonological word is noted by schwa:

kusk + tēs > kuskə tēs ‘I found it f.’ (Mo), kisk + tēs > kiskə tēs ‘I found it f.’ (Mo); ktabk + tīs > ktabkə tīs ‘I wrote it f.’

1.3.2.3 Long-vowel shortening

Long-vowel shortening may be both morphologically and phonologically motivated. Phonologically motivated long-vowel shortening occurs to repair syllable structure. In both dialects, nouns ending in the feminine suffix -īt or -ēt undergo vowel shortening on suffixation of consonant-initial possessive pronouns. /ī/ here shortens to [i] and /ē/ to [a], as in:

jaḥlēt > jaḥlat-s ‘cooking pot, her cooking pot’, cf. jaḥlēt-ī ‘my cooking pot’ Mo

raḥbēt > raḥbat-k ‘town, your m.s. town’, cf. raḥbēt-ī ‘my town’

ḥaybīt > ḥaybit-s ‘the camel, her camel’, cf. ḥaybayt-ī ‘my camel’ M

Imperfect verb stems ending in CVVC undergo vowel shortening before consonant-initial pronoun suffixes in the two dialects. /ō/ shortens to [a] in both dialects, as in:

aḥōm ‘I want’ > aḥam-š ‘I want you f.s.’

akōb ‘I think’ > akab-s bār sīrūt ‘I think she has gone’

In Mehreyyet a few nouns of the pattern CVVC undergo vowel shortening before possessive pronouns. /ē/ reduces to [a] and /ay/ to [i], as in:

tēṯ ‘woman’ > (at)taṯ-k ‘your m.s. wife’

bayt ‘house’ > abit-s ‘her house’34

Syncope on suffixation within the phonological word can induce epenthesis and/or long-vowel shortening (LVS). Within the stem, /ū/ reduces to [u] in Mahriyōt in verbs of the template fūʕal, but to [a] or [i] in Mehreyyet; /ī/ reduces to [i] always in Mahriyōt and either to [a] or [i] in Mehreyyet; /ō/ and /ē/ reduce to [a] in both dialects:

/ū/

*nūkaʕ-ak > syncope *nūkʕak > LVS nukʕak ‘I/you m.s. came’ Mo

*nūka-ak > syncope *nūkak > LVS nakak ‘I/you m.s. came’ M

34 In Mahriyōt, bayt retains its long vowel before all possessive pronouns and the possessive

pronoun is realised with an initial vowel, viz. bayt-ī ‘my house’, bayt-ak ‘your m.s. house’, bayt-as ‘her house’, bayt-san ‘their f.s. house’.


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/ī/

*śīnak tēs > syncope *śīnk tēs > LVS *śink tēs > epenthesis śinkə tēs ‘I/you m.s. saw him/it f.’

*fīṭan-ak > syncope *fīṭnak > LVS fiṭnak ‘I/you m.s. remembered’ Mo

*fīṭan-ak > syncope *fīṭnak > LVS faṭnak ‘I/you m.s. remembered’ M

*fīraḥ-ak > syncope *fīrḥak > LVS firḥak ‘I/you m.s. were glad’

/ō/

*ḥōgat-ah > syncope *ḥōgtah > LVS ḥagtah ‘his needs’ M

*amōtan-as > syncope *amōtnas > LVS amatnas ‘her top line’ M

*ḥōram-ak > syncope *ḥōrmak > LVS ḥarmak ‘your m.s. road’

/ē/

*sēkan-ah > syncope *sēknah > LVS saknah ‘his family’

In rapid speech, syncope and/or long-vowel shortening take place within the phonological phrase.

ṣarōmah śink (< *śīnak) īṯayl ‘I’ve just seen a fox’ M.PES

amandawḳ nxalya (< *nxālī) ḥruhha ‘the gun beneath his head’ M.N.01.12

aġayg ḏa-śum (< *śōm) lay tīs ‘the man who sold it f. to me’ M.N.01.30

bār śīnan tis (< *tīs) sɛtin ‘we saw that f. a little while ago’ M.NS

Phrase-medial long-vowel shortening affects word-final long vowels. Acoustic analysis consistently shows that phrase-medial word-final vowels are generally less than half the length of their utterance-final counterparts. (Nevertheless, phrase-medial word-final long vowels are consistently longer than – approximately double the length of – word-internal short vowels.)

Within suffixes, /ō/ and /ū/ in Mehreyyet, as in Mahriyōt, are reduced to [u], as in:

hām šūk ībīt ṭarḥuntīs (< *ṭarḥōna tīs) b-ġayr xīṭām lā ‘if you m.s. have a camel, you can’t leave it f. without a bridle’ M.NS

Syncope is blocked where it would result in a geminate, however; thus, bār śīnan tīs ‘we saw it f.’ in the above example does not result in *bār śinn tīs. In rapid speech, long-vowel shortening may also target the vowel resulting from /l/ vocalisation in Mehreyyet, resulting in the following alternants:

ḥāmak tēš (< *ḥalmak tēš) ‘I dreamt of you f.s.’; ḥamkə tēš bi-ḥgāb ‘I dreamt of you f.s. in a headscarf’


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Morphologically motivated long-vowel shortening

Morphologically motivated long-vowel shortening occurs when a dependent pronoun is suffixed to a verb or particle ending in CVVC. Morphological long-vowel shortening in this case invariably results in shortening to [a], irrespective of the quality of the long vowel:

Mehreyyet

tḥōm + ī > tḥamī ‘you m.s./she want(s) me’

tḥaymī + s > tḥams35 ‘you f.s. want her’

ḳarabōt + ī > ḳarabatī ‘she came near me’

bār + ī > barī ‘I am ready’

nxālī + ham > nxalīham ‘beneath them m.’

Stress remains on the shortened syllable, even where this contravenes the word stress algorithm given in 1.2.3 above:

Mehreyyet

anˈkōt + ī > anˈkatī ‘she came to me’

ḳaraˈbōt + ī > ḳaraˈbatī ‘she came near me’

nˈxālī + īham > nˈxalīham ‘beneath them m.’36

Mahriyōt

ṯabˈrōt + ī > ṯabˈratī ‘she broke me’

jfōt + s > jˈfats ‘she turned it f. over’

talˈḥōm + ī > talˈḥamī ‘you m.s. touch me’

Morphologically motivated long-vowel shortening fails to occur where the long vowel in the pre-suffixed verb specifically indicates masculine plural. This applies even where a medial CVVC syllable results, as in Mehreyyet: yihawrīdsan ‘they m. import them f.’, haḳhībsan ‘they m. brought them f. back at midday’, and haklīwsan ‘they m. brought them f. [camels/goats] back in the evening’. This produces minimal pairs: for example, tḥaymī ‘you m.pl. want me’ contrasts with tḥamī ‘you f.s. want me’ (< *tḥaymī-ī).

35 For loss of -ī of 2fs before object pronoun, cf. 5.1.4.1, Rubin (2010: 40). 36 Cf. Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle (1997: 354).


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1.3.2.4 Degemination

Degemination of long consonants occurs in both dialects within the phonological phrase as a result of syncope in order to repair syllable structure.

ḥissak > *ḥissak bi-śī > *ḥissk bi-śī > ḥiskə bi-šī ‘you m.s. feel’ > ‘Do you m.s. feel anything?’

mahriyōt kallas > mahriyōt kalsə lā ‘All of Mahriyōt?’ > ‘Mahriyōt, not all of it f.’ Mo

Degemination also occurs optionally when geminate-final stems take pronoun suffixes, as in śafs ~ śaffas ‘her track’.

1.3.2.5 *V–V reduction

The syllable grammar of Mehri demands that a syllable have a C onset. In case a vowel-initial morpheme is concatenated to a vowel-final morpheme, the language has three options. Firstly, glide formation where the initial vowel is high and the following vowel low:

twōlī[j] amdarsēt ‘towards the school’ M

atōli[j] attūma ‘then he heard’ M.N

Secondly, glottal stop insertion in careful speech or where a short pause is made between the two morphemes:

nūka [ʔ]amdarsēt ‘he came to the school’ M

Thirdly, particularly in fast or casual speech, reduction of V–V > V:

śillōna ḥād šūk (< *śillōna aḥād šūk) ‘Will you m.s. take anyone with you?’ M.PES.Ndēt

attūma ġrōy ḏakmah (< *attūma aġrōy ḏakmah) ‘he heard that talk’ M.N

V–V > V is seen in particular where a CV preposition or affix is prefixed to a vowel-initial word:

ḏ-aʕōmar (< *ḏa-a-ʕōmar [ḏa-1S-say.IND]) ‘I am saying’ Mo

b-amandawḳah ~ bi-mandawḳah (< *bi-a-mandawḳ-ah [bi-DEF-gun-3MS]) ‘with his gun’ M

k-aṣayrab (< *ka-a-ṣayrab [ka-DEF-post-monsoon.period]) ‘in the post-monsoon period’ M

k-aṣōbaḥ (< *ka-a-ṣōbaḥ [ka-DEF-morning]) ‘in the morning’ M


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1.3.2.6 Coronal elision

Elision of coronal obstruents often occurs to the left of a coronal, particularly in rapid speech after a long vowel, and may be considered a syllable repair response. Consider the following examples from Mehreyyet:

āgōb b-attē (< *attēṯ) ḏīmah ‘I like that woman’ M.ES.Ndēt

axōṭam ḥaybī (< *ḥaybīt) ḏikmah ‘Bridle m.s. that camel!’ M.ES

śīnak ġaggī (< *ġaggīt) ṭwaylat ‘I saw a tall girl’ M.ES

In rapid speech, syncope targets the final vowel of the feminine singular future participle, -īta and -ēta, before the accusative particle ta- and the resulting geminate is simplified. Thus: wa-ḳawbīta tīsan [CONJ-change.FUT.FS ACC-them.F] is realised below as wa-ḳawbītīsan:

wa-ḳawbītīsan hīs fnōhan ‘and f.s. will change them back as [they were] before’ M.N.04.16

ġatīḏak l-aġaygī wa-ṭarḥaytah (< *ṭarḥayta tah) šība yōm maġtaryēta šēh lā ‘I’m cross with my husband, so I’m going to leave him a week without talking to him’ M.NS

/t/ of the verbal subject prefix is often unrealised in Mehreyyet, particularly when preceded by /t/, as in:

w-hēt (t)slōm ‘and may you m.s. be blessed’

1.3.2.7 Syllable contact and sonorant metathesis

Languages typically prefer consonants with lower sonority to occur in syllable-onset position and consonants with higher sonority to occur in syllable-coda position.37 This predilection in both Mehri dialect groups results in the (often optional) metathesis of sonorants in the environment S(V)CV to give VSCV.

Mehreyyet

amarūt ~ amurt ‘she said’, twūt ~ tūwt ‘she ate’ v. šūkafūt ‘she fell asleep’

ūbōn ‘white f.s.’ (< *lbōn > *albōn) v. hśawr ‘green’

alṭayf ‘kind, gentle’ v. dwayl ‘old’

arḥaym ‘beautiful m.s.’ v. ṭwayl ‘tall m.s.’

ġaflat ~ ġafalt ‘caravan’

37 Cf. Venneman’s Syllable Contact Law ‘A syllable contact A$B is the more preferred, the less

the consonantal strength of the offset A and the greater the consonantal strength of the onset B’ (Venneman 1988: 40).


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aḥōm lhaflat ~ lhafalt ‘I want to escape’

śitmak ~ śitamk ‘I/you m.s. bought’

Mahriyōt

anṣarōmah ~ naṣrōmah ‘now’

albōn ‘white m.s.’ v. hśawr ‘green’

arḥīm ‘beautiful, good looking m.s.’ v. dwīl ‘old m.s.’

arḥabēt ~ raḥbēt ‘town’

ambarīk ‘kneeling place for camels’

affakarkam ‘you m.pl. thought’ v. attafġakam ‘you m.pl. washed your faces’

Both the preposition la- and the negative clitic la- are often realised as al- as a result of sonorant metathesis, particularly in utterance-medial position, as long as metathesis produces an acceptable consonant cluster. The following examples are from Mehreyyet:

faḳḥ al-faḳḥ ‘half and half’ v. la-sbēbiš ‘for your f.s. sake’

ḏōmah al-hēh gīd lā ‘that m. it isn’t good’ v. la-hēh wōḏam yiḳaʔ šīn lā ‘there is no need for him to be with us’ M.NS

Metathesis in the case of W/YVC results in [ū] and [ī] respectively, as in śatūḳak (< *śatwaḳ-ak) ‘I/you m.s. miss’ and ġatīḏak (< *ġatyaḏ-ak) ‘I/you m.s. am angry’.

A general dispreference for syllable-coda obstruents followed by syllable-onset sonorants results in word-internal epenthesis in obstruent–sonorant sequences. Epenthesis removes the obstruent from syllable-final position. The Mehreyyet lexemes in (a) which exhibit epenthesis contrast with those of the same pattern in (b) which do not:

(a) aḳ[ə]lāl ‘fewer, smaller’; aḳ[ə]rāb ‘nearer’; ḳat[ə]maḥ ‘to be disappointed’; haḳ[ə]rawś ‘to lend’; maġ[ə]rīb ‘well known’38

(b) arḥāḳ ‘further’; axṯēm ‘thinner, weaker’; watxaf ‘to come in the evening’; haḳṣawm ‘to spend the hot part of the day’; maktīb ‘written’

1.3.2.8 Pre-pausal glottalisation

Both dialect groups exhibit significant pre-pausal glottalisation (Watson & Bellem 2010, 2011; Simeone-Senelle 1997: 385; Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle 1997: 362).39 This is often reflected in native speakers’ writing of the language, as in: ~ھ�� ul��

38 Pre-sonorant epenthesis is not noted in the transcriptions. 39 An areal feature also attested in large areas of Yemen (cf. Jastrow 1984; Naïm-Sanbar 1994;

Naïm 2009 for San’ani Arabic).


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baʔlī hbɛʔr ‘camel herders’. Glottalisation is most salient where the utterance-final syllable is stressed and involves a long vowel, but also applies where unstressed short syllables are involved:

sēr alḳaṭar ḏa-ḥōra[ˀm] # ‘Go m.s. straight along the road!’ M.ES

wa-śxūlūla[ˀn] # ‘and we stayed’ M.N

Final non-aspirated consonants are realised without any voicing:

nisḥōṭ wō[ˀz] # ‘we slaughter a goat’ M.N.Nīsaḥ

mrū[ˀṯ] # (<*mrūḏ) ‘he commissioned’ M.NS

Final non-aspirated plosives and affricates are released as ejectives:

abanšar aṭāyir ṭā[ˀt’] # (< *ṭād) ‘a tyre burst’ M.N.MA

āmūr ġay[ˀk’] # (< *ġayg) ‘a man said’ M.N

Utterance-final nasals40 and the lateral may be partially articulated but acoustically absent, with non-realised final nasals transferring their nasality in general to the preceding vowel. Pre-pausal nasalisation is more common in Mahriyōt than in Mehreyyet:

fanj[ō] # (< *fanjōn) ‘cup’ Mo

lb[ō] # (< *lbōn) ‘white’ Mo

farāśān ūbān[ēˀ] # (< *ūbānēn) ‘a small white camel calf’ M.NS.Nīsaḥ

anxarayrī ḳanna[wˀ] # (< *ḳannawn) ‘my nose is small’ M.ES.Ndēt

hēt šxabarš tay mn aḳal[ēˀ] # (< *aḳalēm) ‘you f.s. asked me about the pen’ M.PES.MA

frayś ūb[ōˀ] # (< *ūbōn) ‘a white female camel calf’ M.NS.Nīsaḥ

The interrogative particle ḥ[ō] ‘where’ in the two dialect groups is almost definitely derived from an original *ḥōn. /n/ remains in the reflex of this word in neighbouring Śḥerɛt.

Final aspirated consonants are pre-glottalised and released with varying degrees of aspiration:

wa-ḏayk ūbanīt amšaġarē[ˀtʰ] # ‘and that f. is another white one’ M.NS

In some cases, word-final coronal stops are barely released, as in:

ḏīmah āfarūt / wa-l-hāl ūbanī[ˀt˺] # ‘that f. is red towards white’ M.NS

40 The loss of final nasals after long vowels or diphthongs in Mehri was already acknowledged by

Maltzan (1873: 261).


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Word-final vowels are usually glottalised in utterance-final position:

abaṣran mṣā[ˀ] # ‘we set off downstream in the twilight’ M.N

mayt wuṣlōna[ˀ] # ‘When will you m.s. arrive?’ M.ES

hām aḥād gīlu wlā śī[ˀ] # ‘if someone becomes ill or whatever’ M.NS

The final vowel may also be partially or fully devoiced by some speakers, particularly, but not exclusively, where a final vowel follows an aspirated consonant:

āśamī ṣṭawṭ āḏamayt[ī] # ‘my back used to hurt’ M.NS

śīnak ḥanōf[ī] # ‘I saw myself’ M.NS

2 Grammatical categories

In common with other Semitic languages, Mehri stem morphology is based largely around consonantal roots and vocalic patterns, and certain derivative and inflectional morphological processes involve stem-internal changes rather than concatenation of discrete morphological units. This chapter begins by introducing the grammatical categories in Mehri and relevant morphological categories and values; it then discusses the interaction of non-concatenative and concatenative morphology in the language, before examining in detail the grammatical categories in the order provided in 2.1 below. The chapter does not present lists of nominal templatic patterns or paradigms of verbs beyond the need to illustrate morphological categories and values relevant to nouns, pronouns, verbs and adjectives, and the highly developed level of syncretism attested in Mehreyyet.

2.1 Grammatical and morphological categories

Grammatical categories, also termed in traditional grammar ‘parts of speech’, can be divided into: nouns, verbs, modifiers, adpositions, adverbs, and minor categories. For Mehri, these can be subdivided as below:

Nouns Proper nouns Common nouns

Concrete nouns Count nouns Mass nouns

Abstract nouns Pronouns

Personal pronouns Indefinite pronouns Demonstrative pronouns

Verbs Verbs Future participles

Modifiers Descriptive adjectives Non-numerical quantifiers Numerical quantifiers

Prepositions Adverbs


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Time Manner Place Adverbial particles

Minor categories Conjunctions Adjunctions Discourse particles Other particles and affixes

The morphological categories relevant to most nouns are number, gender and definiteness. Most proper and common nouns are singular in their basic form and inflect for plural and dual. Nouns exhibit either masculine or feminine gender. Proper nouns, personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns are inherently definite. Common nouns are indefinite in their basic form and may be defined syntactically, morphologically or through context. Personal pronouns exhibit the three-way number and two-way gender distinctions shown by nouns plus a three-way person distinction (first, second, third). Demonstrative pronouns exhibit two-way number (singular, plural), two-way gender (masculine, feminine) and, together with locative demonstratives, two-way distance (proximal, distal) distinctions. Verbs, by virtue of taking pronominal subject affixes, exhibit the morphological categories and categorial distinctions relevant for pronouns. They also exhibit voice (active, passive), aspect (perfect, imperfect) and, within the imperfect aspect, show a three-way mood distinction (indicative, subjunctive, conditional) in Mehreyyet and a two-way mood distinction (indicative, subjunctive) in Mahriyōt. Adjectives have an inherent singular number value and inflect for plural number only. With few exceptions, adjectives are inherently masculine and inflect for feminine gender. In Mehreyyet, adjectives may inflect for definiteness in attribution to a definite noun.

2.2 Non-concatenative and concatenative morphology

One of the characteristic features of Semitic languages is the consonantal root and vocalic pattern of lexical or content words (Voigt 2009: 173–174). Semantically related verbs, nouns and adjectives often share a consonant root, which consists of three, less commonly four or five, consonants, and words which share particular grammatical values often share a template – a vocalic pattern with, in certain lexemes, additional prefixed or infixed consonants. Thus, the Mehreyyet words in the columns below share a consonantal root and a basic sense, and words across the rows share a template and a grammatical category:


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Table 1: Consonantal roots and templates

CīCaC basic verb

(ha)CCūC ~ (ha)CCawC1 causative verb

CōCaC adjective

k-m-l kīmal2 to be complete

(ha)kmūl to finish s.th.

kōmal complete m.s.

f-ś-l fīśal to be left over

(ha)fśawl to give too much

fōśal abundant m.s.

f-ṭ-n fīṭan to recall (ha)fṭawn to remind fōṭan clever m.s.

Similarly the Mehreyyet words ṭwayl ‘long, tall’, dwayl ‘old’, xfayf ‘light; fast’, mdayd ‘extended; stretched out’, xsays ‘mean’, (a)rḥaym ‘good looking’ share the adjectival template CCayC, and the words ktūb ‘to write’, ktōb ‘book’ and maktīb ‘office’ share the consonantal root /k-t-b/ relating to writing.

A morphological system such as this in which morphemes are discontinuous and cannot be easily extracted segmentally is described as non-concatenative, contrasting with concatenative morphology in which morphemes are discretely identifiable. Much of Mehri derivational morphology involves non-concatenative morphology, that is to say the association of consonants of one lexeme with another template or the infixation rather than the affixation of segments to derive another lexeme. The passive participle of the basic verb, for example, is formed by association of the root consonants with the C slots in the template maCCīC: thus, ktūb ‘to write’ has the passive participle maktīb ‘written’ and ġrōb (ġrūb) ‘to know’ the passive participle maġrīb ‘known’.

Diminutive demonstratives and locatives are formed by infixation of -īy- before the long vowel of the non-diminutive form, as in Mahriyōt:

1 When Cii = guttural (1.1.2.3). 2 Verbs are cited in the unmarked 3ms form of the perfect in Mehri and glossed in isolation form

by the unmarked infinitive form in English. Thus, śīnī ‘he saw’ is glossed as ‘to see’ and fīṭan ‘he recalled’ as ‘to recall’.


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Table 2: Mahriyōt diminutive demonstratives and locatives

non-dim diminutive gloss ḏōmah ḏīyōmah3 this m., this.DIM m. ḏīmah ḏīyīmah this f., this.DIM f. ḏēk ḏīyēk that m., that.DIM m. ḥlōk ḥalīyōk4 there, there.DIM būmah bīyūmah here, here.DIM bōh bīyōh here, here.DIM wṭōmah wṭīyōmah thus, like that/a bit like this

The inflectional morphology is non-concatenative in certain areas: in the adjectival system to derive the elative from the positive adjective, in the nominal system for the morphological category of number (for the so-called broken plural), in the verbal system for the morphological category of mood in many verbs, and in a few cases in the inflection of verbs for 2fs in the imperfect and masculine plural in the perfect and imperfect.

In the adjectival system, triconsonantal adjectives form the elative in the unmarked case by association of root consonants with the pattern aCCēC:5

Table 3: Mehreyyet elatives

positive elative gloss ṣaylaḥ aṣlēḥ fat; fatter rēḥaḳ arḥāḳ far; further ḳrayb aḳrāb near; nearer rḥaym arḥām good-looking; better looking

In the nominal system, most nouns and adjectives express plurality through a different template rather than affixation of a distinct plural suffix:

Table 4: Mahriyōt nominal broken plurals

singular plural gloss bayt byōt house; room bōb ḥābwēbat door xalfēt xlēf window masbīḥ msōbaḥ bathroom ʕayn ʕayantan eye

3 The demonstrative diminutives generally refer to a small or insignificant object. 4 The locative diminutives generally imply the object is closer to the speaker than the non-

diminutive would imply. 5 aCCāC in case Cii is a guttural or sonorant preceded by /ḳ/ or /ṭ/ in some lexemes (cf. 1.1.1.2).


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Plurality is also expressed through a change in the quality of a long vowel:

Table 5: Mahriyōt nominal broken plurals 2

singular plural gloss ṣafrīr ṣafrōr blossom hīlaʕ hōlaʕ shadow ḥnīd ḥnōd leather water container maḳṣēṣ maḳṣōṣ alley between houses

In the verbal system, the indicative and subjunctive mood distinctions in the imperfect aspect (cf. 2.5.1.3.2) are expressed in most verb types through a difference in the template and/or vowel quality of the stem. In the table below, verbs are given in the 3ms form. The (3ms) prefix is hyphenated from the stem to focus on the change in template:

Table 6: Mahriyōt mood distinctions

indicative subjunctive gloss y-kays ya-ksēh to find ya-ffakran ya-ffōkar to think y-ūtxōf ya-taxf to come before or after sunset y-šajhōm y-šajham to come in the morning y-wōkab ya-kēb to enter y-šabsōl y-šabsal to be embarrassed

Inflection of 2fs and masculine plural in the imperfect6 of some verbs involves vowel ablaut with, in Mahriyōt, the frequent additional suffixation of -am to indicate masculine plural and, in Mehreyyet, the additional suffixation of -ī to indicate 2fs.7 In the table below, the 2ms is given followed by 2fs and 2mpl. In the imperfect, 3mpl in both dialects differs from 2mpl only in the prefix consonant (y- as opposed to t-). The prefix (and suffix) is hyphenated from the stem to focus on templatic differences in the stem:

6 And masculine plural in the perfect of some verbs in Mehreyyet (cf. 1.1.2.3.2, and table 11

below). 7 -ī is often omitted in normal speed speech: thus, tḥaym tinkāy ‘Do you f.s. want to come?’ is

heard alongside tḥaymī tinkāy, and -ī is always deleted on suffixation of object pronouns (Rubin 2010: 40).


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Table 7: Mahriyōt gender–number distinctions

2ms 2fs 2mpl gloss t-šūkōf t-šūkīf t-šūkīf-am to sleep IND ta-ʕmōl ta-ʕmīl ta-ʕmīl-am to do IND/SUBJ ta-ʕśūś ta-ʕśīś ta-ʕśīś-am to get up IND/SUBJ ta-mūt ta-mīt ta-mīt-am to die IND ta-lḳōf ta-lḳīf ta-lḳīf-am to take hold of IND

Table 8: Mehreyyet gender–number distinctions

2ms 2fs 2mpl gloss ta-nśūz ta-nśēz-ī ta-nśīz to drink tea IND t-šawgab t-šawgib t-šawgab-am to confess SUBJ ta-šgūb ta-šgayb-ī ta-šgīb to confess IND ta-nḥās ta-nḥays-ī ta-nḥays to be jealous IND ta-mūt ta-mayt-ī ta-mawt to die IND

Mehri also exhibits concatenative morphology, where morphemes are linked linearly. This is particularly the case with respect to the inflectional morphology, but also occurs in the derivational morphology, often in combination with stem alteration. In the verbal system, the derived H-, Š- and N-stems involve prefixation of ha-, ša- and n- to a basic verbal or nominal stem (cf. 2.5.1.2):

ṣōbaḥ ‘morning’ > ha-ṣbāḥ ‘to be [in the morning]’

bhēl ‘to be cooked, ready’ > ha-bhūl ‘to cook, prepare’ M

fhēś ‘to boil INTR’ > ha-fhūś ‘to boil TRNS’ M

ghēm ‘to go’ > ša-ghūm ‘to come in the morning’ M

aḳalʕūd ‘to turn/move [stones]’ > n-ḳalʕūd ‘[stone] to be turned/moved’ Mo

The future participles of the basic verb (cf. 2.5.2) are derived by association of the consonants of the verb with the template CaCC plus affixation of gender–number suffixes, as in:

CaCC-ōna m.s., CaCC-īta f.s. CaCC-ūtan f.pl., CaCC-āya m.pl. (Mahriyōt = Mehreyyet CaCyēCa)

ktōb (ktūb) ‘he wrote’ > katb-ōna ‘will write m.s.’, katb-īta ‘will write f.s.’, katb-ūtan ‘will write f.pl.’, katb-āya ‘will write m.pl.’ (Mahriyōt = Mehreyyet katyēba)

Derivation of plural diminutive forms involves some alteration to the template of the plural non-diminutive and suffixation of - ūtan, as in the following examples from Mahriyōt:

2.3 Nouns

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Table 9: Mahriyōt derivation of plural diminutives

plural plural diminutive gloss rḥōyab raḥbān-ūtan villages/towns ktibīn katbān-ūtan books śjēr śajrān-ūtan trees ḥrūwah ḥūrān-ūtan heads laftōn laftān-ūtan large black ants

In other cases, inflectional morphology involves linear concatenation of morphemes. In the conjugation of verbs, for example, suffixes are added in the perfect aspect and person/gender prefixes and number/gender suffixes in the imperfect aspect. Consider paradigms of the basic stem verbs in the perfect aspect (cf. 2.5.1.3.1) xdōm ‘to work’ in Mahriyōt, xdūm in Mehreyyet. Separable subject suffixes are hyphenated from the stem:

Table 10: Mahriyōt paradigm of xdōm ‘to work’ perfect aspect

singular dual plural 1 xdam-k

xdam-kī xdōm-an

2m xdam-k xdam-kam 2f xdam-š xdam-kan 3m xdōm xadm-ōh xdōm-am 3f xadm-ōt xdōm

Table 11: Mehreyyet paradigm of xdūm ‘to work’ perfect aspect

singular dual plural 1 xdam-k

xdam-kī xdūm-an

2m xdam-k xdam-kam 2f xdam-š xdam-kann 3m xdūm xdam-ōh

xdam-tōh Xdawm

3f xadam-ūt xdūm

2.3 Nouns

Nouns can be categorised into substantives, including proper nouns, common nouns, which subcategorise into concrete and abstract nouns, and pronouns. Most nouns are inherently singular and inflect for plural or dual. A few nouns take a suppletive form for plural. Most nouns have an inherent gender value – masculine or feminine. Proper nouns, independent and dependent pronouns and demonstratives are inherently definite. All other noun classes are indefinite in their basic form and are defined either morphologically, through affixation of a pronoun suffix in Mahriyōt, affixation of a pronoun suffix and/or affixation of a form of the definite article in


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Mehreyyet, or syntactically, through attribution of a demonstrative pronoun or annexion of a definite noun.

2.3.1 Proper nouns

Proper nouns include names of people, tribes, animals, places, months, stars, etc. Personal proper nouns may be formed from typical descriptive adjectives or explicit nouns.

2.3.1.1 Personal names

Personal names are masculine or feminine depending on the gender of the referent. Many names are of Arabic origin, and within and around Salalah where families are often from mixed Mehri–Śḥerɛt marriages, many names are of Śḥerɛt origin. In Mehreyyet, but not in Mahriyōt, Arabic names ending in -ī are Mehrised to -áy (e.g. *ʕalī > ālay), and names with pre-consonantal /l/ in Arabic are given with vocalisation of /l/ (e.g *al-xiyār > ūxiyār; *al-baxīt > ūbxayt, cf. 1.3.1.1). In the examples below, where Mehri names have Arabic equivalents which differ in form these are given in square brackets:

Feminine names

Arabic origin: ḥalīmah, naṣrā, faṭmat [= fāṭimah], nawr [= nūr], sūṭānah [= salṭānah], dunyā

Mehri/Śḥerɛt origin: ṭfawl, nōfah, ūxiyār [= al-xiyār], mṯīl, nwēr, tamīmah, ashalat, ḥarf, madīt

Masculine names

Arabic origin: ʕalī (ālay)8 [= ʕalī], saʕīd, sād [= saʕd], mḥammad, yūsuf, msallam, aḥmēd [= aḥmad], sēlam ~ sēlim [= sālim], shēl [= suhayl], ʕīsē [= ʕīsā], āmar [= ʕāmar], nājī (nāgī) [= nājī], xālid, mahdī, yaḥyā

Mehri/Śḥerɛt/Hobyōt origin: ūbxayt [= al-baxīt] (M), mašʕal, fīrēg, tammēn, mbxawt, karmaym

Personal names are inherently definite, but may be contextually indefinite when not referring to a specific person:

mōn ūxiyār ‘Which Awxiyār?’ M

hammah ālay ‘his name is Ali’ M

They may also be inflected for number, particularly for dual:

mḥammadī ṯrōh ‘two Muhammads’

8 Henceforth initial forms are given for Mahriyōt. Following forms in round brackets are for

Mehreyyet where Mehreyyet forms differ from Mahriyōt.

2.3 Nouns

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Most Mehris are able to trace their lineage and the lineage of their close relations by heart to fifteen or more generations, going through the male line. Lineages are given in the format NAME–bar ‘son of’–NAME. A sample family lineage given by a Mehreyyet speaker is:

saʕīd bar aḥmēd bar ūbxayt bar sēlam bar āmar bar sēlam bar saʕīd bar ālay bar timīn bar šāgūl bar āmar gīd bar samōdah bar bōḳī bar aḥmēd bar gasūs bar šarēḥī bar ašḥašḥī

Lineages are given down the father’s line. In all tribal agreements and settlements and official business, people are known by their given name followed by that of the father, the grandfather and then the tribe. Women are often known informally as bart ‘daughter of’–FATHER’S NAME, as in: bart mḥammad, bart sēlam. In informal situations, however, men are frequently known as (GIVEN.NAME)–bar–MOTHER’S

NAME. For example, ʕabdallah bar ṯrīyah (Sima 2009), sʕīd bar ashalat, sēlam bar nwēr, mḥammad bar ḥarf. The whole family can be known by the name of the father’s mother, as in the family of bar ngēma.

2.3.1.2 Tribe names

All Mehris are aware of their tribe and the neighbouring tribes. Most, but not all, tribe names take the form bīt–NAME. Sample Mehri tribe names are:9

bīt āfarīr (M), bīt ṯuwʕār, bīt samōdah, bīt kalšīt (kūšīt), bīt ḳamṣayt, bīt yishūl, bīt zyīd, bīt agīdaḥ, bīt zaʕbanōt (zābanōt), ḥarāwaz, bīt ʕāḳayd, bīt nīmar, bīt masmūr, bīt kuddah, bīt raʕfīt, bīt mhōmad, mgōwab, slōwam, bīt mḥāmad, bīt arśay, aḳmayrī, bīt balḥāf, al-āfār (M)

Adjectives are derived from tribal names and area names by the affixation of the adjectival ending -ī in Mahriyōt, -ay in Mehreyyet, as in Mehreyyet:

samdáy [relating to bīt samōdah], mahráy [relating to Mahrah as a tribe or area]

Tribal names are often grammatically plural, since they refer to a large number of people. Camels are branded with the mark of the tribe (ḳbaylat) or sub-tribe (fxayḏat).

2.3.1.3 Place names

Place names are inherently definite and have feminine gender when referring to a town or village. In reference to an area or a country, they may be masculine or feminine.

9 For additional tribe names, cf. al-Qumairi (2003: 9ff).


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Countries, regions and towns

ʕamūn m. [= ʕumān], mahrah, śafōr [= ḏufār], ḥawf, mazyūnah, ṯamarīt, šlaym [= šulaym], ṣlōlat [= ṣalālah], ġayśat [= al-ġayḏah], mkallah [= al-mukalla], ḳāśan [= qišn], maskūt [= masqaṭ], magšan, marbūṭ [= marbāṭ], sawḳ [= marbāṭ], ṭōḳat [= ṭāqah], śawkūt [= ḍalkūt] (M), raxyūt, sadḥ, ḥask [= ḥāsik]

Areas within Salālah

ḥaft [= al-ḥāfah], aḳarayṭ, adhawriz [= al-dahārīz], awḳad [= ūḳad]

Villages

Many villages are named after the wadis to which they belong, or which lead to them (cf. below):

gabgabt, jōdab (gōdab) [= jādab], rēhan, rabkūt, ndēt, ḏahbūn, bar bazūm, xīšōl [= madīnat al-ḥaqq], gōfā, ḥadbayn, alsān, zīk, ḳayrōn ḥīrata, xabrārat, ḥagayf, ṭayṭām, ġadō, masḥaylah, dīmīt, šahb aṣʕayb, mītan, harwīw [= harwīb], šaṣar, šwēmīyah,10 šarbaṯāt,11 mśay, arkabīt

Mountains, roads, valleys

kśēm, ṣafṣayf, nōšab [= nāšab], araḳam, ṣālafan, xgūm, nśawr, nḥāz, āfūl, darbūt [= darbāt], ṣamḥāl, harkūt, dīfan, šīṭaḥ

2.3.1.4 Names of months

The Mehri year follows the Islamic calender. The Mehri names of the months are known by few people today. The twelve months in Mehreyyet in order are as follows, with their Arabic equivalents given in brackets. arbūt ḥaśkōl ‘the four twins’ refers to four months. In what follows, the symbol ~ indicates alternative forms or pronunciations:

bāli zkōt [= al-muḥarram / ṣafar al-awwal], ṣfīr [= ṣafar al-ṯānī], arbūt ḥaśkōl [= jumāda al-ūlā, jumāda al-ṯāniyah, rabīʕ al-awwal, rabīʕ al-ṯānī], irgēb [= rajab], ḳṣayyar [= šaʕbān], ramśōn [= ramaḏān], fṭawrī ṯroh: fṭaray ḥāwalay [= šawwāl], fṭaray mtallī [= ḏū al-qaʕdah], aśḥā ~ bāl aśāḥī [= ḏū al-ḥijjah]

2.3.1.5 Names of stars

Traditionally in southern Arabia the seasons were defined and agricultural and animal husbandry activities timed through identification of the star that appeared just before sunrise, with the year divided into twenty-eight agricultural marker stars

10 The Baṭāḥirah call this place ašwaymīyah (Miranda Morris, p.c.). 11 The Baṭāḥirah call this place śərbəṯōt (Miranda Morris, p.c.).

2.3 Nouns

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and lunar stations (Varisco 1993; cf. also Serjeant 1954; Gingrich 1994). Agriculturalists, camel herders and fishermen still know many of the stars and organise their activities accordingly: Yislim in Sima63 discusses sowing cucumbers at the rising of the stars dafʕāt, al-baldah or the two suʕūd stars, and harvesting at the rising of bṭīn and an-naṭḥ.12 Several of the star names given in the Mahriyōt texts have Arabic forms, as evidenced by the al- definite article, and some appear to be the names of corresponding lunar stations rather than marker stars.13 All star names below occur in Sima (2009):

bṭīn (Sima63:24), naṭḥ (Sima63:24), faraʕ (Sima56:84–85, 63:19–20),14 aš-šawl (Sima2:53, 63:7), dafʕāt (Sima56:38, 63:16), al-ḳalb (Sima63:6),15 al-baldah (Sima63:16), suʕūd (Sima63:16), baʕl maftiḳḥ (Sima63:16, 70:21), al-ḥūt (Sima63:26)

2.3.1.6 Camel lines

Camels are known by their lineages through the female line, as for the Arabian horse, with camel mares described as bart X ‘the daughter of X’, bātī X ‘the daughters of X’. Here is a list of camel lines shared by the two dialect groups (cf. Sima47; cf. also al-Qumairi 2003: 26):

śībī, ḥrīr, rōham, śīraġt, aġassī, sḥāmah, adānah, ambīr, aśaxū

2.3.2 Common nouns

The class of common nouns can be subcategorised into concrete nouns that refer to objects a person can interact with, and abstract nouns that refer to ideas, feelings or qualities. Common nouns in Mehri are inherently indefinite and become definite through affixation of a form of the definite article in Mehreyyet, by affixation of a pronoun suffix (and a form of the definite article in Mehreyyet), or by the syntactic or semantic context. Common nouns are inherently marked for gender – either masculine or feminine. In contrast to the closely related Semitic language, Arabic, nouns maintain their lexical gender in the plural. Thus, both warx ‘month’ and its plural wūrax are masculine, and both bayt ‘house’ and its plural byōt are feminine.16

12 As for the Mehri month names, very few younger people living in settled areas can recall the

names of stars with much accuracy today. 13 Thus, bṭīn is probably the second lunar station buṭain given in al-Wāsiʕi’s almanac, aš-šawl the

nineteenth lunar station shawla, al-baldah the twenty-first lunar station balda, suʕūd is possibly al-Wāsiʕi’s saʕd al-suʕūd, although the speaker in Sima (63:16) mentions two suʕūd stars, and al-ḥūt the twenty-eighth lunar station baṭn al-ḥūt (cf. Varisco 1993: 123).

14 Possibly al-Wāsiʕi’s fifteenth marker star fāriʕ (ibid). 15 Possibly al-Wāsiʕi’s twentieth marker star qalb (ibid). 16 In Mahriyōt, as in Śḥerɛt and Hobyōt (Simeone-Senelle 1997: 413), there is, however, one

notable exception to this rule: lē ‘cow’ is feminine, but its plural lhaytan ‘cows’ is masculine. In Mehreyyet, some speakers in the mountains, probably under Śḥerɛt influence, assume masculine gender for bḳār ‘cows’, the plural of baḳarēt ‘cow’, but for most speakers and for all speakers in the Nagd the plural is, like its singular, feminine.


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In a few cases, a feminine noun can be derived from a masculine noun by affixation of a feminine suffix (-t, -ōt, -īt, -ēt). Most common nouns are inherently singular, and concrete nouns inflect for dual and plural. The dual is formed by adding -ī and the numeral ṯrōh after a masculine noun, ṯrayt after a feminine noun, as in: tēṯ > tēṯī ṯrayt ‘two women’, ġayg > ġaygī ṯrōh ‘two men’. A separate dual form exists for a few lexemes, as in: ġawgī [man.DUAL] (M),17 ġūjī [man.DUAL] (Mo), ġaggawtī [girl.DUAL] (M). Depending on the lexeme, the plural is formed either by consonant-vowel pattern change and/or by a masculine or feminine plural suffix. A few common nouns take a suppletive form for the plural.

2.3.2.1 Concrete nouns

Concrete nouns can be subcategorised into count nouns, such as English finger, cup, pen, house, collective nouns, such as English cattle, livestock, and mass nouns, which cannot be counted, such as English sugar, water, ink, air.

2.3.2.1.1 Count nouns

Most feminine count nouns either take a form of the feminine suffix -t, -īt, -ēt ~ -āt, -ūt ~ -ōt, as in ḥayrīt ‘(the) moon’, rēśīt ‘snake’, ginzafūt ‘large log or tree trunk’ (M), or refer specifically to a female human or animal, as in: tēṯ ‘woman’, lē ‘cow’ (Mo), ḥōfī ‘female camel with new-born calf’ (M), bōkar ‘young female camel from around 2 years old’. Some feminine nouns, however, neither have a feminine suffix nor refer specifically to a female animal, as in: nhōr (nhūr) ‘day’, ḥyōm ‘sun’, ḥwōdī (wōdī) ‘valley’, haytam ‘sky’, karmaym ‘hill’, fēḥ al ‘penis’, ṯabarayn ‘hyena’, farahayn ‘horse’. Several nouns referring to young female animals are not morphologically feminine, as in: frayś ‘female camel calf’, ḥūṭar ‘female goat kid’, darhīs ‘young female goat’. In a few cases, a masculine noun has a derived feminine counterpart, as in Mahriyōt: ḳayśar ‘leopard m.’, ḳaśrīt ‘leopard f.’, sāḥar ‘wizard’, saḥrat ‘witch’, ḥayr ‘donkey m.’, ḥīrīt ‘donkey f.’, ġajjān ‘boy’, ġajjanōt ‘girl’.

Count nouns are, with very few exceptions, inherently singular and inflect for plural number. For most lexemes, the plural form is derived directly from the singular either through a different templatic pattern (for typical patterns, cf. Rubin 2010: 66–68), as in: rēśīt pl. ryēś ‘snake’, ġayj (ġayg) pl. ġyūj (ġyūg) ‘man’; and/or through change in the quality of the long vowel (typically ī > ō), as in: ṣafrīr pl. ṣafrōr ‘blossom’, kabkīb pl. kabkōb ‘star’, ḳafrīr pl. ḳafrōr ‘lip’ and/or through a masculine (e.g. -īn, -ōn) or feminine (-(ū)tan) plural suffix, as in: ktōb pl. ktib-īn ‘book’, gūr pl. gīr-ōn ‘slave’ (M), ġiggīt pl. ġigg-ūtan ‘girl’ (M), lʕōt pl. lʕ-ūtan ‘nipple’ (Mo), ḥayd pl. ḥād -ūtan ‘hand’. Some plurals take a prefix ha- or ḥa-, often in combination with a template change, as in: bōb pl. ḥa-bwēbat ‘door, kōb pl. ḥa-klēb ‘dog; wolf’ (Mo). In a few lexemes, the plural has either a tentative or historical relationship with the singular form, as in: tēṯ pl. ḥaynāṯ (īnēṯ) ‘woman’, ḥaybīt (ībīt)

17 E.g. aġawgī sīrōh sūḳ ‘the two men went to the market’ (M). First mentioned in Johnstone

(1970b: 511, fn. 95).

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pl. hbār (bɛr) ‘camel mare’, ḳannūn pl. ḳalyūn ‘child’ (Mo), or is entirely suppletive, as in: bnādam (mnādam) pl. ḥābū (bū) ‘person’, ġiggēn pl. ambarawtan ‘boy’ (M), ḥōz (wōz) pl. ḥārawn (rawn) ‘goat’. A very few nouns, including drēham ‘money’, loaned from the Arabic, have only a plural form.

In the tables below, I present for each dialect group examples of count nouns according to gender with the unmarked number, singular, followed by the plural form. Tables 12 and 13 give examples of nouns referring to living objects; tables 14 and 15 give examples of nouns referring to non-living objects.

Table 12: Mahriyōt living objects

feminine masculine singular plural gloss singular plural gloss tēṯ ḥaynāṯ woman bnādam ḥābūn ~ ḥābū person; people ḥōz ḥārawn goat ġayj ġyūj man ḥaybīt hbār camel ḥīb ḥūb father; parents rēśīṭ ryēś snake ḳayśar ḳśawrat leopard ʕarḳayb ʕarḳōb mouse kōb ḥaklēb dog; wolf

Table 13: Mehreyyet living objects

feminine masculine singular plural gloss singular plural gloss bōkar bkūr young f. camel mnādam bū person; people baḳarēt bḳār cow ġayg ġyūg man ībīt bɛr camel ginḥayr ginḥūr youth farahayn farhayayn horse frayś frōś baby f. camel wōz rawn goat ʕaylīg ʔālōg baby m. camel

Table 14: Mahriyōt non-living objects

feminine masculine singular plural gloss singular plural gloss ṭalfōt ṭlōyaf skin of milk bōb ḥabwēbat door ṭaḳḳāt ṭḳāḳ necklace daḳf dḳayf hut sanbūḳ snōbaḳ boat daxšīr daxšōr lair bayt byōt house, room ḥībīṭ ḥībōṭ swelling hōfal hfūl stomach xlāḳ xlōwaḳ dress


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Table 15: Mehreyyet non-living objects

feminine masculine singular plural gloss singular plural gloss ṣarfayt aṣrāf large flat

rock ḳōṭī ḳwaṭyat can, tin

žambayyat žnōbī dagger salmōd slamdat blanket kazzēt kzīz sand dune ḳtēb ḳtawbat saddle frame nhūr yōm day markēb mrōkab large ship karmaym karmōm hill warx wūrax month

A few count nouns have only a singular form, where only one such entity is assumed to exist. These include: haytam ‘sky’, ḥayrīt ‘the moon’, ḥyōm ‘the sun’.

2.3.2.1.2 Collective nouns

Collective nouns refer to collective entities. Collective nouns in Mehri can be divided into those that take singular agreement and those that take plural agreement. Most collective nouns are grammatically singular, while others such as xabz ‘bread’ and śēf (śif) ‘hair’ are grammatically plural. Most singular collective nouns are masculine, but some, such as ʕayd (āyd ~ ayd) ‘sardines’, are feminine. Singulatives can be formed from some collective nouns by adding a feminine suffix, as in: ʕayd > ʕayd-īt ‘a sardine’ (Mo), dījar > dajr-īt ‘a bean’ (Mo), dēgar > dagr-īt ‘a bean’ (M), xabz > xabz-ēt ‘a piece of bread’, tōmar > tamr-īt ‘a date’. Singulatives cannot be formed from a number of collectives, including mōl ‘livestock’, lxaym (ūxaym) ‘sharks’, śḥayr ‘mountains’ and ṣayd ‘fish’.

2.3.2.1.3 Mass nouns

Mass nouns refer to objects that cannot be counted; grammatically they do not pluralise and cannot be modified by numerals. The grammaticality of ġayg-ī ṯrōh [man-DUAL two m.] ‘two men’ (M) contrasts with the ungrammaticality of *śxōf-ī ṯrōh [milk-DUAL two m.] ‘two milks’. They differ from collective nouns referentially in that they do not refer to a set of objects and differ grammatically in that singulative nouns cannot be formed from mass nouns. In Mehri, mass nouns can be modified by the non-numerical quantifiers. Mass nouns typically have singular number and masculine gender, though some mass nouns, such as malḥawt (malḥāt) ‘salt’ and Mehreyyet ātarīt ‘fermented milk’ have feminine gender. A few lexemes that generally refer to uncountable objects have plural forms when referring to different types of an entity, including maḥḥ pl. mīḥāḥ / mḥīn ‘fat; clarified butter’, muh pl. ḥmuh ‘water’ (M) and ḥīrēz pl. ḥarzūtan ‘rice’ (M). Examples of mass nouns from the two dialect groups include:

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Table 16: Mahriyōt mass nouns

feminine masculine raḥmāt rain ḏhēb gold ḳūt food maḥḥ clarified butter malsē rain ḥīrēz rice malḥawt salt ḥamś fermented milk

Table 17: Mehreyyet mass nouns

feminine masculine ḳahwēt coffee nōgar low cliffs of conglomerate ātarīt fermented milk śɛr hay, dried grass mtāt food śxōf ~ śxawf milk malḥāt salt muh water

Some nouns which have masculine gender when referring to the entity in general have feminine gender when referring to a specific instance of the noun:18 thus, Mehreyyet ḳawt ‘food’ is masculine when referring to food in general, but may be feminine when referring to a specific food, as in: lōb aḳawt ḏīmah gidat ‘Goodness, that food is good!’; similarly Mehreyyet mūsē ‘rain’ may be masculine in general reference to rain, as in: lōb b-aśḥayr mūsē ḳway ‘The rain in the mountains is certainly strong!’, but is feminine in referring to a specific instance of rain, as in: mūsē bi-gabgabt imšēh ḳwīyat ‘the rain in Gabgabat yesterday was strong’.

2.3.3 Abstract nouns

Abstract nouns express feelings, ideas or qualities. Many abstract nouns in Mehri take the form of the verbal noun. They are inherently singular and take masculine or feminine gender according to the morphological pattern of the noun. Examples are presented in the table below:

Table 18: Abstract nouns

Mehreyyet Mahriyōt šinḥarūt complaining ryōś relaxation ṣṭayṭ pain kawn pain śawr advice; opinion kūrīt love relationship arḥūmat beauty jēhad trouble nēgaś churning milk ṯēḳal toil yiṣṣayt fear mġarbēt knowledge

18 And thus become countable.


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2.3.4 Diminutive nouns

Nouns of all types can take a diminutive form (cf. Johnstone 1973 for Mehreyyet). Since the diminutive tends to be used more by women and children and when used by men may be restricted to particular contexts, it is not surprising that diminutives are considerably more common in both dialects than can be inferred from Johnstone’s texts (cf. Rubin 2010: 73–74). Diminutives of count nouns can give the sense of smallness in size or importance, or affection or depreciation. Diminutives of mass nouns convey the sense of smallness of amount. Diminutives can also be formed from plural nouns, and depending on the context convey either smallness in number or a number of small entities. Diminutive patterns are fairly predictable. The pattern a particular diminutive takes depends on the number of root consonants, gender and number (singular or plural) of the non-diminutive lexeme. With few exceptions, diminutives are marked by long vowels in the penultimate and ultimate or, in the case of feminine plural, antepenultimate and penultimate syllables. For triliteral nouns, the main patterns are: C(a)CāCān and CwāCēC for masculine singular; CaCCānōt or CūCāCōt with the feminine -ōt suffix for feminine singular; and CaCCānūtan or CūCāCūtan with the typical feminine plural suffix -ūtan for plural irrespective of gender. For quadriliteral nouns, the main diminutive pattern is C(a)CāCēC for masculine singular; C(a)CāCāCōt or CaCCāCōt for feminine singular; and CaCCāCūtan or CūCāCūtan for plural. Examples of diminutive singular and plural nouns from Mahriyōt include (non-diminutive forms in the left-hand columns, diminutive forms in the right-hand columns):

Triliteral masculine singular

śabb śwābēb ‘youth’

ṯarb ṯwārēb ‘stick’

ḥōbal ḥwābēl ‘plaited fillet of goatskin worn on brow formerly by men’

ḥayr ḥayārān ‘donkey’

Triliteral feminine singular

xīṭayt xīṭānōt ‘thread’

naxlīt naxlānōt ‘palm tree’

jaḥlēt jaḥlānōt ‘pot’

faʕm faʕmānōt ‘foot’

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Triliteral plural

ḥwablat ḥūbālūtan ‘plaited fillets of goatskin worn on brow’

ḥjēr ḥajrānūtan ‘stones’

byōt bītānūtan ‘houses’

ḳlūb ḳūlābūtan ‘hearts’

Quadriliteral masculine singular

naxrīr naxārēr ‘nose’

ḳafrīr ḳafārēr ‘lip’

kabkīb kabākēb ‘star’

Quadriliteral feminine singular

funxarōt funxārōt ‘nostril’

ʕaṯkanōt ʕaṯkānōt ‘decorative (silver) tassels tied to tips of plaits’

ʕarḳayb ʕarḳabānōt ‘mouse’

ḳaśrabūt ḳaśrabānōt ‘stone’

Quadriliteral plural

daxšōr daxšārūtan ‘lairs; long narrow holes (in a cliff)’

drēham darhāmūtan ‘money’

funxār funxārūtan ‘nostrils’

kabkōb kabkābūtan ‘stars’

2.3.5 Definiteness

Common nouns are inherently indefinite in Mehri. In Mahriyōt, definiteness is expressed by suffixation of a pronoun suffix, as in: bōb ‘door’ > bōbī ‘my door’, bayt ‘house; room’ > baytak ‘your m.s. house; room’, by attribution of, or to, a demonstrative pronoun, as in: bayt ḏīmah ‘that room/house’, ġajjān ḏakmah ‘that boy’, or by the syntactic or semantic context. A trace of a definite article is observed after certain clitics and affixes in Mahriyōt (cf. 1.1.1.3.3).

In Mehreyyet, the definite article takes the following expressions. Of these, the optional expressions of definiteness (b) and (c) are not discussed for Mehri in the earlier literature (Johnstone 1970a, 1980; Sima 2002; Rubin 2010: 68–73).


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(a) a- is prefixed before a non-aspirated Ci, or /ʔ/ derived etymologically from *ʕ;

(b) a- is optionally prefixed before an aspirated Ci, particularly /ś/ or where the aspirated Ci is part of a consonant cluster;

(c) Ci is optionally geminated in the case of most aspirated Ci (k, t, s, š, x, f, ḥ), but generally not where Ci = /ś/ or /h/. Gemination occurs particularly after conjunctions or clitic prepositions and where Ci is not part of a consonant cluster.

(d) ḥa- ~ ḥā- is prefixed to words with etymological *ʔ as Ci, and a few lexemes in which either a sonorant or /d/ is Ci.

(e) ḥa- ~ ḥā- is prefixed to lexically marked plurals.19

(f) ha- is prefixed to lexically marked plurals.

Sample lexemes with different exponents of the definite article are presented in table 19:

Table 19: Mehreyyet definite article

(a) a- (b) a- optional

(c) optional Ci gemination

(d) ḥa- ~ ḥā- (e) ḥa- ~ ḥā- to plural

(f) ha- to plural

bayt śḥayr sīyaryat ībīt > ḥaybīt bū > ḥābū bɛr > hibɛr

dallēt śxōf kansīd bart > ḥabrīt rawn > ḥārawn arbāt > harbāt

gawf śīḥaz tōmar bar > ḥabrē īnēṯ > ḥaynēṯ slōb > haslōb

ʔayn xlāḳ xīl rīt > ḥārīt ambarawtan > ḥambarawtan

śbūb > haśbūb

liḥyēt fśē šabdīt gōr > ḥāgōr śkōl > ḥaśkōl skōn > haskōn

warx ktōb farahayn dīd > ḥadīd ṣayd haytam ḥazmayyat wōz > ḥōz ḳawt nīd > ḥanīd

Due to a constraint on continuous vowels (cf. 1.3.2.5), after affixes and clitics of the template CV (the attributiviser ḏa-, the conjunction wa-, and the prepositions bi-, la-, ka-, ha-), either the vowel of the article or the vowel of the CV affix is deleted:

19 Sima (2002) provides the best discussion and cross-dialectal comparison of ḥa- and ha- to date.

For a comparison of ḥa- and ha- across the MSAL, see Johnstone (1970a).

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nakam bi-mandawḳah ~ b-amandawḳah (< *bi-amandawḳah) ‘they m. brought his gun’

bōḳī ḏ-aṣayd śillam tah (< *ḏa-aṣayd) ‘the remains of the fish, they m. took it m.’

A definite adjective or appositive noun lacks a- following a vowel-final noun in all but the most careful speech. Compare:

a-ktōb-ī mšēġar (< *aktōbī amšēġar) [DEF-book.MS-1S other.MS] ‘my second/other book’

ḥā-bū śīfōn (< *ḥābū aśīfōn) [DEF-people guest.PL] ‘the guests’

In SMS text messages and other written material, alif is written for the definite article at the beginning of an orthographic (and phonological) word with a non-aspirated Ci and optionally with an aspirated Ci. Where the noun is not orthographically independent, alif is omitted. The first example below, where alif is written before �mr��sا ‘the hospital’ contrasts with the second and third examples, where alif is not written in the prepositional phrases ر�� p� ‘to school’, ¡��¢| ‘in the morning’, or �mr��p� ‘at the hospital’:

�mr��sا u��n £l¤ o�v� os ھ� hō man sɛtin śillak ḥaybī amstašfā ‘I took my father to the hospital a short while ago’ M.txt

wa-yāśūś k-aṣōbaḥ ka-ḥabrēh l-amdarsēt و��¨�ث |¢��¡ |¦�~اه �p ر��‘and he will get up in the morning with his son for school’ M.txt

�mr��p� ادي ādī b-amstašfā ‘I’m still at the hospital’ M.txt

2.4 Pronouns

The pronoun class is subclassified into personal pronouns, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, indefinite pronouns and demonstrative pronouns.

2.4.1 Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns are inherently definite. They exhibit the morphological categories number and gender, as for nouns, plus a three-way person distinction. Morphologically the dialect groups differ in that Mahriyōt distinguishes gender in the second person singular independent pronouns, while Mehreyyet, in common with western Yemeni Mehri, does not. Both dialect groups differ from western Yemeni Mehri in that they, but not western Yemeni Mehri (cf. Bittner 1911, 1913; AlFadly 2007: 220; Simeone-Senelle 1997: 401, 2011b: 1082), exhibit dual pronouns, including dual verbal subject pronouns (cf. 2.5.1.3).


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2.4.1.1 Independent pronouns

The independent pronouns for each dialect are given below:

Table 20: Mahriyōt independent pronouns

singular dual plural 1 hōh kīh nḥah 2m hēt

tīh tām

2f hīt tān 3m hēh

hīh hām

3f sēh sān

Table 21: Mehreyyet independent pronouns

singular dual20 plural 1 hōh akay nḥah 2m

hēt atay atēm

2f atēn 3m hēh

hay hēm

3f sēh sēn

Rubin (2010: 31), following Johnstone, gives the first person and third person singular pronouns without final /h/. Final /h/ is not always realised in either dialect in fast speech, but is realised where a vowel-final word would be expected to be glottalised and is recognised in native speakers’ Arabic writing of Mehreyyet and Mahriyōt. hay, which Rubin places in brackets due to lack of evidence in Johnstone’s texts, is attested, though infrequently, in my data:

śīnak ġaygī ṯrōh hay wa-ḥbinīhī ‘I saw two men, them DUAL and their M.DUAL sons’ M.NS

mōn manhay aṣlēḥ ‘Which of them DUAL is fatter?’ M.NS

The feminine dual is expressed by the third person dual pronoun hīh (hay) with gender reflected in the verb, noun or adjective; however, feminine dual is rarely attested in the data, either as a pronoun or as a verbal inflection. A translation into Mehreyyet of ‘I saw two women, them and their sons’ taking the same structure as ‘I saw two men, them and their sons’ given above can be rendered by either of the following examples, but considerably more commonly by the first one, taking the feminine plural pronoun in the appositive phrase:

śīnak tēṯī ṯrayt sēn wa-ḥbinīsan ‘I saw two woman, them f.pl. and their f.pl. sons’ M.NS

20 The first discussion of dual forms in Mehri is Johnstone (1970b).

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śīnak tēṯī ṯrayt hay wa-ḥbinīhī ‘I saw two woman, them DUAL and their DUAL sons’ M.NS

Both dialects have forms to express ‘both’, which inflect for gender and person (first/second versus third). In Mahriyōt, klahkī ‘both of you/us’, klayhī ‘both of them m.’, klaythī ‘both of them f.’ and Mehreyyet kluhkī ‘both of you/us m.’, klatkī ‘both of us/you f.’,21 kluhhī ‘both of them m.’, klathī ‘both of them f.’ The non-suffixed forms kluh ‘both m.’ and klayt ‘both f.’ attested in Mehreyyet, but not seen in the Mahriyōt data, occur as appositives (cf. 3.3.6.2).

2.4.1.2 Dependent pronouns

The dependent pronouns function as object pronouns and possessive pronouns. For dual number, no distinction is made in either dialect between first and second person. In Mehreyyet, object pronouns only attach directly to the 3fs inflectional form in the perfect or to verb forms that end in a root consonant or glide22 – i.e. 3ms/3fpl perfect,23 third dual forms in the perfect, dual forms ending in -ōh or -ah in the imperfect, singular forms in the imperfect, and masculine plural forms where masculine plural is expressed solely through ablaut (cf. 5.1.4; Rubin 2010: 41–42). In all other cases, the object pronoun is linked via the accusative affix ta-. In Mahriyōt, there is an option for object pronouns to be directly attached to any verb form or, where the verb is neither 3fs perfect aspect nor ends in a root consonant, preferably via the accusative affix ta-; verbs inflected for 3mpl (and 2mpl imperfect) commonly take an object pronoun directly or via ta-.24

In Mehreyyet, which, as seen above (2.3.5), has the morphological means of expressing definiteness, nouns which take a possessive pronoun are also marked by a form of the definite article25 (Rubin 2010: 73):26

kansīd ‘shoulder’ > (ak-)kansayd-ī [DEF-shoulder-1S] ‘my shoulder’

bayt ‘house’ > a-bit-k [DEF-house-2MS] ‘your m.s. house’

ībīt ‘camel’ > ḥa-ybit-s [DEF-camel-3FS] ‘her camel’

In terms of morphological shape, there are three types of dependent pronouns:

(a) Those which function as object pronouns to perfect verbs in 3ms/3fpl, and pronoun annexes to most monoliteral, biliteral and some triliteral prepositions. The left-most (or only) syllable of these pronouns receives word stress, even where short, as in Mehreyyet waḥˈśih ‘on his own’.

21 Rare. 22 Including /h/ of the dual endings -ōh, -ah. 23 In the perfect aspect, 3ms and 3fpl have identical forms for all verbs in both dialects. 24 As in western Yemeni Mehri, e.g. lebôdem-eh > lebádem-eh ‘sie schlugen ihn’ (Jahn 1905: 19). 25 Optionally and in case of focus where Ci of the noun is aspirated. 26 As in Śḥerɛt (Hofstede 1998: 30) and Ḥarsūsi (Johnstone 1977).


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(b) Those which function as possessive pronouns to singular nouns, certain triliteral prepositions, object pronouns to all other verb forms, and pronouns that attach to the adverbial particles ʕād (ād) ‘still’ and bār. These pronouns do not take word stress.

(c) Those which function as possessive pronouns to plural nouns and pronoun annexes to some prepositions. These pronouns do not take word stress.

2.4.1.2.1 (a)-type pronouns

When attached to the 3ms/3fpl form of the perfect verb, the accusative marker ta-, or monoliteral, biliteral and some triliteral prepositions, dual and plural pronoun suffixes take a (usually long) vowel infix in the dialects. When the 3ms/3fpl perfect verb takes an object pronoun, the verbal stem shortens in both dialects.

The Mahriyōt (a)-type dependent pronouns are as below:

Table 22: Mahriyōt (a)-type dependent pronouns

singular dual plural 1 -īnī ~ -aynī27 ~ -ī

-ikī ~ -īkī ~ -ōkī -ān

2m -ūk -īkam ~ -ōkam 2f -īš ~ -ōš -īkan ~ -ōkan 3m -ēh ~ -ōh

-ihī ~ -īhī ~ -ōhī -īham ~ -ōham

3f -īs ~ -ōs -īsan ~ ōsan

Table 23 gives examples of (a)-type dependent pronouns as object pronoun to the 3ms/3fpl inflectional form of the verb in the perfect aspect.

Table 23: Mahriyōt object pronouns to sbōṭ ‘he/they f. hit’

singular dual plural 1 sabṭ-īnī ~ sabṭ-aynī

sabˈṭ-ikī ~ sabṭ-īkī sabṭ-ān

2m sabṭ-ūk sabṭ-īkam 2f sabṭ-īš sabṭ-īkan 3m sabṭ-ēh

sabˈṭ-ihī ~ sabṭ-īhī sabṭ-īham

3f sabṭ-īs sabṭ-īsan

This set of dependent pronouns functions as annexes to the prepositions fīn ‘before, in front of’, wdī ‘towards’, addī ‘towards’, brak ‘in’, baʕd ‘after’, ha- ‘for’, ba- ‘with, in’, la- ‘to, for’, hār ‘with’, š- ‘with’. The prepositions fīn, brak and hār take the allomorphs fn-, bark- and hn- respectively before dependent pronouns.

27 -īnī ~ - aynī as object to 3ms/3fpl perfect verb.

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Table 24: Mahriyōt object pronouns to fīn ‘before, in front of’

singular dual plural 1 fn-ī

fn-īkī fn-ān

2m fn-ūk fn-īkam 2f fn-īš fn-īkan 3m fn-ēh

fn-īhī fn-īham

3f fn-īs fn-īsan

In affixation to accusative ta-, /a/ of the affix is deleted due to a constraint on contiguous vowels (1.3.2.5). The non-first person and dual pronouns are realised with either -ō- or -ī/ē-. In the Mahriyōt sub-dialect of Rēhan, -ō- forms predominate.

Table 25: Mahriyōt object pronouns attached to ta-

singular dual plural 1 t-ī

t-īkī ~ t-ōkī t-ān

2m t-ūk t-īkam ~ t-ōkam 2f t-īš ~ t-ōš t-īkan ~ t-ōkan 3m t-ēh ~ t-ōh

t-īhī ~ t-ōhī t-īham ~ t-ōham

3f t-īs ~ t-ōs t-īsan ~ t-ōsan

In Mehreyyet, this set of dependent pronouns exhibits diphthongs in 1s and in some cases in 2fs, and short medial vowels in certain paradigms in the dual pronouns. In contrast to Mahriyōt, it does not have an -ō- alternative when attached to ta-:

Table 26: Mehreyyet (a)-type dependent pronouns

singular dual plural 1 -áy ~ aynī28

-akī ~ -īkī -īn

2m -ūk ~ -ēk29 -īkam ~ -ēkam 2f -ayš ~ -ēš30 -īkan ~ -ēkan 3m -ih ~ -ah31 ~ -

ēh32 ~ -ayh33 -ahī ~ -īhī34 -īham ~ -ēham

3f -īs ~ -ēs -īsan ~ -ēsan

Table 27 gives examples of (a)-type dependent pronouns as object pronoun to the 3ms/3fpl inflectional form of the verb in the perfect aspect:

28 Exceptionally in the case of annexion to ha-, to give haynī ‘to me, for me’. 29 In affixation to ta-, occasionally realised as -īk. 30 In affixation to ta-. 31 In suffixation to verbs ending in gutturals, as in laḥḳ-ah ‘he caught him’. 32 This pronoun may be realised as long (-ēh or –īh) in annexion to the prepositions sār (= sr-),

ha-, hān (= hn-), ka- (= š-) and fnōhan (= fanw-), but otherwise, contra Johnstone (1975a: 118, etc.) and Rubin (2010: 37), is very rarely realised as long.

33 In affixation to verbs ending in etymological *ʕ, as in nk-ayh ‘he came to him’. 34 Rarely used for feminine dual, when feminine plural would be preferred.


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Table 27: Mehreyyet object pronouns to wzūm ‘he/they f. gave’

singular dual plural 1 wuzm-áy

wuzm-īkī wuzm-īn

2m wuzm-ūk wuzm-īkam 2f wuzm-ayš wuzm-īkan 3m wuzm-ih

wuzm-īhī wuzm-īham

3f wuzm-īs wuzm-īsan

This set of pronouns acts as annexes to waḥś-, and to the prepositions sār ‘behind’, la- ‘to, for’, bi- ‘with, in’, ha- ‘for’, bād ‘after’, bark ‘in’, fnōhan ‘before, in front of’, hān ‘with’, ka- ‘with’. The prepositions fnōhan ‘before, in front of’, hān ‘with’, sār ‘behind’ and ka- take the allomorphs fanw-, hn- ~ hin-, sr- and š- respectively before object pronouns. bīn ~ bān ~ bayn takes the pre-suffixal allomorph manw-:

Table 28: Mehreyyet dependent pronouns to sār ‘behind’

singular dual plural 1 sr-áy

sr-īkī sr-īn

2m sr-ūk sr-īkam 2f sr-ayš sr-īkan 3m sr-ēh ~ sr-ih

sr-īhī sr-īham

3f sr-īs sr-īsan

Attached to the accusative affix ta-, the 2ms pronoun takes the form -ēk, the 2fs pronoun the form -ēš, the 3ms pronoun the form -h, and the vowel /ē/ alternates with /ī/ in other second and third person forms.

Table 29: Mehreyyet object pronouns attached to ta-

singular dual plural 1 t-áy

t-ēkī ~ t-īkī t-īn

2m t-ēk t-ēkam ~ t-īkam 2f t-ēš t-ēkan ~ t-īkan 3m ta-h

t-ēhī ~ t-īhī t-ēham ~ t-īham

3f t-ēs ~ t-īs t-ēsan ~ t-īsan

2.4.1.2.2 (b)-type pronouns

Dependent pronouns which function as possessive pronouns to singular nouns, certain bi- and triliteral prepositions and object pronouns to verbs other than 3ms/3fpl forms, and which attach to the adverbial particles ʕād (ād) ‘still’ and bār take the following forms.

Mahriyōt (b)-type dependent pronouns are as in table 30.

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Table 30: Mahriyōt (b)-type dependent pronouns

singular dual plural 1 -ī35 ~ -ya36

-kī -(a)n

2m -(a)k -kam 2f -(a)š -kan 3m -(a)h

-hī -ham

3f -(a)s -san

Table 31 gives examples of (b)-type dependent pronouns as possessive pronoun to a singular noun.

Table 31: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to singular noun bayt ‘house’

singular dual plural 1 bayt-ī

bayt-kī bayt-an

2m bayt-ak bayt-kam 2f bayt-aš bayt-kan 3m bayt-ah

bayt-hī bayt-ham

3f bayt-as bayt-san

Table 32: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to singular noun jaḥlēt ‘clay pot’

singular dual plural 1 jaḥlēt-ī

jaḥlat-kī jaḥlēt-an

2m jaḥlat-k jaḥlat-kam 2f jaḥlat-š jaḥlat-kan 3m jaḥlat-h

jaḥlat-hī jaḥlat-ham

3f jaḥlat-s jaḥlat-san

This set of dependent pronouns acts as annexes to the prepositions aṯ-ṯār ‘on’, ḳbēl37 ‘in front of’, and the singular dependent pronouns act as annexes to man ‘from’.38 aṯ-ṯār takes the pre-suffixal allomorph aṯ-ṯīr.

35 Given in Sima (2005, 2009) as -y when suffixed to words ending in C. 36 After vowels or diphthongs, as in: ṯabr-ōh ‘they M.DUAL broke’ > ṯabr-ay-ya ‘they M.DUAL

broke me’. 37 Further away than fīn ‘before, in front of’. 38 For both dialects, the non-singular pronouns take a long vowel when annexed to man: Mahriyōt

man-hām, man-sān, man-ān and Mehreyyet man-hēm, man-sēn, man-kēm, man-kēn, man-īn, man-hay, man-kay.


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Table 33: Mahriyōt dependent pronouns to ḳbēl ‘in front of’

singular dual plural 1 ḳbēl-ī

ḳbēl-akī ḳbēl-an

2m ḳbēl-ak ḳbēl-kam 2f ḳbēl-aš ḳbēl-kan 3m ḳbēl-ah

ḳbēl-(a)hī ḳbēl-ham

3f ḳbēl-as ḳbēl-san

Table 34 gives examples of (b)-type dependent pronouns as object pronoun to verbal forms other than the 3ms/3fpl inflectional form in the perfect aspect.

Table 34: Mahriyōt object pronouns to ṯabrōt ‘she broke’

singular dual plural 1 ṯabrat-ī

ṯabrat-kī ṯabrat-an

2m ṯabrat-k ṯabrat-kam 2f ṯabrat-š ṯabrat-kan 3m ṯabrat-h

ṯabrat-hī ṯabrat-ham

3f ṯabrat-s ṯabrat-san

Mehreyyet (b)-type dependent pronouns are in table 35, below.

Table 35: Mehreyyet (b)-type dependent pronouns

singular dual plural 1 -ī ~ -y39 ~ -áy40

-(a)kī -an

2m -(a)k -(a)kam 2f -(a)š ~ (i)š41 -(a)kan 3m -(a)h ~ ha

-(a)hī42 -(a)ham

3f -(a)s -(a)san

In Mehreyyet, possessive pronouns are suffixed to defined forms of the noun, where the noun may take a form of the definite article, as exemplified in table 36.

39 In suffixation to vowel-final stems, as in: a-ġā-y ‘my brother’, aḥamk [tinfā-y] ‘I want you m.s.

to help me’. 40 In suffixation to a few monosyllabic nouns which do not otherwise contain a diphthong, as in:

ḥām-áy ‘my mother’, ḥabr-áy ‘my son’. 41 The alternative [i] vowel here may be due to the palatal nature of /š/. 42 Rarely used for feminine dual, when feminine plural would be preferred.

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Table 36: Mehreyyet possessive pronouns to singular noun ībīt ‘camel’

singular dual plural 1 ḥa-ybayt-ī

ḥa-ybit-kī ḥa-ybayt-an

2m ḥa-ybit-k ḥa-ybit-kam 2f ḥa-ybit-š ḥa-ybit-kan 3m ḥa-ybit-h

ḥa-ybit-hī ḥa-ybit-ham

3f ḥa-ybit-s ḥa-ybit-san

This set of pronouns acts as annexes to the prepositions ḏār ‘on, after’, ḳbāt ‘in front of’, and the singular dependent pronouns act as annexes to man ‘from’. ḏār takes the pre-suffixal allomorph ḏayr- and vowel-initial pronoun annexes.

Table 37: Mehreyyet dependent pronouns to ḳbāt ‘in front of’

singular dual plural 1 ḳbāt-ī

ḳbāt-kī ḳbāt-an

2m ḳbāt-k ḳbāt-kam 2f ḳbāt-š ḳbāt-kan 3m ḳbāt-h

ḳbāt-hī ḳbāt-ham

3f ḳbāt-s ḳbāt-san

Table 38 gives examples of (b)-type dependent pronouns as object pronoun to verbs other than the 3ms/3fpl inflectional form in the perfect aspect.

Table 38: Mehreyyet object pronouns to yikōb ‘he thought’

singular dual plural 1 yikab-ī

yikab-kī yikab-an

2m yikab-k yikab-kam 2f yikab-š yikab-kan 3m yikab-h

yikab-hī yikab-ham

3f yikab-s yikab-san

Table 39: Mehreyyet object pronouns to radīw43 ‘they m. threw’

singular dual plural 1 radyīw-ī

radyīw-kī radyīw-an

2m radyīw-ak radyī-kam 2f radyīw-aš radyī-kan 3m radyīw-ah

radyīw-hī radyī-ham

3f radyīw-as radyī-san

43 Often realised as ardīw as result of sonorant metathesis (cf. 1.3.2.7).


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In the case of dual verbs ending in -ōh or -ah, the verb takes a pre-object allomorph -ay- in Mahriyōt, -āy- in Mehreyyet. In both dialects, the pre-object allomorph retains the stress of the non-suffixed form. Table 40 presents the paradigm of śillōh ‘they m.DUAL took’ plus object pronouns in Mehreyyet:

Table 40: Mehreyyet object pronouns to śillōh ‘they m.DUAL took’

singular dual plural 1 śillāy-ī

śillāy-kī śillāy-an

2m śillāy-ak śillāy-kam 2f śillāy-aš śillāy-kan 3m śillāy-ah

śillāy-hī śillāy-ham

3f śillāy-as śillāy-san

In the two dialects, the vowel-less allomorphs of the 2s and 3s pronouns are restricted to the few nouns that reduce the ultimate syllable of the stem on suffixation of a consonant-initial pronoun (bayt ‘house’ > a-bit-k [DEF-house-2MS] ‘your m.s. house’ (M); tēṯ ‘woman’ > taṯ-k ‘your m.s. wife’; ḥnōf-ī ‘myself’, ḥnaf-k ‘yourself m.’; śxōf ‘milk’ > śxaf-s ‘her milk’ (Mo); śxōf ‘milk’ > a-śxaf-s [DEF-milk-3FS] ‘her milk’ (M)), to many nouns ending in the feminine suffix –īt, -ēt, -ōt (e.g. āmayt-ī ‘my grandmother’, āmit-k ‘your m.s. grandmother’ (M); ḥaybīt ‘(the) camel mare’ > ḥaybit-k ‘your m.s. camel mare’), to nouns ending in a vowel or diphthong (e.g. rībā ‘friend’ > arībā-k ‘your m.s. friend’ (M)), to the prepositions man and Mehreyyet ḳbāt (which takes the feminine suffix -t), and verb stems that end in VC after vowel reduction (e.g. akōb ‘I think’ > akab-k ‘I think you m.s.’; nḥōm ‘we want’ > nḥam-k ‘we want you m.s.’; saraṭawt ‘she swallowed’ > saraṭat-s ‘she swallowed her’). In Mehreyyet, the vowel-less allomorph of the 3ms object pronoun is also attached to the preposition bi- and the accusative affix ta- (bi-h, ta-h). In all other cases, a full vowel is realised, even where the pre-suffixed element ends in a single consonant, as in the following Mehreyyet examples: ḏār ‘on’ > ḏayr-ak ‘on you m.s.’, xayl ‘maternal uncle’ > axxayl-ak ‘your m.s. maternal uncle’, nhūr ‘day’ > anhūr-ak ‘your m.s. day’, mkōn ‘place’ > amkōn-ak ‘your m.s. place’, wōram ‘road’ > ḥarm-ak ‘your m.s. road’, tōmar ‘dates’ > tamr-ak ‘your m.s. dates’, hamm ‘name’ > hamm-ak ‘your m.s. name’, rībāt ‘friend f.’ > arībāt-ak ‘your m.s. friend f.’, āśam-ak ‘you m.s. used to’, akays ‘I find’ > akays-ak ‘I find you m.s.’.

2.4.1.2.3 (c)-type pronouns

As objects to certain triliteral prepositions and plural nouns, the dependent pronouns take the forms given in tables 41 and 45 (cf. Rubin 2010: 36). Nouns taking the plural ending -(ūt)an (cf. 2.3.2.1.1) lose -an before suffixation of an object pronoun, as in Mahriyōt: ʕayant-an ‘eyes’ > ʕayant-ya ‘my eyes’, ʕayant-yak ‘your m.s. eyes’, and Mehreyyet: ḥādūtan ‘hands’ > ḥādit-sa ‘her hands’, ḥādit-ka ‘your m.s. hands’. As seen in chapter 1 (1.3.2.3), stress does not shift on suffixation of dependent

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pronouns even where suffixation affects the syllable structure: thus, Mehreyyet ḥaˈbūn ‘the children’ is realised on suffixation of -īhī as ḥaˈbinīhī ‘their.DUAL children’ with vowel shortening and opaque stress of the antepenultimate light syllable .bi..

Mahriyōt dependent pronouns to plural nouns and some prepositions are marked by an initial palatal glide /y/ or vowel /i/, as in table 41.

Table 41: Mahriyōt (c)-type dependent pronouns

singular dual plural 1 -ya

-ikī ~ -yakī -yan

2m -yak -ikam ~ -yakam 2f -yaš ~ -iš -ikan ~ -yakan 3m -yah

-ihī ~ -yahī -iham ~ -yaham

3f -yas -isan ~ -yasan

In the case of consonant clusters, an epenthetic vowel [i] may be inserted between the noun-final consonant and the y-initial pronoun, as in: ḥabwēbat ‘doors’ > ḥabwabt-iya ‘my doors’.

Table 42 gives examples of (c)-type dependent pronouns as possessive pronoun to a plural noun.

Table 42: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to xlōwaḳ ‘dresses’

singular dual plural 1 xlawḳ-iya

xlawḳ-ikī xlawḳ-iyan

2m xlawḳ-iyak xlawḳ-ikam 2f xlawḳ-(i)yaš xlawḳ-ikan 3m xlawḳ-iyah

xlawḳ-ihī xlawḳ-iham

3f xlawḳ-(i)yas xlawḳ-isan

Table 43: Mahriyōt possessive pronouns to śēf ‘hair’

singular dual plural 1 śaf-ya

śaf-yakī śaf-yan

2m śaf-yak śaf-yakam 2f śaf-yaš śaf-yakan 3m śaf-yah

śaf-yahī śaf-yaham

3f śaf-yas śaf-yasan

This set of pronouns acts as annexes to the prepositions nxāl ~ lxān ‘under’, taḥwēl ‘towards’ and twēl ‘towards’. These take the pre-suffixal allomorphs nxal-, taḥwal- and twal- respectively.


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Table 44: Mahriyōt dependent pronouns to twēl ‘towards’

singular dual plural 1 twal-ya

twal-yakī twal-yan

2m twal-yak twal-yakam 2f twal-yaš twal-yakan 3m twal-yah

twal-yahī twal-yaham

3f twal-yas twal-yasan

In Mehreyyet, the plural and dual pronouns in this set are marked by an initial palatal segment, as for Mahriyōt; the singular pronouns, by contrast, are all consonant initial. In the case of consonant clusters, an epenthetic vowel may be inserted before the consonant-initial singular pronouns (cf. Rubin 2010: 36).

Table 45: Mehreyyet (c)-type dependent pronouns

singular dual plural 1 -ya

-īkī -yan

2m -ka -īkam 2f -ša -īkan 3m -ha

-īhī44 -īham

3f -sa -īsan

Table 46 gives examples of (c)-type dependent pronouns as possessive pronoun to a plural noun.

Table 46: Mehreyyet possessive pronouns to ḥabūn ‘children’

singular dual plural 1 ḥabin-ya

ḥabin-īkī ḥabin-yan

2m ḥabin-ka ḥabin-īkam 2f ḥabin-ša ḥabin-īkan 3m ḥabin-ha

ḥabin-īhī ḥabin-īham

3f ḥabin-sa ḥabin-īsan

Table 47 gives examples of (c)-type dependent pronouns as possessive pronoun to a plural noun taking the -an ending.

44 Rarely used for feminine dual, where feminine plural is preferred.

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Table 47: Mehreyyet possessive pronouns to ḥādūtan ‘hands’

singular dual plural 1 ḥādit-ya

ḥādit-īkī ḥādit-yan

2m hādit-ka ḥādit-īkam 2f ḥādit-ša ḥādit-īkan 3m ḥādit-ha

ḥādit-īhī ḥādit-īham

3f ḥādit-sa ḥādit-īsan

In pronominal suffixation to plurals of some frequently occurring nouns, the plural possessive pronoun is attached not to the independent plural form, but to the singular form. Thus, the difference between a singular suffixed noun and its plural counterpart lies solely in the form of the pronoun suffix. Examples include:

ḥōz ‘(the) goat’ > ḥōz-ī ‘my goat’

ḥārawn ‘(the) goats’ > ḥaz-ya ‘my goats’

ġayt ‘sister’ > aġayt-ī ‘my sister’ M

aġawtan ‘the sisters’ > aġit-ya ‘my sisters’ (*aġat-ya) M

dīd ‘paternal uncle’ > ḥadayd-ī ‘my paternal uncle’, ḥadid-ya45 ‘my paternal uncles’ M

(c)-type pronouns act as annexes to nxālī ‘under, beneath’, twōlī ‘towards’. Where /l/ is not vocalised, the long medial vowel is shortened to [a] on pronoun suffixation.

Table 48: Mehreyyet dependent pronouns to nxālī ‘under’

singular dual plural 1 nxal-ya

nxal-īkī nxal-yan

2m nxā-ka46 nxal-īkam 2f nxā-ša nxal-īkan 3m nxā-ha

nxal-īhī nxal-īham

3f nxā-sa nxal-īsan

2.4.2 Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

To express reflexivity, Mehri uses suffixed forms of the noun nōf ‘self’ def. ḥanōf ~ ḥnōf, and for plural pronouns the plural form ḥanfāy-:47

śīnak ḥanōfī ‘I saw myself’ M

aymal ḥanafh mōt [lit. he made himself dead] ‘he pretended to be dead’ M.N

45 *dūd does not occur independently. 46 With /l/ vocalisation (cf. 1.3.1.1). 47 Cf. Rubin (2010: 49) for Mehreyyet, Wagner (1953: 78–79) for western Yemeni Mehri.


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The reflexive adverb in Mehri is waḥś- plus the (a) type of pronoun suffix:

hōh bark abayt waḥśay ‘I am on my own in the house’ M

wkōh hēt waḥśūk ‘Why are you m.s. on your own?’ M

To express reciprocity, Mehri has a set of pronouns based on the word for ‘one’: ṭād m., ṭīt (ṭayt) f.48 The relevant morphological categories are number (dual and plural), gender and person. The dual reciprocal pronouns do not distinguish between 1m and 2m or between 1f and 2f, but in contrast to the independent and dependent personal pronouns a gender distinction is made for first person. Where the dual comprises two objects that differ in gender, the masculine form is used. The full set of reciprocal pronouns for the two dialect groups is given below:

Table 49: Mahriyōt reciprocal pronouns

dual plural 1m

ṭādīdaykī ṭādīdāyan

2m ṭādīdaykam 1f

ṭītīdaykī ṭītīdāyan

2f ṭītīdaykan 3m ṭādīdayhī ṭādīdaykan 3f ṭītīdayhī ṭītīdaysan

Mehreyyet differs from Mahriyōt in the quality of the vowel in the stem of the feminine reciprocal pronouns:

Table 50: Mehreyyet reciprocal pronouns

dual plural 1m

ṭādīdaykī ṭādīdāyan

2m ṭādīdaykam 1f

ṭaytīdaykī ṭaytīdāyan

2f ṭaytīdaykan 3m ṭādīdayhī ṭādīdayham 3f ṭaytīdayhī ṭaytīdaysan

2.4.3 Indefinite pronouns

Mehri has a number of words that do or may function as indefinite pronouns (cf. Rubin 2010: 43–48). Indefinite pronouns are inherently indefinite and cannot be defined. Indefinite pronouns relating to animate (human) objects include singular numerals and nouns referring to people: (a)ḥād ‘someone, one’, ṭād ‘one m.’,

48 Cf. Wagner (1953: 78) for western Yemeni Mehri. Rubin (2010: 50–51) doesn’t mention the

feminine reciprocal pronouns.

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bnādam (mnādam) ‘someone’ and ḥābū ‘people’. The sole function of (a)ḥād is as an indefinite pronoun and this is the singular indefinite pronoun used in negative constructions, while ṭād, bnādam (mnādam) and ḥābū also have non-pronominal functions. The principal indefinite pronoun relating to inanimate objects is śī ‘something’, which also functions as an existential particle and to emphasise negation (cf. 8.9.1). It is attested in kall śīyan (often realised through /l/ vocalisation as kāśīyan or through assimilation of /l/ to /ś/ as kaśśīyan) ‘everything’.

2.4.4 Demonstrative pronouns

The morphological categories relevant to demonstratives are number, gender and distance. The demonstratives have a two-way number distinction (singular and plural), a two-way gender distinction, in contrast to common nouns and pronouns, and a two-way distance distinction (proximal and distal), as below:

Table 51: Mahriyōt demonstrative pronouns

singular plural

proximal masc. ḏā ~ ḏēh ~ ḏōm(ah)

lyēh ~ lyōm(ah) fem. ḏīh ~ ḏīm(ah)

distal masc. ḏēk ~ ḏakm ~ ḏahmah

lyēk ~ lyakm(ah) fem. ḏīk ~ ḏikm ~ ḏihmah

Table 52: Mehreyyet demonstrative pronouns

singular plural

proximal masc. ḏah ~ ḏōmah

lyōmah fem. ḏīh ~ ḏīmah

distal masc. ḏēk ~ ḏīk ~ ḏakmah49

lyakmah ~ lyēk fem. ḏayk ~ ḏikmah

The juxtaposition of an obstruent and a following sonorant in ḏakmah and ḏikmah prompts epenthesis of a short epenthetic vowel (cf. 1.3.2.7; cf. Rubin 2010: 42). The long vowel in ḏēk ~ ḏīk often reduces to [i] within the phonological phrase, as in: ḏik awaḳtan ‘that time’ (M). ḏā ~ ḏah frequently functions as a presentative, as in:

ḏā hāśan wīḳaʕ ‘What’s happened?’ Mo

ḏah ḥaybī ‘There is my father!’ M

In both dialects, the shorter forms of the demonstratives ḏēh (ḏā ~ ḏah), ḏīh and lyēh are less common than the longer forms, but preferred in cases of parallelism or otherwise where two demonstratives or identical noun phrases (NPs) with demonstrative attributes are conjoined:

49 ḏakmah implies the object is closer to the speaker than ḏēk.


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bīn baytī [ḏīh] wa-baytī [ḏīh] ‘between this f. house of mine and that f. house of mine’ Mo.NS

ḳlēb [ḏēh] aṯ-ṯār [ḏēh] ‘Put m.s. that m. on top of that m.!’ Mo.NS

bayn ḳalyūn [lēh] wa-ḳalyūn [lēh] ‘between these children and those children’ Mo.NS

ṭawr asyūr twōlī [ḏīh] wa-ṭawr twōlī [ḏīh] ‘sometimes I go to this one f. and sometimes to that one f.’ M.NS

2.4.4.1 Diminutive demonstrative pronouns

The demonstratives with a long vowel have diminutive forms formed by infixation of -īy- after the initial consonant, as in: ḏōmah > ḏīyōmah ‘this m.’ > ‘this.DIM.M’ and lyēk > lyīyēk ‘those’ > ‘those.DIM’. They may form a NP with a diminutive or a non-diminutive noun (cf. 3.1.7). Diminutive demonstratives may either indicate affection, smallness or insignificance of the referent, or relative closeness of the referent. Thus, Mahriyōt bnādam ḏīyēk ‘that.DIM person’ can either indicate a small or insignificant person at a distance, or a person who is relatively close, and ḏīmah maṭṭārah ‘this thermos flask’ contrasts with ḏīyīmah maṭṭārah ‘this small thermos flask’. The following short exchange in Mehreyyet shows the affection as well as the sense of smallness associated with the diminutive form:

ḏah hanna manhēm ḥabrēk ‘Which of them m. is your son?’

ḏīyōmah aḏ-ḳbātk ‘That little one m. in front of you m.s.’ M.NS.MA

2.4.5 Interrogative pronouns

The two main interrogative pronouns in Mehri are the non-personal pronoun hāśan and its shortened form hā(h), the personal pronoun mōn, and the personal or non-personal hān ~ hanna (M). mōn has a wider sense than either man in most modern dialects of Arabic or who and whose in English. For example, in asking the name of a person, mōn rather than hā(śan) is used always in Mahriyōt and interchanges with hā(śan) in Mehreyyet. In asking the name of a non-human object, on the other hand, hā(śan) is used. The Mahriyōt examples in (a) below question the identity of a specific individual or group of individuals, while those in (b) question the identity of an as yet unknown individual or request an individual’s name:

(a) mōn lyōmah at-tabakyan50 ‘Who are those f. who are crying?’

bar mōn hēt ‘Whose son are you m.s.?’

hīt ḥabrīt ḏa-mōn ‘Whose daughter are you?’

(b) mōn ġajjanōt ‘Which girl?’

50 < *ḏa-tbaktan.

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mōn manhām ġajjanōt wa-mōn manhām ġajjān ‘Which of them m. is a girl and which of them is a boy?’

śink mōn śink ḳīʕī ‘What have you m.s. seen? Have you seen a jinn?’

hummak mōn ‘What’s your m.s. name?’

Consider the following examples of hāśan ~ hā(h) in context:

ḏōmah hāśan ‘What is that m.?’

at-takītab hāśan ‘What are you f.s. writing?’

hummas hāśan ‘What is it f. called?’

śibʕak man hāh ‘What did you m.s. get full from?’

To ask about the identity of non-personal objects the phrase hā(śan) man ‘what in terms of / what of’ is used, as in the following examples from Mahriyōt:

ḏā hāśan man bayt ‘What/which house is that?’

bak hāśan man bayt ‘In which house?’

bak hā man baḳʕat ‘In which place?’

The interrogative pronoun hān and Mehreyyet hanna distinguish between two or more animate or inanimate objects:

hān axayr ‘Which is better?’

hān manhēm ‘Which of them m.?’ M

ḏah hanna mansēn axayr ‘Which of them f. is better?’ M

hān can also introduce a conditional-concessive clause:

hān wīḳa lih ‘what happened to him’ M.N.03.20

hān śinšə tah axayr ‘wherever you f.s. think is best’ M.NS

2.5 Verbs

The verb class can be subcategorised into true verbs that inflect for person, number, gender, mood, voice and aspect, and future participles that exhibit (future) tense and inflect for number and gender only.51 The main morphological difference between Mehreyyet and Mahriyōt is in the higher degree of syncretism exhibited in Mehreyyet.

51 For work on the verb in MSAL, cf. Lonnet (1994). For work on the semantics of derived verb

forms, cf. Simeone-Senelle (1998).


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2.5.1 True verbs

2.5.1.1 Verb stems

As with nouns and adjectives, the majority of verbs in Mehri have three root consonants. A few verbs have four root consonants and a very small number five root consonants. For triliteral verbs, Mehri has a basic verb and up to four verb stems derived from the basic verb or from a noun by stem-internal changes. The quadriliteral and quinquiliteral verbs have a basic stem and one possible derived stem. The derived verb stems superimpose in many cases an additional meaning to that of the basic verb. As in Arabic, the verbs are cited in the 3ms (= 3fpl) inflectional form of the perfect aspect. Where verb forms are given out of context in their citation form, they are glossed in English in the infinitive – i.e. in the English citation form – as in dufx (dafx) ‘to tip [s.th.] over’.

2.5.1.2 Terminology

In the literature, terminology relating to the verb stems differs depending on whether writers refer to the template or to the semantics behind the template. The terminology used here refers to the template. The basic verb is described by Rubin (2010: 89) as the G-stem (from the German Grundstamm, as in Bittner 1911), and by Johnstone (1975a: 104) as the simple verb. This I refer to as the basic stem. The triliteral derived verb stems involve lengthening of the initial stem vowel in the L-stem (Johnstone’s intensive-conative theme 1975a: 104, Simeone-Senelle’s transitive plus factitive or causative 1998: 77–78), prefixation of ha- in the H-stem (Johnstone’s causative theme, 1975a: 105), infixation of -t- in the T-stem (Johnstone’s and Simeone-Senelle’s reflexive theme), and prefixation of š(a)- in the Š-stem (Johnstone’s causative-reflexive theme; Simeone-Senelle 1998 also notes passive, middle and reciprocal in plural). The quadriliteral and quinquiliteral stems have one possible derived stem through prefixation of n-. N-stem verbs are always intransitive (Simeone-Senelle 1998: 85–86) and often denominal. The triliteral basic, T- and Š-stems, and quadriliteral basic and N-stems, and the quinquiliteral basic stem each have two distinct templates usually described as (a) and (b), here A and B, which differ solely in terms of their vocalism. The triliteral basic B-type stem is frequently intransitive whereas its A-type counterpart is usually transitive.

The templates of the different stem types are laid out below with examples using the form for the 3ms/3fpl in the perfect aspect. Where dialects differ in stem shape, the Mehreyyet form is given in brackets:

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Triliteral stems A-type B-type

Basic form CCōC (CCūC) CīCaC52

L-stem CōCaC ~ aCCōCaC ((a)CōCaC)

H-stem haCCūC

T-stem CatCaC aCtaCōC

Š-stem šaCCūC šCāCaC (šCēCaC)

Quadriliteral stems

Basic form aCaCCūC ((a)CaCCūC) CCīCūC

N-stem anCaCCūC naCCīCūC

Quinquiliteral stems

Basic form CCaCCūC CaCCīCūC

N-stem naCCaCCūC

The Mehri verb stems exhibit a number of variant forms when gutturals or glides occur in the root (cf. Rubin 2010: 27–28). Since these are described elsewhere (e.g. Johnstone 1987; Rubin 2010), only the most significant will be mentioned here.

The basic triliteral stem A-type has the following templatic variants:

CūCaC or CīCaC when Ciii = guttural, as in: nūkaʕ (nūka) ‘to come’ and ḳūlaʕ (ḳayla) ‘to let, leave’.

CVCC where Ciii = guttural, and /f/ cooccurs in the root,53 as in: dufx (dafx) ‘to tip [s.th.] over’, futḥ (fatḥ) ‘to open’, fisx ‘to dash madly away’ (M).

CVCC where Ciii = Cii , as in: rudd (ridd) ‘to return’, ʕuśś (ʕiśś) ‘to get up’.

CCāC where Cii = guttural, as in: nḥāj (nḥāg) ‘to play’, sḥāb ‘to drive’ (M), śḥāk ‘to laugh’.

CCūh54 where Ciii = /y/ or /w/, as in: bnūh ‘to build’, bkūh ‘to cry’, ġdūh ‘to die’.

52 The basic stem B-type CīCaC is usually intransitive, but in some cases is transitive, as in: līḳaf

‘to grasp’ and lības ‘to put on, wear’. 53 Described by Rubin (2010: 161–162) as weak-f verbs. 54 /ū/ is often realised as short with strong aspiration of final /h/, as in: ksuh ‘to find’, bkuh ‘to

cry’.


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The basic triliteral stem B-type has the following templatic variants:

CVCC where /f/ and another fricative cooccur in the root, as in: niśf ‘to drink tea/milk’ (Mo), fatš ‘to examine, inspect’ (M).

CīCī or CīCū when Ciii = /y/ or /w/, as in: śīnī ‘to see’, mīlī ‘to be full’, jīlū (gīlū) ‘to be ill’.

In Mahriyōt verbs with initial a-, i.e. the L-stem and basic A-type quadriliteral stems, an aspirated (= non-voiced, non-emphatic) Ci is geminated throughout the paradigm, as in: affōkar ‘to think’, akkōmal ‘to finish TRNS’, attōfaġ ‘to wash o’s face with water’, akkarbūl ‘to crawl’ (cf. 1.1.1.3.3). In Mehreyyet, the L-stem and basic A-type quadriliteral verb stems take initial a- when Ci is non-aspirated, and (contra Johnstone 1975a: 104; Rubin 2010: 94) optionally when aspirated, as in: abōṣar ‘to go at twilight’ and aḳōṣar ‘to fall short in generosity’ versus fōkar ~ afōkar ‘to think’, sōfar ~ asōfar ~ assōfar ‘to travel’.

H-stem verbs may be realised without h- in both dialects. In this case in Mahriyōt and occasionally in Mehreyyet, an aspirated Ci is geminated, as for the a-initial verbs, as in: hahwūh ~ ahhwūh ‘to drop TRNS’, haśnūh ~ aśśnūh ‘to show’, haklūh ~ akkalūh ‘to bring [camels/goats] back in the early evening’.

2.5.1.3 Aspect and mood

True verbs have two aspects: the perfect, which typically refers to complete events or states and is thus usually associated with the expression of past time, and the imperfect, which typically refers to incomplete actions or states.55 The perfect is inflected through subject pronoun suffixes with vowel ablaut for masculine plural in some paradigms; the imperfect is inflected by person–gender prefixes and number suffixes, with ablaut for masculine plural and 2fs in some paradigms. In the imperfect, there are two mood distinctions in Mahriyōt: indicative and subjunctive, and three mood distinctions in Mehreyyet: indicative, subjunctive and conditional (cf. Johnstone 1975a, 1987).

2.5.1.3.1 Perfect aspect

The subject pronoun suffixes for the perfect aspect are given in tables 53 and 54 below. Syncretism between 3ms and 3fpl is exhibited in both dialects. As for the object/possessive pronouns, no distinction is made between first and second person in the dual; in contrast to the object/possessive pronouns, however, a gender distinction is made in the dual in the third person in Mehreyyet, but not in Mahriyōt:

55 The perfect is Comrie’s perfective and the imperfect Comrie’s imperfective (Comrie 1976).

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Table 53: Mahriyōt subject pronoun suffixes perfect aspect

singular dual plural 1 -(a)k

-(a)kī -an

2m -(a)k -(a)kam 2f -(a)š -(a)kan 3m -0

-ōh56 -am/V ablaut57

3f -ōt ~ -ēt ~ -āt58 -0

Table 54: Mehreyyet subject pronoun suffixes perfect aspect

singular dual plural 1 -(a)k

-(a)kī -an

2m -(a)k -(a)kam 2f -(a)š ~ -(i)š -(a)kan 3m -0 -ōh -am/V ablaut59 3f -ūt ~ -ēt ~ -āt -tōh -0

In all cases, the dual endings receive word stress. The vowel-initial variant of 1s and all second person pronoun suffixes is realised in the case of verb stems with a long vowel after Ci (CūCaC, CīCaC, (a)CōCaC, šCāCaC (šCēCaC)) The short stem vowel is syncopated and the long vowel reduced on suffixation, as in:

nūkaʕ > nukʕ-ak ‘I/you m.s. came’ Mo

fīṭan > fiṭn-ak ‘I/you m.s. recalled’

awōḏan > awaḏn-ak ‘I/you m.s. called to prayer’ M

šnāsam (šnēsam) > šnasm-akam ‘you m.pl. sighed’

In A-type T-stem verbs, the vowel-initial variant is realised in the case of 1s and 2s inflectional forms, although no long-vowel reduction takes place:

natfar > natfar-ak ‘my/your m.s. skin has dried out and become encrusted’

faśśaḥ > faśśaḥ-aš ‘you f.s. are embarrassed’

ġatyaḏ > ġatyaḏ-ak ~ ġatīḏ-ak ‘I/you m.s. are angry’ M

Consider the following paradigm of ksūh ‘to find’ in the two dialects:

56 -ōh and Mehreyyet -tōh are often realised as -oh and -toh in context. For Mehreyyet given as -ō

and -tō respectively by Johnstone, according to my informants however /h/ is phonologically present, though it may be elided in context. All dual suffixes take word stress.

57 V ablaut in some stems which end in CVVC in Mahriyōt. -am can in these cases be realised as a second marker of plurality.

58 -ēt ~ -āt is characteristic of the L-stem and passives in both dialects (cf. Johnstone 1975a: 107). 59 V ablaut in stems which end in CVVC in Mehreyyet.


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Table 55: Mahriyōt paradigm of ksūh ‘to find’ perfect aspect

singular dual plural 1 kus-k

kus-kī kōs-an

2m kus-k kus-kam 2f kus-š kus-kan 3m ksūh

kasy-ōh ksīy-am

3f ks-ūt ksūh

Table 56: Mehreyyet paradigm of ksūh ‘to find’ perfect aspect

singular dual plural 1 kis-k

kis-kī kūs-an

2m kis-k kis-kam 2f kis-š kis-kan 3m kūsa ~ ksūh kisy-ōh ksīw ~ kūsam 3f ks-ūt kisy-tōh kūsa ~ ksūh

2.5.1.3.2 Imperfect aspect and mood

The imperfect aspect in both the indicative, the subjunctive and the conditional moods is marked by subject prefixes and suffixes. The basic template of the imperfect in all moods differs in most verb forms from that of the perfect.

2.5.1.3.2.1 Indicative

The indicative refers to events or states occurring in the present, past or future where no sense of lack of certainty is present. In combination with the prefix ḏa-, the indicative conveys continuous or progressive aspect, as in: ḏ-asyūr ‘I am going’, ḏ-akōtab ‘I am writing’. The dual takes a common second person form in both dialects, and in Mahriyōt, but not in Mehreyyet, a common third person form. Dual third feminine forms for the imperfect aspect have been elicited for Mehreyyet (cf. also Johnstone 1987, etc.), but are rare in my narrative data and are often rejected by my informants in favour of feminine plural. In the plural, syncretism is exhibited between 3fpl and 2fpl. The affixes for the indicative for all stems apart from the L-, B-type Š- and B-type T-stems are as follows:

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Table 57: Mahriyōt subject pronoun affixes indicative

singular dual plural 1 a- (n)a-...-ōh60 na- 2m ta-61

ta-...-ōh ta-...-am/V ablaut62

2f ta-...-ī/V ablaut ta-...-an 3m ya-

ya-...-ōh ya-...-am/V ablaut

3f ta- ta-...-an

Table 58: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes indicative

singular dual plural 1 a- (n)a-...-ōh63 na- 2m ta-

ta-...-ōh ta-...-am/V ablaut64

2f ta-...-ī/V ablaut ta-...-an 3m ya- ya-...-ōh ya-...-am/V ablaut 3f ta- ta-...-ōh ta-...-an

Consider the following paradigms of the indicative of wkōb (wkūb) ‘to enter’. A long stem vowel in the singular is shortened on affixation of the dual suffix -ōh:

Table 59: Mahriyōt paradigm of wkōb ‘to enter’ indicative

singular dual plural 1 a-wōkab (n)a-wukb-ōh n-wōkab 2m t-wōkab t-wukb-ōh t-wakb-am 2f t-wīkab t-wakb-an 3m ya-wōkab ya-wukb-ōh ya-wakb-am 3f t-wōkab t-wakb-an

60 Within Mahriyōt, there is a dialect difference in the formation of the 1dual: the a-initial form is

attested in the Mahriyōt of Jōdab, as in: ku-wṭakmäh amxōd ḏäkm ṯarb w-aktämzōh ‘I quickly grabbed that stick and we went at each other’ (Sima33:35); and the n-initial dual form in the Mahriyōt of Rēhan, e.g. män k-ṣōbaḥ nġasmōh män Kähf ‘in the morning we DUAL go from Kahf’ (Sima97:8).

61 In both dialects, the quality of the prefix vowel varies freely between a and i, and is often elided in context.

62 V ablaut in some stems which end in CVVC in Mahriyōt. -am can in these cases also be realised as a second marker of plurality.

63 Given as a...-ō by Johnstone (1970b, etc.) and a...-ōh by my older informants, and thus built on the basis of the 1s verb; however, many of my younger informants both in and around Salalah, in Rabkūt and on the Oman–Yemen border give na...-ōh, and thus build on the basis of the 1pl verb, as in: ḏa-naġtariyōh ‘we DUAL are talking’, āśamkī nkanōh faxrā ‘we DUAL used to be together’ (M.PES.Ndēt).

64 V ablaut in some imperfect stems which end in CVVC in Mehreyyet.


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Table 60: Mehreyyet paradigm of wkūb ‘to enter’ indicative

singular dual plural 1 a-wōkab (n)a-wakb-ōh n-wōkab 2m t-wōkab

t-wakb-ōh t-wakb-am

2f t-wīkab t-wakb-an 3m ya-wōkab ya-wakb-ōh ya-wakb-am 3f t-wōkab t-wakb-ōh t-wakb-an

The affixes for L-, B-type Š- and B-type T-stems are shown in table 61. The main difference in these affixes is the -an suffix. Mehreyyet exhibits syncretism between 3ms and 3mpl, and between 2ms, 2fs, 3fs, 2mpl, 2fpl and 3fpl. Mahriyōt exhibits syncretism between 2ms, 2fs, 3fs, 2fpl and 3fpl, but the masculine plural forms end in -am, as for the indicative of other verb types. Note that Mahriyōt, in contrast to Mehreyyet, has the same dual forms here as for the other verb types.

Table 61: Mahriyōt subject pronoun affixes indicative L-, B-type Š- and B-type T-stems

singular dual plural

1 a-...-an (n)a-...-ōh na- 2m ta-...-an

ta-...-ōh ta-...-am

2f ta-...-an ta-...-an 3m ya-...-an

ya-...-ōh ya-...-am

3f ta-...-an ta-...-an

Table 62: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes indicative L-, B-type Š- and B-type T-stems

singular dual plural 1 a-...-an (n)a-...-áyan na-...-an 2m ta-...-an

ta-...-áyan ta-...-an

2f ta-...-an ta-...-an 3m ya-...-an ya-...-áyan ya-...-an 3f ta-...-an ta-...-áyan ta-...-an

Consider the following sample paradigm of assōfar ((a)sōfar) ‘to travel’ in Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet:

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Table 63: Mahriyōt paradigm of assōfar ‘to travel’ indicative

singular dual plural 1 a-ssafr-an (n)a-ssafr-ōh na-ssafr-an 2m ta-ssafr-an

ta-ssafr-ōh ta-ssafr-am

2f ta-ssafr-an ta-ssafr-an 3m ya-ssafr-an

ya-ssafr-ōh ya-ssafr-am

3f ta-ssafr-an ta-ssafr-an

Table 64: Mehreyyet paradigm of (a)sōfar ‘to travel’ indicative

singular dual plural 1 a-safr-an (n)a-safr-áyan na-safr-an 2m t-safr-an

t-safr-áyan t-safr-an

2f t-safr-an t-safr-an 3m ya-safr-an ya-safr-áyan ya-safr-an 3f t-safr-an t-safr-áyan t-safr-an

2.5.1.3.2.2 Subjunctive

The subjunctive is used in complement clauses and supplementary clauses after verbs or particles indicating lack of certainty, i.e. possibility, probability, obligation, suggestion, purpose. It also occurs independently in contexts indicating lack of certainty, as in Mehreyyet: lankā ‘Should I come?’, hībōh lāmōl ‘What should I do?’, hīs tāmēr ‘as you m.s. would say’, laḳawdar laġtayr šayš ‘Can I talk with you f.s.?’, anxarīr [yiḳāʔ] ṭwayl wa-[yiḳāʔ] xōṭar ārayś ‘the nose should be long and at the base it should be wide’ (M.N.Šlaym01.12) (cf. Rubin 2010: 128–131). It functions independently as a cohortative, as in Mehreyyet: naġtībar ḏār raḥmēt ‘let us meet on a rainy day’. The set of affixes for the subjunctive differs from that for the indicative in that the first person singular and dual forms take an l- prefix in both dialects (an option is n- for first dual in Mehreyyet), the -an suffix is absent in all verbs, and the dual in Mehreyyet derived verbs and the basic stem passive verb is marked by final -ah, as opposed to indicative final -ōh or -áyan (Rubin 2010: 127):

Table 65: Mahriyōt subject pronoun affixes subjunctive

singular dual plural 1 la-65 la-...-ōh na- 2m ta-

ta-...-ōh ta-...-am/V ablaut

2f ta-...-ī /V ablaut ta-...-an 3m ya-

ya-...-ōh ya-...-am/V ablaut

3f ta- ta-...-an

65 Prefix vowel often elided in context in both dialects.


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Table 66: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes subjunctive basic verb types A and B

singular dual plural 1 la- la-...-ōh na- 2m ta-

ta-...-ōh ta-...-am/V ablaut

2f ta-...-ī /V ablaut ta-...-an 3m ya- ya-...-ōh ya-...-am/V ablaut 3f ta- ta-...-ōh ta-...-an

Table 67: Mehreyyet subject pronoun affixes subjunctive derived verbs, basic stem passive verb

singular dual plural 1 la- la-...-ah66 na- 2m ta-

ta-...-ah ta-...-am/V ablaut

2f ta-...-ī /V ablaut ta-...-an 3m ya- ya-...-ah ya-...-am/V ablaut 3f ta- ta-...-ah ta-...-an

The subjunctive in many verb types differs in template and/or long vowel quality from the indicative, even where the affixes are in all but 1s and 1dual identical (cf. Johnstone 1987). This is exemplified by comparing the indicative and subjunctive in the following two paradigms:

Table 68: Mahriyōt paradigm of sbōṭ ‘to hit TRNS’ imperfect

person/number indicative subjunctive 1s a-sōbaṭ la-sbāṭ 1dual (n)a-sabṭ-ōh l-sabṭ-ōh 1pl n-sōbaṭ na-sbāṭ 2ms t-sōbaṭ ta-sbāṭ 2fs t-sībaṭ ta-sbīṭ 2dual t-sabṭ-ōh t-sabṭ-ōh 2mpl t-sabṭ-am ta-sbāṭ-am 2fpl t-sabṭ-an ta-sbāṭ-an 3ms y-sōbaṭ y-sabṭ-am 3fs t-sōbaṭ ta-sbāṭ 3dual y-sabṭ-ōh y-sabṭ-ōh 3mpl y-sabṭ-am yi-sbāṭ-am 3fpl t-sabṭ-an ta-sbāṭ-an

66 Given as -ē by Johnstone. My informants sometimes use the indicative dual form in derived

verbs in subjunctive contexts, and mixed plural–dual forms, as in: n-ḥōm na-ġtabar-ōh [1PL-want 1-meet.SUBJ-DUAL.IND] ‘we want to meet’. This may be due to a decrease in the use of the dual and restriction to the indicative even in contexts where the subjunctive would be expected.

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Table 69: Mehreyyet paradigm of akkalūh (< *haklūh) ‘to bring [camels/goats] back early evening’ imperfect

person/number indicative subjunctive 1s a-kkayl l-hīkal 1dual a-kkaly-ōh l-hakaly-ah 1pl na-kkayl n-hīkal 2ms ta-hkkayl t-hīkal 2fs ta-kkayl t-hīkal ~ t-hiklī 2dual ta-kkaly-ōh t-hakaly-ah 2mpl ta-kkaly-am t-hakl-am 2fpl ta-kkaly-an t-hakl-an 3ms ya-kkayl y-hīkal 3fs ta-kkayl t-hīkal 3dual ya-kkaly-ōh y-hakaly-ah 3mpl ya-kkalyam y-hakl-am 3fpl ta-kkaly-an t-hakl-an

One function of the subjunctive is to form the imperative and prohibitive (or negative command). The prohibitive is realised by the subjunctive with subject prefix followed by the negative particle lā; the imperative takes the base of the subjunctive minus the subject prefix. In Mehreyyet, initial a- is realised in the imperative of w-initial verbs and in L-stem verbs when the initial root consonant is non-aspirated. Negative command is discussed in chapter 8 (8.4). Consider here examples of imperatives from the two dialects.

ktēb ‘Write m.s.!’; lbōs ‘Put on m.s.!’; lbīs ‘Put on f.s.!’; habhal ‘Cook m.s.!’; śxawwal ‘Sit down m.s.!’ Mo

šukf ‘Sleep m.s.!’; šikfī ‘Sleep f.s.!’; zmēl la-ḥaybīt ‘Saddle m.s. the camel!’; anśēzī šahay ‘Drink f.s. tea!’; azēm ‘Give m.s.!’; aḳā ḳway ‘Be m.s. strong!’; agērab ḏōmah ‘Try f.s. that m.!’ M

2.5.1.3.2.3 Conditional

Mehreyyet is distinguished from the Mehri of Yemen in taking what Johnstone in later publications (e.g. Johnstone 1987) described as the conditional mood. The conditional is mainly restricted to the apodosis of counterfactual conditional clauses, as in the bracketed words below:

lū nakak fīsēʔ [lasēran] šīs ‘if I had come early, I would have gone with her’ M.NS

w-lū amnādam yiwōdaʔ la-hān wḳōna lih [taksāyan] tah l-ād yitayw wa-l-ād yiśḥōk ‘if man knew what was coming to him, you m.s. would find him no longer eating and no longer laughing’ M.R


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In terms of morphological form, the conditional (cf. Johnstone 1987: xx) takes the base of the subjunctive plus the suffix -an, analysed by Johnstone as the energetic -n. This includes for the dual the full suffix -áyan. Contra Johnstone, the 1s conditional may lack initial l-, and usually lacks initial l- in optative phrases such as: akīnan ‘I wish’, afrīḥan bih ‘I would be glad of it m.’, akīran barī hnīkam ‘I wish I were with you m.pl.’. As we see below, Mahriyōt has a frozen remnant of the conditional in the grammaticalised particle yḳāʕan ‘should [have]’ (2.8.5.3).

2.5.1.4 Voice

The verb system distinguishes active and passive voice. The basic triliteral verb in the perfect in Mahriyōt has a passive stem CīCēC (CīCāC where Cii is guttural), which is distinguished from the basic B-type stem by the length of the right-most vowel. The perfect passive in Mehreyyet lacks the left-most long vowel, giving CiCēC (CiCāC where Cii is guttural). The 3fs perfect suffix in both dialects is -ēt in the passive (-āt where the stem-final C is guttural), as in: śamēt ~ śōmēt ‘it f. was sold’, harḳāt ‘it f. was stolen’. Examples include (active counterparts in brackets):

Mahriyōt

lītāġ ‘he was killed’ (lūtaġ), kīsē ‘he was found’ (ksūh), līḳāf ‘he was grasped’ (līḳaf)

Mehreyyet

ūtīġ ‘he was killed’ (lūtaġ), hrīḳ ‘it m. was stolen’ (hrūḳ), harḳāt ‘it f. was stolen’ (harḳōt), śamēt ‘it f. was sold’ (śamōt)

The passive is relatively rare in the dialects, but features in certain texts where patients are involved, such as Sima48 which examines the relationship of patronage and rībāʕ al-jamb, and the partially elicited text below from Mehreyyet. In the following examples, the passive verbs are placed in square brackets:

[fīḳǟś] ʕaynäh, tfōḳaś ʕaynäh, [lībēd] fäṭx, tlōbäd fäṭx, [līṭǟġ], tlōṭaġ bēh ‘if he has had his eye shattered, you m.s. shatter his eye; if he has been wounded on the head, you wound him; if he is killed, you kill him’ Sima48:38

xaṭarāt ġyūg āṭallūt līham sīyaryatham bi-ḥōram wa-barkīs aḳarmaśīham w-AagawāzātAīham hēm ātabīr ka-ṭād wa-ṭarḥam tēs ḥlakmah tā yardēdam līs gihma hīs riddam yikasyam aḳrawš bār [hrēḳam] w-AagawāzātA bār [abśāram] wa-bār [harḳāt] amkīnah ḏ-assīyaryat w-agayrbuks w-aṭwāyar w-astābāt

‘Once, some men, their car broke down on the road. In it were their things and their passports. They got a lift with someone else and left it [the car] there to return to it the next day. When they returned they found the money

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had been stolen, the passports had been torn up, and the car’s engine, the gearbox, the tyres, and the indicator lights had been stolen.’ M.NS.MA

2.5.1.5 The expression of time

Tense is not encoded morphologically in true verbs in Mehri, and the relationship between the expression of time and aspect is very complicated.67 Since the perfect refers to complete events or states – i.e. events or states viewed from the outside that have experienced a beginning, middle and an end – the perfect most commonly indicates past time in neutral contexts:

l-hīs ʕmärk ‘as I said’ Sima12:44

wzumk ḳarawš ‘I gave money’ M.NS

aḥmēd śītam xaymah bɛr ‘Ahmad bought five camels’ M.NS

The completion of an action or accomplishment is emphasised by the particle bār68 (cf. also 2.8.3.1):

wat bǟr sḥāṭam ‘when they m. have slaughtered’ Sima11:16

bār ḳathawak ‘I’ve already had coffee’ M.NS

sēlam bār sōfar ‘Sēlam has just gone’ M.NS

As in many unrelated languages (Comrie 1976: 19), the perfect of stative verbs can have ingressive meaning, indicating entry into a physical or mental state that continues to obtain at the moment of speech. In many cases, the verb is prefixed by the continuous aspectual marker ḏa- (cf. 2.9.5.1; Simeone-Senelle 2003: 248–249).69

hēt ǟr ḏa-ġräb-k [2MS just ḏa-know.PRF-2MS] ‘Do you m.s. know?’ Sima1:37

īmōh ḏa-ḳaṭʔ-ak wīyan [today ḏa-be.tired.PRF-1S very] ‘today I am very tired’ M

ḏa-hand-aš [ḏa-be.sleepy.PRF-2FS] ‘you f.s. are sleepy/tired’ M

ḏa-haʔn-ayk ta-xdēm [ḏa-mean.PRF-2MS 2M-work.SUBJ] ‘you m.s. mean to work’ M.NS

67 An abridged version of this section, with additional linguistic discussion and comparison, will

appear in Eades & Watson (in press b). 68 Transcribed as bər in Johnstone (1987, etc.) and Simeone-Senelle (1997, etc.), but is always

realised with a full vowel and frequently with a long vowel. In poetry and songs, it counts as metrically long (Liebhaber 2010, 2011) and therefore must be analysed as bār rather than bər or bar.

69 Hofstede describes ḏ- (or d-) as having asseverative force before a perfect verb in Śḥerɛt; however, the data cited suggests that ḏ-PERFECT has ingressive meaning in Śḥerɛt also (Hofstede 1998: 151–152).


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In the perfect of a few lexemes, as shown also in the western Yemeni Mehri data cited by Wagner (1953: 41), the aspectual marker is most commonly absent. This includes some verbs of frequent occurrence indicating mental state and verbs indicating physical state at particular times of day in greeting routines:

fiṭnäk hīs ʕādi ḳannūn ‘I remember when I was still young’ Sima10:6

widʕak lā ‘I don’t know’ Mo

hībōh haḳṣamk ‘How are you m.s. [in the hot part of the day]?’ M

hībōh haṣbaḥš ‘How are you f.s. [in the morning]?’ M

watxafk bi-xayr ‘I am well [in the evening]’ M

In other lexemes, ḏa- may be present or absent:70

(ḏa-)ṣaṭṭak ḥruhī ‘my head hurts’ M

(ḏa-)yiṣṣak ‘I am afraid’ M

(ḏa-)śatūḳak līkam ‘I miss you m.pl.’ M

(ḏa-)gilwaš ‘Are you f.s. ill?’ M

The perfect aspect in the commonly occurring form ḏa-ʕamlak ~ ḏa-ʕamk (ḏa-ʔamk ~ ḏa-ʕamk) ‘I think’, which may also occur without the aspectual marker, indicates that entry into the mental state of thinking has taken place and that the thinking continues to obtain:

ḏ-ʕamläk / tīhäm ynäkʕam bīhäm ǟr män lä-Kwayt ‘I think they m. import them m. just from Kuwait’ Sima59:114

ḏa-ʕamkə / tōham yiḳāʕam man hind aw baʕtī ʔafrīgiya wṭōmah ‘I think they m. were from India or Africa or wherever’ Mo.N

ḏa-ʕamkə / tēk al-hēt ḏa-ḳyisk tšɛman lā ‘I don’t think you m.s. will agree’ M.NS.MA

One further instance of the perfect indicating ingressive meaning is (ḏa-)ḳīs, which occurs in both Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet.71 This construction was first mentioned by Lonnet (1994: 232–233) with tentative speculations as to the root (/ḏ-ḳ-s/, /ḳ-ṣ-ṣ/ or /ḳ-y-s/). It now seems clear (e.g. Simeone-Senelle 2011a: 310) that the root is /ḳ-y-s/ and ḏa- is the verbal affix. This is generally described as taking a following verb in the subjunctive to express intentional or imminent future. More accurately, it expresses entry into the mental state of intention. Examples include:

70 First person widʕak lā (wadak lā) ‘I don’t know’, typically occurring without the aspectual

marker, contrasts with ḏa-wīda bīn ḏa-nḥah ankyēya lā ‘he knows that we are not coming’ (M). 71 Simeone-Senelle (2011a: 310) says, ‘I have found this construction neither in MO (Omani

Mehri) nor in Met (western Yemeni Mehri)’.

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ḏa-ḳīs-ōt ta-nkaʕ [ḏa-intend.PRF-3FS 3FS-come.SUBJ] ‘she will/intends to come’ Mo

ḏa-ḳīs-ēt t-wōgah h-bɛr wa-mġōran ta-rdēd [ḏa-intend.PRF-3FS 3FS-take.camels.out.early morning.SUBJ DEF-camels and-then 3FS-come back] ‘she will/intends to take the camels out and then come back’ M.NS.MA

ḏa-ḳyis-k īmoh l-aġlēḳ man ḥa-ybayt-ī [ḏa-intend.PRF-1S today 1S-look.SUBJ for DEF-camel-1S] ‘today I’m going to look for my camel’ M.NS

ḳyis-k awsēr72 b-ayš tā rawram [intend.PRF-1S 1S-go.SUBJ with-2FS to sea] ‘I will take you f.s. to the sea’ M.PES.Ndēt

��~p¨� أ¬�£ ��~ش aḳis-k la-ġbar-š bi-ṯamarīt [intend.PRF-1S 1S-meet.SUBJ-2FS in-Thamarit] ‘I will meet you f.s. in Thamarit’ M.txt.Rabkūt

ḳīs may also occur as a particle with or without pronoun suffixes, as in: ḳis-san [intend-FPL] (Mo); ḳīs lankā ‘I intend to come’ (M); ḥābū ḳīs ykēbäm ‘people are about to come in’ (Sima85:94).

The perfect of normally dynamic verbs can indicate entry into a state of being in an activity when preceded by ḏa-. Thus, Mehreyyet asafrak būḏabī ‘I/you m.s. travelled to Abu Dhabi’ (M) where the subject has completed the activity of travelling compares to hōh ḏ-asafrak ‘I am [in a state of] travelling’, where entry into the activity has been completed, but the activity itself is ongoing.

Preceded by a future participle (cf. 2.5.2), the perfect of stative verbs indicates entry into a state that will have begun to obtain in the future:

mahabṭ-āta lā ār bār ġrib-š t-ēs kall-as [take.long.FUT-FS not except bār know.PRF-2FS ACC-3FS all-3FS] ‘you f.s. won’t take long until you know it f. all’ M.NS

nk-ayta wa-hēt ḏa-hanśar-š [come.FUT-FS CONJ-2S ḏa-be.refreshed.PRF-2FS] ‘you f.s. will come [in a state of being] refreshed’ M.NS

wḳōna ḏa-ġribk ‘I/you m.s. will know’ M.NS

wḳōna ḏa-sābak tēš ‘I m. will be waiting for you f.s.’ M.NS

Following a future participle, the perfect of dynamic verbs preceded by bār expresses the expected completion of an event in the future.

kasyēya t-ēk bār gham-k [find.FUT.MPL ACC-2MS bār go.PRF-2MS] ‘[they] will m. find you m.s. have already gone’ M.NS

Following the future participle of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa), the perfect preceded by bār can express the expected completion of an event at the present time or at a future point in time. Thus, depending on the wider context, Mehreyyet wḳayta bār wuṣulūt can

72 awsēr results from /l/ vocalisation in the dialect of Ndēt.


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be interpreted as: ‘at the present moment in time, she has (probably) arrived’ or: ‘at some point in the future, she will have arrived’, and wḳōna bār sōfar as: ‘at the present moment in time, he has probably set off’ or: ‘at some point in the future, he will have travelled’.

The perfect aspect may express actions that are accomplished at, or coincide with, the moment of speaking. This is referred to as the performative, also Koinzidenzfall (e.g. Wagner 1953: 41), and is common in verbs of marrying, divorcing, swearing and placement of trust.

xalyak tēš ‘I divorce you f.s.’ M.NS

hārask bayš ‘I marry you f.s.’ M.NS

bār gzimk lūk twōgah hibɛr ‘I swear you m.s. [must] take the camels out in the early morning’ M.NS

hwaśk lūk ḥabray ‘I place my son in your m.s. trust’ M.NS

The perfect aspect may express the cohortative, or first person dual/plural imperative, as in Mehreyyet:

ġdawwan ‘Let’s go! (pl)’, ġdawkī ‘Let’s go! (dual)’

šūgūśan ‘Let’s go [in the afternoon]!’

In the apodasis of all types of conditional clause, the perfect refers to a state or action that has not (yet) obtained or taken place:

hǟn jätf iy-ōt sänbūḳ [if capsize.PRF-3FS boat] ‘if the boat capsizes’ Sima46:14

kis-š āṭar taww kis-š āṭar lā śtēm šukūlāta [find.PRF-2FS perfume good find.PRF-2FS perfume not buy.IMP-FS chocolate] ‘if you f.s. find perfume, [that’s] good; if you don’t find perfume, [then] buy chocolate’ M.NS

wat syar-k twōlī AšmālA brīṭānya t-kays ḥābū fīḳōr axayr [when go.PRF-2MS towards north Britain 2MS-find.IND people poor more] ‘the further north you m.s. go in Britain, the poorer you find people’ M.NS

The imperfect in the indicative refers to incomplete events or states that, in neutral contexts, occur at the present time:

hēm yāgīb bi-ṭādīdayham ‘they m. like each other’ M.NS

akhōl bi-saykal ‘I can ride a bike’ M.NS

axōdam bi-ṣlōlat ‘I work in Salalah’ M.NS

Prefixed by the aspectual marker ḏa-, the indicative of dynamic verbs denotes continuous aspect:

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sōbar sōbar wa-hēt at-takītab73 ‘You f.s. are always writing!’ Mo.NS

mōn ḏakmah ḏ-ībūḳaś ‘Who is that who is running?’ M.NS.MA

Prefixed by ḏa-, the indicative preceded by the future participle of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) ‘to become’ expresses the expected continuation of an action at the present time or at a future point in time:

wḳayta ṣarōmah at-tātaśyan74 ‘she will be/is probably having supper now’ M.NS

m-ḏār swānōt wḳayta at-tafayś ‘she will be having lunch in a short while’

Certain verbs (almost) only occur in the imperfect, irrespective of the time expressed. These include ykōb ‘to think’, which refers to a past state of mind, and yḥōm ‘to want, intend’ (cf. Wagner 1953: 44 for western Yemeni Mehri):

akōb bay zakk ‘I thought I had a cold’ M

akabš aḥād hnayš lā ‘I thought no one was with you f.s.’ M

In the case of yḥōm, it is only the wider context that tells us whether clauses such as the following refer to past or present time:

yiḥōm yisēr yiġlēḳ man ḥaybith ‘he wants/wanted to go to look for his camel’ M.NS

y�� {¢�� م�nي ا~� barī aḥōm latṣal bīkam ‘I am/was about to phone you m.pl.’ M.txt

Time is frequently expressed periphrastically; thus, an adverb or adverbial particle referring to the past or future is sufficient to place the entire predication in the past or future. The adverbial is bracketed off in the following examples:

ḥābū [kall snīnan] yiġarbam śī lyōmah ḏa-nṣrōmah lā ‘people in the past didn’t know these [things] of now’ Mo.N.01.16

ḏ-aġōlaḳ [fōna]75 man kliniks ‘I was looking for tissues’ M.NS

[kanhūr] yisaknam tah ḥābū ‘people used to live there’ M.NS.Rabkūt

[gihma] tkūn axayr ‘tomorrow you m.s. will be better’ M.NS

In a complement clause, the time indicated is relative to that referred to in the main verb. Thus, a main verb in the perfect conveying past time will ensure that a verb in the imperfect in the complement clause refers to an incomplete event or state in the past relative to the present moment. The indicative verbs at-tarʕāyan wa-t-taʕmōlan

73 < *ḏa-tkītab. 74 < *ḏa-tātaśyan. 75 Cf. 2.8.3.3.


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below refer to events that were taking place at the time that the ‘finding’ had taken place:

ksuh ġajjūtan baʕlt-ī ḥā-rawn at-ta-rʕāy-an wa-t-ta-ʕmōl-an jalʕaym [find.PRF.3MS girl.PL owner.F-PL DEF-goat.FPL ḏa-3F-graze.IND-PL and-ḏa-3F-make.IND-PL jalʕaym] ‘he found goat girls grazing [goats] and making [a bean dish called] jalʕaym’ Mo.N.01.03

Similarly, where a perfect verb in the complement clause refers to an event or state that obtained in the past relative to the time referred to by a main verb in the perfect, the time relative to the present moment is pluperfect or distant past. In the following example, the event ṭād ḳlūb ‘someone turned [their car] over’ had already had a beginning, middle and an end at the time that the ‘saying’ had taken place:

fulān āmūr / ṭād ḳlūb ‘someone said someone had turned [their car] over’ M.NS

The past habitual in Mahriyōt is expressed by wīḳaʕ followed by the verb in the indicative or a locative clause:76

wīḳaʕ / yḳōfaʕ ‘he used to weave’ Mo.NS

wīḳaʕ / šūk drēham ‘you m.s. used to have money’ Mo.NS

The past habitual in Mehreyyet is expressed periphrastically by āśam-PRONOUN modifying a verb phrase (VP) with the verb in the indicative or a locative or nominal clause (cf. also 2.8.3.4):

āśam-ī a-ṣṭawṭ āḏamayt-ī [āśam-1S 1S-hurt.IND back-1S] ‘my back used to hurt’ M.ES

āśamī / šay farahayn ‘I used to have a horse’ M

āśamaš / ṣalḥayt ‘you f.s. used to be fat’ M

2.5.2 Future participle

The only element which encodes tense (future) is the future participle, also described as the active participle (e.g. Rubin 2007, 2010: 135). With few exceptions, including Mehreyyet mhaḳbal ‘coming’ in phrases such as: awarx amhaḳbal ‘next month’, and mhafgāʔ in śī mēkan mhafgāʔ ‘many frightening things’, the future participle does not function adjectivally (cf. Wagner 1953: 49). The future participle is one of three ways of explicitly expressing future time in Mahriyōt, and one of two ways in Mehreyyet. Other ways of expressing future time are: (ḏa-)ḳīs as a perfect verb or particle in both dialects (2.5.1.5); and mad-PRONOUN in Mahriyōt (2.8.3.5). The inflected future participle of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) (2.5.1.5), can also express future continuous and future perfect, often with a sense of lack of certainty.

76 Cf. Wagner (1953: 31) for western Yemeni Mehri.

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Morphological categories relevant to the future participles are number and gender. Number–gender morphemes are expressed concatenatively in Mahriyōt and concatenatively in all but the masculine plural in Mehreyyet. The future participle of the triliteral basic verb has the stem CaCC77 to which the following suffixes are affixed: -ōna for masculine singular, -īta for feminine singular, and -ūtan for feminine plural in both dialects. Masculine plural is expressed through suffixation of -ēya in Mahriyōt and non-concatenatively in Mehreyyet through the template CaCyēCa (Rubin 2010: 135). Mehreyyet makes active use of dual future participles, particularly for feminine gender, but I have been unable to find dual future participles in the Mahriyōt data. In Mehreyyet, the nominal dual ending -ī is suffixed to the masculine singular -ōna > -ōnī, as it is in the case of future participles of derived verbs, but to the feminine plural -ūtan > -awtī with diphthongisation of /ū/ and the predictable pre-suffixal deletion of -an.

Table 70: Future participles: Basic verbs

ms fs mdual fdual mpl fpl gloss Mo faṭnōna faṭnīta faṭnēya faṭnūtan remember

salbōna salbīta salbēya salbūtan wait M faṭnōna78 faṭnīta faṭnōnī faṭnawtī faṭyēna faṭnūtan remember

sūbōna sūbīta sūbōnī sūbawtī salyēba sūbūtan wait

The feminine dual form, examples of which Rubin was unable to find in Johnstone’s texts (Rubin 2010: 135, fn. 11), is relatively common in my Mehreyyet data, probably because many of my consultants were women, thus including me with the dual feminine.

The future participle of the derived verbs takes the stem ma-SUBJ.STEM, where the verb stem is that of the subjunctive (Lonnet 1994: 234; Rubin 2007: 384). In Mehreyyet, no suffix is added for masculine singular, feminine singular takes the suffix -ēta, masculine dual -ī, feminine dual -awtī79 and common plural -ūtan. In Mahriyōt, gender is distinguished in the future participle of derived verbs for both singular and plural, and masculine singular is explicitly marked. The stem ma-VERB.STEM takes the following suffixes: -ā masculine singular, -īta feminine singular, -āya masculine plural and -ūtan feminine plural. In Mahriyōt, future participles from some derived verbs take the suffixes of participles derived from the basic verb, as in watxaf-ōna (also mataxf-ā) [come.in.the.evening.FUT-MS], mtaḥḥ-ōna80 (also mamtaḥḥ-ā) [oil.FUT-MS], mašjahm-ōna (also mašajham-ā)

77 Verbs with medial root /w/ often reduce the stem to CaC, as in: śamōna ‘will sell ms’, unless

Ciii is also a glide, when the stem is realised as CūC, as in: hūyōna ~ huwyōna ‘will fall m.s.’; verbs with medial /y/ take the stem CīC, as in: sīrōna ‘will go m.s.’.

78 The ending has the alternative realisation -ōna. 79 Given as -ēti by Johnstone (cf. Rubin 2010: 135). 80 Note in these two cases that the stem lacks the initial ma-.


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[come.in.the.morning.FUT-MS], mašxanṭ-ōna81 [get.out.FUT-MS]. In both dialects, future participles from a very few derived verbs take the stem CaCC, as in śatm-ōna [buy.FUT-MS]. Examples in the two dialects for singular and plural number include:

Table 71: Future participles: Derived verbs

ms fs mp fp gloss Mo

mašwalfā mašwalfīta mašwalfēya mašwalfūtan become accustomed to

watxafōna watxafīta watxafēya watxafūtan come in the evening

mataxfā mataxfīta matxafēya matxafūtan ditto M maśxawwal maśxawlēta maśxawl ūtan sit; stay

mwōgah mawgahēta mawgahūtan take camels out in morning

mhaśkar mhaśkarēta mhaśkarūtan get a lot of milk when milking

Since the future participles lack the morphological category person, person is inferred from the wider linguistic or extra-linguistic context. Consider the following examples:

īmoh sīr-awtī hō w-hēt bark ḥa-wōdī [today go.FUT-FDUAL 1S and-2S in DEF-wadi] ‘today me f. and you f. will go to the wadi’ M.PES.Ndēt

a-kōb tēṯ śabb-īta śḥayr [1S-think.IND woman go.up.FUT-FS mountains] ‘I thought the woman was going up to the mountains’ M.NS

a-ḥsūs ḥanōf-ī mōh gihm-īt a-rḥabēt [1S-feel.IND self-1S go.FUT-FS DEF-town] ‘I f. can feel myself going to the town today’ M.PES.Ndēt

{y�� رvظ vzت �~و�zر ��اvظ os man ḏār swānōt sīrōna ḏār saykal ‘in a few minutes [I] m. will go on the bike’ M.txt

2.5.3 Valency

Valency is a feature of verbs and future participles. As Rubin (2010: 89ff) observes, there is no one-to-one correspondence between verb stems and valency; however, general tendencies can be observed. In this book I take the term transitive to apply to those verbs and future participles that may take objects directly including those that are not obliged to take objects. This includes many translocative verbs, such as: nūkaʕ (nūka) ‘to come [to s.o.]/[s.where]’, syō r (syūr) ‘to go [s.where]’, rudd (ridd) ‘to return [s.where]’, and verbs such as šaxbūr ‘to ask [s.o.]’ and śīnī ‘to see [s.th.]’.

81 Often used in anger to get children out of the way.

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Basic verb stems type-A and their future participles are lexically transitive or intransitive:

Transitive

nūkaʕ (nūka) ‘to come’ (e.g. nakak ʕamūn ‘I came to Oman’ M); ktōb (ktūb) ‘to write’ (e.g. ktabk xaṭṭ ‘I wrote a letter’); dufx (dafx) ‘to tip over’; jhām (ghēm) ‘to go’ (e.g. ghamk tēham ‘I went to them m.’ M)

Intransitive

bkūh ~ bkuh ‘to cry’; faśś ‘to escape’

The basic verb stem type-B is usually intransitive, but some lexemes are transitive. Examples include:

Intransitive

ṯībar ‘to break’; jīyaʕ (gōya) ‘to be/become hungry’

Transitive

lības ‘to put on/wear’; līḳaf ‘to grab, grasp’; sīlab ‘to wait for’

L-stem verbs and future participles are transitive when derived from an intransitive basic stem verb, causative when derived from a transitive basic stem verb, but may be transitive or intransitive when there is no basic stem counterpart. Where basic verbal or nominal stems exist, these are presented after the gloss in brackets.

Intransitive

affōkar ((a)fōkar) ‘to think’; awōḏan ‘to call to prayer’

Transitive

assōfar ((a)sōfar) ‘to travel’; akkōmal ((a)kōmal) ‘to prepare; finish’ (< kīmal ‘to be ready, finished’); arōbaʕ (arōba) ‘to give [s.o.] protection’ (< rībāʕ (rībā) ‘companion, friend’); affōraḥ ((a)fōraḥ) ‘to make [s.o.] happy’ (< fīraḥ ‘to be happy’)

H-stem verbs and future participles are usually transitive, ditransitive or causative. When derived from more basic stems, they tend to add valency: they are usually transitive when derived from an intransitive basic stem, and usually causative when derived from a transitive basic stem. When derived from a noun, they may be intransitive:


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Intransitive

haṣbāḥ ‘to be [in the morning]’ (< ṣōbaḥ ‘morning’); haḳṣawm ‘to spend the hot part of the day’ (< ḳāṣam ‘cold ADJ’); hanśūr ‘to have had enough sleep; to be refreshed’ (M)

Transitive

haśrūb ‘to have pains [s.where]’ (e.g. haśrabk kansadya ‘I have shoulder pains’ M); habhūl ‘to prepare’ (< bhēl ‘to be prepared’); haśyāʕ (haśyā) ‘to lose’ (< śīyaʕ (śīya) ‘to be lost’); hamlūh ‘to fill’ (< mīlī ‘to be/become full’)

Causative

haḳrūś (haḳrawś) ‘to lend [s.o., s.th.]’; haśnūh (śnūh)82 ‘to show [s.o., s.th.] (< śīnī ‘to see’); haḳfōd (haḳfūd) ‘to put [s.th.] down’ (< ḳfōd (ḳfūd) ‘to go down’); hardūd ‘to return [s.th., s.where]’ (< rudd (ridd) ‘to return [s.where]’)

T-stem verbs and future participles typically reduce the valency when derived from a more basic stem. With few exceptions (e.g. ratḳī ‘to read s.th.’ M), they are either intransitive, reflexive or reciprocal:

Intransitive

fattaḥ ‘to open’ (< futḥ (fatḥ) ‘to open TRNS’); watxawr ‘to be late’ (cf. awōxar ‘to postpone; cancel’); śatūḳ ‘to miss, long [for la- s.o.]’ (cf. śawḳ ‘longing’); axtalūf ‘to be different’; datfax ‘to fall’ (< dufx (dafx) ‘to tip over’)

Reflexive

maddaḥ (< *matdaḥ) + ba-ḥnōf-PRONOUN ‘to praise [o.s.]’ (< mūdaḥ ‘to praise TRNS’); amtōdaḥ ‘to praise o.s.; to show off’ (M)

Reciprocal

natfaʕ (natfa) ‘to cooperate with e.o.’ (< nūfaʕ (nūfa) ‘to benefit TRNS’); ġatbar ‘to meet e.o.’ (< ġbūr ‘to meet TRNS’); antōwaḥ ‘to fight e.o.’ (e.g. aḳanyawn ḏa-yintawḥan ‘the children are fighting’ M)

Š-stem verbs and future participles typically entail a reduction in valency: they are commonly intransitive when derived from a more basic transitive stem or transitive when derived from a causative stem. There are also some cases of reciprocal verbs, particularly with Š-stem B-type verbs:

82 Also to make a diagnosis [traditional healer]. syūr yhīśan aḥ-ḥabrith imših ‘he went to have

someone make a diagnosis for his daughter yesterday’ (M).

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103

Intransitive

šamlūk ‘to be taken into possession’ (cf. hamlūk ‘to take into possession’); šanʕūś ‘to be carried on a bier’ (< nʕāś ‘to carry [s.o.] on a bier’) (Mo); šanfāʕ (šanfaʔ ~ šanfa) ‘to benefit’ (< nūfaʕ (nūfa) ‘to benefit TRNS’); šadfūr ‘to be pushed’ (< dfōr (dfūr) ‘to push TRNS’); šaḳṣawm ‘to cool down’ (M)

Transitive

šarbaʕ (šarbaʔ ~ šarba) ‘to climb’ (cf. harbaʕ (harbaʔ ~ harba) ‘to lift [s.th.] up’); šaḳrūś (šaḳrawś) ‘to borrow [s.th.]’ (cf. haḳrūś (haḳrawś) ‘to lend [s.o., s.th.]); šaxbūr ‘to ask’ (cf. xōbar ‘to give news’)

Reciprocal

šdāfar (šdēfar) ‘to push e.o.’ (cf. šadfūr ‘to be pushed’)

Some translocative Š-stem verbs and participles imply a change in direction from the basic verb:

šajhūm (šaghūm) ‘to come [in the morning]’ (cf. jhām (ghēm) ‘to go’)

Quadriliteral verbs and participles tend to be intransitive, though some transitive tokens are found:

aḳarḥūf ‘to make a lot noise moving things around’ (Mo); aḳarfūd ‘to turn [s.th.] TRNS’ (Mo); akkarbal (karbal) ‘to crawl’; abarḳaʕ (abarḳaʔ ~ abarḳa) ‘to run’; aḳarfaḥ ‘to make a lot of noise moving things around’ (M)

N-stem verbs and participles only occur with quadrilateral and quintilateral roots. They are always intransitive and when derived from a more basic stem imply a decrease in valency:

nkarfāx ‘to be/become stupid’ (Mo); nḳarfūd ‘to turn in one’s sleep; change colour [chameleon]’ (< aḳarfūd ‘to turn [s.th.] TRNS’); nkarkūm ‘to be/become yellow’ (< akkarkūm ‘to colour yellow TRNS’); nhaśīrūr ‘to be/become green’ (< hśīrūr ‘to colour green TRNS’); nāfīrūr ‘to be/become red’ (M); nḥaṭmūl ‘to break up INTR’ (< aḥḥaṭmūl ‘to break up TRNS’) (Mo); nḥībūb ‘to grunt [camel]’

2.6 Modifiers 2.6.1 Adjectives

The morphological categories relevant to adjectives are number, gender and, in Mehreyyet, definiteness. The relatively rare active and passive participles also display voice. Most adjectives are inherently singular and masculine and inflect for number and gender to agree with the head noun in a NP or with the predicand in a clause. In contrast to nouns, adjectives make a two-way number distinction only (singular and plural), and are inflected for plural to agree with dual nouns. In


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Mehreyyet, adjectives that are phonologically able take a definite article to agree with a definite head noun in a NP. The most common adjective patterns in the dialects are C(a)CīC, CīCaC, the active participle CōCaC originally derived from the basic verb, and the passive participle, maCCīC, when derived from the basic verb, and m(a)-STEM when derived from the derived verbs.

Adjectives can be derived from nouns through association of the root consonants to the template CVCC in the case of triliteral roots, CaCCaC in the case of quadriliteral roots, plus affixation of -ī in Mahriyōt, - áy in Mehreyyet. Examples include (cf. also Rubin 2010: 79):

karkēm ‘yellow/orange dye’ > karkamī (karkamáy) ‘yellow’

xarf ‘monsoon period’ > xarfī (xarfáy) ‘relating to/from the monsoon period’ (e.g. maḥḥ xarfáy ‘clarified butter from the monsoon period’)

ṣayrab ‘post-monsoon period/harvest period’ > ṣarbī (ṣarbáy) ‘relating to/from the harvest period’

As in Arabic, adjectives derived from nouns with the feminine suffix -Vt or -ah lose this suffix before affixation of the adjectival suffix, as in the following Mehreyyet examples.

mahrah ‘Mahrah’ > mahráy; kūšīt [tribe name] > kūšay; samōdah [tribe name] > samdáy (e.g. ām samdáy ‘Samōdah tribal brand mark’)

In Mehreyyet, attributive adjectives agree in definiteness as well as number and gender with a head noun, but the expression of definiteness is less predictable than for nouns.83 Adjectives in which Ci is non-aspirated take initial a-, as in: ḳannawn > a-ḳannawn ‘the small m.’, gīd > a-gīd ‘the good m.’, though this is generally unrealised after a vowel-final noun (cf. 1.3.2.5);84 adjectives with /ś/ as Ci occasionally take initial a-, but less commonly than in the case of a definite noun; adjectives with other aspirates as Ci do not geminate Ci in contrast to nouns; and only one adjective to my knowledge takes initial ḥa-, namely nōb ‘big f.’ > ḥanōb ‘the big f.’. Interestingly the adjective īdīn ‘new’, for which the form in Mahriyōt is ḥaydīn with initial ḥa-, and for which Ḥarsūsi has the definite form ḥaydōn (indefinite yədīn, Johnstone 1970a: 301), does not take initial ḥa- in a definite context.

83 As in Śḥerɛt (Hofstede 1998: 26). 84 E.g. abaytī ḳannitt < *abaytī aḳannitt ‘my small house’

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2.6.1.1 Basic declinable adjectives

Feminine gender in adjectives is almost invariably expressed through suffixation of -(V)t; masculine plural is often expressed by (pre-)final -ō- or by the masculine plural suffix -īn; and feminine plural is usually expressed by a -tan suffix.

Tables 72 and 73 present a selection of inflectable adjectives in the two dialects. As for plural formation in nouns, the stem usually alters in the plural adjectival inflections, either in terms of the template or the quality of the long vowel. In CīCaC and CōCaC stems, occasionally also stems ending in -CāC ~ -CēC, and where the medial consonant is sonorant, the stem template alters on suffixation of the feminine affix. Some adjectives show distinct inflectional forms for all numbers and genders (e.g. rḥīm (arḥaym) ‘good-looking’), some adjectives share a common form for plural (e.g. ġāhar ‘other’, basic colour adjectives), some share a common form for singular and a common form for plural (e.g. frist ‘dirty’, śaḳḳat ‘clever’ M), and in some cases one lexeme applies to one gender and another to the other (e.g. śōx ‘big; old m.’ v. nōb ‘big; old f.’ M) (cf. Rubin 2010: 79–82). As shown by Rubin (2010: 80), adjectives of the same masculine pattern do not always share the same feminine and plural patterns: for example, mrīś (mrayś) and ġšīm (ġšaym), in contrast to other adjectives of this pattern, have the masculine plurals marwōś and ġašwōm, and ḥfīf (ḥfayf) has the feminine singular pattern ḥfift rather than *ḥfīfat (*ḥfayfat).

Table 72: Mahriyōt basic declinable adjectives

singular plural gloss masc fem masc fem mrīś mrīśat marwōś marwaśtan ill rḥīm rḥīmat rīḥōm rīḥamtan good-looking;

kind ġšīm ġšīmat ġašwōm ġašwamtan ~ ġašmūtan stupid dwīl dwīlat dīwōl dīwaltan old [object] ḥaydān ḥaydīnat ḥaydōn ḥaydantan new fīṭas faṭsīt fṭawōs fīṭastan ~ faṭsūtan cheating,

tricking fīṯam faṯmīt faṯwōm fīṯamtan ~ faṯmūtan sly xōyas xaysat xīsēt xīsūtan rotten hōdī hadyat hādiyīn hīdaytan quiet śōx śaxt śīyāx śīyaxtan big; old

[person] raġāś raġśēt raġwōś raġwaśtan ~ rīġaśtan moist, tender malzīm malzamōt malzōm malzamtan responsible karkamī karkamyōt karkamō karkamaytan yellow lbōn labnīt lēban white ġāhar ġahrīt ġahrūtan other


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Table 73: Mehreyyet basic declinable adjectives

singular plural gloss masc fem masc fem dwayl dwaylat dīwōl dīwātan old [object] mḥayḳ mḥayḳat mīḥōḳ mīḥaḳtan awkward; annoying ḥfayf ḥfift ḥīfōf ḥīfaftan quick tempered ḥaywal ḥūlīt ḥawyēl ḥīwātan mad, crazy ḳannawn ḳannitt85 ḳanyawn ḳannattan small; young wōfī wafyat wafyīn wafyūt loyal nōḏal naḏlat naḏlēt nīḏātan good for nothing ḥīḳay ḥīḳiyūt ḥīḳō ḥīḳaytan from coast region maġśān maġśānat maġśānīn maġśānōt sweet; cute śōx nōb śīyēx nyōb big; old [animate] gīd gidat gīyēd good ōfar āfarūt āfar red ūbūn ūbanīt lēban white ḥōwar ḥūrūt ḥāwar black śaḳḳat ṣwōḳaḳ clever, smart ḥarfēś ḥarfōś ~ manḥarfśūtan industrious

2.6.1.2 Diminutive adjectives

Diminutive forms can be derived from declinable adjectives.86 Since diminutive nominals have a common plural form – based on the nominal feminine plural suffix -ūtan – diminutive adjectives exhibit a gender distinction in the singular only. Diminutive adjectives generally take the same patterns as diminutive nouns based on the number of root consonants and gender of the non-diminutive stem. In the case of the basic colour adjectives ḥōwar ‘black m.’, hśawr87 ‘green’, ʕōfar (ōfar) ‘red’ and albōn (ūbōn) ‘white’, however, Ciii is reduplicated in the diminutive form, as in table 74 below.

85 < *ḳannant with anticipatory assimilation of /n/ to /t/. 86 In his article on diminutive patterns, Johnstone (1973) mentions diminutive nouns and adverbs,

but does not mention or cite examples of diminutive adjectives. 87 hśawr refers to a host of colours ranging from the colour of grass and trees, through the blues of

the sky and sea, the yellow of the sun and car number plates, to the dark brown of camels and donkeys.

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Table 74: Diminutive colour adjectives

colour dim ms dim fs dim pl gloss ḥōwar ḥawārīr ḥwarrōt ḥwarrawtan black hśawr haśārīr hśarrōt hśarrawtan green albōn albānān albannōt albannūtan white (Mo) ūbōn ūbānēn ūbannōt ūbannawtan white (M)

2.6.1.3 Undeclinable adjectives

Both dialect groups have several undeclinable adjectives, many of which relate to temperature. They include:

maṭḳ ‘tasty; delicious’; jōnī (gōna) ‘warm; sheltered’; ḏlawl ‘trained for riding [camel]’ (M); fśāl ‘in plenty’; ḥaymal ‘right’; śīmal (śaymal) ‘left’; ḥarḳ ‘hot’; ḳāṣam ‘cold’ (M), ‘lukewarm’ (Mo); śābal ‘cold’ (Mo); śayḳ ‘narrow; tight’; maṯmōm ‘fertile’; mayar ‘steep’

2.6.1.4 Elatives

Elatives, which are common in Mehreyyet but relatively rare in Mahriyōt, fall under the category of undeclinable adjectives.88 Adjectives with three root consonants can be inflected for the elative, taking the pattern aCCēC or aCCāC where Cii is a guttural, or where /ḳ/, occasionally /ṭ/, is followed by a sonorant Cii; in a few lexemes, such as ūbīn ‘whiter’, the long vowel is realised as [i:]. Many elatives are derived from the positive adjective, as in:

aḳrāb ‘nearer’ < ḳrīb (ḳrayb) ‘near, close’; aṣlēḥ ‘fatter’ < ṣaylaḥ ‘fat’ (M); axṯēm ‘thinner, weaker’ < xṯaym ‘thin, weak’ (M); arḥām ‘better looking; nicer’ < arḥaym ‘good looking; nice’ (M); aṭwāl ‘taller’ < ṭwayl ‘tall’ (M); ahwēb ‘warmer’ < hōb ‘warm’ (M); aḳṣām ‘colder’ < ḳāṣam ‘cold’ (M); aḥrēḳ ‘hotter’ < ḥarḳ ‘hot’ (M)

As in many languages, the more common elatives take a suppletive form:

axayr ‘better’ (cf. jīd Mo, gīd M ‘good’); aḳlāl ‘smaller, fewer’ (cf. ḳannūn Mo ‘small’, ḳannawn M); aʕḳār ~ aʔḳar ~ āḳar ‘bigger; older’ (cf. śōx m., nōb f. ‘big; old’) (M); axass ~ xass ‘worse; less’ (cf. ḳōmaḥ ‘bad’)

In Mehreyyet, diminutive elatives can be derived on the pattern aCCāyaC. Diminutive elatives convey the sense of ‘slightly X-er’, and include axāyar ‘slightly better’ and elatives describing height or age, as in: aʔḳāyar ‘slightly older; taller’, aṭwāyal ‘slightly taller’, aḳṣāyar ‘slightly shorter’.

88 With the exception of axayr which has a plural form (a)xyūr.


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The comparative is expressed by ELATIVE (+ man +):

wat sēh ḥajmas / aḳlāl man ḏīk śaxt ‘when it f., its size, is less than that f. big one’ Mo.NS

sēh / aʔḳāyar man bar daydas ‘she is slightly older than her male paternal cousin’ M.NS

mḥammad / aḥwēr min saʕīd ‘Muhammad is blacker than Saeed’ M.ES.Ndēt

hīs taww taxdēm briṭānya / axayr man ūṭōmah ‘Britain should do better than that’ M.NS

The comparative can also be expressed by ADJ–man or by ADJ followed by the common comparatives akṯīr ~ akṯēr ‘more’ or axayr ‘better’:89

sǟn ḳannättän män dējär ʕaynät [3FPL small.FPL than beans a.little] ‘they f. are a bit smaller than beans’ Sima70:6

laftīn śōx man nūmīl [black.ant big.MS than red.ant] ‘the black ant is larger than the red ant’ Mo.NS

sēh nōb axayr man ḥām-ayš [3FS old.FS more than mother-2FS] ‘she is older than your f.s. mother’ M.NS

The only superlatives in the two dialects are xyūr, axayr and xass, of which xyūr is more frequently attested. xass takes a pronoun suffix,90 and xyūr may take either a pronoun suffix, or a following attributive phrase with initial ḏa- (cf. 3.1.3).

ḏōmah xas-ham kall [this.M worst-3MPL all] ‘that m. is the worst of them m. all’ M.NS

hāśan man ībīt ḏa-xyūr bark hi-bɛr-īkam [what of camel.FS ḏa-best among DEF-camel.FPL-2MPL] ‘Which is the best of your m.pl. camels?’ M.PES

xyūr / ḏa-hbɛr ba-śxōf ḥazōmī ‘the best camels for milk are black’ M.NS

Either ḏ-axayr or ḏa-xyūr may be used where the attributed noun is singular:

hāśan man ḥayḳ / ḏa-hēh ḏ-axayr ~ ḏa-xyūr bawmah ‘Which is the best beach here?’ M.PES.MA

There is otherwise no separate morphological or syntactic means of forming the superlative. Superlatives are frequently expressed periphrastically by ELATIVE–man–NOUN–kall.

89 Cf. Wagner (1953: 67) reḥéymet ḫar ‘schöner’ for western Yemeni Mehri. According to Saeed

al-Mahri, ADJ–axayr–man is the only way of expressing the comparative in Śḥerɛt. 90 Cf. Wagner (1953: 67) u hêt ḫaṣ ḥâbū ‘und du bist die schechteste der Leute’ for western

Yemeni Mehri.

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abitš / aʕḳār min abyūt kall ‘your f.s. house is larger than all the houses [= yours is the largest house]’ M.ES.Ndēt

[ṣlōlat / axayr min arḥōyab kall] wa-[maskūt / axass minsēn kall] ‘Salalah is the best town and Muscat is the worst of them’ M.PES.Ndēt

2.6.2 Non-numerical quantifiers

The main non-numerical quantifiers in the dialects are shown in table 75.

Table 75: Non-numerical quantifiers

Mehreyyet Mahriyōt mēkan ~ mēkin a lot mākan a lot ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat a little ʕaynata(n) ~ ʕaynat a little xawr a little xawr a little bāś some baʕś some kall all, each kall ~ kull all, each

kass little, a little

The non-numerical quantifiers kall, bāś, ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) function as nouns, occurring either independently or at the head of an annexion phrase (cf. 4.1.3.1). The intensifying quantifiers, mākan (mēkan ~ mēkin) and xawr, and the intensifier, wīyan (cf. 2.8, table 84), most commonly function as adverbs; however, they also function as noun modifiers in certain contexts, and mākan (mēkan ~ mēkin) may function as a noun in prepositional phrases (PPs), as in: mšaxbarēta tēkam man mēkan ‘I f.s. will still ask you m.pl. about a lot’ (M.NS). The syntax of the non-numerical quantifiers is further discussed in chapter 4 (4.1.3.1).

2.6.3 Numerical quantifiers 2.6.3.1 Cardinals

The morphological category relevant for the numbers is gender. The cardinal numerals from 1–10, as for Arabic, are distinguished in terms of gender. There are some differences between the two dialect groups.


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Table 76: Cardinal numerals 1–10

masculine feminine Mahriyōt Mehreyyet Mahriyōt Mehreyyet one ṭād ṭād91 ṭīt ṭayt two ṯrōh ṯrōh ṯrīt ṯrayt three śaʕṯayt śāṯayt śahlīṯ92 śahlīṯ four arbaʕōt arbūt arbaʕ arbā five xmōh xammoh ~ xmōh xaymah xaymah six hitīt itīt93 hitt hitt seven habʕayt ībayt hōbaʕ hōba eight ṯamnīt ṯamanīt ṯmōnī ṯmōnī nine sʕayt sʕayt sōʕ sɛ94 ten ʕaśrīt āśarīt ʕōśar ōśar

For 11–99, adult Mahriyōt speakers know the Mehri numerals, but overwhelmingly use Arabic numerals. In Mehreyyet, the Arabic numerals are not widely adopted and the numerals from 11–99 are formed with the tens conjoined by wa- to the following unit:

Table 77: Mehreyyet cardinal numerals 11–20

masculine feminine eleven āśarīt wa-ṭād ōśar wa-ṭayt twelve āśarīt wa-ṯrōh ōśar wa-ṯrayt thirteen āśarīt wa-śāṯayt ōśar wa-śahlīṯ fourteen āśarīt w-arbūt ōśar w-arbā fifteen āśarīt wa-xmuh ōśar wa-xaymah sixteen āśarīt w-itīt ōśar wa-hitt seventeen āśarīt w-ībayt ōśar wa-hōba eighteen āśarīt wa-ṯamanīt ōśar wa-ṯmōnī nineteen āśarīt wa-sʕayt ōśar wa-sɛ

91 Bittner (1913: 83) suggests a complex process for originally deriving ṭād (and also ṭīt) in Mehri:

d’-[a]ḥâd > d’-âd > ṭ-âd > ṭād. However, a look at Qatabanic, which has the forms ṭd m. and ṭt f. for ‘one’ (Stein 2011: 1053), suggests that ṭād is a shared MSAL–Qatabanic form, a view also shared by Walter Müller (p.c.).

92 Cf. Early Sabaic, Qatabanian s2lṯ, Minaen s2hlṯ (Kogan & Korotayev 1997: 231). 93 For western Yemeni Mehri, cf. Bittner (1913: 89) for whom /h/ is not realised in the longer

form of cardinal 6 giving hitt v. itît, but is realised in both the long and short form of cardinal 7; by contrast, Simeone-Senelle (1997: 395, 2011b: 1088) gives /h/-less forms for the longer forms of both cardinal 6 and 7.

94 Not attested in Johnstone’s texts (Rubin 2010: 209).

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The tens in Mehreyyet are: āšrayn, śalāṯayn,95 arbaʕayn ~ arbayn, xamsayn, sittayn, sabʕayn ~ sabʔayn, ṯamānayn, tsaʕayn. The numerals for hundred and thousand are mīyēt ~ myēt and ɛf respectively.

The numerals for the first two digits function as adjectival attributes, as in following examples from Mehreyyet:

ġayg ṭād ‘one man’; tēṯ ṭayt ‘one woman’; warxī ṯrōh ‘two months’; snētī ṯrayt ‘two years’

The cardinals may also function as substantives:

ṭād nūkaʕ ‘one came’ (Mo); śīnak ṭayt ‘I saw one f.’ (M); axah ṯrayt ḏār ṭād ‘that’s to say two f. [camel cows] for one m. [camel calf]’ (M.NS)

From the third digit onwards the numerals function as nouns. They occur as independent NPs or take a following explicit noun annex (cf. 4.1.3.2). In the case of 3–10 the noun annex is plural, in the case of 11–99 the noun annex may be singular or plural (Rubin 2010: 211–212). Far more common among my Mehreyyet informants is for the noun to be plural following the lower tens and compound numbers and to be singular optionally following numbers of 90 and above. In all cases, the unit agrees with a following noun in gender, and both the ten and the unit in the numbers 11–19 agree with the following noun in gender (cf. 4.1.3.2).

myēt may take a noun annex in the singular, or a noun in the plural preceded by ḏa- (cf. 3.1.10.7, 4.1.3.2):

myēt tēṯ ~ ḏ-īnēṯ ‘one-hundred women’

myēt ġayg ~ ḏa-ġyūg ‘one-hundred men’

The cardinals 3–10 in phrases involving yōm ‘days’ have an alternative, older and more commonly used form (cf. Bittner 1913: 92 for western Yemeni Mehri; Johnstone 1975a: 115–116 for the Mehri of Oman and Śḥerɛt; Simeone-Senelle 1997: 396 for other dialects of Mehri and other MSAL). These cardinal forms are older than those presented above (cf. also 4.1.3.2):

śīlaṯ yōm ‘three days’, rībaʕ (rība) yōm ‘four days’, xaymah yōm ‘five days’, šīdaṯ yōm ‘six days’, šībaʕ (šība)96 yōm ‘seven days’, ṯīman yōm ‘eight days’, tīsaʕ (tīsa) yōm ‘nine days’, ʕīśar (ayśar) yōm ‘ten days’

The lower cardinals ṭād, ṯrōh, śaʕṯayt (śāṯayt) in both dialects and arbaʕōt (arbūt) in Mehreyyet have diminutive forms97 to refer to an object with affection or contempt, or to diminish the significance of a request to reduce the likelihood of it being refused:

95 Cf. Early Sabaic šlṯy ‘thirty’ (Stein 2011: 1053). 96 Cf. Leslau (1937: 213) for the realisation of initial š- in forms for six and seven. 97 Mentioned by Johnstone neither in the article on diminutive patterns (1973) nor in the Mehri

Lexicon (1987).


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ṭwāṭād (ṭuwādēd ~ ṭwādēd) ‘one.DIM.M’

ṭwāṭōt (ṭuwattūt ~ ṭwattūt)98 ‘one.DIM.F.’

ṯrōhānī (ṯrannēhī) ‘two.DIM.M.’

ṯarhānūtan (ṯrannōtī) ‘two.DIM.F.’

śahlānūtan (śāṯānēt) ‘three.DIM.M.’

śaʕṯānūtan (śalāṯōtī ~ śahlānēṯ) ‘three.DIM.F.’99

arbānēt ‘four.DIM.M.’ M

Contextual examples include:

ḥlakmah ṭād w-ādah [ṭwādēd] min srīh ‘there is someone, and there is someone else insignificant behind him’ M.ES

ādiš ṭwādēd ‘Do you f.s. want another small one [cup of tea/coffee]?’ M.NS

And consider the following exchange:

śinkam śī bɛr ‘Have you m.pl. seen any camels?’

kūsan ūḳōn ōśar ‘We found around ten.’

šīsan śī frōś ‘Were there any female calves among them f.?’

šīsan [ṯrannēhī] frayś wa-ʕaylīg ‘Among them f. were two little ones, one female and one male.’ M.ES.MA

2.6.3.2 Ordinals

The ordinals, with the exception of ḥāwlī ~ ḥāwēl m., ḥāwalyōt f. ‘first’ and Mehreyyet mšēġar m., mšaġarēt f., mšaġarūtan pl. ‘second, other’, are very rarely used in Mehri.

98 Cf. Mehreyyet tēṯ ‘woman’ > tuwaṯṯōt ~ twaṯṯōt [woman.DIM]. 99 Provided by younger informants in Rabkūt. Rejected by MA as incorrect, through heard.

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Table 78: Ordinals

masculine feminine Mahriyōt Mehreyyet Mahriyōt Mehreyyet first ḥāwlī ~ ḥāwēl ḥāwaláy ḥāwalyōt ḥāwalyēt second ṯōnī mšēġar ~ ṯōnī100 ṯanyat mšaġarēt ~ ṯanyit third śōlaṯ śōlaṯ śalṯat śāṯat fourth rōbaʕ rōbaʔ ~ rōba rabʕat rabat fifth xōmah xōmas xamhat xamst sixth sōdas sōdas sadsat sadst seventh hōbaʕ sōbaʔ ~ sōba habʕat sabat eighth ṯōman ṯōman ṯamnat ṯamnat ninth tōsaʕ tōsaʔ ~ tōsa tasʕat tasat tenth ʕōśar āśarīt101 ʕaśrat ōśar

The ordinal for ‘first’ may stand as an independent NP when it has a substantive meaning, as in the Mahriyōt: ḥāwalī lʕād ḳūlaʕ hār āxarī śī lā ‘der Vorfahre hat dem Nachfahren nichts übriggelassen’ (Sima 2005). Ordinals other than mšēġar ‘second, other’ take a following attributive ḏa-phrase, as in: ḥāwēl ḏa-śētū ‘the beginning of the winter’, ḥāwēl ḏa-ffējar ‘the early dawn’ (Mo). Mehreyyet mšēġar functions as an adjective and agrees in number, gender and definiteness with an attributed noun, as in: ḥabraytan amšaġarēt ‘our second daughter’, aktōb amšēġar ‘the second/other book’, ḥābū mšaġarūtan ‘other people’.

2.6.3.3 Fractions

Fractions exist in the dialects to express half, third, quarter and, in Mehreyyet, eighth only. Each of these can be inflected for dual number by the dual suffix -ī, as in faḳḥī ṯrōh ‘two halfs’, rabʕaytī ṯrīt (arbaytī ṯrayt) ‘two quarters’. Plurals of fractions were elicited for Mehreyyet only. The fractions are masculine with the exception of rabʕayt (arbayt).

Table 79: Fractions

half faḳḥ102 third ślēṯ (ślayṯ pl. śalwōṯ) quarter rabʕayt (arbayt pl. arbōya) eighth ṯmayn pl. ṯmūn (M)

100 Rare. Comes in questions and answers specifically comparing ordinal position: ḥāwalay aw

ṯōnī ‘the first or the second?’ Answer: ṯōnī ‘the second’ or ḥāwalay ‘the first’ (M.NS). 101 No specific ordinal for tenth in Mehreyyet. The cardinal ten is used instead. 102 Cf. Ancient South Arabian fqḥ ‘half’ (Stein 2011: 1054).


114

Examples of fractions in context from Mehreyyet include:

śahlīṯ arbōya tkūnan faḳḥ w-arbayt ‘three quarters are a half and a quarter’

śāṯayt śalwōṯ ykūn ḥaḏḏ kamlat ‘three thirds make a whole part’

ślayṯī ṯroh ‘two thirds’

arbaytī ṯrayt tkūnan faḳḥ ‘two quarters make a half’

ṯmaynī ṯroh ykūn arbayt ‘two eighths make a quarter’

2.7 Prepositions

True prepositions are words that require a noun annex or pronoun suffix and cannot stand independently. As we have seen in the discussion of dependent pronouns, many prepositions alter their stem before a pronoun suffix. Prepositions in Mehri refer to location, direction, time, duration and instrument/manner. Some prepositions function in more than one category. In some cases, it is only the context that enables us to distinguish a preposition of time, for example, from a preposition of place or duration, or a preposition of direction from one of location. In a very few cases, a preposition may also function independently as an adverb: thus, Mehreyyet fnōhan ‘before, in front of’ functions both as a preposition and as an independent adverb.

The prepositions in the dialects with their approximate translations are:

Location

bak ~ brak (bark) ‘in, among’; ba- (bi-) ‘in, with’; aṯ-ṯār (ḏār) ‘on’; nxāl ~ lxān (nxālī) ‘under’; fīn (fnōhan)103 ‘in front of’; sār ‘behind’; tāl104 ‘at, with [people]’ (Mo); hār ‘at, with [people]’ (Mo); hāl ‘at, with [people]’; bīn ~ bān ~ bayn (also mēn in Mehreyyet, manw-PRONOUN); ḳbēl105 (ḳbāt) ‘in front of, opposite’; la- ‘at’

Direction

man106 ‘from, through, out of’; twēl (twōlī) ‘towards’; la- ‘to’; at-tā (tā) ‘to’; wdī (ūdī) ‘towards’; addī ‘towards’ (Mo); taḥwēl107 ‘towards’; bak ~ brak (bark) ‘into’

103 The Soqoṭri word fεne ‘face’ has been grammaticalised in Soqoṭri and other MSAL as an

adverb and preposition. In Mehri, this gives fnōhan ‘before; early’, fōna [past], and the preposition fīn (Mo), fnōhan (M) ‘in front of, before’ (cf. Naumkin, Kogan et al 2011; Simeone-Senelle & Lonnet 1985–1986: 273).

104 Said by my Mahriyōt informants to be more common in Hobyōt than in Mahriyōt. In Hobyōt, but not in Mahriyōt, it may occur with a pronoun suffix.

105 Implies further away from the speaker than fīn (fnōhan). 106 man is frequently reduced in both dialects to min, mən or m-. 107 Not attested in Mehreyyet.

2.8 Adverbs

115

Time

fīn (fnōhan) ‘before’; man ṯār (man ḏār ~ m-ḏār) ‘after’; man sār ‘after’ (M); (man) baʕd (bād) ‘after’; at-tā (tā) ‘until’

Duration

ha- ‘for’; la- ‘for’; bak ~ brak (bark) ‘for around’ (e.g. mhabṭā bark warxi ṯrōh ‘[I] m. will stay for around two months’ M)

Instrument/manner

ba- (bi-) ‘with; by’; la- ‘by’

Prepositions which do not fit neatly into these semantic categories include the prepositions of accompaniment ka- (š- before pronoun suffix) ‘with’, bi-ġār ~ b-ġayr ‘without’, the preposition of comparison hīs ‘like’, and prepositions which cover, in addition to the categories listed above, the semantic categories accompaniment ba- (bi) ‘with’, and purpose ha- and la- ‘for’. The syntax of prepositions is examined in relevant sections in chapters 4, 5, 6 and 9.

In contrast to Rubin (2009, 2010: 173ff) and earlier researchers who analyse the monoconsonantal prepositions as simply C, the monoconsonantal prepositions ba- (bi-), ka-, la-, ha- are analysed as having an underlying CV template:108 C- allomorphs result predictably either from a predilection of the dialects to reduce CV syllables, giving alternates such as bi-ġayr ~ b-ġayr ‘without’, Mahriyōt ka-ṣōbaḥ ~ k-ṣōbaḥ ‘in the morning’, or from a constraint against contiguous vowels (cf. 1.3.2.5).

k-aṣōbaḥ ~ k-ṣōbaḥ (< *ka-aṣōbaḥ) ‘in the morning’ M

ankōt b-ātarīt (< *bi-ātarīt) ‘she came with fermented milk’ M.NS

hōh l-arawram (< *la-arawram) ‘I am by the sea’ M.NS

2.8 Adverbs

In many contexts, adverbial phrases are formed from adjectives, NPs, PPs or verbal participles (cf. 9.1). However, specific adverbs and adverbial phrases (AdvPs) are found for place, time, manner and degree. These include adjuncts such as būmah (bawmah) ‘here’ and (a)barr ‘outside’ that are integrated within the structure of the clause and form a prosodic unit with the clause, and conjuncts such as mġōran and (a)tōlī ‘then’, and mākan ‘but, however’ and Mehreyyet mākanī ~ mākanáy ‘but, as for’ that have a connective function linking between what has been said and what is being said. Disjuncts, because of their varied and different morphological and syntactic make-up, are discussed separately in chapter 9 (9.1.9).

108 As they are by members of the Viennese Expedition, and, effectively, by Johnstone (1975a:

118, 1987) in his lexical transcriptions b(ə)-, h(ə)-, k(ə)-, l(ə)-.


116

The majority of adverbs are formed either by final -ōh (often realised as -oh), as in: bōh ‘here’, yallōh (illōh) ‘last night’, with stress on the final syllable; or they have the -mah ending typical of demonstratives (2.4.4), as in: būmah (bawmah) ‘here’, ḥlakmah ‘there’, nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah) ‘now’, wṭōmah ~ ūṭōmah ‘like this’, wṭakmah ~ ūṭakmah ‘like that’; or they end in -a(n), as in: nhūra (nhūran) ‘late morning’, ṭawran (M) ‘also’, fnōhan ‘earlier, before’, wīyan ‘very’. Adverbs that deviate from these patterns include kīnaḥ ‘also’ (Mo), adverbs loaned at some stage from Arabic, such as fīsāʕ (fīsēʔ) ‘quickly’, and adverbs that have resulted from grammaticalisation: either from adjectives, such as ḳrīb (ḳrayb) ‘near’ and rēḥaḳ ‘far’, or from PPs, such as ka-ṣōbaḥ (k-aṣōbaḥ) [lit. with the morning] ‘in the morning’, ka-ṣayrab (k-aṣayrab) ‘in the post-monsoon period’, ba-ḥḥallay109 (bi-ḥallay ~ bi-ḥḥallay) ‘at night’, la-ḥ all-PRONOUN ‘on time; at the same time’ (e.g. nakak la-ḥallī ‘I came on time’ M), la-wɛd-PRONOUN ‘on time’110 (M), ba-xōṭar (bi-xōṭar ~ xōṭar) ‘below’, al-ġayrah ~ al-ġayran (ūġayran) ‘behind’; from ordinal numerals, as in: ḥāwēl ‘earlier’; or from derivations of sāʕat (sɛt) ‘hour’, as in: man sāʕat ((man) sɛt) ‘a long time’, swaʕnōt (swānōt) ‘a short time; after a short time’, sɛtin ‘a short time ago’ (M); or from the future participle wḳōna ‘around, approximately; maybe’.

Adverbs of place are all adjuncts which are integrated within the structure of the clause. The locative adverbs būmah (bawmah) ‘here’ and ḥlakmah ~ ḥlōk (ḥlawk) ‘there’ show a morphological distinction in terms of distance similar to the demonstrative pronouns (2.4.4), but unlike Arabic the relationship between the two adverbs is not expressed simply in terms of the presence or absence of /k/ but also in the identity of Ci. All other adverbs exhibit no morphological categories.

109 Given in Sima (2009) as ba-ḥḥallayy with geminate /y/. There is, however, no evidence of

gemination of /y/ in either dialect. 110 Note the failure of /l/ to metathesise and vocalise in the grammaticalised adverbs la-wε:dah

and la-ḥallah (before /w/ and /ḥ/) in contrast to ūboh ‘to here’ (< *la-bōh), ūfnōhan ‘in front’ (< *la-fnōhan) and ūġayran ‘behind’ (< *la-ġayran). That these latter have become grammaticalised and are no longer analysable as PPs is evidenced by the historical vocalisation of /l/. As seen in chapter 1 (1.3.1.1), /l/ of the preposition does not vocalise pre-consonantally in Mehreyyet irrespective of the identity of the following consonant.

2.8 Adverbs

117

Table 80: Adverbs of location/direction

gloss Mahriyōt Mehreyyet here būmah bawmah here bōh bōh to here al-bōh ~ la-bōh ūbōh there ḥlakmah ~ ḥlōk ~ ḥlakm ~ ḥlahm ḥlakmah ~ ḥlawk up ḥaḳla ~ ḥaḳḳ aġawf below ba-xōṭar (bi-)xōṭar down mṣā mṣā inside hakban la-ḥaḳ outside barr abarr far rēḥaḳ rēḥaḳ near ḳrīb ḳrayb behind al-ġayran ~ al-ġayrah ūġayran in front fnōhan ūfnōhan

Mehreyyet has in addition an adverb of place that is restricted to modification of the verb ridd ‘to return’; it usually inflects for number and gender to agree with the verbal subject (cf. Johnstone 1987: 212), but may, according to some informants, take the single form kanwēḥ ~ kanwīḥ111 irrespective of the number–gender values of the verbal subject:

yardūd kīnaḥ ‘he goes back’; ardūd kanḥayt ‘I f. go back’; yardawd kanwēḥ ~ kanwīḥ ‘they m. go back’; tardūdan kanḥawtan ‘they f./you f.pl. go back’ M.NS.Rabkūt

The adverbs of time can be subcategorised into adjuncts and conjuncts, the latter having a connective function and linking between what has been said and what is about to be said. The adjuncts are further subcategorised into basic adverbs and grammaticalised adverbs. The most common adverbs of time are shown in tables 81–83, for both dialects.

111 Cf. kinyêḥ ‘zurück (heimwärts)’ recorded by the Viennese Expedition for western Yemeni

Mehri and analysed as etymologically related to kénḥe ‘auch’ (Bittner 1914: 24). In Soqoṭri, kánaḥ precedes a perfect or imperfect verb to express repeated action (Leslau 1938: 221).


118

Table 81: Adverbs of time: Adjuncts, basic adverbs

gloss Mahriyōt Mehreyyet now nṣarōmah ~ naṣrōmah ṣarōmah112 earlier fnōhan fnōhan a long time ago

dwēl (man) dwēl (man) khān (man) khēn

today īmōh īmōh tomorrow jahma gihma tonight yallīlah ilīlah last night yallōh illōh yesterday yamšīh imšēh ~ imših last year lʕōm lāyōman mid-morning ḏōban113 ḏaʔawban midday nhūra nhūran mid-afternoon ġasrawwan114 ġasrawwan always sōbar sōbar once ṭawr ṭawr

maxṭār maxṭār xaṭarāt115 xaṭarāt

never abdan116 abdan ~ abadan rarely xṭā 117

112 What is transcribed as lazarôm(e) for western Yemeni Mehri is analysed by Jahn (1902), and

accepted by Bittner (1914: 26-27), as originally l-azar-dôm (demonstrative) in the sense of ‘at this time’ (zu dieser Zeit). Lonnet (2003: 435) analyses ṣərōməh as ṣər-ō-məh from the root /ʕ-ṣ-r/ meaning ‘time; night’ plus the diactic -məh found in demonstratives and other deictics. Since the lexeme is realised as āṣarōmah in Ndēt, this is most probably the correct analysis.

113 From the root /ḏ-l-b/, as evidenced by the Mehreyyet diminutive form ḏuwālēban. 114 Analysed as a diminutive in Lonnet (2003: 436). From around 4pm on. Given as ‘early

evening’ by Johnstone (1987). 115 These latter two are used particularly at the beginning of narratives. 116 Arabic origin. 117 No adverbial equivalent in Mehreyyet. Typically expressed by VP, as in the response to: man

ḥō hūk fījō ḏōmah ‘Where did you m.s. get that cup from?’ tšaxbar lā [yaksay lā] hīs tah b-adanyē ‘Don’t m.s. ask! The like of it m. can’t be found in the world.’ (M.NS).

2.8 Adverbs

119

Table 82: Adverbs of time: Adjuncts, grammaticalised adverbs

gloss Mahriyōt Mehreyyet in the winter ka-śśētū k-aśēt ū in the hot period ka-ḳayṯ k-aḳayḏ in the monsoon period ka-xxarf k-axxarf in the post-monsoon period ka-ṣayrab k-aṣayrab at dawn ka-ffējar k-affēgar ~ ka-fēgar in the morning ka-ṣōbaḥ k-aṣōbaḥ at noon ka-ṯṯuhr k-aḏahr nefore sunset kalʕaynī118 kalānī ~ kalaynī at night ba-ḥḥallay bi-ḥallay ~ bi-ḥḥallay in the middle of the night faḳḥ ḏa-ʕāṣar faḳḥ ḏ-aʔāṣar in the last part of the night tōlī ḏa-ʕāṣar tōlī ḏ-aʔāṣar a long time ago kanhōr kanhūr a long time ago (man) sāʕat (man) sɛt

man kall snīnan man kall snay sometimes śī man ṭwōr wat ṭawr ~ mat ṭawr

wat sāʕat a short while ago 119 sɛtin always ḥāyām kall ḥāyōm kall earlier (earlier than fnōhan) ḥāwēlan ~ ḥāwēla ḥāwēl on time; at the same time la-ḥall-PRONOUN la-ḥall-PRONOUN for/in a short time swaʕnōt swānōt120

118 Etymologically derived from ka-DEF-NOUN, kalʕaynī (kalānī ~ kalaynī) and kanhōr (kanhūr)

are transcribed without a hyphen, as in earlier works. 119 Not attested in the Mahriyōt data. Suggested by one informant to be sāʕatin. 120 Diminutive form.


120

Table 83: Adverbs of time: Conjuncts

gloss Mahriyōt Mehreyyet sequence (later, then)

mġōran121 ~ mġōh mġōran tōlī (a)tōlī

amtalē-PRONOUN122

adversative (but)

lākan lākan

mākan mākanáy ~ mākanī mākan ~ mākin

ār ār (hīs)

Adverbs of manner comprise basic adverbs including those ending in -ah, -ōh, -an or -a and adverbs that have resulted from grammaticalisation of NPs or the future participle.

Table 84: Adverbs of manner/degree

gloss Mahriyōt Mehreyyet

so; like that

proximal wṭōmah ~ ūṭōmah ~ wṭōh wṭōmah ~ ūṭōmah ~ wṭōm ~ wṭōh

distal wṭakmah ~ ūṭakmah wṭakmah ~ ūṭakmah very wīyan ~ wīya wīyan together faxra faxra also kīnaḥ123 ṭawran well, good taww ~ tū taww

little xaybat xaybat xawr xawr

much mākan mēkan ~ mēkin quickly

fīsāʕ fīsēʔ ṭawr ṭād ṭawr ṭād

approximately wḳōna124 wḳōna [reflexive adverb] waḥś-PRONOUN waḥś-PRONOUN

The shorter forms of the proximal locative adverb, bōh ~ boh, and of the manner adverb, wṭōm ~ wṭōh ~ wṭoh, tend to be used in conjoined or repeated sequences, as for the demonstratives (cf. 2.4.4):

121 Plausibly analysed by Bittner (1913: 77) for western Yemeni Mehri as m-

(<*min)+ġôr+NUNATION where ġôr is traced back to a root {ġ-w-r} = {ġ-h-r} = Arabic ġayr. 122 E.g. amtalay ‘then I’, amtalēʔak ‘then you m.s.’ 123 Cf. Bittner (1913: 78, 1914: 33) for western Yemeni Mehri, also fn. 111, p. 117 above. 124 wḳōna in both dialect groups also functions as a modal adverb, as in: wḳōna lankā ‘I may

come’ (M).

2.8 Adverbs

121

śī ṣfōt [m-bōh walī man bōh] ‘Is there any urgent news from here or there?’ Mo.NS

nḥōkäb ṣwīr śīyaxtän [m-bōh, m-bōh, m-bōh, m-bōh] ‘we lay large stones in a circle here and there’ Sima5:5

wa-šxabīr lih ḥibha [ma-boh m-boh m-boh m-boh] ‘and his parents asked about him here, there and everywhere’ M.N.03.13

wi-yʕōmär [wṭōh wṭōh wṭōh] ‘and he says such and such’ Sima42:8

w-fäḳḥ ḏä-ṯbōt – [wṭōm wṭōm] ‘and half a portion is so much’ Sima11:6

2.8.1 Diminutive adverbs

Several adverbs can take a diminutive form in both dialects. These include the adverbs of place būmah (bawmah) ‘here’, bōh ~ boh ‘here’, ḥlōk (ḥlawk) ‘there’, rēḥaḳ ‘far’, xōṭar ‘down’, ġawf (aġawf) ‘up’;125 the adverbs of time nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah) ‘now’, fnōhan ‘earlier, before’, ka-ṣōbaḥ (k-aṣōbaḥ) ‘morning’, ġasrawwan ‘mid-afternoon’, Mehreyyet ḏaʔawban ‘mid-morning’, and Mahriyōt ḥāwēlan ~ ḥāwēla ‘earlier’; and the adverb of manner wṭōmah ~ wṭōh ~ ūṭōh ‘so; like that’.

The diminutives convey extra proximity in the case of būmah (bawmah), bōh ~ boh and ḥlōk (ḥlawk). Thus an object described as bīyōmah (bīyawmah) is closer to the speaker than one described as būmah (bawmah). An object said to be ḥalīyōk (ḥalīyawk) is less far from the speaker than one that is ḥlōk (ḥlawk). And an object that is rawāḥāḳ is less far than one that is rēḥaḳ. In Mahriyōt, bīyūmah and bīyōh are also used when someone is calling to say they have nearly arrived, and in this sense they are essentially less close to the addressee than they would be if they were said to be būmah and had arrived. Compare the following phrases from Mahriyōt:

ʕādh bīyōh ‘he’s not yet arrived’; barī būmah ‘I’m here’; barī bīyūmah ‘I’m nearly there’

Diminutives of the adverbs of manner wṭōmah ~ wṭōh and the elative axayr ‘better’ are used in the sense of something being not quite right or not quite as would be expected. For instance, when something is not to be tightened too much, wṭīyōmah ~ wṭīyōh may be used rather than wṭōmah. They are often used in reply to a question about health when the respondent does not feel particularly well, as in:

hībōh hēt ‘How are you m.s.?’ wṭīyuh ‘Not so well/not very well.’ Mo

ḏ-ūbadk / wṭīyoh ‘I feel okayish’ M

bars / axāyar ‘she is a bit better’ M

125 Diminutives of xōṭar ‘down’ and aġawf ‘up’ are mentioned by Johnstone (1973: 99).


122

aṭrēf ḏōmah ḥaymal bi-xayr w-aṭrēf ḏōmah ḏa-śaymal [wṭīyōh] tkīnan tah axayr ‘the right side is okay, but the left side is not quite right, you s. would wish it to be better’ M.NS

The diminutives of the adverbs of time fnōhan ‘earlier, before’, nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah) ‘now’ and ḥāwēlan ‘a short time ago’ (Mo) convey the sense of additional proximity to the present moment. nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah) indicates various points around the present time, including: (a) shortly before the present moment, (b) shortly after the present moment, and (c) at the present moment:

(a) nakak ṣarōmah ‘I have just come’ M

(b) sīrīta ṣarōmah ‘I f. am about to go’ M

(c) hōh bark abayt ṣarōmah ‘I’m at home at the moment/now’ M

When the diminutive of nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah) is used, however, it invariably refers to past time and to a more recent past time than the non-diminutive would mean in the same context. Thus in both Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet, if someone has left the house nṣarīyūmah (ṣarīyūmah), they have left more recently than if they had left nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah). In Mahriyōt ḥāwēlan ‘a short time ago’ is further from the present moment than ḥāwīyēlan. fnōhan and fanīyōhan differ in that fanīyōhan is closer to the present time than fnōhan, as in the following exchange:

agmāt ḏa-bawmah hībōh amlam ‘The group that was here, what have they m. done?’

fanīyōhan / ṣarōmah hān syawr fanwīkam ād al-wiṣlakam lā ‘Just now they m. just left before you m.pl. arrived.’ M.NS.MA

Diminutives of the times of the day appear to express a diminution in the height of the sun: the diminutive of ḏōban (ḏaʔawban) ‘mid-morning’, ḏuwālēban, refers to a short while before the time indicated by ḏaʔawban (i.e. around 7–8am as opposed to 8–10am), ṣūbīḥan refers to the time between dawn and sunrise as opposed to ka-ṣōbaḥ (k-aṣōbaḥ) which refers to morning in general, and ġasārēyan refers to the time just before sunset when the sun is at a lower position than at ġasrawwan, which refers to mid-afternoon (cf. Jahn 1902: 185).

2.8.2 Interrogative adverbs

The interrogative adverbs are wkōh, which questions reason, hībōh, which questions manner or identity, mayt ~ maytan, which questions time, hȭ ~ ḥȭ, which questions location or, together with a preposition, direction, and kam, which questions quantity.

2.8 Adverbs

123

2.8.2.1 wkōh

wkōh ‘why’, often realised as wkoh, is frequently followed by a pronoun to ask the reason for someone being in a particular state or the reason for them doing something in a particular manner. It may precede or follow the questioned element:

wkōh / hēt ‘What’s up with you m.s.?’ Mo

wkōh / hēh ḏ-ībayk ‘Why is he crying?’ Mo

It can also be followed by a verb in the perfect to ask why an event did or did not take place, or by a verb in the indicative mood of the imperfect:

wkōh / sēh sīrōt mdarsēt lā ‘Why didn’t she go to school?’ Mo.NS

awxarš / wkōh ‘Why did you f.s. cancel?’ M.NS

wkōh / tsērī lā ‘Why aren’t you f.s. going?’ M.NS

2.8.2.2 hībōh

hībōh ‘how; what; why’, often realised as hīboh, has a wider range of use than its usual translations of Arabic ‘kayf’ or English ‘how’, since it may question identity as well as manner and, occasionally, reason. In questioning the manner or identity of an action or state in the past, hībōh takes a following or preceding perfect verb:

ā ʕAskäri, [hībōh / ʕmärk hä-Shäyl]? ‘Askari, what did you m.s. say to Shayl?’ Sima30:29

hībōh / ʕamlakam ‘What have you m.pl done?’ Mo.NS

amark / hībōh ‘What did you m.s. say?’ M.NS

hībōh / amlak ūṭōmah ‘Why did you m.s. do like that?’ M.NS

In questioning the identity or manner by which something takes place, hībōh takes a verb in the indicative in reference to current or habitual events, and a future participle in reference to future states or events:

hībōh / yʕamräm ‘What do they m. say/sing?’ Sima47:15

hībōh / tämyīzän ṣawtäs ‘How can you m.s. distinguish her sound?’ Sima47:38

hībōh / amlīta ‘What are you f.s. going to do ?’ M.NS

In questioning the reason or manner behind an action/state that may or should take place, a following verb is in the subjunctive:

Aas-sǟʕah ṯintäynA ʕād widʕak, [hībōh / laʕmōl lǟ] ‘at two o’clock, I no longer knew what to do’ Sima46:5

hībōh / lankā ‘How should I come?’ M.NS


124

2.8.2.3 mayt ~ maytan

mayt ~ maytan ‘when’ can be followed by a future participle when asking about a specific event in the future, a verb in the indicative when asking about general or habitual events, and a verb in the perfect when asking about an event that took place in the past:

maytan / nukʕak ‘When did you m.s. come?’ Mo.NS

ḏōm xbēr maytan / wīḳaʕ ‘That news, when did it take place?’ Mo.NS

mäyt / tälbōsän axah ḥaynēṯ ḏōmäh ḏhēb ‘When do women wear this gold?’ Sima59:121

maytan / taškūf ‘When do you m.s. sleep?’ M.NS

mayt / ankayta ‘When will she/you f.s. come?’ M.NS

Followed by a verb in the subjunctive, mayt asks for a possible or probable time:

mayt / lankā ‘When should I come?’ M.NS

The shortened form of mayt, mat, functions as an adjunct of time in supplementary clauses:

mat / barsan hīs fnōhan ‘when they f. are as they were before’ M.N.04.16

2.8.2.4 hȭ ~ ḥȭ

hȭ ~ ḥȭ ‘where’ can ask about location, occasionally preceded by ba- (bi-), or, when preceded by either man ‘from’ or la- ‘to’, direction:

b-ḥȭ kusk tēh ‘Where did you m.s. find it?’ Mo.NS

man hȭ ḳhēbaš ‘Where have you f.s. come from [said around midday]?’ Mo.NS

ḥȭ aġayg ḏa-śum lūk ḥaybīt ‘Where is the man who sold the camel to you m.s.?’ M.N.01.30

āmūr hēh / man ḥȭ nakak hēt ‘he said to him, ‘Where have you m.s. come from?’’ M.N.03.05

2.8.2.5 kam

kam ‘how much; how many’ is followed or preceded by a VP, NP or PP to ask about number or quantity. When followed or preceded by a NP, a count noun is in the plural, as in šayš kam ḥbūn ‘How many children do you f.s. have?’:

kam tamzōz ba-nhōrak ‘How many do you m.s. smoke in a day?’ Mo.NS

śillam lūk kam ‘How much did they take from you m.s. [for the bride price]?’ M.NS

2.8 Adverbs

125

sɛt kam bars ‘What time is it already?’ M.NS

šayš kam rawn ‘How many goats do you f.s. have?’ M.NS

kam šūk skēr ‘How much sugar do you m.s. have?’ M.NS

bār hēh kam ḏa-gīlū ‘How long has he been ill for?’ M.NS

2.8.3 Adverbial particles

In addition to the adverbs discussed above, there are a number of adverbial particles in the dialects. Where translations are provided below, these are for convenience and only approximate, since the meaning differs according to the context:

ār [restrictive], [exceptive], bār ‘already’, ʕād (ād) ‘again, still’, fōna [past], [avertive], āśam-PRONOUN [habitual past], ḥbōr ‘the moment that’ (M), mad [future] (Mo), ʕsē126 [exceptive] (Mo)

Of these particles, bār, ʕād (ād), Mehreyyet ḥbōr and Mahriyōt mad occur only before the modified element. fōna may precede or follow the modified element. āśam-PRONOUN usually precedes the modified element, but may follow. For the syntax of ār, ḥbōr, and ʕsē, cf. chapter 9.

2.8.3.1 bār

bār,127 frequently realised in context as bar, heads a verbal clause with the verb in the perfect or a locational clause to assert that an action has taken place or a state has been entered into and that its effect continues to obtain; it heads a verbal clause with the future participle or verb in the subjunctive to assert that the entity expressed by the predicand is on the verge of doing something (cf. 9.1.5.1.2); it heads a nominal clause to assert that the state in the predicate continues to obtain. For the epistemic function of bār when followed by a verb in the indicative, cf. 2.8.4; 9.1.8.1:

Verbal clause

ḥābū / bǟr afsǟḥam bä-lyōmäh ‘people have given up on those [things]’ Sima1:40

bār nūka ‘he has come’ M.NS

barī ʔamlīta ‘I [f] am about to do’ M.NS

Locational clause

bār hayš kam man ġayjaš ‘How long have you f.s. been away from your husband?’ Mo.NS

126 From Arabic ʕasā. 127 bār appears to take perfect verb suffixes in Śḥerɛt and Soqoṭri (Simeone-Senelle 2011b:

1098).


126

[bār haynī ḥawlī ṯroh128 śitmak frayś ḳannawn] wa-hēh [barh bōkar ṣarōmah] ‘it is two years ago since I bought a small female camel calf, and now it m. is a young camel (c. 2 years old)’ M.NS

Nominal clause

barš ār dḳīḳ [lit. you f.s. are just flour] ‘you’re f.s. like a wet rag’ Mo.NS

bars ōśar wa-faḳḥ ‘it is/is it already 10.30(?)’ M.NS

In a positive reply to a question, or when asking whether something or someone is ready, bar-PRONOUN can stand alone:

bār awōḏan ‘Has the call to prayer been made?’ barh ‘It has.’ M.NS

barš ‘Are you f.s. ready?’ barī ‘I am.’ M.NS

2.8.3.2 ʕād (ād)

ʕād (ād) asserts the continuity of a state or action in the clause, and precedes the modified element. Negation of clauses involving ʕād (ād) is discussed in detail in chapter 8 (8.1.6):

ʕād-as ḳaʕf [ʕād-3FS camel.not.in.calf] ‘she [i.e. camel] is still not in calf’ Sima47:31

wa-sēh ʕād-as b-īs śxōf [CONJ-3FS ʕād-3FS with-3FS milk] ‘and she still has milk’ Sima47:30

ʕād (ād) can indicate repetition before a perfect verb:

ād tuwaš taywī ‘Have you f.s. eaten meat again?’ M.NS

Before locational clauses, ʕād (ād) can take a dummy 3ms pronoun:

ād-h š-īn waḳt [ād-3MS with-1PL time] ‘we still have time’ M.NS

It may take a pronoun suffix in an elliptical clause to ask if the addressee would like more or another of something (usually tea, coffee):

ādiš ṭwādēd ‘Do you f.s. want another small one?’ M.NS

ādak (ṭād) ‘Do you m.s. want another?’ M.NS

128 Better: snētī ṯrayt. ḥawl is generally used for ages or for specifying time when purchasing.

The sense of this sentence could better be rendered: fnōhan lāyōman śitmak frayś wa-barh ṣarōmah bōkar ḏik awaḳtan bar ḥawl wa-faḳḥ ‘the year before last I bought a female camel calf, and now it is a young camel; at that time it was a year and a half old’ (M.NS.MA).

2.8 Adverbs

127

ʕād (ād) can emphasise the proposition in the clause, particularly where elatives are involved:

ād-ham bāś aʔḳar man-h [ād-3MPL some big.COMP than-3MS] ‘some of them m. are even bigger than it m.’ M.NS

hībōh ašbāʔak ‘How is your m.s. finger?’ ād-h hīs fnōhan [ād-3MS like before] ‘It m. is as it was before.’ M.NS

Before a future participle, ʕād (ād) asserts that an event has not yet taken place or a state obtained:

ādī katbīta ‘I f. still have to write’ ~ ‘I f. am still going to write’ M.NS

2.8.3.3 fōna

fōna, etymologically related to Soqoṭri fεne ‘face’ (Simeone-Senelle & Lonnet 1985–1986: 273), functions as a tense particle that places the predication in the past in both dialects. In Mehreyyet when a continuous state or action is concerned, fōna shares this role with āśam-PRONOUN:

fōna / ḏ-aḥōjas bīs ‘I was thinking about it f.’ Mo.NS

sēh [fōna / bak xaṭrī] ‘it f. was in my mind’ Mo.NS

hēt [fōna / ār ḥlōk] hāśan nūkaʕ būk būmah ‘You m.s. used to be there. What brought you here?’ Mo.NS

hīt [fōna / hīs taww taʕmīl wṭōmah lā] ‘You f.s. shouldn’t have done that!’ Mo.NS

(cp. hīt hīs taww taʕmīl wṭōmah lā ‘You f.s. should not do that!’)

lōb [fōna / ġayg] arḥaym hāśan wīḳa bih ‘He used to be a really nice man, what happened to him?’ M.NS

wa-hīh [fōna / bawmah hinay] ‘and he used to be here with me’ M.N.03.14

fōna usually precedes the predicate, as in the examples above, but in both dialects it may follow the predicate:

w-hēt hȭ – [hōh srūk / fōna] – ḥussak bī lā ‘Where were you?’ ‘I was behind you – didn’t you notice me?’ Mo.NS

[ḏa-ḥibrak / fōna] ṣarōmah šagnēk bark AkanbalA ‘I was cold and now I have warmed up under the blanket’ M.NS

hēh bark xadamēt / fōna ‘he used to be in employment’ M.NS.Rabkūt

For the use of fōna to express the avertive, unfulfilled intention and being on the verge of doing something, cf. 9.1.5.1.2.


128

2.8.3.4 āśam-PRONOUN

āśam-PRONOUN most commonly expresses past habitual (cf. 2.5.1.5), referring to a more distant past than fōna; but it may also be used in contexts where fōna would be acceptable, as in the first two examples below:

āśamī / aġōlaḳ man kliniks ‘I was looking for tissues’ M.NS

āśamas / arġād madanay ‘she’d been in the earlier stages of pregnancy’ M.N.Rabkūt02.02

āśami / śnawwan ḥanōfī bay AḏaġṭA ‘I used to think I had (high) blood pressure’ M.NS

āśam-PRONOUN typically occurs before the modified element, but may follow, as in:

hōh aġśōn minsēn / āśamī ‘I used to be fond of them f.’ M.N.Rabkūt04.07

mōn hinīkam man gīrān / āśamkam ‘Who did you m.s. have as neighbours?’ M.N.03.26

2.8.3.5 mad

In Mahriyōt, mad-PRONOUN followed by a verb in the subjunctive expresses future time:129

madš tinkaʕ šīn ‘Will you f.s. come with us?’

madš taktēb ‘you f.s. will write’

In the case of 3ms and 3mpl, the pronoun suffix can be omitted:

ḏäkm ḏ-mäd yaġōräm lē ‘the one who wants to slaughter a cow’ Sima11:4

2.8.4 Epistemic adverbs

Epistemology, which indicates the degree to which the speaker is committed to the truth of the proposition (cf. Payne 1997: 70, 246), is expressed principally adverbially in Mehri. Epistemic adverbs in Mehri include bār in some functions, mxaṭṭar, lōb, śaf, xāf, madanī–PRONOUN, adamm-PRONOUN and walā. These are described and analysed in chapter 9 (9.1.8).

2.8.5 Modal particles

Mehri has a number of modal particles. These include man ʕād (man ād ~ m-ād) which expresses negative purpose (9.2.6), optative particles such as Mehreyyet sād, sadī wa-lū and waddar wa-lū ‘I wish’, and deontic particles such as taww ‘should; perhaps’, hīs taww ‘should’, and, in Mahriyōt, yḳāʕan ‘should’. On its own, taww takes a pronoun suffix and a following verb in the subjunctive. man ʕād (man ād ~

129 As in Hobyōt (Simeone-Senelle 2011a: 320).

2.8 Adverbs

129

m-ād), sād, sadī wa-lū, waddar wa-lū and hīs taww are followed by a verb in the subjunctive, though the subject may intervene between the particle and the verb. yḳāʕan has the form of a verb in the conditional mood; however, Mahriyōt no longer has the conditional mood actively, yḳāʕan does not inflect, and it must therefore be considered a grammaticalised modal particle. It is followed by ḏa-PERFECT or by a non-verbal predicate to express a state or action that should or could have taken place, but did not. As discussed in chapter 9 (9.2.8.2), this construction is often used in the apodasis of a counterfactual conditional clause.

2.8.5.1 sād ~ sadī wa-lū ~ waddar wa-lū

Mehreyyet sād, sadī wa-lū and, less commonly, waddar wa-lū express a (usually improbable) optative restricted to the first person:

sād / laśxawwal bawmah snēt lagrē ḏ-ātalōm amahrayyat taww ‘I wish I could stay here a year in order to learn Mehreyyet properly’ M.NS

sadī wa-lū / lhɛtam hāl ḥabinya ilīlah ‘I wish I could spend the night with my children’ M.NS

waddar wa-lū / lśxawwal bawmah snēt wa-lātalōm amahrayyat taww ‘I wish I could stay here a year and learn Mehreyyet properly’ M.NS

waddar wa-lū / lhaslam w-aġaygī yišɛman wa-yhaslam šay ‘I wish I could enter Islam and my husband be convinced and become a Muslim with me’ M.NS.MA

Where the optative is unrealisable sād / sadī wa-lū is followed by wīḳa in the subjunctive followed by bār–PERFECT:

sadī wa-lū / laḳāʔ bār axāṣak aktōb ḏa-ġrōy amahray ‘I wish I had already finished the book on the Mehri language’ M.NS

The subject of the clause is not necessarily first person, as in the examples below:

hām wkabk al-islām [sād / aġaygī yišɛman wa-yhaslam šay] ‘if I enter Islam, I hope my husband will be convinced and become a Muslim with me’ M.NS

sadī wa-lū / tūsah ṣarōmah aḳāʔ hawrat bār hēh sɛt min amūsē ‘I wish it would rain now, the ground is dry; it is a long time since rain came to it’ M.NS

sadī wa-lū / tagrah hāl ḥabinya ilīlah ‘I wish you m.s. would pass by my children this evening’ M.NS

A pronoun subject may intervene between sadī and wa-lū:

sadī [hōh] wa-lū / alšafaḳ hēxar bāl hibɛr yʔāmī amahrayyat l-hīs aḥōm ‘I wish I could marry an old man with camels, so he could teach me Mehri as I would like’ M.NS


130

2.8.5.2 taww

taww- and hīs taww express obligation (Lonnet 2003).130 On its own, taww- requires a pronoun suffix that agrees with the subject of the proposition. hīs taww may not take a pronoun suffix. Both forms take a following verb in the subjunctive, although, as pointed out by Rubin (2010: 256), taww- may be used independently with the verb implied.

hōh tawwī / lsēr yaman ‘I should go to Yemen’ Mo.NS

tawwak / tāmōl haynī wōgab ‘you m.s. should do me a favour’ M.NS

hīs taww / taʕmīl wṭōmah lā ‘you f.s. shouldn’t do that’ Mo.NS

hīs taww / ḥkōmat tzamkam bayt wa-sīyaryat ‘the government should give you m.pl. a house and a car’ M.NS

hēt wat syarš mkōn [hīs taww / taʔmēlī AriyāḏahA bark ḥagritš] ‘you f.s., when you go somewhere, you should do exercise in your room’ M.NS

hīs taww / nakwāš lā ‘we shouldn’t rush you f.s.’ M.NS

2.8.5.3 yḳāʕan

Mahriyōt yḳāʕan expresses what should or could have happened had circumstances been different, often occurring in the apodasis of a counterfactual conditional clause, as in the first example below (cf. 9.2.8.2):

hēt wlī drask lā [yḳāʕan / hēt wṭōmah lā] ‘if you m.s. hadn’t studied, you wouldn’t have turned out like that’ Mo.NS

yḳāʕan / ḏa-jhamk šān ‘you m.s. should have come with us’ Mo.NS

yāsir bār jhām [yḳāʕan / ḏa-mūrax hīnī ṭadʕī] ‘Yasir has left; he could have massaged my back’ Mo.NS

yḳāʕan / ḏa-ʕmarš hīnī hīs šīš drēham lā ṭawr ḏakm ‘you f.s. should have told me since you didn’t have any money at that time’ Mo.NS

2.9 Minor categories

Under minor categories, I include words that are uninflectable, from which diminutives cannot be derived, and which, with the exception of disjuncts, and the negative and positive response or anaphoric particles, cannot usually occur in isolation. These are function words whose sense is difficult to explain out of context. They include conjunctions, the accusative affix ta-, adjunctions, disjuncts and other particles and affixes. Many elements in this category are minor not only in terms of their semantics, but also in terms of their phonology, containing no (vocative ā), one

130 Cf. tó ‘ought’ in Śḥerɛt (Hofstede 1998: 111).


131

(e.g. ta-, wa-, aw, ḏa-, lā) or two consonants (hām, lū ~ law, wat). Of these ta-, wa-, ḏa- are obligatorily bound morphemes. wa- and ḏa- as attributiviser are defined as clitics since they are not restricted to a particular host (Haspelmath & Sims 2010: 198): the conjunction wa- may attach to any element that constitutes an independent phonological word (noun, verb, prepositional phrase, adverb); ḏa- may attach to any element when heading an attributive phrase or attribution clause. ta- is an affix since it is restricted to taking a dependent pronoun as host.

2.9.1 Conjunctions

True conjunctions head a conjunct within a coordinate complex and may not be preceded by another conjunction (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 141). In Mehri they are:

Additive: wa- ~ w- ~ ū-131

Alternative: aw ~ walī ~ walā

Adversative: lahinna (M)

Several adverbs and particles function as conjuncts in the dialects, including adversative ār ~ ār hīs, sequential mġōran ~ mġōh, (a)tōlī, amšaġarīt and imtalē-PRONOUN (M), and adversative lākan (< Arabic lākin), mākan and mākanay ~ mākanī (M). These may all be preceded by wa- and hence are considered to be conjuncts rather than true conjunctions (cf. 2.8 above). Conjunctions and conjuncts are treated in chapter 7.

2.9.2 Accusative affix ta-

The accusative affix ta- functions as a place holder for a pronoun suffix (cf. 5.1.4.2). In Mehreyyet, it is obligatory before the object pronoun of a transitive verb which is neither the 3fs inflectional form of the perfect nor ends in a vowel or glide or root consonant. In Mahriyōt, ta-PRONOUN is preferred where the perfect verb takes a first or second person subject suffix, but it may alternate with direct suffixation of the pronoun on the verb, as in the following alternatives:

kuskam tōh lā ~ kuskamh lā ‘you m.pl. didn’t find it m.’ Mo

nḥa kūsan tōh lā ~ kūsanh lā ‘we didn’t find it m.’ Mo

All transitive future participles in Mehreyyet and all but the masculine singular future participle in Mahriyōt are obliged to take object pronouns via ta- (cf. 5.1.4.2):

ġabrōna tēš ‘(I/you/he) m.s. will meet you f.s.’ M.NS

śanyīta tēk ‘(I/you/she) f.s. will see you m.s.’ M.NS

131 The ū- variant results from sonorant metathesis in both dialects (cf. 1.3.2.7).


132

ta- also obligatorily links the comparative preposition hīs to a pronoun suffix in both dialects (cf. 4.2.2):

hīs tīkam ‘like you m.pl.’; hīs tōs ‘like her’ (Mo); hīs tīs ‘like her’ (M)

2.9.3 Adjunctions

The subordinating adjunctions include adjunctions of time, place, condition, including condition-concession, reason and purpose, and comparison. They include:

Table 85: Adjunctions

gloss Mahriyōt Mehreyyet

condition factual hām ~ hān hām ~ hīs counterfactual lū lū

time hīs ~ wat ~ at-tā hīs ~ wat ~ mat ~ mit ~ tā

reason / purpose hīs ~ lajrē (ḏa-) ~ at-tā ~ l-inna

hīs ~ lagrē (ḏa-) ~ tā ~ l-inna ~ la-hāśan

place hāl ~ tāl hān132 ~ hāl degree & comparison la-hīs ~ hīs la-hīs ~ hīs ~ la-hān

2.9.4 Disjuncts

Mehri has a large number of disjunctive discourse particles which serve to indicate the speaker’s attitude or structure their relationship to other participants in the discourse. These include, with their approximant translations, axah ~ yaxah ‘that is to say’ in some of its functions, hawbat ~ hōbat (hawba) ‘that is to say, i.e.’, xarāna ‘fine, well’, xayban ‘well, okay’, yaḥōl ~ yaḥawl ‘yes, of course’, hīs taww ‘good’, taḥḳayḳ ‘certainly’, ḥatm ‘certainly’, and certain phrases invoking the name of God, including: hām abɛli yḥōm ‘God willing’, hām abɛlī kōtab ‘if God decrees’, hām abɛlī ḳōdar ‘if God is able’, tašhōl slōmat ‘you m.s. deserve safe passage [after illness, operation, travel]’, aḥtamīdan arḥamōn ‘I thank God’, maḥmīd arḥamōn ‘God be praised’. They are distinct from the adverbial and epistemic particles viewed above in that they may stand alone, they may serve as fillers or tags, and they function to structure the relationship of the speaker within the conversation. Many disjuncts may fall outside the prosodic structure of the clause, particularly in peripheral positions, in contrast to adjuncts and conjuncts. Disjuncts are discussed further in chapter 9 (9.1.9).

2.9.5 Other particles and affixes

Other particles and affixes include ḏa-, the existential particle śī, vocative particles, negative particles and the negative clitic, affirmative particles and imperative particles.

132 Also occasionally acts as an adjunction of time.


133

2.9.5.1 ḏa-

ḏa- functions either as (a) an attributiviser in a NP introducing a nominal, prepositional, adverbial or clausal attribute, (b) a complementiser in a VP, (c) an adjunction in an adverbial clause, or (d) a continuous aspect marker before a verb of activity in the indicative, and before a verb in the perfect expressing entry into a state or into a state of being in a particular activity. The syntax of ḏa- is discussed further in chapters 3 (3.1.10, 3.2), 5 (5.1.7) and 9 (9.2.5.2):

(a) Attribution

najm ḏōmah / ḏa-nṣarōmah nḥah bēh ‘this star where we now are’ Mo.NS

lōb ār baḥḥōr ḏāk / ḏa-yajrūr ba-ssayb ‘especially that sailor who rows with the oars’ Mo.NS

ṣawb / ḏa-taywī ‘meat broth’ M.NS

�m¦ذ� uك ا��~� bark abaytī / ḏa-b-ḥaft ‘in my house that is at Ḥaft’ M.txt

(b) Complementation

hēt ḥɛmak fnōhan šība yōm / ḏa-sēh ḥaybitk bawmah ‘Did you dream m.s. a week ago that your camel was here?’ M.NS

hīboh ġrabš tīs / ḏa-sēh mahrayyat ‘How did you f.s. know that she was Mehri?’ M.NS

(c) Adjunction

After certain discourse phrases, a clause of reason may be introduced by ḏa-:

aḥtamīdan arḥamōn / ḏa-hēt ḏ-ūbadš axayr ‘I thank God that you f.s. are better’ M.NS

(d) Aspectual marker

ḏa- prefixed to a verb of activity in the indicative mood of the imperfect aspect denotes continuation of the action denoted by the verb:

wa-ḥḥābū [ḏi-yräḳdäm ḏi-yzäfnäm133 ḏi-yräḳdäm ḏi-yläbdäm] män ṯār ṭādīdäyhäm ‘the people were dancing, and dancing and dancing, and were shooting around each other’ Sima35:11

amsēr ḳōmaḥ / ḏ-angatrūś ‘walking is bad, [so] I am shuffling along’ M.NS

anhūrī [ḏ-aṣaḳiš] wa-l-hamaš tay lā ‘I was calling you f.s. all day, but you didn’t hear me’ M.NS.MA

133 Synonymous with ḏi-yräḳdäm.


134

ḏa- prefixed to a stative verb or normally dynamic verb in the perfect aspect gives ingressive meaning, denoting entry into the state or into the state of the activity denoted by the verb (cf. 2.5.1.5):

ḏōm hōh / ḏa-ġräbk tōh ‘that m. is what I know [= have become aware of]’ Sima10:24

ḏa-ḏaymak ‘I/you m.s. am/are thirsty [= have become thirsty]’ M.NS

2.9.5.2 Existential particle

śī, as seen above, functions as an indefinite pronoun with reference to an inanimate object. It also functions as an existential particle, particularly in yes–no questions, and emphasises negation in the negation of constituents or absolute negation (cf. 8.3, 8.9.1). Examples include:

śī śxōf ‘Is there any milk?’

śī ṣayd ‘Are there any fish?’ Mo.NS

ḥlawk / śī lā harmayt ‘there weren’t any trees there’ M.N.04.03

śī gīwēʔ lā ‘there weren’t any holes’ M.N.04.03

2.9.5.3 Vocative particle

The vocative particle in both dialects is ā, and occasionally yā borrowed from Arabic. It is followed by a proper noun, or a noun with a pronoun suffix and, in Mehreyyet, a noun without the definite article when the exponent of the article is a-, but a noun with the definite article when the exponent of the article is ḥa- or ha-:

ā shēl ‘Shēl!’; ā ḥaybī ‘Father!’; ā ġiggīt ‘Girl!’ (M); ā ḥabraytī ‘Daughter!’ (M); yā baxtī būk ‘My luck is with you m.s.!’ (M.N)

2.9.5.4 Negative and positive response particles

The positive response particles are ahā ~ ahah ~ hā, āwah, ayyah and yāyā. yaḥōl ~ yaḥawl serves as an intensive affirmative response particle. The basic elements of negative particles and affixes are lā and mā ~ ma-. lā can stand alone as an anaphoric negator or negative response particle. In negation of the proposition or elements within the proposition, lā follows the negated element, and the negative clitic la- precedes a negated element in bipartite negative constructions. mā ~ ma- is restricted to specific negative constructions. maḳāʕ (maḳā ~ maḳāʔ) negates the effect of a following proposition conveying the sense that it is as if the assertion in the proposition did not take place. The negative adverb abdan ~ abadan listed above under adverbs of time intensifies negation, usually in response to a formulaic greeting. bahaw acts as negative response particle in Mehreyyet.134 In the Mehri of

134 Not described in Rubin (2010).


135

Yemeni Irma and that of the Mehri communities now settled in eastern Saudi Arabia, nawwah acts as an independent negator. abdan, bahaw and nawwah are predominantly attested in negative responses to formulaic greetings and negative responses to yes–no questions, and are more emphatic than lā in the same contexts. The syntax of negation is examined in chapter 8.

2.9.5.5 Frozen imperatives

Mehri has four frozen imperative or cohortative particles all of which are attested in both dialects, the undeclinable ndōh ‘Give!’ (Rubin 2010: 254), ḥa- with second person pronoun ‘Take!’,135 the cohortative ġdū ‘Let’s!’ (Rubin 2010: 252; cf. 2.5.1.5 for ġdawwan and ġdawkī), and dūn ((a)dawn-) plus second person pronoun ‘Take! Up to you!’ (cf. Rubin 2010: 251). Of these, ḥa-PRONOUN can only occur independently. Examples include:

ndō l-boh ‘Give here!’ Mo.NS

xayban, / ndōh hīni skīn ‘Okay, give me a knife!’ Sima87:16

amūr hēh / ndōh AagawāzātA ‘he told him, ‘Hand over the passports!’’ M.N.03.08

ḥaš ‘Take f.s.!’; ḥak ‘Take m.s.!’; ḥakkam ‘Take m.pl.!’; ḥakkan ‘Take f.pl.!’

ʕamōr hēh yallah / dūnak w-ḳaḥf aw jaḥlēt wa-l-hin barkīs ‘they f. said to him, ‘Just go, with the pot or jaḥlēt and everything in it f.!’’ Mo.N.01.27

hōh sīrōna w-itēm / adawnkam bi-ḳarmōś ‘I’m going and you m.pl. do what you like with the things!’ M.NS

nḥah ʔād al-wiṣlan amandīr lā mhaḳfadūtan tēk la-ḥayḳ wa-hēt / adawnak ba-ḥnafk ‘before we reach the port, we’ll put you down on the shore and you can do what you want’ M.N.03.10

Mehreyyet abōbana followed by a noun phrase adds intensity to a following imperative.

abōbana hēt / hawṣal ḥibya awarḳāt ḏīmah ‘I beg you m.s., take this paper to my parents!’ M.NS

abōnana hēt / ftēśaḥ la-ḥnafš ‘Come on, you f.s. should be ashamed of yourself!’ M.NS

abōbana tēm / anḥarfśam līn fīsēʔ habṭawt tnafʔakam śī lā ‘Come on you m.pl., come to us quickly, being slow won’t bring you anything!’ M.NS

abōban aġaytī / śxayfī kōb ḏa-śxōf lagrē tšiḳwī ‘I beg [you] sister, drink a cup of milk so you f.s. become strong!’ M.NS

135 Cp. Classical Arabic hāk ‘Take m.s.!’


136

abōban aġaytī / ḳfēlī līn abōb myēta min ḥabūr ‘I beg [you] sister, close the door, we will die of cold’ M.NS

2.9.5.6 Exclamations

Mehri has a number of exclamatory particles that function as content disjuncts (cf. also 9.1.9.1), and that most frequently occur independently. These include Mehreyyet šnaykam bi- ‘Poor X!’, ḥayšawf ‘How wonderful!’, yaḥḳab-PRONOUN ‘What a shame!’, and kān ‘How wonderful!’, ṣallah136 ‘Of course!’; and Mahriyōt yā maCCaC-PRONOUN ‘How …!’.

2.9.5.6.1 šnaykam bi-

šnaykam bi-ḥabray ‘My poor son!’

šnaykam bay / hōh ḳaṭ ka-ḥābū wa-l-hōh ḏa-ġribk śī lā xahōh bark ġallēt ‘Poor me! I’m with other people but I don’t know anything, [it’s] as if I’m in a fog.’ M.NS

2.9.5.6.2 ḥayšawf

ḥayšawf can either occur independently or followed by a PP headed by man:

ḥayšawf / man aḳāʔ ‘How wonderful the land is!’ M.NS

ḥayšawf / man lyōmah ‘How wonderful those things are!’ M.NS.Rabkūt

2.9.5.6.3 (ya)ḥḳab

(ya)ḥḳab takes a pronoun suffix, and can either occur independently or followed by a NP. It conveys a sense of regret for what has passed:

yaḥḳabs ‘What a shame about her/it f.!’ M.NS

yaḥḳabsan / snay ḏa-grūh ‘What a shame for the years that have passed!’ M.NS

yaḥḳabh / awaḳt ḥāwalay ‘What a shame for the time before!’ M.NS.MA

ḥaḳabh / ḥabray man yaḳāʔ bār hārūs yiḳāʔan bār šēh ḥabinha ṣarōmah ‘If only my son were married, he would have his own children by now’ M.NS.MA

2.9.5.6.4 kān

kān takes a following explicit noun phrase as the object of admiration. It is often said when the speaker is reminded of an object or person. It may agree in gender with the object, but not in number:

136 Often followed by the intensifier ḳaṭ.


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ā kān hibɛr ‘How lovely the camels are!’ M.NS

ā kānt Janet ‘How lovely Janet is!’ M.NS

ā kān mḥammad ‘How wonderful Mohammed is!’ M.NS

2.9.5.6.5 yā maCCaC

yā maCCaC features regularly in Mahriyōt, but rarely in Mehreyyet, as an exclamation. Formed on the template maCCaC, it appears to be derivable from any semantically appropriate triliteral adjective. It may take a following noun, pronoun or bar-PRONOUN. Where it takes following bar-PRONOUN, the implication is that the referent has gained a particular quality that they may not have had before. In the case of weather adjectives, the phrase may occur independent of a following element:

yā makṯar / ḥābū bak sūḳ ‘How many people there are in the market!’ (kṯīr ‘many’)

yā marḥam / barš ‘How lovely you f.s. are (now)!’ (rḥīm ‘good-looking’)

yā maḥbar ‘How cold it is!’ (ḥbūr ‘cold’)

yā maśbal ‘How cold it is!’ (śābal ‘cold’)

yā malbanh ‘How white he is!’ (lbōn ‘white)

yā majyadh ‘How good he is!’ (jīd ‘good’)

yā maṭwalk ‘How tall you m.s. are!’ (ṭwīl ‘tall’)

yā maḳnanh ‘How small he is!’ (ḳannūn ‘small’)

yā maḳṣarš ‘How short you f.s. are!’ (ḳṣīr ‘short’)

A noun may stand in apposition to the pronoun suffix:

yā maḳṣarš / tēṯ ‘How short you f.s. are, woman!’

yā marḥamh / ġayj ‘How beautiful the man is!’

3 Attribution

The noun phrase (NP) can be simplex or complex. A simplex NP comprises a single nominal that can stand independently, including a definite or indefinite substantive, an independent pronoun, a demonstrative, an interrogative pronoun, or an indefinite pronoun. Examples of simplex NPs in Mehri are given in the clauses below between brackets:

[hōh] waḥśī bäk [sänbūḳ] ‘I was alone in the boat’ Sima46:4

[ḥād] bärkīsän lǟ ‘no one [lives] in them f.’ Sima45:13

śīnak [rēśīt] ‘I saw a snake’

[sinnawrat] bark [abayt] ‘a/the cat is in the house’ M.NS

wa-[ḏayk] ūbanīt ‘and that f. is white f.s.’ M.NS

A complex NP involves expansion of a simplex NP. There are three means of NP expansion in the language: attribution, which expands the NP exclusively; apposition, which may also expand other grammatical categories and in many cases is asyntactic; and annexion, which also produces prepositional phrases (PPs). In this chapter, I will examine attribution and apposition, the latter of which has also been described as substantive attribution.

Attribution may involve NP expansion through an adjectival phrase (AP), a demonstrative, a PP, an annexion phrase, an attributive phrase introduced by ḏa-, or an attributive clause. In each case, the unmarked order is noun–attribute, but the marked word order attribute–noun can also occur for focus or stylistic reasons.

3.1 Adjectival and demonstrative attribution

Adjectival and demonstrative attribution involve inherently symmetrical relationships: the adjective or demonstrative agrees in all shared morphological categories with the attributed term. Since nouns exhibit the morphological categories gender and number in Mahriyōt and gender, number and definiteness in Mehreyyet, the adjective or attributive demonstrative will also exhibit these categories where they have morphological and phonological realisation.

3.1.1 Adjectival attribute

In adjectival attribution, the adjective comes to the right of the head noun. The adjectives in the following NPs from Mehreyyet agree with the head noun in number, gender and definiteness values:


139

bayt ḳannitt [house.FS small.FS] ‘a small house’

a-bayt a-ḳannitt [DEF-house.FS DEF-small.FS] ‘the small house’

bū rīḥōm [people.MPL kind.MPL] ‘kind people’

ḥā-bū a-rīḥōm [DEF-people.MPL DEF-kind.MPL] ‘the kind people’

In case of a diminutive noun, the attribute may, but is not required to, also agree in diminution. The adjective ḳannawn ‘small’ frequently modifies a diminutive noun, but there are no examples of ḳannawn in its diminutive form in the database.

farāśān ūbānēn [female.camel.calf.MS.DIM white.MS.DIM] ‘a small white female camel calf’ M.N.Rabkūt

farāśān ūbōn [female.camel.calf.MS.DIM white.MS] ‘a small white female camel calf’ M.N.Rabkūt

ḳwābēr ḳannawn [grave.MS.DIM small.MS] ‘a small grave’ M.N.Rabkūt

In attribution to an annexion phrase (cf. chapter 4), the adjective must occur to the right of the entire annexion phrase, irrespective of whether it modifies the annex, as in the first example below, or the annexed term, as in the second:

[bʕōli [sīyäryōt śīyaxtän] ‘people with large cars [= lorries]’ Sima44:12

[[bāl ḥaybīt] aṣaylaḥ] ‘the fat camel owner’ M.ES

To avoid ambiguity, however, it is more common to place the annexion phrase in apposition to a N–AP NP where the annexed term would otherwise be modified by an adjective:

[aġayg aṣaylaḥ ] [baʔl ḥaybīt] ‘the fat man, owner of the camel’ M.ES

3.1.2 Attribution to dual nouns

Substantives and personal pronouns, but not adjectives or demonstratives, may inflect for dual number. Since adjectives and demonstratives do not inflect for dual number, a NP headed by a dual noun is expanded by a plural adjective or demonstrative:

ġūji1 ṯrōh lyēh [man.M.DUAL two.M those] ‘those two men’ Sima61:10

ġawgī ġalwōḏ [man.M.DUAL fat.MPL] ‘two fat men’ M.PES

ġaggawtī rīḥamtan [girl.F.DUAL beautiful.FPL] ‘two beautiful girls’ M.NS

1 In Mehreyyet, as pointed out by Aaron Rubin (p.c.), unique dual nouns such as ġawgī ‘two

men’ do not take following ṯrōh or ṯrayt.

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3.1.3 Undeclinable adjectives

A closed set of adjectives are undeclinable (2.6.1.3). These include fśāl ‘plenty’, maṭḳ ‘delicious; tasty’, ḥawṭayḳ ‘sour’, ṣamm ‘hard’, elatives such as axayr ‘better’, arḥām ‘better looking’, and the majority of adjectives relating to temperature: ḥarḳ ‘hot’, ḳāṣam ‘cool’ (Mo), ‘cold’ (M), hōb ‘warm’, jōnī (gōna) ‘warm; sheltered’, rēhī ‘cool’. Examples of attributive undeclinable adjectives are given below:

ṣwīr lyäkmäh ḥarḳ [stones.FPL those hot] ‘those hot stones’ Sima5:11

ḏōmah mkōn jōnī [this.M place.MS warm] ‘this m. is a warm room’ Mo.NS

ḏīmah bayt jōnī [this.F room.FS warm] ‘this f. is a warm room’ Mo.NS

ātarīt ḥawṭayḳ [fermented.milk.FS sour] ‘sour fermented milk’ M.NS

śxōf ḳāṣam [milk.MS cold] ‘cold milk’ M.NS

amdīt ḳāṣam [southern.wind.FS cold] ‘a cold wind [from the south]’ M.PES.MA

ġayg arḥām ‘a better-looking man’ M.NS

tēṯ arḥām ‘a better-looking woman’ M.NS

Attributive phrases involving the elative axayr and its plural form xyūr are commonly introduced by ḏa-. Compare the two NPs below from Johnstone’s recording of Abū Nuwās and the bean folktale:

wəzyēma tīk [ḳādər / ḏ-axayr mən aḳādərək] ‘we will give you m.s. a pot better than your pot’ Stroomer1:9

wəzyēma tīk [dərhīs / axayr mən adərhəsk] ‘we will give you m.s. a kid better than your kid’ Stroomer1:11

In Mehreyyet, both ḏ-axayr and ḏa-xyūr may occur as an attribute to a singular noun, though ḏ-axayr may not occur as an attribute to a plural noun.

hāśan man [ḥayḳ / ḏ-axayr ~ ḏa-xyūr] bawmah ‘Which is the best beach here?’ M.PES

hāśan man [ḳbaylat / ḏ-axayr ~ ḏa-xyūr] hnīkam ‘Which is the best tribe here [lit. with you m.pl.]?’ M.PES

hāśan man [ībīt / ḏ-axayr ~ ḏa-xyūr] bark hibɛrīkam ‘Which is the best camel among your m.pl. camels?’ M.PES

hāśan man [bɛr / ḏa-xyūr] šīkam ‘What are the best camels you m.pl. have?’ M.PES


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3.1.4 Intensifiers as attributes

Intensifiers that typically function adverbially can modify nouns, namely the quantifiers mākan (mēkan ~ mēkin), ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) and xawr, and the adverb of degree wīyan. Within NPs or as the predicate of a nominal predicand, they typically heighten or lower the intensity of the noun, either in terms of quantity or in terms of its prototypical sense. Intensifiers do not take the definite article in attribution to definite nouns in Mehri; xawr, which lowers intensity, shows number but no gender distinction in Mahriyōt; ʕaynat, mākan (mēkan ~ mēkin) and wīyan show no number or gender distinction.

Intensification in terms of quantity

šīs [mǟkän / ḳṣīd] ‘it f. has many songs’ Sima1:12

hām sēh rafxayt tnōka bi-[śxōf / mēkin] ṭawr ṭād ‘if she is [described as] rafxayt, she gives a lot of milk in one go’ M.N.Rabkūt04.05

wa-hīn śī [ḳūt / xawr] ‘and when there is not much food’ Sima83:11

ḏäkm ḏ-hēh mänh [ḥābū / xūrūn] ‘whoever has few people’ Sima48:43

šīkam śxōf / xawr ‘you m.pl. have little milk’ M.NS

mat ḥlabš tēs al-sēh rafxayt lā tnōka bi-[śxōf / aynat] wa-ḏīmah yʔamram hīs maḥṣār ‘when you f.s. milk her when she doesn’t give milk easily she gives little milk, and they call her maḥṣār’ M.PES.MA

šīnak hnīkam [ṯalg / wīyan] [lit. I saw with you m.pl. snow INTENSIFIER] ‘I saw you m.pl. had a lot of snow’ M.NS

Intensification of prototypical sense of the noun

nḥah [ayśōr / wīyan] [lit. we friends INTENSIFIER] ‘we are very good friends’ M.NS

hēm [arbāt / wīyan] [lit. they m. friends INTENSIFIER] ‘they m. are very good friends’ M.PES.MA

bīs [tōlī / wīyan] [lit. with her behind INTENSIFIER] ‘she has a large behind’ M.NS

wa-nʔōmar āfarūt ḏōra wṭōmah [āfarats / wīyan] [lit. and we say blood red like that its f. red INTENSIFIER] ‘and we say blood red like that when its f. red is very dark’ M.PES.MA

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3.1.5 Cardinal attributes

The cardinals ṭād ‘one’ and ṯrōh ‘two’ may function as attributes to indefinite substantives. The numeral agrees in gender with the head noun:

sāʕah ṭīt [hour.FS one.F] ‘one o’clock’ Mo

ṭawr ṭād [time.MS one.M] ‘one time’

ṭād can also modify a definite noun, as in:

fjōš ṭād ḏōmah [mushroom.MS one.M this.M] ‘this one mushroom’ Sima70:24

ʕādäh [ḏäkmäh / ṭād] ʕmōr ‘that m. one said’ Sima53:19

In the case of ṯrōh ‘two’, the head noun is required to take the dual suffix -ī:

nhōr-ī ṯrīt [day.F-DUAL two.F] ‘two days’ Mo

ġayg-ī ṯrōh [man.M-DUAL two.M] ‘two men’ M

baḳarēt-ī ṯrayt [cow.F-DUAL two.F] ‘two cows’ M

The few nouns that also have a separate dual form can optionally take a numeral attribute in Mahriyōt, but not in Mehreyyet (cf. fn. 1, p. 139):

źōṭ AtḏǟkärA ḏ-[ġūji / ṯrōh] lyēh ‘Take m.s. the tickets from those two men!’ Sima61:10

The diminutive numerals also function attributively and agree in gender with the head noun:

wōz ṭuwattūt [goat.FS one.DIM.F] ‘a small goat’ M.PES

The lower cardinals may act as attributes to a definite noun with a pronoun annex.2 The cardinals are morphologically definite and the whole NP definite, even where definiteness is not explicitly marked on the cardinal:

hibarya / arbā ‘my four camels’ M.NS

hibarya / hōba ‘my seven camels’ M.NS

ḥabinka / aʔībayt ‘your m.s. seven children’ M.NS

The numeral ṭād f. ṭayt may function as an attribute to a noun with a pronoun annex. In this case, the head noun is morphologically definite, but the NP is syntactically indefinite; we can see this in Mehreyyet: when the phrase is further modified by an adjective, the adjective is indefinite and not definite, as it would be as an attribute within a definite NP:

2 Cf. Bittner (1913: 91) for western Yemeni Mehri, e.g. ḥabántsa hôba ‘ihre sieben Töchter’.


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ḥa-wz-ī ṭayt [DEF-goat.FS-1S one.F] ‘one of my goats’ M.NS

a(x)-xayl-ī ṭād ṣaylaḥ [DEF-uncle.MS-1S one.M fat.MS] ‘a fat maternal uncle of mine’ M.NS

a-rībāʔ-an ṭād ġšaym [DEF-friend.MS-1P one.M stupid.MS] ‘a stupid friend of ours’ M.NS

3.1.6 Demonstrative attribute

Demonstratives are inherently definite and either function independently as NPs or modify definite nouns. Demonstratives inflect for distance, diminution, number and gender, but make no gender distinction in either dialect when plural. Demonstratives in simple NPs most commonly follow the substantive.

a-ṭrēf ḏōmah [DEF-side.MS this.MS] ‘this side’ M.NS

a-bayt ḏīmah [DEF-house.FS this.FS] ‘this house’ M.NS

hi-bɛr lyakmah [DEF-camel.FPL those] ‘those camels’ M.PES.MA

ḥa-wday lyōmah [DEF-wadi.FPL these] ‘these wadis’ M.PES.MA

They may also, but less commonly, precede the head noun:

lyōm / bǟli lhäytän ‘those cow owners’ Sima11:3

lyäkmäh / lhäytän ‘those cows’ Sima81:28

ḏakmah / ṭād ‘that m. one’ M.NS

lyōmah / harmayt ‘these trees’ M.PES.MA

Idiomatic and grammaticalised noun/demonstrative phrases such as ṭawr ḏakm ‘at that time’ show the order noun–demonstrative, strongly suggesting that this is the original word order.

3.1.7 Diminutive nouns

In modifying diminutive nouns, partial or full agreement is exhibited between the noun and the demonstrative, since the demonstrative may take a diminutive or a non-diminutive form:

ḏōmah daxāšēr [this.M cave.MS.DIM] ‘this small cave’ Mo.PES

ḏīyōmah daxāšēr [this.M.DIM cave.MS.DIM] ‘this small cave’ Mo.PES

farāśān ḏīyōmah [female.camel.calf.MS.DIM this.M.DIM] ‘this small female camel calf’ M.PES.MA

farāśān ḏōmah [female.camel.calf.MS.DIM this.M] ‘this small female camel calf’ M.PES.MA

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Diminution may also be conveyed by a diminutive demonstrative modifying a non-diminutive noun:3

ḏīyīmah maṭṭārah [this.F.DIM thermos.flask.FS] ‘this small thermos flask’ Mo.PES

ḏīyōmah ḳalāṣ [this.M.DIM glass.MS] ‘this small glass’ Mo.PES

3.1.8 Multiple adjectival attributes

Where a noun is modified by a numeral and a non-numerical attribute, the numeral usually occurs closest to the noun with the second attribute further modifying the noun–numeral phrase. As seen above, dual nouns are modified by plural adjectives and demonstratives:

ġūji ṯrōh lyēh [man.M.DUAL two.M those] ‘those two men’ Sima61:10

bayt-ī ṯrayt nyōb [house.F-DUAL two.F big.FPL] ‘two big houses’ M.NS

wōz ṭwattūt ḳannitt [goat.FS one.DIM.F small.FS] ‘a small goat’ M.PES

ḥa-wōdī ṭayt a-mšaġar-ēt [DEF-wadi.FS one.F DEF-other-FS] ‘the next [one] wadi’ M.N.Rabkūt02.48

w-taʕmōl hēh [śäbk / ṭād / ġāhär / jdīd] ‘[then] you m.s. make for it m. one other new net’ Sima6:33

Multiple adjectival attributes may be split by an attributive clause or adverbial:

mġōran nakam / ġaygī ṯrōh [šīham rīkōb] mšaġarūtan ‘then two other men came with camels’ M.N.Rabkūt02.46

In the case of multiple attributes including a demonstrative, the demonstrative can precede the head noun, follow the attributive adjective or, far more commonly, intervene between the head noun and its adjectival attribute. Compare the following examples:

Initial demonstrative

lyōm / axdēr / śīyāx ‘those large caves’ Sima20:12

lyōmäh / ḥābū / śīyāx ‘these grown-ups’ Sima77:12

Medial demonstrative

ynäkʕam b-[ḳayd / ḏēh / ʕnōb] ‘they m. bring this thick rope’ Sima65:12

rōräm / ḏikm / ḳannätt ‘that small sea’ Sima50:25

3 Rejected as weak by MA for Mehreyyet.


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yaʕjōb b-[ḥābū / lyōmäh / śijʕānīn] ‘he likes these courageous people’ Sima41:18

ʕamōr hēt šūk ār [ḥaṭṭōt / ḏīm / ṭīt] ‘they f. said, ‘You m.s. have only got that one bean’’ Mo.N.01.07

ġlēḳī twōlī [abayt / ḏikmah / ḥanōb] ‘Look f.s. at that big house!’ M.PES.MA

[aṭrēf / ḏōmah / ḥaymal] bi-xayr ‘that right side is well’ M.NS

Final demonstrative

lǟkän b-[ḥābū / ġahrūtän / lyēk] ḏ-män ḥlōk ‘but with those other people who are from there’ Sima2:32

ṯīrōb / ḳanyūn / lyōm ‘these small branches’ Sima17:14

aġayg / aṣaylaḥ / ḏōmah ‘that fat man’ M.NS

In attribution to an annexion phrase (cf. 4.1), a demonstrative may precede or follow the entire annexion phrase, as in:

[lyōmah [bʕōlī lhaytan] ~ [[bʕōlī lhaytan] lyōmah] ‘those cow owners’ Mo.NS

[ḏōmah [bāl ḥaybīt] ~ [[bāl ḥaybīt] ḏōmah] ‘that camel owner’ M.ES

[lyōm [bʕōli hbǟr]] ‘those camel owners’ Sima47:6

[[baʕl ḥaybīt] ḏäkm] ‘that camel owner’ Sima11:32

Where the demonstrative modifies the annex of the annexion phrase, it must come in final position and may not intervene between the annexed term and the annex:

[baʕli [tīwi / ḏäkm]] ‘the people who have [a share of] that meat’ Sima11:27

[bāl [ḥaybīt / ḏikmah]] ‘the owner of that camel’ M.ES

Where two demonstrative–noun NPs are conjoined, apposed or otherwise in close proximity the second NP often reverses the word order of the initial NP for stylistic variation:

w-[ḏīmäh / ṣōwar], hummäs śǟġar, [śǟġar / ḏīmäh] ‘and this stone, it f. is called śǟġar, this rock’ Sima78:2

bä-[lyäkmäh / rmōwaḥ] aw [mǟḳōt / lyäkmäh] ‘with those lances or those throwing sticks’ Sima40:13

mġōrän [ṣōwar / ḏikmäh] w-[ḏäkmäh / ḥdīd] ‘then [one takes] that stone and that piece of metal’ Sima10:9

[ḏäkm / fēśäl] aw [fēśäl / ḏäkmäh] ‘that work or that work’ Sima40:27

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[abahlīt / ḏīmah] sōbar wa-[ḏīmah / abahlīt] ṣābar ‘this word is sōbar [always] and this word is ṣābar [patience]’ M.PES

3.1.9 PP attribute

Nouns may also be modified directly by a PP attribute, particularly when the PP is headed by man, bi-ġayr ~ bi-ġār, twōlī or hīs ~ la-hīs. In the case of other prepositions, an attributive PP is frequently linked by ḏa- (3.1.10.10). Since prepositions do not inflect, there is no morphological agreement between the head noun and the attribute:

šǟn ṭād ḥläkmäh [ġajjǟn / män Mārib] ‘there we had one boy from Mārib with us’ Sima61:37

šay [ṭād / min harbātyan] ‘I have one m. of our tribe members’ M.NS

wat tḳōfad arḥabēt [agbōlat / min twōlī ḥaymal] ādham bīham harmayt axayr ‘when you m.s. go down into the town, the mountains to the right still have more trees’ M.PES.MA

ḥarawrat ḏa-[ʔāyś / bark aḳādar] ‘the black [of the] rice in the pot’ M.NS

ḥōram / twāša ‘the road on your f.s. side’ M.NS

[abayt / bi-ġayr ḥāmay] tsūl śī lā ‘the house without my mother is worth nothing’ M.NS

nḥah wuzmūtan tūk [ḳaḥf / hīs ḳaḥfk] ‘we’ll give you m.s. a pot like your pot’ Mo.N.01.30

nḥah ġalḳāya hūk man [lē / hīs lēyak] ‘we’ll find you m.s. a cow like your cow’ Mo.N.01.50

Partition, in the sense of ‘one of X’, is expressed through the structure N.S–man–N.PL, where an indefinite singular noun takes an attributive PP with a definite plural noun annexed to man. The plural noun is defined implicitly, as in the first example below, or explicitly as in the remaining examples (cf. 2.3.5).

käll fēśäl / män ḥafśēl ḏ-rōräm [lit. every work of (the) works of the sea] ‘every type of sea work’ Sima65:40

kull ḳarḳūr / män ḳräḳrät lyōmah [lit. each fish trap of those fish traps] ‘each of those fish traps’ Sima6:20

ḏīkär būmäh Yislim bäk [ḳaṣṣāt / män ḳṣāṣ lyōmäh] [lit. story of these stories] ‘Yislim mentioned here in one of those stories’ Sima12:1

nhūr / man ḥāyōm [lit. day of the days] ‘one day’ M.NS

bayt / man abyatya [lit. house of my houses] ‘one of my houses’ M.NS


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ḳlēm / man aḳlamya [lit. pen of my pens] ‘one of my pens’ M.NS

In the above examples, the annex to man is cognate with the attributed singular noun. Occasionally, the annex may not be cognate, as in:

hēxar / man harbātyan [lit. old man of our tribe members] ‘one of our old tribe members’ M.NS

An indefinite plural noun may take a PP attribute headed by man with a definite plural noun annex to convey partition in the sense of ‘some of’:

hōh w-ambarawtan / man harbātyan [lit. I and boys of our tribe members] ‘me and some of our tribe members’ M.N

The sense of ‘the odd/occasional X’ is expressed through the structure N.S–man–N.S, where a singular indefinite noun takes a PP attribute headed by man with a singular indefinite cognate noun annex:

ār [aḥād / man aḥād] yinōka bi-mṯōḳal ‘only the odd one has gold earrings’ M.NS

[bahlīt / man bahlīt] aḥwās ‘I understand the odd word’ M.NS

śī / m-śī ‘the odd thing’ M.NS

The quantifier baʕś (bāś) ‘some’ is most commonly modified by a PP headed by man. In contrast to its Arabic cognate baʕḍ, baʕś (bāś) cannot take a pronoun annex. It obligatorily takes a PP headed by man when the annex would otherwise be pronominal, and often takes a PP headed by man where the prepositional annex is an explicit noun:

[baʕź / män härbaʕtiyän] yärʕaybäm ‘some of our compatriots do raʕbūt’4 Sima1:34

baʕź / män hämmūtän ‘some of the names’ Sima2:32

[baʕź / mäns] wat sēh ṣalḥayt tkūn jitt ‘some of them [= it f.] when they are fat are good’ Sima2:6

lākin [bāś / mansēn] hibɛr āfar ‘but some of them f. are red camels’ M.NS.Rabkūt

[bāś / man aḏrēt] tkūn bār xšūt ‘some sorghum is brittle’ M.PES.MA

[bāś / min ḥārawn] bīsan ḳrūn lā tkūn ḳarwaḥtan ‘some goats don’t have horns and are [described as] ḳarwaḥtan’5 M.N.Rabkūt04.06

4 raʕbūt is a traditional folk treatment for snake bites and puncture wounds, described in detail in

Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle (1987). Descriptions are also provided in Sima1, Sima67. 5 Lit. ‘female donkeys’, cf. Śḥerɛt ḳeraḥ ‘donkey’. Also the sobriquet given to a loser in a game.

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3.1.10 ḏa-phrase

As argued in Watson (2009), ḏa- functions as an attributiviser in what is commonly described as periphrastic annexion or the analytic genitive (Eksell-Harning 1980), and in relative clauses where the clause is analysed here as a clausal attribute or attributive clause (cf. Watson 1993: 230). ḏa- links a substantive or, in some cases, a PP or term that usually functions adverbially, in a typically semantically genitive relationship with the attributed NP.

NP–ḏa-ELEMENT

In Mehri, annexion is restricted to a closed set of nouns (4.1) and, with few exceptions, typical semantic genitive relationships are expressed otherwise by an attributive ḏa-phrase (cf. Simeone-Senelle 1997: 412; Watson 2009). There are a huge number of potential genitive relationships, and authors differ widely in the categorisation and sub-categorisation of these semantic relationships (cp. Wagner 1953: 74–76; Eksell-Harning 1980; Ryding & Versteegh 2007). The semantic relationships examined here are alienable and inalienable possession, kinship, membership and position, measure and content, description, origin, partition, apposition, and subjective and objective relationships.

3.1.10.1 Possession

Under possession, the element in the ḏa-phrase is said to possess, sometimes in a very broad sense, the object referred to by the head noun. Possession is often subcategorised into alienable and inalienable possession, where alienable possession is a relationship that can be severed. In many Arabic dialects, but not in Mehri, inalienable possession is expressed through annexion and alienable possession through a periphrastic (attributive) structure. Where inalienable possession includes parts of a whole, as in: āśawś ḏ-a-nxarīr [bones ḏa-DEF-nose] ‘bones of the nose’ (M), the relationship can also be classified as partitive (cf. Ryding & Versteegh 2007). Both alienable and inalienable possession can be expressed through pronominalisation of the ḏa-phrase, as in: ktōb-as ‘her book’, ʕayanty-as ‘her eyes’. The possessor term baʕl (baʔl ~ bāl), with a few exceptions in Mehreyyet, such as abaʔl / ḏ-aśxawf ‘the person with the milk’ and abaʔl / ḏa-ḏikmah ḥaybīt ‘the owner of that camel’, is restricted to heading an annexion phrase (cf. 4.1.1.3).

Alienable possession

bäk [byōt / ḏä-bnǟdäm ḏōm mōyät] ‘in the houses of that deceased person’ Sima68:12

ḥōfī / ḏa-hēxar ‘the old man’s camel that has newly given birth’ M.NS.Nīsaḥ

A term of contempt: a goat without horns is as pitiful as a donkey, i.e. despised by many Dhofaris (Miranda Morris, p.c.).


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ḥaybīt / ḏa-bayt flān ‘the camel of family so-and-so’ M.PES

Inalienable possession

bäk [bdēn / ḏä-bnǟdäm] ‘in the body of the person’ Sima2:67

āśawś / ḏ-anxarīr ‘bones of the nose’ M.N.Šlaym01.14

aḳaśāt / ḏ-aġayg ‘the man’s mass of hair’ M.PES.MA

aḳfē / ḏa-ḥayd ‘the back of the hand’ M.NS

3.1.10.2 Kinship

Kinship is often categorised as inalienable possession, since this is a relationship that cannot (easily) be severed. Kinship can also be expressed through pronominalisation of the ḏa-phrase, as in ḥīb-as ‘her father’ (Mo), ḥayb-ī ‘my father’ (M), a-ġit-s ‘her sister’ (M), a-ġayg-ī ‘my husband’ (M). The kinship terms bīt ‘tribe’, bar ‘son’ and bart ‘daughter’ are restricted to heading an annexion phrase with an NP annex (4.1.1.1). Mehreyyet bayt is restricted to heading an annexion phrase in the kinship sense, but not in reference to the construction ‘house’.

ḥbūn / ḏa-ḥbunyäk ‘your m.s. children’s children’ Sima78:3

ḥīb / ḏ-ʕarūs ‘the father of the bride’ Sima35:19

ġā / ḏ-baʕl sänbūḳ ‘the brother of the ship owner’ Sima60:13

ḥabrē / ḏa-faṭmat ‘Fatima’s son’ M.NS

ḥāmē / ḏa-sārah ‘Sarah’s mother’ M.NS

aġayg / ḏ-aġaytī ‘my sister’s husband’ M.NS

tēṯ / ḏ-aġā / ḏa-shēl ‘Shēl’s brother’s wife’ M.NS

Where the possessor is expressed pronominally, the attributive structure NP–ḏa-INDEPENDENT PRONOUN can be used to place additional focus on the pronoun in place of the annexion structure NOUN-PRONOUN. Thus, śawrak ‘your m.s. opinion’ can be expressed more emphatically as śawr ḏa-hēt [opinion ḏa-2S] ‘your s. opinion’ (M.NS).

Similarly, a noun with a pronoun annex can take an additional ḏa-phrase with an independent pronoun to focus on the possessor:

ḏīmah ḥabrīt-ī ḏa-hōh [this.F daughter.FS-1S ḏa-1S] ‘that is my daughter’ Mo.NS

śawr-ī ḏa-hōh [opinion-1S ḏa-1S] ‘my opinion’ M.NS

Where the head of the NP is a demonstrative, a pronominal possessor is obligatory expressed by ḏa-INDEPENDENT PRONOUN:

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[ḏōmah / ḏa-hēt] yiśabhan [ḏōmah / ḏa-nḥah] ‘that m. of yours [i.e. yours] is similar to that m. of ours [i.e. ours]’ M.PES.MA

3.1.10.3 Membership and position

Under membership and position, I include membership of, and position within, a group. Membership and position is rarely expressed through pronominalisation of the attributive element:

amāsūl / ḏ-amarkēz6 ‘the official of the centre’ M.PES.MA

ḥaynēṯ / ḏ-aḳbaylat ‘the women of the tribe’ M.NS

3.1.10.4 Measure and content

Here the ḏa-phrase describes the amount or the contents of the head noun. In Mehreyyet, measure and content relationships may also be expressed through annexion, but the attribute (or annex) may not be pronominalised:

Amount

l-waḳt / ḏ-warx – widʕak – aw warxi ṯrōh ‘for one, you m.s. know, or two months’ time’ Sima35:21

man kaṯrēt / ḏa-ttīwi ‘from the (large) amount of meat’ Mo.NS

mjēt / ḏa-ḥmuh ‘a mouthful of water’ Mo.NS

ʕaṭfānōt / ḏa-śxōf ‘a drop of milk’ Mo.NS

maddēt / ḏ-ōśar wa-xaymah snay ‘a period of fifteen years’ M.N

Contents

jrǟb / ḏä-ttōmär ‘a basket (measure) of dates’ Sima68:24

kawb / ḏa-šahay7 ‘cup of tea‘ M.NS

fīgōn / ḏa-ḳahwēt ‘cup of coffee‘ M.NS

3.1.10.5 Description

An attributive ḏa-phrase may identify or describe the type or the function of the head noun. Description is invariably expressed by the structure NP–ḏa-ELEMENT, never by annexion, and the ḏa-phrase may not be pronominalised. Some examples of description may arguably also be categorised under origin: thus, śxōf ḏa-ḥārawn is both a type of milk and originates from goats; ḥmūh ḏa-rōram is both a type of

6 Small administrative centre. 7 Also kawb šahay (cf. Rubin 2010: 75).


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water and originates from the sea; and jōd ḏa-ḥōz (Mo) is both a type of leather and originates from a goat. Examples include:

ḏīmäh [ḳaṣṣāt / ḏ-Bǟ Nwās] ‘this is a story about Bā Nuwās’ Sima38:1

[fēśäl / ḏ-rōräm], [fēśäl / ḏ-ʕayd], [fēśäl / ḏä-jrīf] ‘work on the sea, work with sardines, work with nets’ Sima65:37

ṣawt / ḏ-rōräm ‘a song for [work on] the sea’ Sima65:39

ṭād / ḏ-ḥīd ‘one m. for the hand’ Sima59:98

arḥōyab / ḏ-aʔārēb ‘the Arab countries’ M.NS

3.1.10.6 Origin

The attributive ḏa-phrase may describe the origin of the head noun either in terms of the place it came from, the time it originated, or the material or substance from which it is made. Origin is invariably expressed through the NP–ḏa-ELEMENT structure, and the ḏa-phrase may not be pronominalised:

Origin of place

lyōm ṣayd / ḏä-ḳśōr [lit. these fish of the reef] ‘these reef fish’ Sima2:72

ḳaḥyōr / ḏa-hōfal [lit. the small bit remaining in the stomach] ‘the last child’ M.NS

ḥābū / ḏ-arśawtan [lit. people of countries] ‘foreigners’ M.NS.Rabkūt

akīnan barī hnīkam b-[aśḥayr / ḏa-brīṭānya] ‘I wish I were with you m.pl. in the mountains of Britain’ M.NS

śxōf / ḏa-ḥaybīt āḏayḳat ‘milk from the camel with large udders’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Origin of time

agaww / ḏ-īmoh ‘today’s weather’ M.NS

śaf man [amūsē ḏikm / ḏa-kanhūr] ‘it turns out that because of the rain from earlier […]’ M.N.Rabkūt02.23

amsēr / ḏ-anhūr ḏ-agamāt ‘Friday’s procession’ M.txt ا��s~ ذ�³zر ذ�vpت

Origin of material/substance

kīs / ḏ-ġōzäl ‘a bag/pocket of cotton’ Sima65:18

mänhǟm [mjawdäl / ḏ-ḥanźāb] w-mänhǟm [mjawdäl / ḏ-fäźźāt] kīnaḥ ‘some of them m. are glass pearl armbands and some of them m. are silver armbands’ Sima59:100

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3.1.10.7 Partition

The head noun may describe a part or proportion of the element in the attributive ḏa-phrase. Part is most commonly expressed by the structure NP–ḏa-ELEMENT; however, the ḏa-phrase may be pronominalised.

Part

kīs / ḏä-jrīf ‘a pocket of the net’ Sima65:18

däkkēt8 / ḏ-mäsjīd ‘stone bench at each side of the mosque’ Sima68:24

wa-nnōkaʕ tǟl jīdōr / ḏ-bäyt bär Shäyl ‘we came to the walls of the house of bar Shayl’ Sima100:2

bōḳi / ḏ-bīnōwat ‘the remaining buildings’ Sima72:29

ḥayḏān / ḏa-kawb [lit. ear of cup] ‘a cup handle’ M.NS

xah / ḏa-tarmas [lit. mouth of the thermos flask] ‘the top of the flask’ M.NS

Proportion

Proportion is expressed principally by the attributive structure NP–ḏa-ELEMENT, where the initial NP is a quantifier. The attributive phrase may be pronominalised in the case of some head nouns. The quantifiers kall ‘all; every’, baʕś (bāś) ‘some’, ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) ‘a little’ never take an attributive phrase headed by ḏa-,9 and baʕś (bāś) and ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) never take pronoun suffixes. These quantifiers either head an annexion phrase, or, in the case of kall and baʕś (bāś), act as appositives (3.3.6). baʕś (bāś) frequently takes a PP attribute headed by man (3.1.9). The quantifier zammāt (azammēt) ‘most of’ may not occur independently: it either takes a pronoun annex, usually functioning as an appositive (3.3.6.5), or a ḏa-phrase attribute. Examples of quantifiers modified by attributive ḏa-phrases include:

zämmǟt / ḏ-ḳalyōn ḏä-mdärsēt källäs ‘most of the children of the whole school’ Sima31:10

lǟkän [zämmǟt / ḏ-ḥābū] ʕaṯkǟn ǟr ḏ-ḥanźāb ‘but [for] most people, decorative tassels tied to the end of plaits are made of glass beads’ Sima59:82

azammēt / ḏ-amaḥbōs ftawk ‘most of the prisoners have come out [= been released]’ M.NS

majmīʕ / ḏa-ḳbōyal ḏ-mahrēh kall [lit. the group of the tribes of Mahrah all] ‘the set of all the tribes in Mahrah’ Mo.NS

8 Corrected from Sima (2009) ḏäkkēt. 9 As seen below (3.2.3), kall may take an attributive clause headed by ḏa-.


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hīs wiṣlam bak [ʕamḳ / ḏa-ḥḥān] ‘when they arrived in the middle of the thing [sea]’ Mo.N

Fractional relationships are expressed as FRACTION–ḏa-ELEMENT:

[fäḳḥ / ḏä-jrǟb] aw [räbʕayt / ḏä-jrǟb] ‘half a basket (measure) of dates or a quarter of a basket (measure) of dates’ Sima68:29

faḳḥ / ḏa-ḳāš ‘half a riyal’ M.NS

arbayt / ḏa-bḳarēt ‘quarter of a cow’ M.PES.MA

ślayṯ / ḏa-mzarāt ‘third of a farm’ M.PES.MA

The ḏa-phrase in the case of fractions may be pronominalised, most commonly with faḳḥ ‘half’:

[faḳḥas] šīn [faḳḥas] šīkam ‘we have half of it f., you m.pl. have half of it’ M.NS

The higher cardinals myēt and ɛf in Mehreyyet either take a following singular noun annex (4.1.3.2), or, preferably, a plural noun in an attributive phrase headed by ḏa-. Mahriyōt, which is considerably more influenced by Arabic in the formation of cardinal numeral phrases than Mehreyyet, exhibits no constructions of this type in the data:

myēt / ḏa-bḳār ‘one hundred cows’ M.NS

myēt / ḏa-rawn ‘one hundred goats’ M.NS

ɛf / ḏa-bɛr ‘one thousand camels’ M.NS

wḳawtan mīyī / ḏa-bɛr ‘they f. will be hundreds of camels’ M.txt و¬��u�s o ذ�vر

Ordinals

The ordinals and the elative xyūr express a partitive relationship with the element in the attributive ḏa-phrase. The ḏa-phrase cannot be pronominalised, except in the case of tōlī ‘last’, as in: ḥabray nūka talīham kall ‘my son came last of them all’ (M.NS). The structure for the elative and ordinals other than the initial ordinal is:

(DEF-)ORDINAL.MS–ḏa-PLURAL

a-rōba ḏ-āṣawr [DEF-fourth.MS ḏa-DEF-night-MPL] ‘the fourth night’ M.N.04.12

The ordinals may also act as attributes to singular nouns, in which case they inflect for number and gender:

a-laylat a-raba-t [DEF-night.FS DEF-fourth-FS] ‘the fourth night’ M.N

Examples of ordinals and xyūr modified by an attributive ḏa-phrase include:

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hēh [xyūr / ḏ-axxalya kall] ‘he is the best of all my uncles’ M.PES.MA

wa-śill [ḥaybīt xyūr / ḏa-hibɛr kall] ‘he took the best of all the camels’ M.N.01.25

axōmas / ḏ-āṣawr ‘the fifth night’ M.N.04.12

The ordinal tōlī ‘last’ takes a plural noun in the ḏa-phrase in reference to ‘the last of’ a certain number of entities:

atōlī / ḏ-arāylāt kall ‘the last of all the trains’ M.N

nūka bark [atōlī / ḏa-hbɛr] ‘he came with the last of the camels’ M.PES.MA

The ordinal ḥāwēl with a singular noun in the attributive ḏa-phrase refers to the first portion of an entity:

ḥāwēl / ḏa-ḥḥall ‘the beginning of the (harvest) season’ Sima2:49

ḥāwēl / ḏ-aḳayḏ ‘the beginning of the hot period’ M.N.Rabkūt02.14

To express the last portion of an entity, tōlī takes a singular noun in the ḏa-phrase:

jändēl [tōli / aś-śaxafs] ‘the jändēl [camel] is at the end of its f. milk’ Sima47:31

tḥōsäb l-tōli / ḏ-warx ‘you m.s. reckon to the end of the month’ Sima47:25

tnōka [tōlī / ḏ-aḳayḏ] wa-fanwē ḏ-axarf ʔaynat ‘it f. comes at the end of the hot period and a little before the monsoon period’ M.N.Rabkūt02.15

The first of a number of entities is expressed by inflected forms of the ordinal ḥāwlī (ḥāwalay) ‘first’ acting as attribute. The second of a number of entities is generally expressed using the attribute mšēġar or ġāhar rather than the ordinal ṯōnī. In Mehreyyet, the last of a number of entities can also be expressed through the attribute mtallī ‘last’.

[järfēt / ḥāwalyōt] tkūn ǟr mṣayfät ‘the first catch is just for fish oil’ Sima51:15

šxalyēt min [aġaygis / ḥāwalay] ‘she sought a divorce from her first husband’ M.NS.Rabkūt

abaytī / ḥāwalyēt ‘my first house’ M.NS

arkātī ṯrayt / ḥāwlaytan ‘the first two rukʕahs’ M.NS

lǟkän män hīs hēh [ḥābū / ḥāwalō] ḥād yäḳfōd lǟ ‘but earlier [at the time of] our ancestors [i.e. the first people], no one went down’ Sima51:68

ḥaybīt / amtalyat ‘the last camel’ M.NS

arkātī ṯrayt / amtalyūt ‘the last two rukʕahs’ M.NS


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3.1.10.8 Apposition

An attributive ḏa-phrase may have an appositional semantic relationship with the head noun. In this case, the ḏa-phrase may stand in place of true, usually appellation, apposition, and may not be pronominalised. Frequently, the head noun (together with ḏa-) may be omitted with no diminution in meaning. In many cases, the element in the ḏa-phrase is, or functions as, a proper noun. They include days of the week, other expressions of time, and places.

Days of the week

The days of the week from Saturday to Friday in the two dialects are:

nhōr / ḏa-ssabt ‘Saturday’; nhōr / ḏa-laḥad ‘Sunday’; nhōr / ḏa-liṯnēn ‘Monday’; nhōr / ḏa-ṯalūṯ ‘Tuesday’; nhōr / ḏa-rbūʕ ‘Wednesday’; nhōr / ḏa- xamīs ‘Thursday’; nhōr / aj-jamʕāt ‘Friday’ Mo

anhūr / ḏa-sabt; anhūr / ḏa-laḥad; anhūr / ḏa-liṯnayn; anhūr / ḏa-ṯalūṯ; anhūr / ḏ-arbū; anhūr / ḏa-xamīs; anhūr / ḏ-agamāt M

Time

ṣlōt / ḏ-maġrāb ‘the sunset prayer’ Sima68:15

waḳt / ḏa-nṣarōmah ‘the time now’ Mo.NS

ʕādī šī ḥyūm / ḏ-īmoh ‘I’ve [only] got [the day of] today left’ Mo.NS

[ḥall / ḏ-aśētū] ykawn mkōn wa-[ḥall / ḏ-aṣayrab] ykawn mkōn mšēġar ‘in the winter they’ll m. be in one place, and in the post-monsoon period they’ll be in another place’ M.NS

snēt / ḏ-aġarḳāyat10 ‘the year of the drowning’ M.PES.MA

nkōt [snēt / ḏ-alḥaymar] ‘she came [= was born] the year the heavy post-monsoon rain came’ M.NS

Place

b-ärź / ḏ-Mährēh ‘in the Mahrah region’ Sima63:2

ḥōram / ḏa-ḥwōdī / ḏa-xalaʔ ‘the road to the Xala valley’ M.N

ḥōram / ḏa-ṣafṣayf ‘the Ṣafṣayf road’ M.N

Other

bahlīt / ḏa-jʕīl ‘the word jʕīl’ Mo.NS

10 1959.

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3.1.10.9 Subjective/objective relationships

Where the ḏa-phrase is attributed to a verbal noun, the semantic relationship between the head noun and the attribute may be subjective or objective. The ḏa-phrase may not be pronominalised. In subjective relationships, the attributive structure is paraphrasable as a subject–verb structure: thus, ftūḥ ḏa-rōram ‘the opening of the sea’ (Mo) could be paraphrased as ‘the sea opened’; in objective relationships, the attributive structure is paraphrasable as a passive or verb–object structure: thus, smǟ ḏä-jrīf ‘the cleaning of the nets’ (Sima65:59) could be paraphrased as ‘the nets were cleaned’ or ‘someone cleaned the nets’:

Subjective

wakyūb / ḏa-xxarf ‘the beginning [= entrance] of the monsoon period’ [i.e. the monsoon period is entering] Mo.NS

naḥbīb / ḏä-hbäryäh ‘the grunting of his camels’ Sima47:69

abīrāwat / ḏ-atēṯ ‘the woman’s giving birth’ M.PES.MA

Objective

man śānī / ḏa-ʕamyūl / ḏu-wdōyam ‘from my seeing the building of huts’ Mo.NS

mġarbēt / ḏ-rōräm ‘knowledge of the sea’ [i.e. the sea was known] Sima2:70

näbyūḳ / ḏä-ttōmär ‘taking the dates’ Sima33:34

näsyūġ / ḏä-śīrāʕ ‘the hoisting of the sails’ Sima64:9

3.1.10.10 Attributive PPs and adverbs

Attributive PPs headed particularly by ka-, bak ~ brak (bark), ba- (bi-), ḳbāt (M), fīn (fnōhan), attributive adverbs, and adjectives that frequently function as adverbs may be linked to the head noun by ḏa-. The ḏa-phrase in these cases may not be pronominalised:

hbǟr tkūnän bīn ḥayḳ w-bīn [jbēl ḏäkm / ḏä-ḳrīb] ‘the camels are between the shore and the nearer mountains’ Sima23:2

yġarbam [śī lyōmah / ḏa-nṣrōmah] lā ‘they m. didn’t know about these [things that we have] now’ Mo.N.01.16

xōzär ḏäkm källäh / ḏ-bäk ḳaḥf ‘all that butter that was in the pot’ Sima27:13

bak dījar ḏōmah aw ʕayś ḏōmah / aš-šīkan11 ‘in those beans or that sorghum that you f.pl. have’ Mo.N.01.06

11 < *ḏa-šīkan.


157

män jänb ḏēk / ḏ-män bärr ‘from that outer side’ Sima17:33

śink sfīnah / ḏa-ḳbātk bark ḥmuh ‘Did you m.s. see the boat in front of you in the water?’ M.NS

abaytī / ḏa-b-ḥaft ‘my house at Ḥaft’ M.NS

ḏōmah / ḏa-fanwūk ‘that m.s. [thing] in front of you m.s.’ M.NS

/ hōh nakak ṣarōmah man aśaygāʔ ھ�ه vyzك ·~وos ks اظ�¶vء ذ�~ك �nديḏa-bark ḥawōdī ‘I have just come back from the cave in the wadi’ M.txt

�� £p³¸ �¹ت � oذ¸��ھ klpا� [AagumlahA / ḏa-fnōhan] sadaxawt fhamkə tēs lā ‘the previous sentence, sadaxawt, I didn’t understand it f.’ M.txt

3.1.10.11 Attribution to positional adverbs

A number of substantives that have been grammaticalised as adverbials are modified either through annexion of a pronoun or by means of an attributive ḏa-phrase. The majority of these describe place relations and many function as the annex to a preposition. They include (ba-)ṭrēf ‘to the side of’, (bak) ʕamḳ (bark ʔamḳ ~ bi-ʔamḳ ~ b-amḳ) ‘in, in the middle of’, (la-)ḳāṭar ‘straight ahead of, in the direction of’, (ba-)daffēt ‘to the side of’, (la-)sayb ‘in the direction of’, (ba-)jamb (bi-gamb) ‘to the side of’, (bi-)sbēb ‘for the sake of, because of’, (la-)ḳyōs ‘like, equal to, corresponding to’, ḥasb ‘according to’, maddēt ‘for a period of’, and fnōhan ‘before; in front of’, which may also function as a preposition (4.2). These are analysed by Rubin (2010: 203) as compound prepositions;12 however, they lack one of the crucial characteristics of prepositions – namely that prepositions may take a substantive or demonstrative annex and are not restricted to taking a personal pronoun annex. Examples of attribution to positional adverbs include:

bäk ʕamḳ / ḏä-śḥayr ‘in the middle of the mountains’ Sima23:5

wa-bʕīr [bä-ṭrēf / ḏa-ḥḥōräm] ‘and the male camel was at the side of the road’ Sima31:25 AwaḷḷahA män ldāʕ sǟn axah [b-jänb / ḏ-ṣafrīyät] aw sǟn ṭīt aṯ-ṯīr ṭīt ‘by God I don’t know are they f. are [slapped] on the side of the bowl or piled on top of one another’ Sima14:15

lä-ḳyōs / ḏ-märḳīnōt ḏ-maḥḥ ḏäkmäh ‘according to the size of the butter pot, of that [amount] of fat’ Sima58:3

ṭawr man maddēt / ḏ-ōśar wa-xaymah snay ‘once, fifteen years ago’ M.N

nkayta fnōhan / ḏ-armaśōn ‘[I] f. will come before Ramadan’ M.NS

12 Although the section in which they are discussed is entitled ‘Zusammengesetzte’, Bittner (1914:

19–20) analyses le-NOUN and be-NOUN structures correctly as preposition–substantive.

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3.1.10.12 Verbal attributes

In time phrases, the perfect aspect of jruh (gruh) ‘to pass’ and the future participle of nūkaʕ (nūka) ‘to come’ can function attributively in a ḏa-phrase:

fnǟ-yämšīh [nhōr aj-jämʕāt ḏīmäh / ḏä-jrūt] [lit. that Friday that passed] ‘the other day, last Friday’ Sima10:1 AusbūʔA / ḏa-gruh [lit. the week that passed] ‘last week’ M.NS

āṣar / ḏa-nkōna [lit. the night that will come] ‘tomorrow night’ M.NS

snēt / ḏa-nkayta ‘next year’ M.NS

3.1.10.13 Pre-posed attributive phrase

The attributive ḏa-phrase almost invariably occurs to the right of the head noun, but may, for stylistic variation, to focus the attributive phrase, or due to speaker hesitation, occur to the left, as in:

w-ḏä-nṣarōmäh / ṣawt ḏīmäh [and-ḏa-now song this.F] ‘and this current song’ Sima65:54

In the following example, ḏ-ṣayd ḏä-ḳśōr ‘fish of the reef’ is an attribute to färʕ källäh ‘all types’:

wa-hnǟn [ḏ-ṣayd ḏä-ḳśōr / färʕ källäh] ‘and we have all types of reef fish’ Sima2:72

3.1.10.14 Lack of head noun

In contrastive propositions, where the reference of the head noun is clear from context, or where the referent is unknown, the head noun may be omitted before a ḏa-phrase:

ḏōmäh ṣayd ḏ-ṣall, hēh [ḏä-ḳśōr] lǟ ‘that fish that is caught with bait fish, it isn’t reef [fish]’ Sima2:73

[ḏ-šēh junyät] ḳǟd aw [ḏ-šēh mkūk] aw [ḏ-šēh mkūki ṯrōh] ‘he who has one sack, or he who has one mkūk13 measure, or he who has two mkūk measures’ Sima56:184

lākan [ḏa-ḥābū] tkūn ḳannitt ‘but [the cave] for people is small’ M.NS

lahinna [ḏa-hēh k-abɛlī] abɛlī yigamlan tah ‘but he who is with God, God will give favour to’ M.NS

ġallēt thabṣawr [ḏ-ūṭamūk] lā ‘[It’s so] foggy, you m.s. can’t see the one who hits you!’ M.NS

13 Approximately half a sack (Johnstone 1987).

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A noun may be modified by a clause, commonly described in western accounts of Semitic languages as a relative clause (cf. Wright 1971: II/165), but here, following Beeston (1970: 50) and Watson (1993: 230), as a clausal attribute or attributive clause. When the head noun is definite, attributive clauses tend to be headed by ḏa-; when the head noun is indefinite, the attributive clause may be linked by ḏa- or juxtaposed directly to the head noun.14

3.2.1 Definite head noun

Syndetic linkage

ynufjäm lä-[ttēṯ ḏīh / ḏ-bäryōt] ‘they m. visit this woman who has given birth’ Sima76:1

ḏōmäh / ḏ-hēh ḥabrēh mōyät ‘the one m. whose son is dead’ Sima68:17

ḏīmah / ḏa-sēh fīzūt līsan kall ‘this f. is the one who beat them f. all’ M.PES.MA

bayt ḏa-barkīs ḥābū mēkan axayr man [abayt / ḏa-barkīs ḥābū xawr] ‘a house that has lots of people is better than the house that has few people’ M.PES.MA

Asyndetic linkage

ḳfadk b-arḥabēt ḏikmah / hammas Wanstead ‘I got out at that town called Wanstead’ M.N

śink aġayg ḏōmah / hammah ālay ‘I saw that man called Ali’ M.PES.MA

3.2.2 Indefinite head noun

Syndetic linkage

ḳbīlät / ḏ-bärkīs ġyūj mǟkän ‘a tribe with a lot of men’ Sima40:3

l-ʕād ḳǟd śī ṭwōlaʕ / ḏ-sǟn bīsän nfāʕ lǟ ‘there is no more ‘coming [of the fish]’ that has any use’ Sima2:51

ankyēya bi-[śarṭ ṭād / ḏa-yḳōdar lih lā] ‘we’ll come up with one ruse he can’t get the better of’ M.N.Rabkūt

14 Wagner (1953: 116) also shows for western Yemeni Mehri both that asyndetic attributive

(relative) clauses may follow a definite noun and that syndetic attributive clauses may follow an indefinite noun.

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[bayt / ḏa-barkīs ḥābū mēkan] axayr man abayt ḏa-barkīs ḥābū xawr ‘a house that has lots of people is better than the house that has few people’ M.PES.MA

hōh ġayg / ḏa-l-aġōrab aḥād ḥlakmah lā ‘I am a man who doesn’t know anyone there’ M.PES.MA

šay ḳassēt / ḏ-ūḳōt al-ġayg ṭād m-bawmah ‘I have a story that happened to a man from here’ M.N.03.01

Asyndetic linkage

wi-ynäkʕam b-ṭād / yʕamräm hēh ḥarrīḳ ‘and they bring something they call a ḥarrīḳ’ Sima10:9

hēt AṭālibahA / bayš mɛd wīyan ‘you f.s. are a student with a good mind’ M.NS

3.2.3 Mandatory syndetic linkage of attributive clause

In a few cases, an attributive clause is mandatorily introduced by ḏa-. Thus, where the attributive clause takes an initial pronoun, ḏa- is mandatory, irrespective of the definiteness value of the head noun:

bayt / ḏa-l-sēh nōb lā xass tkūn śayḳ ‘a house that isn’t big is bad – it’ll be cramped’ M.PES.MA

ḥābū / ḏa-hēm śwōḳaḳ tġarbaham fīsēʔ ‘people who are clever you m.s. recognise quickly’ M.PES.MA

Where the attributed term is a demonstrative, a personal pronoun, ḥād ‘one’ or kall ‘everyone’, ḏa- is mandatory:

ḏōmäh / ḏ-hēh mšändīb lǟ ‘the one who doesn’t have knowledge of raʕbūt’15 Sima1:38

lyōmäh / ḏ-hǟm ḳanyūn ‘those m. that are small’ Sima17:15

ḏēk / ḏ-šēh mǟkän ‘he who has a lot’ Sima56:106

ḏīk / ḏa-śxawalūl śarḳay ‘the one m. seated at the end of the line’ M.NS

[hēh / ḏa-hēh bark abith] yiftūśaḥ lā ‘he who is in his own house does not get embarrassed’ M.NS

käll / ḏ-bǟr ḥźōr aṯ-ṯār mäsjīd ‘everyone who attended the mosque’ Sima68:22

15 Traditional folk treatment for snake bites and puncture wounds (Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle

1987; Sima1, Sima67).


161

[kall / ḏa-sēh śaḳḳat] tigayr līsan kall ‘anyone f. who is clever beats them f. all’ M.PES.MA

[kall / ḏa-yiṣṣ man yišaḥrad] yiśxawwal b-amkōnah al-ād yisēr arśawtan lā ‘everyone who is afraid of making an effort should stay where he is and not go to [other] places’ M.NS

l-ʕād ḥād / ḏi-yaḥḥams ‘there isn’t anyone who wants it f. anymore’ Sima1:31

hām hnayš [ḥād / ḏ-īśōm arṣīd] ‘if you f.s. have someone with you who sells phone credit’ M.NS

Where the attributive clause takes an initial PP, ḏa- is more often attested than not:

hīs ṯībar [ḏakm ḳaḥf / ḏa-barkēh dījar] bkuh bā nwās ‘when it m. broke, that pot with beans in it, Bā Nuwās cried’ Mo.N

hōh [ḏōm / ḏä-fnūk nṣarōmäh] ‘me, this one who is in front of you m.s. now’ Sima35:1

Where a nominal attributive clause is headed by a substantive, ḏa- is more often lacking than not irrespective of the definiteness of the head noun:

ṭād / hummäh Šaġräh ‘someone called Šaġrah’ Sima31:20

ḳfadk b-arḥabēt ḏikmah / hammas Wanstead ‘I got out at that town called Wanstead’ M.N

yisyūr būk tā rḥabēt / hammas Wanstead ‘it m. will take you m.s. to a town called Wanstead’ M.N

ġayg / (a)taṯh ṣalḥayt ‘a man whose wife is fat’ M.NS

3.2.4 Anaphora in the attributive clause

The attributive clause typically contains an anaphoric pronoun that agrees with the head noun in number, gender and person. In the following examples, the pronoun annex in the PPs bark-ih and h-īs agree in morphological values with the head nouns barṭwūn and sīyaryat respectively. Co-referentiality is shown by subscript i in the examples and glosses that follow:

š-īn barṭwūni bark-ihi maḥḥ xarf-áy [with-1P milk.pail.MSi in-3MSi clarified.butter monsoon-ADJ] ‘we have a milk pail with clarified butter from the monsoon period in it’ M.NS

š-ay sīyaryati bār h-īsi ḥawl [with-1S car.FSi bār to-3FSi one.year] ‘I have a car that is one year old’ M.NS

Similarly, the attributive clauses below take a verbal subject or object pronoun that is co-referential with the head noun:

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kis-k bʕayri nišši bark gūt [find.PRF-1S camel.MSi fall.quickly.PRF.3MSi in hole.MS] ‘I found a camel that had fallen in a hole’ M.NS

a-śxōfi ḏa-śtim-ihi mahdī ḥō hēh [DEF-milk.MSi ḏa-buy.PRF-3MSi Mahdi where 3MS] ‘The milk that Mahdi bought, where is it m.?’ M.NS

ḥa-ybīti ḏa-śam-īsi bar-s ka-mōn [DEF-camel.FSi ḏa-sell.PRF-3FSi bār-3FS with-who] ‘The camel he sold, who is it f. with?’ M.N

Apparent lack of agreement occurs where the anaphoric pronoun in the attributive clause does not agree with the head noun of the NP, but with an unmentioned first or second person referent, as in the first example below, or a first or second person predicand, as in the examples following.

ġayg ḏa-l-š-ay AgawāzA wa-l-š-ay AiṯbātA [man ḏa-NEG-with-1S passport and-NEG-with-1S identification] ‘[I am] a man who hasn’t got a passport or any identification’ M.N.03.23

hēti ġayj / ḏ-xīläḳki būmäh, baʕl śḥayr ‘you m.s. are a man who was [= you m.s. were] born here, a man of the mountains’ Sima2:13

amūr hōhi ġayg / ḏa-l-šayi laysan lā wa-l-aḳawdari alsēḳ lā ‘he said, ‘I am a man who has [= with me] no licence and can’t drive’’ M.PES.MA

hōhi ġayg / ḏa-l-aġōrabi aḥād ‘I am a man who doesn’t know [= I don’t know] anyone’ M.N

hōhi assinnawrat / ḏa-nakaki tēk āṣawr alyōmah ‘I am the cat that came [= I came] to you m.s. those nights’ M.N.04.15

amūr hōhi ġayg / ḏ-aġawlaḳi man aḥād yisādī ‘he said, ‘I am a man who is looking for [= I am looking for] someone to help me’’ M.N.04.13

In the following example, the verb, waḳan ‘we were’ in the attributive clause shows number agreement with the (plural) head noun harbātya ‘my friends’ and person (first) agreement with the preceding verb, śatūḳak ‘I miss’:

śatūḳak al-harbātya / ḏa-bār waḳan bi-l-yaman faxrā [lit. I miss my friends who we were in Yemen together] ‘I miss the friends I was in Yemen with’ M.PES

Anaphora may be lacking in the attributive clause, particularly, but not exclusively, as seen in the first example below, when the head noun is a noun of time, such as snēt ‘year’, nhōr (nhūr) ‘day’:

fjōš ṭād ḏōmäh / ḏä-nḥah ntäyw ‘this one mushroom that we eat’ Sima70:24

snēt / ḏa-šxalyak min aġaygī ‘the year that I divorced from my husband’ M.NS

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man [nhūr / ḏa-wkūban] tā [nhūr / ḏa-ftūkan] ‘from the day we entered until the day we left’ M.N.MA

3.2.5 Lack of head noun

As for the attributive ḏa-phrase (3.1.10.14), an attributive ḏa-clause may lack a head noun:

ḏ-šēh fēśäl lǟ w-šēh śī źāḥi lǟ ‘he who has no work and has nothing to sacrifice’ Sima11:9

[ḏa-mūdaḥ ḥnafh] yiśhūr abadyah ‘for him who praises himself, his lies show’ M.NS

[ḏa-l-šēh mġarbēt lā] yūḳōf ‘he who has no knowledge remains silent’ M.PES.MA


The cases of attribution we have examined so far involve an explicit noun head and an attribute which, in the case of adjectival and clausal attribution, shows agreement with the noun head either through inflection or by taking an anaphoric pronoun which shares the number–gender values of the head noun. Nouns may also be modified by substantives, which do not inflect to agree with the head noun, but generally agree in shared categorial values: thus in the NP aġāy saʕīd ‘my brother Saeed’, aġāy ‘my brother’ and saʕīd ‘Saeed’ share the morphological values masculine gender and singular number, and both are definite – aġāy by virtue of taking the definite article and the possessive pronoun, and saʕīd by virtue of being a proper noun.

I examine apposition below in terms of the following six functions:

(a) Appellation

(b) Designation

(c) Identification

(d) Exemplification

(e) Reformulation

(f) Emphasis

The head of the apposition phrase is usually a substantive. Appellation, designation and identification involve a noun head and a substantive appositive. In appellation and designation, the head and appositive refer to the same entity in the real world and share the morphological values of number and gender. In identification, where the appositive identifies or unpacks the apposed term, the appositive does not always share the morphological values of the apposed term. Reformulation usually involves a noun head, but the appositive need not be a substantive: it may be an adjective, PP

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or a clause, and the appositive may form a coordinate complex (cf. 7.1). Emphasis involves a noun head and an appositive built around kall ‘all; each’, zammāt (azammēt) ‘most of’, waḥś- ‘alone’ or ḥnōf- ‘self’. In emphatic apposition to a singular noun, kall takes an anaphoric pronoun annex to agree with the head noun; in the case of emphatic apposition to a plural noun, kall almost invariably takes no anaphoric pronoun, thus in these cases the appositive shares no categorial features with the apposed term.

The key differences between attribution and apposition are (cf. Watson 1993: 238):

(a) The appositive is never realised by an element that typically functions adjectivally;

(b) The appositive does not always agree in definiteness with the apposed term;

(c) The apposed term is not always a substantive.

With the exception of identificatory and exemplificatory apposition, the main similarity between attribution and apposition is that terms in apposition are co-referential. Thus in aġāy saʕīd ‘my brother Saeed’, aġāy ‘my brother’ and saʕīd ‘Saeed’ refer to the same entity in the real world.

3.3.1 Appellation

Appellation functions to label or more closely define the head noun. The apposed term and the appositive are essentially co-referential and share morphological values for gender, number and, in Mehreyyet, definiteness. The appositive is commonly a proper noun. Consider the following examples:

syōrän [ḥōräm / Aaṣ-ṢāfirA Mārib] ‘we took the Ṣāfir–Mārib road’ Sima61:26

naʕyūś bäk [ḏīmäh arź, / arź ḏ-Rēhän] ‘we live in that region, the Rēhan region’ Sima78:4

aġāk / saʕīd ‘your m.s. brother, Saeed’ M.NS

syūran [arḥabēt / Windermere] ‘we went to the town [of] Windermere’ M.PES.MA

3.3.2 Designation

In designatory apposition (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 279), the appositive provides further information about the apposed term and tends to be less specific than the apposed term. The apposed term is often a proper noun or personal pronoun, but may also be a common noun; it may take a string of appositives, as in the first two examples below:


165

Proper noun apposed term

akäys [Šäddǟd, / ġajjǟn / baʕl mawtär] ‘I found Šäddǟd, a boy with a car’ Sima61:88

Saʕd Mḥazḥaz, / ġayj, / šēx, / mḳaddäm ‘Saʕd Mḥazḥaz, a man, the sheikh, the [tribal] leader’ Sima33:52

sīrōn [śafōr / ḳāʔ rēḥaḳ] ‘you’ll m. go to Dhofar, a land far away’ M.N.01.07

tā wīṣal [makkah / amkōn ḏ-aḥḥagg] ‘when he reached Mecca, the place of the hajj’ M.N.Rabkūt03.02

Pronoun apposed term

[nḥah / ḳalyōn] bǟn hänw lǟ ‘we children had no idea’ Sima33:42

w-ḏīmäh [sēh / näšḥōt] ‘and that is it f., the bat’ Sima9:5

hōh ḏa-ġribkə tē[ham / baʔlī būḏabī] ‘I know them m., the people of Abu Dhabi’ M.NS

Common noun apposed term

Common noun apposed terms are mainly definite, but may also be indefinite, as in the final two examples below:

ṣʕāḳ lēh [ġayj ḏakm / rabbōn] ‘that man, the captain, called out to him’ Mo.N

afrayś aḳannawn / ḥabrē ḏ-agzawr ‘the young female camel calf, the offspring of the old camel’ M.N.Rabkūt

šǟn [baʕź ḥźarmät / ḳalyōn] ‘with us were some Hadramis, boys’ Sima61:21

ʕaylīg / bar ḥawl [lit. young male camel, son of one year] ‘a one-year old male camel calf’ M.NS

3.3.3 Identification

Further information can be provided about an apposed term by identifying or unpacking the contents of the first term. In identificatory apposition the apposed term is often indefinite, including where it is an adverb, and the appositive can be either definite or indefinite, but is more specific than the apposed term. Nouns functioning as indefinite pronouns, including ḥābū ‘people’, ḥād ‘one’ and ṭād ‘one’, often take a definite or indefinite appositive in an identificatory appositive relationship. Identificatory apposition differs from appellation and designation in that the appositive may be a coordinate complex.

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3.3.3.1 Definite apposed term–definite appositive

[ḥābū lyōm / baʕli mōl] ‘those people, the owners of livestock’ Sima28:2

fnǟ-yämšīh / nhōr aj-jämʕāt ḏīmäh ḏä-jrūt ‘the other day, last Friday’ Sima10:1

Cardinal numbers

The cardinal numbers may take a definite noun appositive. In this case, they may take a form of the definite article in Mehreyyet:

aʔībayt aġawsa [lit. the seven m. her brothers] ‘her seven brothers’ M.NS

(a)hōba hibarya ‘my seven camels’ M.NS

aśāṯayt ḥabinka ‘your m.s. three children’ M.NS

aśahlīṯ hibɛr ‘the three camels’ M.NS

3.3.3.2 Indefinite apposed term–definite appositive

The indefinite pronouns often take definite appositives. The apposed term may be separated from the appositive, as in the first example below:

[ṭād] yʕamräm hēh Ḥfäḏy män bīt Lbīṯ lyōmäh, [ḥabrē ḏ-Sīd Mḥammäd bär Lbīṯ] ‘someone called Ḥfäḏy from the Lbīṯ family, the son of Sīd Mḥammäd bär Lbīṯ’ Sima33:42

ṭād / mḳaddäm ḏä-ḳbīlät źʕift ‘someone who was the leader of a weak tribe’ Sima40:20

w-šǟn [ṭād / Xālid ʕAbd ar-Raḥmǟn] ‘we had one, Khālid Abd al-Raḥmān, with us’ Sima60:53

[ḥābū / baʔlī dāyrīt] yaġtarīb ‘and people, people of the country, know e.o.’ M.NS

wa-rġayb – ṯīrōb ḳanyūn lyōm ‘and small branches – these small pieces of wood’ Sima17:14

wa-Aflān bin fulānA šēh [mōl / hibɛr] ‘and so-and-so had livestock – camels’ M.N.03.26

One structure, also attested in a number of dialects of Arabic (cf. Woidich 2006: 213; Watson 1993: 241), involves the apposition of a noun with a possessive pronoun annex to the numeral ṭād / ṭīt (ṭayt) ‘one’, to an indefinite noun with human referent, or to a noun which functions as an indefinite pronoun, such as ḥābū ‘people’. The appositive is most commonly a noun of human relations (kinship, friendship, companionship). Although the appositive is morphologically definite, the


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phrase is syntactically indefinite,16 as evidenced in Mehreyyet by further adjectival attribution (cf. also 3.1.5): thus, ṭayt ḥabritk nōb ‘one of your m.s. old(er) daughters’, where the adjectival attribute nōb is indefinite, contrasts with ḥabritk ḥanōb ‘your m.s. old(er) daughter’, where the adjectival attribute ḥanōb is definite:

ṭīt / bart xīlah ‘a female maternal cousin of his’ Mo.NS

[ṭayt / ḥabraytī] mansēn lyōmah [lit. one f. my daughter of them f. those] ‘one of my daughters of those f.’ M.NS

wa-ṭayt / aġaytī ‘and one f. of my sisters’ M.NS

wa-l-hīs mġōrä šīkäm män AjawābA, azämmäh hīni [ġajjǟn, / rībāʕī] ‘and whatever you m.pl. then have in way of an answer, give it m. to me [through] a boy, my friend’ Sima4:14

’syark ka-[ġayg / arībāy] ‘I went with one of my friends ��~ك |��¼ ار�vيM.txt

nūka bawmah yišxabūr man [bāś ḥābū / harbātha] ‘he came here asking about some of his friends’ M.N

3.3.3.3 Indefinite apposed term–indefinite appositive

As indefinite pronouns, ḥād and ḥābū may take indefinite plural animate noun appositives, particularly when questioning or stating the presence of a plural entity:

hǟn AmäṯälänA ksīyäm [ḥād / raʕʕōbät] lǟ [lit. if for example they m. find someone raʕbūt experts not] ‘if, for example, they m. don’t find any people who can carry out raʕbūt’17 Sima1:43

ḥābū / źīfōn [lit. people guests] ‘guests’ Sima57:32

hīn [ḥād / ġyūj] ‘if there are any men’ Sima81:18

w-tähtämʕan, yḳāʕ [ḥād / ḥābū] män bärr ‘it f. listens, perhaps there are people outside’ Sima93:14

śī [aḥād / ġyūg] bawmah ‘Are there any men here?’ M.N

aḥād may alternatively function as the appositive to a plural indefinite apposed term:

śī [ġyūg / aḥād] bawmah ‘Are there any men here?’ M.PES.MA

Cardinal numerals and indefinite animate nouns can also take indefinite noun appositives:

16 As it is in Arabic. 17 Traditional folk treatment for snake bites and puncture wounds (Lonnet & Simeone-Senelle

1987; Sima1, Sima67).

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wa-mġōrän yśäynäs [ṭād / daxtär] ‘and then a doctor saw it f.’ Sima32:21

[ṭād / ġayg] ḏa-nūka bawmah yišxabūr lūk ‘one man who came here asked after you m.s.’ M.PES.MA

ʕamōram syōr at-tā ksuh [ġajjūtan / baʕltī ḥārawn] at-tarʕāyan ‘they m. say he went until he met [some] girls, goat herders, grazing [their goats]’ Mo.N.01.03

The appositive may be separated from the apposed term (cf. Wagner 1953: 68 for western Yemeni Mehri, cf. 3.3.5 below). Here ṭād and ġajjǟn män Mārib are separated by the locative adverb ḥläkmäh:

šǟn [ṭād] ḥläkmäh [ġajjǟn män Mārib] ‘there we had one boy from Mārib with us’ Sima61:37

The apposed term in identificatory apposition may comprise a syndetically linked coordinate complex:

nḥah nʕōmar šēh [ḥaṭṭōt / ḥaṭṭōt ḏa-dējar // aw ḥaṭṭōt ḏa-ʕayś] ‘we say he had a bean [using the word ḥaṭṭōt], a bean or a grain of sorghum’ Mo.N.01.01

bīs [xmōh: / ṭād män tǟl bīt Häjmǟn män ḥlōk // w-ṭād män tǟl bīt Färj-Aḷḷāh // w-ṭād män hnǟn nḥah // w-ṭād män tǟl bīt Brǟhīm] ‘there are five [entrances]: one by the Häjman family from there, one by the Färj-Aḷḷāh family, one by us, and one by the Brāhīm family’ Sima53:61

3.3.4 Exemplification

Apposition can serve to exemplify the apposed term (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 282). In this case the reference of the apposed term is not identical with that of the appositive, but properly includes it, and the appositive may be preceded by the preposition hīs, the filler axah, or Arabic yaʕnī (yānī) ‘i.e.’ or maṯalan ‘for example’. Neither the apposed term nor the appositive is restricted to being a NP. As for identificatory apposition, exemplificatory apposition may involve a coordinate complex appositive. In the example below, the apposed term is the NP w-käll fēśäl män ḥafśēl ḏ-rōräm, and each of the elements in the appositive coordinate complex are locational clauses:

w-[käll fēśäl män ḥafśēl ḏ-rōräm] hēh ṣawt, [...], / AmäṯälänA [ʕaṭyūr hēh ṣawt], [däfyūr hēh ṣawt], [järyūf hēh ṣawt] ‘every type of sea work has a song; for example, knotting the nets has a song, pushing the boat out to sea has a song, fishing has a song’ Sima65:40


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3.3.5 Reformulation

Reformulation18 involves the rewording of the content of the apposed term (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 280). The apposed term and the appositive are essentially co-referential. Often essentially synonymous or near-synonymous terms are apposed to clarify the proposition, as in:

ʕādän srǟm [säkni ṯrōh, / bäyti ṯrīt] ‘there are still two families, two houses behind us’ Sima45:13

Reformulation may also provide additional information, as in the following where the place name is completed in the appositive:

at-tä wkäbk [Xīyǟṣ, / Xīyǟṣ al-ʕAjm] ‘until I entered Xīyǟṣ, Xīyǟṣ al-ʕAjm’ Sima46:7

Reformulation may correct what has just been said, in the sense of Arabic badal al-ʔiḍrāb or badal al-ġalaṭ (Esseesy 2006: 124). It is frequently employed where the speaker cannot at first remember the name of the object, as in:

wa-l-ḥamh lā wa-yhūdar ḳardī ḏōm ḳutkan ār wa-xlaṭkan hīnī [ḥnītī / ḥaṭṭōtī] ‘And I don’t want it m.! That food of yours f.pl. will only go down my throat if you mix in my thing, my bean!’ Mo.N.01.11

aḥōm [ḥanīt / ḥanīt] ād fṭankə tah lā ā fṭank [AadaftūrA baʔl arōgaz] ‘I want that thing, that thing, I can’t remember what it m. is. Ah! I’ve remembered, the book of songs’ M.PES.MA

Frequently the apposed term is not adjacent to the reformulative appositive, as in the above example and as in:

[ġyūj] ṭawr ḏäkm tkäys [baʕź män ḥābū] ‘men at that time you m.s. would find some people’ Sima26:23

šīn [AkanābalA] lā khēn [AkanābalA xaybat] ‘we didn’t have blankets in the past, few blankets’ M.NS.Rabkūt

In reformulaic apposition, the apposed term and the appositive may be NPs, but may also be other parts of speech. In the following example, the apposed term and appositive are adverbs:

w-hǟm [mǟkän lǟ, / xaybät] ‘and they m. aren’t many, few’ Sima45:12

The apposed term may also differ in category from the appositive, as in the example below where the AP xayläytän is apposed to the locational clause ḥād bärkīsän lǟ:

18 Further examples of reformulation are considered under asyndetic coordination in chapter 7

(7.4.5).

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ḥād bärkīsän lǟ / xayläytän ‘no one is in them f., [they f. are] empty’ Sima45:13

3.3.6 Emphatic apposition

Emphatic apposition includes the apposition of independent pronouns to co-referential dependent pronouns or to a co-referential NP, and apposition of phrases involving the quantifiers kall, zammāt (azammēt) and baʕś (bāś) or the reflexive pronouns waḥś- ‘alone’ or ḥnōf- ‘self’. kall has the masculine and feminine dual forms klayh (kluh) and klayt, which are restricted to occurring as appositives.19 The quantifiers kall and baʕś (bāś) may occur independently as NPs. kall may form an annexion phrase with a pronoun annex or a singular substantive or demonstrative annex (cf. 4.1.3.1). In modifying a plural noun, kall must function as an appositive.

With some restrictions, phrases involved kall, waḥś-, ḥnōf-, zammāt (azammēt) and baʕś (bāś) occur as independent annexion phrases (cf. 4.1.2, 4.1.3.1). These may also be apposed to a pronoun or NP for emphasis, for focus or to particularise. In apposition to a personal pronoun or otherwise singular NP, kall, waḥś-, ḥnōf- and zammāt (azammēt) take a pronoun annex which shares number and gender values with the apposed term. In apposition to a plural NP, kall takes a pronoun annex optionally20 and only in case the apposed term itself takes a pronoun annex. The noun zammāt (azammēt) can head a NP with a ḏa-phrase attribute (cf. 3.1.10.7), but can also be apposed to a plural or collective noun taking a pronoun annex to restrict what is being communicated mainly to the apposed term.

3.3.6.1 Apposition of independent pronouns

The most common independent pronoun to be apposed to its dependent counterpart or a co-referential NP is 1pl, particularly in apposition to a prepositional annex,21 though all independent pronouns may act as emphatic appositives. Second person independent pronouns are frequently apposed to imperatives to emphasise the referent. As for other cases of apposition, the appositive pronoun may be separated from the apposed pronoun:

Appositive to verbal subject pronoun

xdäm[k / hōh] kīnaḥ b-Ḥawf ‘I also worked in Ḥawf’ Sima4:26

firḥ[an / nḥah] ‘we were happy’ Sima31:5

19 Not mentioned in Rubin (2010). The masculine dual is noted by Wagner (1953: 78) for Soqoṭri,

as in: ihi tri ‘ádo ke’ála ‘zwei gingen miteinander’, but is not attested in the western Yemeni texts for Mehri or Śherɛt.

20 Contra Rubin (2010: 86) who claims that ‘kāl must have the resumptive pronominal suffix’ in apposition to a suffixed noun.

21 For example, there are 34 tokens of hnǟn nḥah ‘with us, we’ in Sima (2009), of which 32 occur in the Jōdab texts.


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ḏīmah ḥamaymat [n]ʔōmar hīs ḥamaymat [nḥah] ‘that is ḥamaymat [rain], we call it f. ḥamaymat’ M.N.Rabkūt02.15

ḏīmah ṣāwar wa-[n]ʔōmar hīs xśūb [nḥah] ‘this is a stone, we call it f. xśūb [a whetstone]’ M.PES.MA

amūr hēh bass taḳtalōb bīs lā wa-[šīḳar / hēt] ‘he said to him, ‘Don’t worry about her and you m.s. hide!’’ M.N.Rabkūt01.15

Appositive to prepositional annex

yʕamräm hīs hn[ǟn / nḥah] rawʕ ‘here with us they m. call it f. rawʕ’22 Sima11:1

lǟkän tärʕaybäm sr[ī / hōh] ‘but you m.pl. do the raʕbūt refrain after me’ Sima1:39

yḥōm yäzōki l[ūk / hēt] aw l-ġayräk ‘whether he wants to give zakāt alms to you m.s. or someone else’ Sima28:10

šī[n] śī lā bḳār [nḥah] ‘we haven’t got any cows’ M.PES.Ndēt

Appositive to NP predicand

[hōh wa-harbātya / nḥah] ṣarōmah AtābānīnA man abanšar ‘me and my friends, we were by now tired [after] the puncture’ M.N.MA

Appositive to noun annex

ahämm bēh l-hämm[i / hōh], ʕAlī Jūdaḥ ‘Call him by my name, Alī Jūdaḥ!’ Sima3:5

w-hǟm źḥīkäm män ġrōy[än / nḥah] ‘and they m. laughed at the way we talked’ Sima36:15

l-hal ḥaskany[an / nḥah] ‘to our families’ M.NS

aśxōf[ī / hōh] ‘my milk’ M.NS

Apposition of an independent pronoun to an inflected verb or future participle is particularly common in the case of compound subjects.23 As noted in chapter 7 (7.2.1.1), either the initial pronoun or the coordinate complex may be co-referential with the verbal subject pronoun:

22 ‘Casting lots’. A traditional practice of sharing out the seven portions of a slaughtered animal

using sticks to ensure anonymity so that no one feels cheated. Description in Sima11. According to Miranda Morris (p.c.) can also be done for distributing tasks.

23 A phenomenon noted by Wagner (1953: 69) for western Yemeni Mehri, for example, ū bārût, sé we-ḥebiríts ‘sie und ihre Tochter gingen’.

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ḏ-[asyūr / hōh] wa-sʕīd ‘me and Saeed are going’ M.NS

sīr[awtī / hōh wa-hēt] ‘we f. DUAL will go, me and you f.s.’ M.NS

3.3.6.2 kall

In apposition to a singular NP, kall takes an anaphoric pronoun annex.

ġlǟ [ḏīmäh Rēhän / källäs] ǟr źayjāʕ AkǟnatA ‘Look! The whole of Rēhan used to be nothing but huts.’ Sima77:3

bēḏär / källäh ‘all the [other] seeds’ Sima56:38

hȭ naġlāḳ man ḥaṭṭutk bak [ḏōm [...] ʕayś / kallah] ‘Where should we look for your m.s. bean in all that sorghum?’ Mo.N.01.19

In apposition to a pronoun functioning as a predicand – i.e. a verbal subject pronoun, an independent pronoun or a pronoun attached to bar – kall may take an anaphoric pronoun annex irrespective of whether the apposed term is singular or plural:

[atēm / kalkam] rīḥōm lahinna ʔālay axayr minkēm kall ‘you m.pl., all of you are good looking, but Ali is the best of you all’ M.NS

aḳarmōś bar[ham / kalham] bawmah ‘the things, all of them m. are here’ M.NS

wa-[nkēb / kallan] Ain šāʔ allāhA bark aginnēt وol| Á�yz ان vÀ هللا �~ك ا��‘and God willing, let us all enter heaven’ M.txt

¦z Âsv�� u�vا� ulq أم un~�Ã� ol| k ḥayy umm ʕalī abɛlī yisāmiš [nḥah / kallan] bi-xayr ‘Welcome, Ali’s mother! God bless you f.s., we are all well.’ M.txt

In apposition to a non-suffixed plural noun or a dependent pronoun functioning as nominal or prepositional annex, kall may not take an anaphoric pronoun annex:

w-[ḥābū / käll] ynäkʕam män bōh wa-m-bōh ‘and everyone comes from here and there’ Sima51:11

byōt lyōm / käll ‘all these houses’ Sima77:1

wa-bkuh hīs ʕīmal ba-[lyēk ḥāwlētan / kall] ‘and he cried as he had done with all those others’ Mo.N.01.47

wa-ḳfadk [anīḥār lyakmah / kall] ‘and I went down all those narrow valleys’ M.N

natfarak min ablēt tā ṣaṭṭak [ašfūtan lyōmah / kall] ‘my skin dried out and became encrusted because of the north wind till all these [i.e. both my] elbows hurt’ M.NS

aḳanyawn / kall ‘all the children’ M.NS


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hand axass min[sēn / kall] ‘India is the worst of them f. all’ M.PES.Ndēt

{| yو�� Â¶�Ä� فv³� ulا�� abɛlī yihāf l-aġaygaš wa-lī[kam / kall] ‘May God help your f.s. husband and all of you m.pl. recover!’ M.txt

In apposition to an object pronoun, kall may take, but usually fails to take, an anaphoric pronoun annex. Compare the following two examples:

nġaṭyi[sän / källäsän] ‘we cover them f. all’ Sima5:5

{| o��~Æا ¼�lÃ� ³~هsذ {�-wa-mākanay aḳbōyal ḏa-mahrah bi وu�ys ا¬��xalīg aġarba[san kall] ‘as for the Mahrah tribes in the Gulf, I know them f. all’ M.txt

In apposition to a suffixed plural noun, kall may optionally take a pronoun annex, but suffixation to kall is less common than bare kall. Instances of kall-plural pronoun annex are more common in elicited and partially elicited speech than in narrative and natural speech.

sēh xyūr ḏa-[harbātsa / kall] ‘she is the best of all her friends’ M.NS

hēh xyūr ḏ-[axxalya / kall] ‘he is the best of all my uncles’ M.PES

ḏa-ṯḳawl bīn akṯēr man [aḳarmaśyan / kall] ‘it m. was heavier for us than all our [other] things’ M.N

�l�� {| Â�v�~³� u��l¬ ḳlēbī la-[harbātša / kall] bi-slōm ‘Send f.s. greetingsمto all your f.s. friends and family!’ M.txt

ḥabinya / kall ~ kallaham ‘all my children’ M.PES

aḳarmaśya / kall ~ kallaham ‘all my goods’ M.PES

The appositive kall may be non-adjacent to the apposed term, as here:

läjrē ḏ-[ḥābū] mġōh yaʕjībäm yäḳfīdäm [käll] ‘because people then all wanted to go down’ Sima56:104

Ç Èl| ت�l·ار�� و [arsōlat] wuṣalūt [kallas] lā ‘the whole letter didn’t arrive’ M.txt

In contrast to kall, the dual forms kluh m. and klayt f. may not head an annexion phrase. With the dual suffix -kī (1dual/2dual) or -hī (3dual), they may function independently as predicand, as in Mahriyōt klahkī ‘we/you m. DUAL’, klayhī ‘they m. DUAL’, klaythī ‘they f. DUAL’; Mehreyyet kluhkī ‘we/you m. DUAL’, klatkī ‘we/you f. DUAL’, kluhhī ‘they m. DUAL’, klathī ‘they f. DUAL’: kluhkī syarkī ‘we/you DUAL went’, and kluhkī / (a)ḥamoh lasfarah ‘we both want to go’, or occur in apposition to a dual pronoun, as in the example below.

śaf[kī / kluhkī] ḥawyēl al-ād bīkī ṭād axayr min ṭād lā ‘it turns out you DUAL are both mad – there isn’t one of you DUAL better than the other’ M.NS

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Non-suffixed dual forms of kall occur in apposition to an NP that refers to two elements, to a dual pronoun, or to a plural pronoun where the real-world referent is dual.24

yišxadīm[san / klayt] ‘they m. use them f. both f.’ M.NS

yaġtariyam tī[san / klayt] ‘they m. say them f. both f.’ M.NS

hōh w-aḥmēd syar[kī / kluh] ‘both me m. and Ahmad went’ M.NS

hōh wa-sēh syar[kī / klayt] ‘both me f. and her went’ M.NS

3.3.6.3 waḥś- and ḥnōf-

waḥś- and ḥnōf- obligatorily take a pronoun suffix that is co-referential with the apposed term (4.1.2). ḥnōf- focusses the apposed term, and waḥś- particularises or limits the proposition to the apposed term. As for other cases of apposition, the appositive may be separated from the apposed term, as in the final example below:

w-[hōh / waḥśī] ḥläkmäh ‘and I am on my own there’ Sima33:22

hēh w-ḥabrēh šēh aw [hēh / waḥśēh] ‘him with his son, or him alone’ Sima39:5

ankayta [hēt / waḥśīš] aw hēt wa-sakniš ‘Are you f.s. coming on your own or you and your family?’ M.NS

[y]xōräj [ḥnäfh] bräk dumm ‘it m. comes out of its own account in the pus’ Sima2:69

w-[hōh] aśōm ṣayd [ḥnōfi] bä-ssūḳ ‘I sell the fish myself in the market’ Sima44:14

3.3.6.4 baʕś (bāś)

As an appositive, the partitive baʕś (bāś) may either occur independently, or with a PP attribute headed by man.

[ḥābū / baʕź] yġalyimäh wi-ytäwyimäh ‘some people boil it m. and eat it’ Sima70:25

yaʕmīläm [wdōyäm / baʕź] ḳannättän ‘they m. make some huts small’ Sima17:34

snōbäḳ / baʕź ‘some boats’ Sima20:2

[snay / bāś] yinūka ṣarbay ‘some years, it m. comes in the post-monsoon period’ M.N.Rabkūt02.16

24 No examples of non-suffixed kluh or klayt are attested in the Mahriyōt data.


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[ḥambarawtan / bāś] mnōl yišāmīn lā ‘some boys are naughty, they m. don’t listen’ M.PES.MA

Where baʕś (bāś) takes a PP attribute headed by man, the appositive is also analysable as the predicand of the comment in a topic-comment clause (6.9).

[byōt / baʕź mänsǟn] xīläytän ‘the houses, some of them f. are empty’ Sima45:4

[ḳmōmät lyäkmäh / baʕź mänhǟm] yxarjäm män ḥrēh aḥ-ḥnūtän25 ‘this germ, some of it comes out of the head of the thing’ Sima56:135

3.3.6.5 zammāt (azammēt)

As an appositive, zammāt (azammēt) takes a pronoun annex that is co-referential with the apposed term:

wa-mġōrän [ḥābū / zämmäthäm] [lit. and then people, most of them m.] ‘and then most people’ Sima58:35

ḥābū [zämmäthäm] käll bǟr ḳfōdäm mänt Źfōr ‘the people, most of them m., all [of them] have already gone down to the area of Dhofar’ Sima29:32

lxaym källäh / zämmäth ‘shark, all of it m., most of it m.’ Sima16:9

hibɛr [azammatsan] bār kluh ‘the camels, most of them f. have returned [in the evening]’ M.PES.MA

[aġyūg / azammatham] kall syawr kaštah ‘the men, most of them m. went on a trip’ M.PES.MA

25 < *ḏa-ḥnūtän.

4 Annexion

Annexion is one of the means of expanding the NP in Mehri and obligatorily expands the PP. Annexion involves the linkage of two elements, an annexed term and an annex, where either both are nominals or the annexed term a preposition (cf. Ryding & Versteegh 2007 for Arabic). As an annexed term, the quantifier kall or the preposition man may take a clause or VP annex. The NP annex may be headed by either a substantive or a pronoun, but the annexed term can never be a pronoun of any type. Thus the head and modifier of an annexion phrase can be filled as below:

annexed termN-annexNP[N~PRONOUN]

annexed termP–annexNP[N~PRONOUN]

annexed termP[man]~N[kall]–annexVP~CLAUSE

In the case of a phonologically independent annex – i.e. a substantive, demonstrative pronoun or indefinite pronoun – a nominal annexed term may not take a form of the definite article, and the definiteness of an annexion phrase is determined by the definiteness of the annex. Thus, the Mehreyyet NP bālīt rawn ‘an owner f. of goats’ is indefinite by virtue of the indefinite annex, rawn ‘goats’, while bālīt ḥārawn ‘the owner f. of the goats’ is definite by virtue of the definite annex, ḥārawn ‘the goats’. By contrast, where the annex is phonologically bound – i.e. a personal pronoun suffix – the annexed term is required to take a form of the definite article in case definiteness is morphologically marked on that noun (cf. 2.4.1.2), as in: a-bayt-ī [DEF-house-1S] ‘my house’, ḥa-ybit-k [DEF-camel-2MS] ‘your camel’. Since personal pronouns are inherently definite, definite marking on the annexed term produces the symmetrical structure: annexed termDEF[N]–annexDEF[PRONOUN].

With a few exceptions, substantive nouns in Mehri may take personal pronoun annexes, but in contrast to Arabic very few nouns may take independent noun annexes.1 In this chapter, I examine nouns which obligatorily take noun annexes to the exclusion of personal pronoun annexes, nouns which obligatorily take personal pronoun annexes, nouns which may take noun annexes or personal pronoun annexes, and occasional instances of nominal annexion. In the final section, I examine prepositions, which are obliged to take an NP or clausal annex.

1 Unless otherwise stated, ‘noun’ in this chapter refers to a phonologically free nominal.

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4.1 Nominal annexion 4.1.1 Nouns obliged to take noun annexes

A closed set of kinship terms mandatorily takes a noun annex: that is to say, they can neither stand independently nor can they take a personal pronoun annex. These include: bar ‘son’, bart ‘daughter’, bīn ~ banī (banī) ‘sons’, bantī (bātī ~ baʔtī) ‘daughters’, and bīt ‘family; tribe’. Of these, the singular kinship terms are by far the most common nominal annexed terms both in the published texts and in natural speech (Watson 2009).

4.1.1.1 bar and bart

bar or bart are attested in full names, as in: mḥammad bar shēl ‘Muhammad Shēl’, in nicknames, as in: bar ṣarfayt ‘son of flat rock’, and in kinship terms, as in Mahriyōt bar ġitk ‘your m.s. sister’s son’ and bart xīl ‘maternal cousin f.’; however, in the identification of precise kinship relations, as for example, the son(s) or daughter(s) of a particular person, the definite allomorphs ḥabrē- ‘son of’, ḥabrīt ‘daughter of’, ḥbūn ‘sons’, ḥbantan ‘daughters’ are used in both dialects.

hīt bart / mōn [lit. you f.s. daughter of who] ‘You f.s. are whose daughter?’ Mo

ṭīt bart xīlī [lit. one f. daughter of my maternal uncle] ‘a female cousin of mine’ Mo

nḥah [banī / dīd] ‘we are male paternal cousins’ M.PES.MA

In Mehreyyet, when the plural kinship terms bātī and banī take dīd ‘paternal uncle’ as annex, dīd invariably lacks the definite article prefix, to give both: banī dīd ‘male paternal cousins’ and banī daydī ‘my male paternal cousins’ (*banī ḥadaydī). This may indicate that affixation of the definite article in nouns with pronoun suffixes is a secondary development, and therefore that banī daydī [son.MPL paternal.uncle-1S] ‘my paternal cousins’ is an older form than ḥ-b ūn ḏa-ḥa-daydī [DEF-son.MPL ḏa-DEF-paternal.uncle-1S] ‘my uncle’s sons’ where the ḥa- definite article is prefixed to -daydī. The singular annexed terms bar and bart may either take this annex with the definite article or without. Thus each of the following examples is acceptable:

ḏīmah [bart / ḥadaydī] sārah ‘that is my female paternal cousin, Sarah’ M.PES

ḏīmah [bart / daydī]2 sārah ‘that is my female paternal cousin, Sarah’ M.PES

kisk īmōh [bar / ḥadaydī] ‘today I found my male paternal cousin’ M.PES

kisk īmōh [bar / daydī] ‘today I found my male paternal cousin’ M.PES

2 Pronounced bartaydī.

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bar/bart may express origin in terms of time of birth, as in: bar / ḳayṯī3 ‘s.o. born during the hot season’ (Mo); bar / maḥḥōjar ‘s.o. born when the sun is at its peak’ (Mo).

In both dialects, bar/bart, but not banī, may head an annexion phrase to express age, as in Mehreyyet: bar / ōśar snay ‘ten years old m.s.’, bart / xaymah ‘five years old f.s.’, [bart / kam snay] ḏik awaḳtan [lit. girl of how many years at that time] ‘How old [were you f.s.] at that time?’ (cf. also Johnstone 1987: 54).

bar/bart followed by a (definite) adjective or proper noun may function metaphorically to express characteristics, as in Mehreyyet: bart / ḥa-nōb [daughter.FS DEF-large.FS] ‘female camel’, bar / gōn [son.MS (s.o. called) gōn] ‘male camel’, and as in the following examples from western Yemeni Mehri:

bar ḥauf ‘Nordwind’

bar ḥaul ‘Regenstrom’, eig. ‘Sohn der Veränderung’ (Wagner 1953: 73)

The noun annex to bar/bart and banī/bantī (bātī) can neither be pronominalised nor be replaced by an attributive ḏa-phrase (cf. 2.9.5.1, 3.1.10). In both dialects, such structures involve the allomorphs ḥabrē-, ḥabrīt, ḥbūn and ḥbantan, where ḥ(a) is the (in the case of Mahriyōt, historical) definite article:

ḥabrī w-ḥabrītī ‘my son and my daughter’ Mo.NS

[ḥabinya] bawmah ‘my children are here’ M.NS

ankōt ba-[ḥbantsa] ‘she brought her daughters’ M.NS

ḏīm [ḥabrīt / ḏa-mōn] ‘Whose daughter is that?’ Mo.NS

ġbark īmōh [ḥbūn / ḏ-axaylī] ‘today I met my maternal male cousins’ M.PES.MA

lyōmah [ḥbantan / ḏ-aʔōmī sēlam] ‘those are the daughters of Grandfather Sēlam’ M.PES.MA

4.1.1.2 bīt (bīt ~ bayt)

In Mahriyōt, the noun bīt mandatorily takes a noun annex and expresses inalienable possession in its primary sense of ‘household, family; tribe’ and description in its metaphorical sense of ‘type’.4 In Mehreyyet, ‘household; family’ and the edifice ‘house’ are expressed by bayt, while ‘tribe’ and description in the metaphorical sense of ‘type’ is expressed by bīt. bayt, but not bīt, may both stand independently or take a pronoun annex. Examples of bīt heading an annexion phrase in the two dialects include:

3 In Mehreyyet, nūka ḳīḏay ‘he came [= was born] summer.ADJ’ (M.PES). 4 Cf. Arabic qabīl ‘type of’ and qabīlah ‘tribe’.


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bīt / bär Mdäyfäš ‘the family of bar Mdäyfäš’ Sima4:13

[bīt / l-Äknāḥ], baʕź [bīt / Ḥamšī], baʕź [bīt / Šännǟf] w-baʕź [bīt / Raʕfīt] w-baʕź [bīt / Kuddäh] ‘the Äknāḥ tribe, some of the Ḥamšī tribe, some of the Šannǟf tribe, some of the Raʕfīt tribe and some of the Kuddäh tribe’ Sima1:35

nḥōm nišśētar ha-[bayt / fulān] ‘we want to donate to family so-and-so’ M.NS

� v¦z�l�s � nḥah [bayt / msallam] ‘we are the family of Musallam’ M.txt

Description

In both dialects, bīt may function metaphorically to describe type or a set, and is particularly common in lists:5

[bīt / bṣāl], [bīt / AxaḏrawātA], w-[bīt / lyōmah ḏa-nṣarōmah ḏa-nukʕam bīham] ‘all these onions and vegetables and this type of thing that they’ve m. brought now’ Mo.NS

[bīt / fäṭx] ṭwōr w-[bīt / ṯīrōb] w-[bīt / lyōmäh] ‘in cases such as hitting on the forehead sometimes, hitting with a stick and [cases] such as these’ Sima48:8

[bīt / śīḥaz] wa-[bīt / amaḥḥ] wa-[bīt / agīlēd ḏ-abḳār] ‘such as frankincense, clarified butter and cattle hide’ M.NS

śabtan [bīt / xaḏārī] wa-ḳwaṭyat ‘we took things such as vegetables and tinned goods’ M.NS

bīt in the sense of ‘type’ often functions as annex to the preposition hīs ‘like’:

hīs [bīt / xtōwam], hīs [bīt / tḳāḳ], hīs [bīt / ḳlǟdīh], hīs [bīt / śäkkēt], hīs [bīt / lyōmäh käll] tälbōsän tīhäm ḥaynǟṯ ‘[jewellery] such as rings, tḳāḳ, ḳlǟdīh, śäkkēt, like all these things, women wore them f.’ Sima59:124

An annexion phrase headed by bīt in Mehreyyet may describe a set of masculine animate objects that share a name or an age:

mēkin [bīt / mḥammad] ‘there are lots with the name Muhammad’ M.NS

lyōmah azammatham [bīt / ōśar snay] ‘those, most of them m. are ten years old’ M.PES

5 Rarely in Mehreyyet, according to MA.

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4.1.1.3 baʕl (baʔl ~ bāl)

The possessor baʕl (baʔl ~ bāl) with its feminine baʕlīt (baʔlīt ~ bālīt), dual baʕlī (baʔlī ~ bālī), and plural forms bʕōlī ~ baʕlī (baʔlī ~ bālī), baʕltī (bātī)6 appears to be the second most common head noun in an annexion phrase in the two dialects (cf. Watson 2009). baʕl (bāl) is occasionally modified by an attributive ḏa-phrase: one instance of baʕl–ḏa-phrase was found in the Sima texts, namely: baʕl ḏa-ḥḥōṣal ‘the owner of the field’ (Sima63:42), and my Mehreyyet informants accept forms such as abaʔl ḏa-ḏikmah ḥaybīt ‘the owner of that camel’ (cf. 3.1.10.1). Wagner gives two examples of bâl–ḏa- in the western Yemeni Mehri texts of the Viennese Expedition: ġayj bâl dä-qärš ‘der Mann, dem der Taler gehörte’, bâl dä-mqahôyit ‘Besitzer des Kaffeehauses’ (1953: 73). Otherwise baʕl (baʔl ~ bāl) most commonly takes an annex, but in contrast to the kinship terms considered above may take a pronoun annex, as in: baʕś hbār tarbūban ār l-baʕlas ‘the odd camel [lit. some camels] only behaves gently with its f. owner’ (Mo.NS).

The term expresses alienable possession in its primary sense, and inalienable possession, origin and function in its secondary senses. While its primary meaning is ‘owner’, the sense of baʕl depends strongly on the semantic relationship within the annexion phrase and the context:

Alienable possession

baʕl / baʕyōr ‘the male camel owner’ Sima56:176

baʕl / lē ḏakm ‘that owner of the cow’ Mo

baʕlīt / xlāḳ ʕōfar ‘the one f. in the red dress’ Mo.R

[baʔlī / ḥaybīt] u-ġayg [baʔl / sīyaryat] ‘the [two] men with the camel and the driver of the car’ M.N.Rabkūt02.50

baʔlī / hbɛr ‘camel owners’ M

baʔlī / amṣanaʔ ‘factory owners’ M

baʔlī / darhamūtan7 ‘people with lots of money’ M

aḥōm ḥanīt ḥanīt ād fṭankə tah lā ā fṭank AadaftūrA [baʔl / arōgaz] ‘I want that thing, I can’t remember what it is. Ah! I’ve remembered! The book with songs.’ M.PES

6 Transcribed for Mehreyyet as bāl (bayli) bālīt and bəʔēli by Johnstone (Johnstone 1987; cf.

Rubin 2010: 74). There is some variance in pronunciation, often within a single speaker; however, native speakers are generally aware of a weak *ʕ in all forms, usually realised as a glottal stop or as creaky voice. In text messages, speakers almost invariably write /ʕ/, as in: .’ul�� baʕlī abayt ‘people of the house ا��

7 Augmentative form of drēham. Rarely used.


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baʕlīt / ḳrōn ḏīk ‘that one f. with horns’ Sima2:36

baʔlīt / klaytan ‘one f. with the kidneys [= kidney problem]’ M

baʔlīt / aštūtan ‘the one f. with a fat bottom’ M

bātī / śxōf ‘ones f. with milk’ M

bātī / ḳrūn ‘ones f. [= goats] with horns’ M.N.Rabkūt04.06

Kinship

baʕlī / bayt ‘the people of the house’ Mo

baʔlī / bayt ‘the people of the house/the house owners’ M

hōh [baʔlīt / abayt] ‘I f. am one of the family’ M

Origin or place

hēt ġayj ḏ-xīläḳk būmäh, [baʕl / śḥayr] ‘you m.s. are a man who was born here, a man from the mountains’ Sima2:13

baʕli / rōram ‘people of the sea’ Mo

baʔlī / ḥawf ‘people from Ḥawf’ M

baʔlī / śfōr ‘people from Dhofar’ M

baʔlī / arśawtan ‘people from [other] countries [= foreigners]’ M

amēram ha-[baʔlī / ḥawōdī] yiḥrēfam man amsyūl watxafūt manwōt ‘Tell m.pl. the people in the wadi to get out of the bottom, there are rain clouds this evening!’ M.PES

Function/purpose

baʕl / ktōb ‘the person who works with amulets’ Sima1:31

bʕōli / źwaġyät ‘the ones who work with seine nets’ Sima6:5

baʔlī / AʕtiṣāmA ‘the ones m. in the sit-in’ M

Metaphorical extension of the meaning is frequent, particularly, as noted by Wagner for the western dialect group, to express characteristics: ‘Am meisten weicht bâl von seiner eigentlichen Bedeutung ab, wenn es, um ein (substantiviertes) Adjektiv auszudrücken, vor dessen Abstraktum steht: bāl śijôt8 ‘ein Mutiger’; besonders ist das in den Gedichten der Fall’ (Wagner 1953: 73). Examples of metaphorical

8 Possessor of courage.

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extension in Mehreyyet include: agzōn bāś mansēn [bātī / xayr] ‘some women are very kind’, bātī / nōb ‘camels’ (cf. 4.1.1.1) where the annex is a nominalisation of the feminine singular adjective nōb ‘large’, baʔlīt / śḥāk ‘one f. who laughs a lot’, and bātī–PROPER NOUN to indicate a group of females with a particular name, e.g. bātī / ūxiyār ‘those f. with the name Awxiyār’.

In Mehreyyet, age may be expressed by baʔl,9 feminine singular baʔlīt and the feminine plural bātī with a numeral phrase annex, as in: baʔl / ōśar snay ‘ten years old m.s.’, baʔlīt / śahlīṯ snay ‘three years old f.s.’, baʔlīt / xamsayn ‘fifty years old f.s.’, bātī / ʔōśar wa-xaymah snay ‘fifteen years old f.pl.’.

4.1.1.4 mant ~ bant ~ baʕtī (bātī ~ baʔtī)

Terms indicating ‘the area of’ are mant,10 far less commonly bant and baʕtī, in Mahriyōt, and bātī ~ baʔtī in Mehreyyet; Mahriyōt baʕtī and Mehreyyet bātī ~ baʔtī appear to be metaphorical extensions of the feminine plural of baʕl (baʔl ~ bāl), although the presence of /l/ would be expected in Mahriyōt.

w-män [mänt / Händ] ‘and from [the area of] India’ Sima20:3

taḥwēl [mänt / ʕAyn] ‘towards the area of al-Ayn’ Sima29:21

baʔtī / jōdab wa-ḥawf ‘the areas of Jōdab and Ḥawf’ M.N.02.07

baʔtī / makkah ‘the region around Mecca’ M.N.02.05

Mahriyōt mant occasionally functions metaphorically to describe type or set, as for bīt above (4.1.1.2):

wa-ḥwāj, [mänt / ḳarfäh] w-[mänt / hēl] w-[mänt / HlónuhH] ‘and spices, such as cinnamon and cardamom and the like’ Sima85:59

4.1.2 Nouns obliged to take personal pronoun annexes

All non-pronominal nouns with the exception of those described above may take a personal pronoun annex. There are, however, two nouns which never occur without a personal pronoun annex in either dialect: the reflexive pronoun ḥnōf-, which has the plural form ḥanfāy- before plural suffixes, and the reflexive adverb waḥś-.

4.1.2.1 ḥnōf-

ḥnōf- most commonly functions as an indirect object or as a prepositional annex:

ḥfūr xōṭar xōṭar xōṭar ta bḳawṯ [ḥnafh] wōram ‘he dug down and down and down until he had bored himself a path’ M.N.Rabkūt

wa-šūkūf yihōgas [ḥnafh] mōt ‘he fell asleep thinking he had died’ M.N

9 bāl is used to express age mainly in animals, according to MA. 10 Hobyōt munt, Śḥerɛt mut ‘area, region’, as in: mut ādān ‘the area of Aden’ and mut al-kwīt ‘the

area of Kuwait’.


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ḏa-śnawwaš [ḥnafš] mawtikyēta fīsēʔ ‘Do you f.s. think you will come back quickly?’ M.NS

ḏa-śnawwak [ḥanfāyan] ninkā fīsēʔ ‘I think we will come quickly’ M.NS

hīs taww laġtayḏ la-[ḥnōfī] ār hōh ‘I’m the one who should be angry with myself’ M.NS

4.1.2.2 waḥś-

waḥś- functions principally as an adverb; it may also function as an appositive (cf. 3.3.6.3):

w-hōh [waḥśī] ḥläkmäh ‘and I was on my own there’ Sima33:22

män ldāʕ hēh w-ḥabrēh šēh aw hēh / waḥśēh ‘I don’t know whether he had his son with him or he was on his own’ Sima39:5

syärk [waḥśūk] män būmäh ‘Did you m.s. go on your own from here?’ Sima46:2

tartēḳī al-ḥamd / waḥśih ‘you f.s. read the ḥamd on its own’ M.NS

šiḳarawt / waḥśīs ‘she hid on her own’ M.N

sīrōna k-aḥād ‘Are you m.s. going with someone?’ waylōb sīrōna / waḥśay ‘No, I’ll go on my own!’ M.NS

4.1.3 Nouns which optionally take noun annexes

Nouns which optionally take noun annexes include the quantifiers baʕś (bāś) ‘some’, kall ‘all, every’, ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) ‘a little’, and the cardinal numerals.

4.1.3.1 Quantifiers

Quantifiers in Mehri, as in colloquial Arabic, are syntactically interesting in that they are subordinate to the entities they stand in construct with, such that verbal or adjectival agreement is with the annex rather than the annexed term (cf. Cowell 1964: 466; Watson 1993: 189 for dialects of Arabic). The most common quantifiers baʕś ‘some’ and kall ‘all, every’ differ in their subcategorisation from the substantives considered above in that they may take a PP attribute in place of a NP annex (3.1.9). Additionally, kall may take a following VP or clause attribute obligatorily headed by ḏa- (3.2.3), and is the only quantifier to allow a pronoun annex. In contrast to its Arabic counterpart baʕḍ, baʕś (bāś) cannot take a personal pronoun annex. ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) ‘a little’ may similarly take an independent noun annex, but not a personal pronoun annex. All quantifiers express partition.

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baʕś (bāś)

Examples of baʕś (bāś)–ANNEX11 include:

yšaxbīräm tī män [baʕź / bhēl] ‘they m. ask me about some words’ Sima10:2

baʕś / ḥābū ‘some people’ Mo.NS

baʕś / bhalyas ‘some of its f. words’ Mo.NS

baʕś (bāś) can head a larger annexion phrase, as in:

[baʕź / bʕōli Aal-jänūbīyähA lyēh] ḏ-bōh ‘some of the people from the south here’ Sima2:32

baʕź / bīt Smōdäh ‘some of the Samōdah tribe’ Sima39:7

kall

kall is marked by the fact that it may take a singular, but not a plural explicit noun annex (cf. 3.3.6.2; Watson 2009; Rubin 2010: 86–88). In modifying a plural explicit noun, kall must be apposed to the plural noun, thus kall bayt ‘every house’ where kall heads an annexion phrase contrasts with abyōt kall ‘all the houses’ where kall acts as an appositive:

kall–NP

kall / tīwi ḏ-lē kallas ‘all the meat of the whole cow’ Mo.NS

[kall / ġayg] šēh mandawḳ ‘every man has a gun’ M.PES.MA

kall–PERSONAL PRONOUN ANNEX baʕś and kall frequently function as appositives: baʕś to a plural NP only, kall to either a singular or plural NP. Although kall may take a plural pronoun annex, and takes a singular pronoun annex in the case of apposition to a singular NP, it may only take a plural pronoun annex in apposition to a plural NP which itself has a plural pronoun annex (cf. 3.3.6.2).12 Consider the following additional examples:

SINGULAR NOUN–kall–PRONOUN

lē / kallas ‘the whole cow’ Mo.NS

11 Wagner says of bâḍ from the western dialect group data: ‘Im Gegensatz zum Arab. kann auf

bâḍ kein Genitiv folgen, vielmehr folgt immer die Präposition men’ (Wagner 1953: 78). This implies either some change in language use since the Viennese carried out their fieldwork at the start of the twentieth century, dialect difference, or that the expedition texts lacked the relevant data. The one example of bāś given by Alfadly (2007: 263) is modified by a PP headed by mɪn: bɑ:ɮ mɪn hæbu: jɪttɛk’ ħmɒh ‘Some of [sic!] people drink water’.

12 According to Wagner (1953: 76), kall must ‘als Apposition auf den Plural folgen und dieser als Personalsuffix wieder aufgenommen werden’. However, in all the examples he gives of plural noun + kall, kall lacks a pronoun suffix.


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tīwī ḏakmah / kallah ‘all that meat’ Mo.NS

PLURAL NOUN–kall–0

wa-lyōmah ḥnūtan / kall [lit. and these things all] ‘all those things’

ḥābū / kall [lit. people all] ‘all the people’

kall may take a plural personal pronoun annex in place of a noun annex in an independent NP, and optionally as an appositive to an NP with a personal pronoun annex, to a personal pronoun or to a demonstrative. Thus, a plural pronoun annex is ruled out absolutely only in case kall functions as the appositive to a plural head noun which itself lacks a personal pronoun annex:

Independent NP

w-bōḳī ḏ-ḥābūn käll ḏ-šī, [källähäm] täwyīhäm lxaym ‘and the rest of all the people who were with me, all of them m. were eaten by the shark’ Sima73:25

[källäsän] ǟr faxrä ḥläkmäh ‘they f. are all together there’ Sima29:15

[kallaham] b-xayr ‘all of them m. are well’

Appositive to plural noun + pronoun annex / pronoun / demonstrative

w-kull snīnän ḥābū yġarbäm [lyōm / källähäm] lǟ ‘in the past, people didn’t know all of these m. [things]’ Sima57:3713

wa-mġōh trōjäm lī[sän / källäsän] ṭīt sǟr ṭīt ‘then you m.s. cover them f. all, one after the other’ Sima57:59

nḥah / kallan ~ kall ‘all of us’ M.NS

ḥbinya / kallaham ~ kall ‘all of my children’ M.NS

ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat)

ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) may take a count or non-count noun annex. It may not take a personal pronoun annex. Examples include:

yäzyīdäm hīs [ʕaynät / slīṭ] ‘they m. add a little oil to it f.’ Sima12:18

tjōraḥ lēh [ʕaynät / maʕjīn] ‘you m.s. serve him a little maʕjīn’14 Sima12:39

13 Cf. the following example, where kall in apposition to a demonstrative does not take a pronoun

annex: hīs [bīt … / lyōmäh käll] tälbōsän tīhäm ḥaynǟṯ ‘like all these things, women wore them f.’ (Sima59:124).

14 maʕjīn ‘meat preserved in fat’ is meat cut up in small strips and then cooked in fat with some salt. Traditionally it is forbidden to touch it with the hand, only a spoon or stick being used to take a helping from the container. It has a texture similar to corned beef. Translated as ‘Fleischknödeln’ in the description given in Sima12.

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bā nwās šēh ār [ʕaynat / dējar] xūrūn ‘Bā Nuwās only had a few beans’ Mo.N

wuzmīs [aʔaynat / tōmar] ‘he gave it f. some dates’ M.N.04.12

fnōhan xzuh man yhaḳas wa-mġōran ād wuzmīs [ʔaynat / muh] ‘at first he refused to water it f., and then he gave it f. a bit of water’ M.PES.MA

4.1.3.2 Cardinal numerals

The cardinal numbers may, as in Arabic, occur independently or take a following noun annex. They may also function as attributes (3.1.5) or apposed terms (3.3.3.1). As in Arabic, the -t based form of the numeral (and xmuh ‘five’) occurs before masculine nouns and the non-t based form before feminine nouns. Consider the following numeral phrases from Mehreyyet:15

Mehreyyet 3–10

śāṯayt / mhandasīn ‘three engineers’ , śahlīṯ / īnēṯ ‘three women’

arbūt / ġyūg ‘four men’ , arbā / rawn ‘four goats’

xmuh / baʕyūr ‘five male camels’, xaymah / bḳār ‘five cows’

itīt / ḳrawš16 ‘six riyals’, hitt / mzōraʔ ‘six farms’

ībayt / dfatrat ‘seven books’, hōba / mśōraḥ ‘seven teeth’

ṯamanīt / škāyat ‘eight swords’, ṯmōnī / ḳsōyas ‘eight stories’

sʕayt / kabkōb ‘nine stars’, sɛʔ / rḥōyab ‘nine towns’

āśarīt / xṭawraḳ ‘ten sticks’, ōśar / mgōmar ‘ten incense burners’

And consider the following examples from Mahriyōt:

ʕāśär / ḥāyǟm17 ‘ten days’ Sima56:175

[śaʕṯäyt / mäkkūtän], [arbaʕōt / mäkkūtän] ‘three mkūk,18 four mkūk’ Sima56:182

The cardinals 3 and 4 in Mehreyyet, 2–4 in Mahriyōt, may take possessive pronoun annexes, with an optional independent pronoun appositive, as in: ṯruhyan ‘the two of us m.’, arbʕutyan19 ‘the four of us m.’ (Mo), śāṯatyan nḥah ‘the three m. of us’,

15 For a comparative list from Mahriyōt, cf. Watson (2009). 16 Any currency – understood as Omani riyals in Oman. 17 As opposed to ʕīśar yōm. 18 Measure of grain, c. half a sack (Johnstone 1987). 19 The /u/ vowel suggests the form originates from Hobyōt.


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śāṯatīkam ‘the three of you m.pl.’ (M). No higher cardinals may take a personal pronoun annex.

In contrast to Arabic, the annex hundred after numerals of 3 and above is in the plural in Mehreyyet (cf. mī in Rubin 2010: 212–213). The plural form mīya ~ mīyī should not be confused with the Arabic singular mīyah:

śahlīṯ / mīya ‘three hundred’, xaymah / mīya ‘five hundred’

v�s uz�p¤ u�¬و �� bū wḳēya ṯmōnī mīya [lit. people be around eight hundreds] ‘there are around eight hundred people’ M.e-mail

In Mahriyōt, the annex is singular, irrespective of whether the Arabic form mīyah or the Mehri form myāt is used (cf. Watson 2009):

junyät täśś äwōm [b-xaymäh / AmīyähA] b-[hitt / AmīyähA], b-[hōbaʕ / AmīyähA] ‘the sack is sold for five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred’ Sima44:32

śählīṯ / Amīyäh w-xamsīnA ‘three hundred and fifty’ Sima53:42

The Mehreyyet numerals between 11 and 99 usually take a following plural noun (cf. 2.6.3.1; cf. Rubin 2010: 212). According to my Mehreyyet informants, a following plural noun is preferable to a following singular noun in the lower decade and compound numerals. For the higher decade and compound numerals, generally above 90, either plural or singular can be used, although there is no full consensus on this even within a single family. The following examples show a plural noun annex:

āśarīt wa-ṭād / ambarawtan ‘eleven boys’

āšrayn / darhōs ‘twenty kids [goats]’

śalāṯayn wa-xmuh / ḳrawš ‘thirty-five riyals’

myēt wa-śalāṯayn / bɛr ‘one hundred and thirty camels’

In the Mehri of Yemen, both the form and syntax of the Mehri cardinals 11–99 have effectively been supplanted in natural speech by the Arabic numerals. Thus, Mahriyōt shows only singular noun annexes after numerals of 11 and above:

w-män baʕd [Aʕišrīn – mädri – ṯlǟṯīn / sänähA] ‘and after twenty, I don’t know, thirty years’ Sima40:23

źwāġi tkūnän män [AṯänʕašarA / märfäḳ] ‘the nets have twelve knots’ Sima65:9

myǟt w-Axamsīn / ṭāläbA ‘one hundred and fifty pupils’ Sima31:11

In Mehreyyet, myēt ‘hundred’ and ɛf ‘thousand’ can either take a following singular noun annex or, preferably, a plural noun in an attributive phrase headed by ḏa-:

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myēt / baḳarēt ‘one hundred cows’

OR myēt / ḏa-bḳār ‘one hundred cows’

ɛf ḥaybīt ‘one thousand camels’

OR ɛf / ḏa-bɛr ‘one thousand camels’20

Where myēt or ɛf is in the dual, the following noun is in the plural and may either occur directly or, preferably, and considerably preferably in the case of ɛf, in an attributive phrase headed by ḏa-:

myēti ṯrayt / ḥīṭār ‘two hundred male [goat] kids’

BETTER myēti ṯrayt / ḏa-ḥīṭār ‘two hundred male [goat] kids’

? ɛfi ṯroh / rawn ‘two thousand goats’

BETTER ɛfi ṯroh / ḏa-rawn ‘two thousand goats’

A set of numerals on the pattern fīʕal takes yōm ‘days’ as annex to express ‘X days’ (cf. also 2.6.3.1):

śīlaṯ / yōm ‘three days’, rībaʕ (rība) / yōm ‘four days’, xaymah / yōm ‘five days’, šīdaṯ / yōm ‘six days’, šībaʕ (šība) / yōm ‘seven days’, ṯīman / yōm ‘eight days’, tīsaʕ (tīsa) / yōm ‘nine days’, ʕīśar (ayśar) / yōm ‘ten days’

In Mehreyyet, this set extends to the compound numerals, as in: ayśar wa-rība / yōm ‘fourteen days’, āšrayn wa-rība / yōm ‘twenty-four days’.

4.1.4 Occasional annexion phrases

In contrast to Mahriyōt, Mehreyyet also allows nominal annexion in a very few other cases, some of which have been pointed out by Rubin (2010: 75). These include:

ḳaṭʔōt bīn ssīyaryat man [ḳall / batrūl] ‘the car broke down on us because of a lack of petrol’ M.PES

aḳanyawn haḳṣaym anhūrham bōkī man [ḳall / ḳawt] ‘the children spent the middle of the day crying from lack of food’ M.PES

īmoh niśzak fīgōn ḏa-[šahay / ḥalīb] ‘today I drank a cup of milk tea’ M.NS

śīḥaz [maṣdar / ḳawt] ḏa-ḥābū ‘frankincense is a means of making a living [= source of food] for people’ M.N.Rabkūt

fīgōn / ḳahwēt ‘a cup of coffee’ M.NS

20 According to Saeed alQumairi (p.c.), western Yemeni Mehri allows a singular or plural noun

following mīyēt: mīyēt ḥōz ~ ḥārawn ‘100 goats’.

4.2 Prepositional annexion

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As in other Semitic languages, adpositions in Mehri are prepositions. Prepositions are particles that say something about the semantic role of a following NP within a clause (Payne 1997: 86). Introduced in chapter 2 (2.7), prepositions in Mehri may be subcategorised into clitics and independent phonological words. Prepositions obligatorily take an annex, which is most commonly a noun or pronoun. In its function as an adverb, fnōhan may stand independently or take a following attributive ḏa-phrase (3.1.10.11). The preposition man may take a following VP or clausal annex with the verb in the subjunctive in clauses of negative purpose (cf. 9.2.6), which may, in imperative contexts, stand independently as a PP with a VP annex:

lḥayḳī aḳanyawn [min / yihwīyam] ‘Run f.s. after the children, so they m. don’t fall over!’ M.NS

hawray hibɛr la-ḥlōk [min / tawtīġan ḥābū] ‘Chase f.s. the camels over there, [so that] they f. don’t kill people!’ M.NS

ḏ-īġāḳam al-ḥābū [man / aḥād yixrēb śī] ‘they m. watch the people, so that no one destroys anything’ M.NS

min / thanḥī b-aġiggēn ‘[Make sure] not to burn the boy!’ M.NS

The prepositions at-tā (tā), hīs and hāl, which have become grammaticalised as adjuncts, take a following clause or adverb (cf. 9.2).

flūt [tā / wīṣal baʔlī abḳār] ‘he fled until he reached the cow herders’ M.N.Rabkūt01.10

tā / ʔāṣar ṭād ‘one night’ M.NS

[hīs / ḳarban] līham ḥaybīt āzamūt thahḳaṭ ‘as we approached them m., the camel was about to give birth’ M.N.Rabkūt02.28

hīs / mġōran ‘then’ M.NS

śxawalūl [hīs / man bād itīt wūrax yā śāṯayt wūrax] ‘he stayed around six or three months’ M.N.Rabkūt

4.2.1 Clitic prepositions

The monoconsonantal prepositions are cliticised to a pronominal or nominal annex. This is represented here by transcribing the PP as a single word, with hyphenation in the case of a noun annex but not in the case of a pronoun annex. The clitic prepositions with their approximate translations are:

la- ‘to, for’, ba- (bi-) ‘in, with, at’, ka- ~ š- ‘with’, ha- ‘for’

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Of these, PPs headed by la- and ba- (bi-) most frequently occur as lexicalised complements to verbs (cf. 5.2.3), vary most widely in their semantics, and most frequently occur in idiomatic PPs (cf. Rubin 2010: chapter 8). The preposition of accompaniment ka-, as discussed in Rubin (2009), has also become grammaticalised within adverbials denoting time of day or seasons, as in: ka-ṣōbaḥ (k-aṣōbaḥ) ‘in the morning’, kalʕaynī (kalaynī ~ kalānī) ‘in the early evening’, ka-xxarf (k-axxarf) ‘in the monsoon period’, ka-malsē ‘at the time of rain’ (Mo).

4.2.2 Phonologically independent prepositions

Phonologically independent prepositions are those which take their own word stress and form their own phonological word. With the exception of hīs, all prepositions may take a personal pronoun annex directly. hīs in both dialects takes a following dependent personal pronoun attached to the accusative affix ta-; in Mehreyyet it may rarely take a following independent pronoun, as in: hīs nḥah ‘like us’. Many prepositions cover a range semantic categories, including bak ~ brak (bark), which may denote place or approximation in time, fīn (fnōhan), which may indicate location or anteriority in time, ba- (bi-) which may denote location, instrument/manner or accompaniment/possession. man, as in Arabic min, covers the widest range of semantic categories, denoting in different contexts direction away from, partition, negative purpose and reason. In both dialects, but particularly in Mehreyyet, man often reduces in context to min ~ ma ~ mən ~ mn ~ m. Reduction to mn- or m- is typical before adverbs or prepositions with an initial non-pharyngeal/laryngeal consonant, as in ma-bawmah ‘from here’ (M), mn-ḏār ‘after’ (M), m-boh ‘from here’, m-tāl ‘from where’ (Mo). The principal semantic categories for phonologically independent prepositions are:

Location

bak ~ brak (bark) ‘in, among’, aṯ-ṯār (ḏār) ‘on’, nxāl ~ lxān (nxālī) ‘under’, fīn (fnōhan) ‘in front of’, sār ‘behind’, tāl21 ‘at, with [people]’ (Mo), hāl22 ‘at, with [people]’, bīn ~ bayn ~ bān (also mēn rarely in Mehreyyet, manw- before pronoun suffixes), ḳbēl (ḳbāt) ‘in front of, opposite’

Direction

man ‘from, through, out of’, twēl (twōlī) ‘towards’, at-tā (tā) ‘to’, wdī (ūdī) ‘towards’, addī ‘towards’ (Mo), taḥwēl ‘towards’, bak ~ brak (bark) ‘into’, (la-)hāl ‘towards’

21 Said by my Mahriyōt informants to be more common in Hobyōt than in Mahriyōt. In Hobyōt,

but not in Mahriyōt, it may occur with a pronoun suffix. 22 Rare in Mahriyōt.


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Time

fīn (fnōhan) ‘before’, man ṯār (man ḏār) ‘after’, man sār ‘after’ (M), (man) baʕd (bād) ‘after’, at-tā (tā) ‘until’

Duration

bak ~ brak (bark) ‘for around’, at-tā (tā) ‘until’

4.2.3 Allomorphs and cooccurrence restrictions

A number of prepositions have separate allomorphs depending on whether the annex is a noun and or a personal pronoun (cf. 2.4.1.2). In both dialects, ka- and š- are pre-noun and pre-pronoun allomorphs respectively of the preposition of accompaniment ‘with’, and sār and sr- are pre-noun and pre-pronoun allomorphs of the preposition of location ‘behind’. In Mehreyyet, fnōhan and fanw- are pre-noun and pre-pronoun allomorphs of the preposition of time or location ‘before’; hāl and hn- are allomorphs of the preposition of place ‘at the place of; with’; and bīn ~ bān and manw- are allomorphs of the preposition of location ‘between’; in Mahriyōt, fīn and fn- are allomorphs of the preposition of time/place ‘before’; tāl ~ hāl ~ hār and hn- are allomorphs of the preposition of place ‘at the place of; with’; and bak ~ brak and bark- are allomorphs of the preposition of location and direction ‘in’.

The prepositions man, at-tā (tā), la- and ba- (bi-) can head a complex PP. Since at-tā (tā) can take a following PP headed by man, which itself may head a complex PP, strings of up to three prepositions are attested:

śanyōna / tā man ḏār ramśōn ‘[I] m. will see until ¤��ن �vÊ�s vر ر�Ésنafter Ramadan’ M.txt

tā man ḏār gihma ‘until the day after tomorrow’ M.NS

The various prepositions in Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet are presented in the tables below with their cooccurrence restrictions. Allomorphs of a single preposition follow each other in the table, with a tick √ in the relevant column as to whether they can take a noun or pronoun annex. Prepositional allomorphs restricted to taking pronoun annexes are presented with a following hyphen, as are clitic prepositions: thus, Mahriyōt bak ~ brak ‘in’ takes a noun annex and its allomorph bark- a pronoun annex; Mehreyyet, fnōhan ‘in front of; before’ takes a noun annex and its allomorph fanw- a pronoun annex. Mahriyōt hāl, tāl and hār ‘at, with [people]’ may take a noun annex, but only hāl and tāl may take a following clause or follow the preposition man, and only hāl may follow the preposition la-. For the few prepositions that may head a complex PP, a tick √ is given in the column ‘preposition’ followed by a list of permissible following prepositions:

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Table 1: Mahriyōt prepositions

pronoun noun preposition VP, clause adverb man √ √ √ hīs, hāl, sār, ṯār, tāl,

nxāl, baʕd, fīn, ġayr √ √

la- √ √ √ hīs, hāl * √ bak ~ brak * √ * * * bark- √ * * * * fīn * √ * * √ fn- √ * * * * ḳbēl √ √ * * * at-tā * √ √ hīs, hāl, sār, man, fīn,

bak ~ brak √ √

ka- * √ * * * š- √ * * * * addān ~ addāl

* √ * * *

addī ~ wdī √ * * * * aṯ-ṯār * √ * * *

aṯ-ṯīr √ * * * *

hāl * √ * √ * hār * √ * * * hn- √ * * * * tāl * √ * * * ha- √ √ * * * ba- √ √ √ ġayr * √ twēl √ √ * * √ taḥwēl √ √ * * * lxān ~ nxāl √ √ * * * sār * √ * * * sr- √ * * * * baʕd √ √ * * √ bīn √ √ * * * ġayr ~ ġār √ √ * * * hīs * √ * √ *


193

Table 2: Mehreyyet prepositions

pronoun noun preposition VP, clause adverb man √ √ √ hīs, hāl, sār, ḏār,

fnōhan, nxālī, ġayr √ √

la- √ √ √ hīs, hāl * √ bark √ √ √ fnōhan * * fnōhan * √ * * √ fanw- √ * * * * ḳbāt √ √ * * * tā * √ √ hīs, hāl, sār, man,

fnōhan, bark √ √

ka- * √ * * * š- √ * * * * ūdī √ √ * * * ḏār * √ * * √

ḏayr √ * * * *

hāl * √ * √ * hn- √ * * * * bi- √ √ √ ġayr * √ twōlī √ √ * * √ nxālī √ √ * * * sār * √ * * * sr- √ * * * * baʔd ~ bād √ √ * * √ bīn ~ bayn * √ * * * manw- √ * * * * ġayr ~ ġār √ √ * * * hīs * √ * √ √

4.2.4 Prepositional phrases in context

Here I provide a few examples of PPs functioning independently according to the semantic relationships: location, direction, time, duration, instrument/manner, comparison. Further examples can be found as appropriate in chapters 5 (5.1.6, 5.2.3), 6 (6.3) and 9 (9.1). In the examples below, phonologically independent prepositions are separated by a forward slash from a noun annex; PPs comprising a preposition and pronoun annex are written as single words:

Location

wa-bʕīr [bä-ṭrēf] ḏa-ḥḥōräm ‘and the camel was at the side of the road’ Sima31:25

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wi-ykūn [lxanyäs] ḥḏōr ḳannūn ‘beneath it f. is a small stall’ Sima17:36

bäk / ʕamḳ ḏä-śḥayr ‘in the middle of the mountains’ Sima23:5

hǟn wīḳaʕ [aṯ-ṯār / mkōn ṣalb] ‘when [the spike] comes on a hard part’ Sima2:67

śänyimäs ḥläkmäh sēh w-ḥabrēs ḏi-ybōḳaź [srīs] ‘they m. see her there, her and her calf who is running behind her’ Sima78:42

nḥah kībän tīkäm täfśīyäm ǟr [tǟl / bīt Jīraḥ] ‘we thought you m.pl. would have lunch with Jīraḥ’s family’ Sima90:21

ḥaybīt [bark / fnōhan / ʕayantya] ‘the camel was in front of my eyes’ M.N.04.05

hīs wīṣal [bayn / dubay wa-l-ʕayn] haḳṣawm ‘when he arrived between Dubai and Al-Ayn, he rested in the hot part of the day’ M.PES.MA

bīn (bīn ~ bān ~ bayn) is often repeated within the second conjunct:23

[bīn / järbīb] w-[bīn / śḥayr ʕlēw] ‘between the coastal plain and the higher mountains’ Sima23:9

hbǟr tkūnän [bīn / ḥayḳ] w-[bīn / jbēl ḏäkm ḏä-ḳrīb] ‘the camels are between the shore and the nearer mountains’ Sima23:2

ḥaymah hamm ḏa-rḥabēt ṭayt wṭoh [min bān / śfōr] wa-[bān / adam] ‘Ḥaymah is the name of a town there between Dhofar and Adam’ M.N.MA

hankūran ḥmuh fśāl [fanwīn] ‘we realised there would be a lot of water in front of us’ M.N

hōh [ḏār / ḥōram] ‘I am on the way’ M.NS

abaytī [l-arōram] ‘my house by the sea’ M.NS

Direction

wi-yḥayw l-ʕayd [at-tǟ / ḥayḳ] ‘and he catches the sardines [and brings them] to the shore’ Sima2:3

tnäkʕan [at-tǟ / hǟl / bōb] ‘they f. come to the door’ Sima108:1

[taḥwēl / xann] [la-mṣāʔ] ‘towards the hold, down’ Mo.N.02.14

taban śaff [la-hāl / amkōn ḏa-ḥabrēs] amāṯīm ‘we followed the track to where her calf was, the remains’ M.N.Rabkūt02.24

23 As in Arabic.


195

syūran [man / bawm] [man / śfōr] [tā / bātī ṣalūt] ‘we went from here, from Dhofar, to the area of Ṣalūt’ M.N

abarḳāt [twōlī / ʔarṣāt amšaġarēt] ‘she ran to the next large hut’ M.N

bār ghēm [twōlī / harbātha] ‘he went towards his friends’ M.PES.MA

Time

wat k-ṣayräb [fīn / ḳīṭaʕ] ‘in the post-monsoon period, before the harvest’ Sima14:2

hēt ḥɛmak [fnōhan / šība yōm] ḥaybitk bawmah ‘you m.s. dreamt a week ago that your camel was here’ M.N.04.14

män ṯār / fśē ‘after lunch’ Sima35:5

[man ḏār / ōśar adḳōyiḳ lyakmah] syūran ‘after [those] ten minutes, we went’ M.N.MA

[man / nhūr ḏa-wkūban] [tā / nhūr ḏa-ftūkan] šība yōm barkih ‘from the day we went in until the day we left, [we were] in it m. a week’ M.N

Duration

mġōrän źabṭam ṭādīdäyhäm täṭrūb [l-waḳt ḏ-warx] ‘then they m. agreed a ceasefire for a month’ Sima35:21

habṭāk [la-maḥmēl ḏa-hōfal] ‘I waited for as long as a baby takes to come [before having a baby after marriage]’ M.NS

kam [hayš] man aġaygaš ‘How long have you f.s. been away from your husband?’ M.NS

tūṣōl [ba-xayma dḳōyaḳ] la-fāmsa ‘she arrives in five minutes by foot’ M.NS

Instrument/manner

wa-nxōdäm [b-źāġi w-ḳarḳūr faxrä] ‘we work with the long narrow net and the fish trap together’ Sima2:2

b-ḥāwēl ḥābū ysäḳfäm ǟr [b-mīśäṭ] ‘in the past, people used to make roofs just out of mīśaṭ24 wood’ Sima2:15

nḥah nʔōmar [b-amahrayyat] aqawf25 ‘in Mehri, we say aqawf [the top]’ M.N.Šlaym01.02

gihmōna [bark / sīyaryat] ‘[he] will go by car’ M.NS

24 Anogeissus dhofarica (Miller & Morris 1988: 102–103, 345). 25 = aġawf (cf. 1.1.1.1).

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Comparison

ḏ-ʕimläm bēh [hīs / ḳabbēt] ‘they m. make it m. like a ḳabbēt’26 Sima19:1

wat ṭawr alḥaymar [l-hīs / ḥamaymat] ‘sometimes alḥaymar [rain] is like ḥamaymat [rain]’ M.N.Rabkūt02.16

Possession and accompaniment

syūr / bi-hbɛr ‘he went with the camels’ M.NS

wa-bār [šīs] śahlīṯ ḥabantsa ‘and she has three daughters [= female calves]’ M.N.04.15

l-ād [bīs] śxōf wīyan lā ‘she no longer has much milk’ M.NS

26 Engraved wooden device designed to prevent circumcisee from moving and hurting himself

during the operation. Description in Sima19.

5 Complementation

Complementation is associated with completion of a VP headed by a true verb or future participle (cf. 2.5). In limited cases, complementation may also complete a NP or AP. Complementation involves objects and complements. Both objects and complements are predictable and sometimes essential elements within the phrase. Intransitive verbs such as rīnag ‘to become stuck’ (M), ṣīnī ‘to be/become deaf’ and bkūh ~ bkuh ‘to cry’ and passive verbs require no object. Some transitive verbs and their future participles, such as ʕamōr (āmūr ~ amūr) ‘to say’ and hankūr ‘to realise’, require an object; others, such as ktōb (ktū b) ‘to write’ and śīnī ‘to see’, optionally take an object: thus, śīnak ‘I/you m.s. saw’ and śīnak ḥaybīt ‘I/you m.s. saw (the) camel’, śanyōna ‘I/you m.s./he will see’ and śanyōna ḥbinya ‘I/you m.s./he will see my children’, and ḏ-akōtab ‘I am writing’ and ḏ-akōtab xaṭṭ ‘I am writing a letter’ are all equally grammatical. Some causative verbs and their future participles are ditransitive, such as haśnūh (śnūh) ‘to show [s.o., s.th.]’ and haḳrawś ‘to send [s.o., s.th.]’.

Complements include PP complements, adverbial noun complements and predicative complements. Some verbs require a complementary PP to complete the phrase; thus, śatūḳ ‘to miss, long for’ takes a PP headed by la-. Some adjectives and adverbials are lexically specified to take a particular preposition; thus, maġrīb ‘well known’ takes the preposition ba- (bi-) to convey ‘well known for’; the elatives take the preposition man to express comparison with an entity; the adverb ḳrīb (ḳrayb) ‘near’ takes the preposition la- ‘near to’ and rēḥaḳ ‘far’ the preposition man ‘far from’.

In this chapter, I examine complementation through phrasal and clausal objects, complementation through PP complements and adverbial noun complements, and complementation through predicative complements.

5.1 Objects

Transitive verbs and future participles take objects. An object may be realised by an NP, including NPs headed by substantives, demonstratives, reflexive pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, personal pronouns, by a PP or adverbial, or by a clause. In the following examples of NP objects headed by a substantive or demonstrative, the object is separated from the verb by /.

wa-tjäyf / snäbḳiyän ‘and it f. capsizes our boats’ Sima2:62

ġbōrän / źyäft ‘we attended a wedding’ Sima36:2

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tǟm kīnaḥ b-Mährēh [taʕmīläm / lyōmäh] ‘Do you m.pl. also do these [things] in Mahrah?’ Sima32:22

sḥāṭan / aʕaylīg ‘we slaughtered the camel calf’ M.N.MA

śallam / amōl ḏa-sēkan ḏakmah ‘they m. took the livestock of that homestead’ M.N

Many translocative verbs, including syōr (syūr) ‘to go’, ḳfōd (ḳfūd) ‘to go down’, jhām (ghēm) ‘to go’, wkōb (wkūb) ‘to enter’, ġśuh ‘to go to the other side’, haḳbōl (haḳbūl) ‘to approach’, wīṣal ‘to arrive’, rudd (ridd) ‘to return’ and nūkaʕ (nūka) ‘to come’, take phonologically independent NP objects to express non-human destination (cf. Rubin 2010: 202):1

mġōrän fnǟ-yällōh [syärk / AmustašfaA] ‘then the other night I went to hospital’ Sima32:21

gihma k-ṣōbaḥ [syūr / ḥawōdī mšaġarēt] ‘the next morning he went to the next valley’ M.N.04.17

āśamkī [aghamōh / arḥabayt] ‘we DUAL used to go to the town’ M.PES.Ndēt

mšagham / asfārah ‘I m. will go to the embassy in the early morning’ M.NS

wkōbän / AdukkǟnA ṭāṭ ‘we went into a shop’ Sima19:1

atōlī [wkubk / amṭām] ‘then I went in a restaurant’ M.N

ġśuh / karmaym ‘he went to the other side of the hill’ M.NS

u-mākan ḥōram ḏīmah [thaḳbūl / ṣlōlat] wa-mākanay ḥōram ḏīh [thaḳbūl / mazyūnah] ‘that road goes to Salalah, but that road goes to Mazyūnah’ M.NS.Rabkūt

wa-mġōran [nakan / ḥadḥayd ḏakm amḳay man bān ḥawōdī ṯrayt] ‘and then we came on narrow rocky ridge between two wadis’ M.N.Rabkūt02.43

ghēman tā [ḳf ūdan mġōran / ḥawōdī ṭayt amšaġarēt] ‘we went on until we came down then into the next wadi’ M.N.Rabkūt02.48

wīṣal / ḥmuh ‘he reached the water’ M.N

wa-kall aḥād manīn [aḳōfī / mkōn] ‘everyone of us went their own way’ M.N

ka-mōn ‘Who did you f.s. go [around [abaṣraš / aśyaft] ا�¢~ش ا�p| �m�Ìنtwilight] to the wedding with?’ M.txt

1 Contra Rubin (2010: 202), however, direct objects with human reference can complement some

verbs of motion, particularly when pronominalised (cf. 5.1.4.2).

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ādš [riddīta / ṣlōlat] ‘Are you f.s. coming back to Salalah again?’ M.NS.Rabkūt

5.1.1 Word order

A phonologically independent NP object usually occurs immediately after the verb, but may be split from the verb by an adverbial or a supplementary or complementary PP. Where the annex of the PP is a pronoun, the PP almost invariably occurs before the independent object. Thus hēh ‘for it m.’ occurs before the object šäkkǟt ‘shark net’ in the first example below, and haynī ‘to me’ occurs before xaṭṭ in the second example.

lxaym naʕmōl [hēh] šäkkǟt [lit. shark we make for it m. a shark net] ‘[for] sharks we make for them a shark net’ Sima2:20

katabūt [haynī] xaṭṭ lā [lit. she wrote to me a letter not] ‘she didn’t write me a letter’ M.NS

A PP with a noun annex may also intervene between the verb and object, as in bi-ḥaybīt ‘on the camel’ here:

haġfaḳ [bi-ḥaybīt] amaḥṯaym ‘Put m.s. the bridle on the camel!’ M.NS

In verbal clauses (6.7.3), weight is crucial in the establishment of PP–NP word order. The heavier the NP in relation to the PP, the more likely it is to occur at the end of the VP. Thus, the heavier ḥiṣṣ man amśarfōt ‘stones from the mśarfōt fire’ follows the PP b-aśxōf ‘into the milk’ below:

āḏibkī [b-aśxōf] ḥiṣṣ man amśarfōt ‘we DUAL put stones from the mśarfōt fire into the milk’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Conversely, the heavier the PP annex in relation to the NP, the less likely the PP will intervene between the verb and independent NP object. In the following example, the lighter object slōm ‘greetings’ precedes the PP li-saknaš ‘to your f.s. family’:2

ḳlēbī slōm li-saknaš ‘Give f.s. greetings to your family!’ M.NS.MA

Other contextual examples where a complementary or adverbial PP intervenes between the verb and independent NP object include:

nḥah [nʕōmär [hīsän] ʕlēf] ‘we call them f. ʕlēf’ Sima2:56

wat bār whafkə tēs [thaġfūḳ [bīs] amaḥṯaym] ‘once you’ve m.s. tied her front legs together, you put the bridle on her’ M.NS.Rabkūt

2 Unless the communicative focus lies on the object, as in: śitmak bi-faḳḥ ḏ-aḳāš AtaffāḥA ‘I

bought apples for half a riyal’ (M.NS) and kūsan bark śwāgēʔ ḏīrōb ‘we found sticks [= firewood] in a small cave’ (M.N).

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wa-ʔaymal [hīs] gfōn ‘he made a tulchan3 for her’ M.N.Rabkūt02.25

śillan [barkīs] ḥmuh ‘we took water in it f.’ M.N.Rabkūt02.03

intaḳayl [la-ḥnafš] ġarfēt bark abayt ‘Choose f.s. a room for yourself in the house!’ M.NS

5.1.2 Reflexive pronouns

A direct or indirect object that is co-referential with the verbal subject is expressed by ḥnōf-PRONOUN (cf. 2.4.2; 4.1.2.1):4

käm yōm wṭōmäh at-tǟ [täksē / ḥnäfs] axayr ‘it is like that for a few days, until she feels herself better’ Sima21:6

wa-[śatman / ḥanfāyan] ʕaylīg min ḥlakmah ‘and we bought ourselves a camel calf from there’ M.N.MA

[xlōfan / ḥanfāyan] mkōn tā bark śaygaʔ wayṭaʔ ‘we changed our place [= ourselves] to inside a low cave’ M.N.MA

[at-tamadḥan5 / ḥanfaykan] – yāyah [nmōdaḥ / ḥanfāyan] ‘Are you f.pl. praising yourselves?’ ‘Yes, we are praising ourselves.’ M.NS

5.1.3 Reciprocal pronouns

Where an action involves two or more agents such that A does X to B and B does X to A, the object is expressed by one of the reciprocal pronouns (cf. 2.4.2). The reciprocal pronouns reflect number, gender and person. The stem of the reciprocal pronoun – ṭād m., ṭīt (ṭayt) f. – agrees with the referent and/or verbal subject pronoun in gender, while suffix of the reciprocal pronoun agrees with the referent and/or verbal subject pronoun in number and person and, in the case of second and third person plural, in gender:

yi-ġarb-am ṭādīday-ham [3M-know.IND-PL one.M-3MPL] ‘they m. know each other m.’ M.NS

t-ġarb-an ṭaytīday-san [3F-know.IND-PL one.F-3FPL] ‘they f. know each other f.’ M.NS

In reference to first person plural and dual, where gender is not marked on the verb, the initial portion of the reciprocal pronoun agrees in gender with the real-world referent:

3 Stuffed calf-skin given to a she-camel whose calf has died or been removed so she will continue

to give milk (cf. Johnstone 1987). 4 Two exceptions I have encountered in Mehreyyet are where the verbs amk ‘I think’ and nḥōm

‘we want’ take objects that are co-referential with the subject: amkə tay ‘I think I …’ and nḥaman ‘we want us’.

5 < *ḏa-tmadḥan.

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n-ġōrab ṭādīdāy-an [1P-know one.M-1PL] ‘we m. know each other m.’ M.NS

n-ġōrab ṭaytīdāy-an [1P-know one.F-1PL] ‘we f. know each other f.’ M.NS

āksawtī ba-kāmarā lagrē [lafṭanōh / ṭaytīdaykī] ‘we f.DUAL take pictures with the camera, so that we f.DUAL remember each other f.DUAL’ M.PES.Ndēt

5.1.4 Personal pronouns

The affixation of personal object pronouns is one area in which the dialects differ. In Mehreyyet, personal object pronouns are suffixed directly to verbs in the case of imperfect and third person duals, the 3fs perfect inflectional form and in case the verb ends in a root consonant or glide; in all other cases, the object pronoun is suffixed to the accusative affix ta- (cf. 2.4.1.2; chapter 2, table 29). In Mahriyōt, although object pronouns are far more likely to be suffixed to ta- in the case of perfect verbs inflected for first or second person, they may be suffixed to any verb stem irrespective of whether the verb ends in a root consonant or not. Thus, Mahriyōt habil-m-ah [prepare.PRF-3MPL-3MS] ‘they m. prepared it m.’ where the object pronoun is suffixed directly to the 3mpl subject suffix contrasts with Mehreyyet alwīm-am ta-h [blame.PRF-3MPL ACC-3MS] ‘they m. blame him’ where the object pronoun is mandatorily suffixed to ta-.

In the case of the future participles (2.5.2), the dialects also differ: Mahriyōt prefers to take a direct object via the accusative affix ta-, but may take the object pronoun directly in the case of masculine singular only, as in: mhawḳaʕ-san [place.FUT.MS-3FPL]; on pronoun suffixation, /n/ of the suffix is geminated in the future participle of the basic stem, as in:

katb-ōna t-ēh [write.FUT-MS ACC-3MS] or katb-ann-ah [write.FUT-MS-3MS]

maḥḥ-ōna t-ēh [rub.fat.in.FUT-MS ACC-3MS] or maḥḥ-ann-ah [rub.fat.in.FUT-MS-3MS]

My Mehreyyet texts exhibit no examples of future participle with a suffixed object pronoun, and language consultants reject such forms. Johnstone’s texts, however, have one example, again of a masculine singular form, with an object pronoun suffix, namely məhaġfələn ‘Cheer us up!’ (Stroomer 52:3, cited in Rubin 2010: 37, fn. 2). The western Mehri texts examined by Wagner, by contrast, exhibit more tokens of direct suffixation of the object pronoun to the future participle than tokens of suffixation via ta-: participles ending in -ōna show only direct suffixation in 20 examples, those ending in -īte show 1 token with ta-, 8 without ta-, and those ending in -ēye show 1 with ta-, 4 without ta- (Wagner 1953: 87).

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5.1.4.1 Direct suffixation

In Mahriyōt, object pronouns are obligatorily suffixed to verbs ending in a root consonant, as in:6 naʕmul[s] hīs däḳf lǟ ‘we don’t make it f. like a däḳf-hut’ (Sima77:10), and to verbs ending in the 3fs inflectional suffix -ōt, as in: bǟr źīyät[h] ‘she smelt him’ (Sima47:50). Object pronouns are optionally suffixed to verbs ending in -m of the mpl inflectional suffix: yśäḏʕam[s] aṯ-ṯār ḥabrē ġāhär ‘they m. force her onto another calf’ (Sima47:54); -n of the fpl inflectional suffix: täkbubn[äh] bäk mṭablōt ‘they f. lay it m. in the cooking place made of stones’ (Sima15:1); and -n of the indicative for L-, B-type Š- and B-type T-stems (cf. chapter 2, table 61): täjimʕan[äh] källäh, ʕād l-ḏulḥaš tēh lǟ ‘you f.s. collect it m. all before you have threshed it’ (Sima56:115).

In Mehreyyet, object pronouns are suffixed to verbs ending in a root consonant, as in: niḥam[h] yabtīśal mn amdarsath lā ‘we don’t want him to be distracted from his studies’; verbs taking the 3fs perfect subject pronoun: ankat[ī] ḥabraytī ‘my daughter came to me’; and verbs ending in a vowel or glide, including duals: wa-nḥōm naśnē[ham] ‘we want to see them m.’; śillāy[ak] ‘they m.DUAL took you m.s.’. Verbs inflected for 2fs in the indicative always lose -ī before object suffixes (Rubin 2010: 40), as in:

tḥaymī ‘you f.s. want’ > tḥam[an] ‘you f.s. want us’, tḥam[ī] ‘you f.s. want me’, tḥam[s] ‘you f.s. want her’, etc.

5.1.4.2 Suffixation via ta-

In Mahriyōt, verbs inflected in the perfect for first or second person typically take object pronouns suffixed to ta-:

śullän trīk w-ṭurḥan t[ēh] bräk ḳrawṭas ‘we took a lamp and put it m. on cartons’ Sima60:12

śaxṭ ḏōmäh ʕād l-śīnäk t[ēh] lǟ ‘I hadn’t yet seen that matchstick’ Sima10:15

Verbs other than 3fs in the perfect not ending in a root consonant optionally affix the object pronoun to ta-:

taḥḥarkän t[ōh] bä-ḳlīfōt ‘you s. stir it m. with a slice of bark used as a stirrer’ Sima16:37

män ḥāwēl män hīs hǟm yḳalbäm t[ēh] är bräk ḥnōd ‘earlier, they m. used to pour it m. [i.e. honey] into leather skins’ Sima54:7

In Mehreyyet, object pronouns to all verbs ending in a non-root consonant are suffixed to ta-:

ḏa-ʔamkə ta[h] śattal min adāyrat ‘I think he moved from the region’ M.ES

6 In the following examples, the object pronouns are placed in square brackets.

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kūsan t[ēs] gidat ‘we found it f. good’ M.NS

zmēlam t[ēs] ‘Saddle m.pl. her!’ M.NS

As seen above (5.1.4), with few exceptions object pronouns to the future participles in both Mahriyōt and Mehreyyet are suffixed to the accusative affix ta-.

w-ḏōmäh ḏä-nḥah ʕamlēyä t[ēh] būmäh ‘and that m. is what we will be doing here’ Sima50:16

w-ḳalbǟyä t[ōh] bärkīs ‘and we put it m. in it f.’ Sima50:24

mhawṣal t[ay] ḥaft ‘Will he/you m.s. take me to Ḥaft?’ M.NS.Rabkūt

mhanhīyūtan t[ēš] lā ta nmēt ‘we won’t forget you f.s. until we die’ M.NS

In reply to the greeting taghamk āfyat ‘May health and well-being come to you m.s. in the morning!’ (M), the object pronoun is fronted for focus by suffixation to the accusative affix ta-, as in: wa-tēk taghūm ‘And may [health and well-being] come to you m.s. in the morning!’

Interestingly, a number of verbs that cannot take an independent noun as a direct object can take an object pronoun, whether directly or attached to ta-: for example, zmēl la-ḥaybīt ‘Saddle m.s. the camel!’ contrasts with zmēlam tēs ‘Saddle m.pl. her!’; and ghamk twōlī xālid ‘I went to Khalid’ (M) contrasts with ghamkə tah ‘I went to him’. In some cases, the animacy of the object is also crucial: thus, the translocative verbs nūkaʕ (nūka) ‘to come’ and jhām (ghēm) ‘to go’ may not take an independent NP with human reference as object,7 but may take an object pronoun with human reference:

axōmas ḏ-āṣawr śīnī atēṯ arḥaymat inkat[ah] ‘on the fifth night, he saw the beautiful woman come to him’ M.N.04.12

ankayt[ēk]8 sinnawrat ḥūrūt ‘a black cat will come to you m.s.’ M.N.04.09

lankā[š] ‘Should I come to you f.s.?’ M.NS

ankōna t[ēš] ‘I m./he will come to you f.s.’ M.NS

šaghamkə tī[kam] fīsēʔ ‘I went quickly to you m.pl. early in the morning’ M.NS

ḥəssək ṭəwy[ay] bə-ḥallay ‘I felt [that] they m. came to me at night’ Stroomer40:22

7 Interestingly, wīṣal ‘to arrive’ may take an object noun with human reference, as in: tā wīṣal /

baʔlī abḳār ‘when he reached the cow herders’ (M.N.Rabkūt01.10). 8 < *ankayta tēk.

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5.1.4.3 Word order

A direct object introduced by the accusative affix ta- may be preceded by a PP with a pronoun annex:

a-targam h-ayš tē-san [1S-translate.IND to-2FS ACC-3FPL] ‘I translate them f. for you f.s.’ M.NS

a-ġayg ḏa-śum l-ay t-īs [DEF-man.MS ḏa-sell.PRF.3MS to-1S ACC-3F] ‘the man who sold it f. to me’ M.N.01.30

harxaṣ l-ay t-īs [make.cheap.IMP.MS to-1S ACC-3FS] ‘Make m.s. it f. cheap for me!’ M.PES.MA

5.1.5 Double objects

Ditransitive verbs and future participles take a direct object and an indirect object, where the direct object is usually inanimate and the indirect object animate. In general, the indirect object precedes the direct object: in the following examples, the indirect object is marked by subscript 1, the direct object by subscript 2:

ybädläm [ḥanfäyhäm]1 [xlōwaḳ ḳāśaʕ]2 ‘they m. change themselves into dry clothes’ Sima77:13

wuzm[īs]1 [aʔaynat tōmar]2 ‘he gave it f. some dates’ M.N.04.12

Where two clauses with direct and indirect objects are conjoined, the order of direct and indirect object may be reversed in the second conjunct for stylistic reasons, as in the example below where the indirect object ḥanfäyhäm ‘themselves’ first precedes and then follows the direct object ḥmūh ‘water’:

wa-rḥāläm ḥanfäyhäm ḥmūh / śulläm ḥmūh ḥanfäyhäm ‘and they m. loaded [the camels] water for themselves, they took water for themselves’ Sima8:4

Other examples of ditransitive verbs and future participles include:

azōmäm t[ī]1 [myǟt]2 ‘they m. gave me a hundred’ Sima53:41

ḳasam[ay]1 [xlayḳ]2 ‘he gave me a dress as a gift’ M.NS.Rabkūt

mʔōmēta tē[ham]1 [amahrayyat]2 ‘[I] f.s. will teach them m. Mehri’ M.NS

azim[s]1 [ḥabrays]2 ‘Give f.s. her her son!’ M.NS

kall ṭād wzūm [ḏīk]1 [āḏamith]2 ‘each one gave the other his back’ M.N

haḳraśk [arībāy]1 [xaymah mīya]2 ‘I lent my friend five hundred’ M.NS.MA

hēt ṣarōmah ḥfīr [ḥnafk]1 [ḳōbar]2 ‘You m.s. now dig yourself a grave!’ M.N.Rabkūt

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Where both indirect and direct objects are realised by pronouns, the indirect object precedes the direct object, irrespective of whether one is suffixed directly to the verb, as in the first example below, or both are introduced by the affix ta-:

wuzm[īs]1 ta[h]2 ‘he gave her1 it m.2’ M.NS

yəṣṣək mən aḳanyawm ḏ-yəġṣābəm t[ay]1 tə[h]2 ‘I am afraid that the children will take it f.2 away from me1’ Stroomer37:22

hēt ṣarōmah ād al-wzumkə t[īn]1 tī[ham]2 lā ‘now you m.s. have not yet given them m.2 to us1’ M.PES.MA

fnōhan imših śnayk tē[ham]1 t[ēs]2 ‘the day before yesterday I showed them m.1 it f.2’ M.PES.MA

5.1.6 PP and adverbial objects

A very few verbs and future participles take PP or adverbial objects. The verb ḥōm ‘to want’, for example, which most commonly takes a nominal direct object, as in: aḥōm skēr ‘I want sugar’ or ḥōm əttēṯi ‘I want my wife’ (Stroomer37:23), or an object clause, as in: aḥōm lanka ṣlōlat ‘I want to come to Salalah’ (M), can also take a PP or adverbial object:

aḥōm / hnīkam ‘I want [to be] with you m.pl.’ M.NS

aḥōm / bark abayt ‘I want [to be] in the house’ M.NS

aḥōm / arḥāḳ m-bawmah ‘I want [to be] further away from here’ M.NS

A PP headed by man may function as an object to other transitive verbs. In many cases, the PP object can be interpreted as abbreviating an NP with an attributive PP, as in the second example below:

yälḳīfäm / män hitt w-män ʕōśär ‘they m. catch around six or ten [fish]’ Sima2:78

harbātka bawmah – śinkə [0] manhēm bi-sawḳ ‘Are your m.s. friends here?’ ‘I have seen [some] of them m. in the market’ M.NS.Šlaym

5.1.7 Object clauses

Object clauses are most common after verbs of utterance and other forms of communication, verbs of perception, verbs of volition, ability, daring, determining and manipulation. Object clauses are either introduced hypotactically, that is to say by means of an explicit complementiser, or paratactically, where the object clause is juxtaposed to the verb without an explicit complementiser.

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5.1.7.1 Verbs of utterance

As an object to the verbs of utterance ʕamōr (āmūr ~ amūr) ‘to say’ and šxabūr ‘to ask’, speech is almost invariably direct, in which case the clause is linked paratactically to the verb. Other verbs of utterance such as klōṯ (klūṯ) ‘to tell’ do not usually take direct speech objects; where they do, the object clause is linked paratactically.

[ʕmōr: / “šī ġajjǟn”], [ʕmōr: / “ahämm bēh l-hämmi hōh, ʕAlī Jūdaḥ”] ‘he said, ‘I have a boy.’ He said, ‘Call him by my name, Alī Jūdaḥ!’’ Sima3:5

amawr / ā ḥāmay niḥōm mtāt ‘they m. said, ‘Mother, we need food!’’ M.N.Rabkūt01.01

amūr hīsan / ād šīkan śī mkōn alšīḳar barkih ‘he said to them f., ‘Do you f.pl. have any place I could hide in?’’ M.N.Rabkūt01.08

āmūr hīham / walā śinkam ḥōfī ‘he said to them m., ‘Have you m.pl. seen a camel that has newly given birth?’’ M.N

āmarūt / hāśan man mḥanēt ‘she said, ‘What sort of problem?’’ M.N.04.19

šxabrīni: / šīki käm ḳwahhär, hēt wa-ḥāmǟk? ‘he asked me, ‘How many milk camels do you DUAL have, you m.s. and your mother?’’ Sima30:24

ṭād šxabarūk / ḏah mōn lyakmah ‘someone asked you m.s., ‘Who are those?’’ M.N

kisk bū ḏ-īfalīt [šxabarkə tēham / lḥō mfūtūtan] ‘I found people escaping. I asked them m., ‘Where are you m.s. escaping to?’’ M.NS

wa-klūṯ hīham / agīrān bar flān Akida kidaA wṭōmah ‘and he told them m., ‘The neighbours were so-and-so’’ M.N.03.26

mrūḏ ġayg / amēr ḥibya hōh sīrōna ḥagg wa-l-yaḳtalīb bay lā ‘he gave a man instructions, ‘Tell m.s. my parents I am going on the hajj and they m. shouldn’t worry about me!’’ M.NS

Where the verb of utterance is in the imperative, the object clause is linked paratactically:

klēṯ haynī / mayt almēt ‘Tell m.s. me when I’m going to die!’ M.N

Object clauses are also linked paratactically where the object clause is introduced by an adjunct:

mġōran klūṯ hēh bū sēlim / hān wīḳa lih ‘then Bū Sēlim told him what had happened to him’ M.N.03.22

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In most other cases of communication, including the few cases of indirect speech after ʕamōr (āmūr ~ amūr)9 and jzōm (gzūm) ‘to swear’, indirect speech as an object to other verbs of utterance, and as object to the verb ktōb (ktūb) ‘to write’, object clauses are introduced hypotactically through the complementiser ḏa- (cf. 2.9.5.1):

ʕmōräm / ḏ-ṭād axxalūṣ b-ṭād ‘they m. said that someone accidentally killed10 someone else’ Sima35:16

This includes object clauses introduced by an independent personal pronoun:

mōn ʔāmōr hūk / ḏ-hō ʔōmər ‘Who told you m.s. that I sing?’ Stroomer52:9

klēṯī hēh / ḏa-hēt ḏa-ġribš tah lā ‘Don’t f.s. tell him that you f.s. know about it m.!’ M.NS

wa-l-šānūs lā [yaklēṯ al-ḥibha / ḏa-hēh sīrōna] ‘and he didn’t dare tell his parents that he was going’ M.N.02.04

agōzam / ḏa-hēt hīs-taww tśxawwal hnīn ‘I swear that you m.s. should stay with us’ M.trns

ktabk / ḏa-hōh sīrīta rabkūt ‘I wrote that I f. am going to Rabkūt’ M.NS

5.1.7.2 Verbs of perception

As a complement to verbs of perception – thinking, hearing, seeing, feeling, knowing, dreaming, ascertaining – object clauses may be linked paratactically or, less commonly, hypotactically to the main verb. The object clause may be verbal, nominal or locational.

5.1.7.2.1 Paratactic linkage

A paratactically linked verbal object clause may take an explicit predicand to the right or left of the verb, as in the following examples:

män ldāʕ / män ho ḳhēbän nḥah ‘I don’t know where we came from at midday’ Sima13:3

kōsäm / bǟr nkaʕōt raḥmǟt m-baʕdīhäm ‘they m. found that the rain had come [at home] after them [i.e. after they had left]’ Sima8:11

wat śīnäk / ḥmūh bǟr ḏ-yäfhōś ‘when you m.s. see the water is boiling’ Sima7:12

śīnan / ḥābū grīw līn ṣarōmah bark amōtar ‘we have just seen people pass us in the car’ M.PES.MA

9 Thus, contra Rubin (2010: 290) it is not a question of ḏa- being more absent than present, but

rather that object clauses are hypotactically linked to ʕamōr (āmūr ~ amūr) in cases of indirect speech and paratactically linked in the far more frequent cases of direct speech.

10 Translation corrected from Sima (2009).

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ḏa-ḥtamk / mḥammad bār syūr maskūt ‘I am certain Muhammad has gone to Muscat’ M.trns

wa-ykīb / bar nuwās bār mōt ‘and they m. thought Bar Nuwās had died’ M.N.Rabkūt

Alternatively the object clause may lack an explicit predicand:

ahōgis / hanhayk tilifūnī bark amṭām ‘I think I left my telephone in the restaurant’ M.NS

ḥəssək / ṭəwyay bə-ḥallay ‘I felt [that] they came to me at night’ Stroomer40:22

Nominal object clause

ma ldā / hāśan hammas ‘I don’t know what its f. name is’ M.N.03.11

thēgis / ḥōram agidat axayr min ḥōram aḳamḥat ‘Do you f.s. think the good way is better than the bad way?’ M.NS

akōb / ḥabritš āḳār ‘I thought your f.s. daughter was older’ M.NS

hēt ḥɛmak fnōhan šība yōm / ḥaybitk bawmah ‘you m.s. dreamt a week ago that your camel was here’ M.N.04.14

Locational object clause

hīn śīnäk / bēh mäjḥā ‘if you m.s. see there is something to fetch on it m.’ Sima6:32

akōb / bay zakk ‘I thought I had a cold’ M.NS

ḥɛmak illōh / šay ṭḥūb11 ḏa-bɛr ‘I dreamt last night I had a herd of camels’ M.PES

Paratactic linkage to verbs of perception also occurs when the object clause is introduced by a personal or indefinite pronoun:

widʕan lǟ / sēh tḳāʕ ṣudḳ ‘we don’t know whether it f. is true’ Sima9:2

hōh ḏa-ġribk / hēt šayš aġaygaš ‘I know you f.s. have a husband’ M.N.04.20

ḥaylam / mnādam ankayh ‘he dreamt that someone m. came to him’ M.N.04.07

hīs anḥawt śīwōṭ hawḥawy ḥābū [yihagsam / śī wīḳa] ‘when the fire was alight people ran to help; they m. thought something had happened’ M.N

11 About 100 (cf. Johnstone 1987).

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Where a verb of perception takes an object clause in which the subject is co-referential with the subject of the main verb, the main verb usually takes a reflexive pronoun object (ḥnōf-PRONOUN) followed by the object clause. The object clause in the following examples is separated from the reflexive pronoun by /. These object clauses can also be considered objective complements (cf. 5.2.4.2):

sēn tkōban ḥanfaysan / hanhūh ‘they f. thought they had forgotten’ M.NS

wa-yhōgis ḥnafh / mōt12 ‘and he thought he had died’ M.N

śnawwan ḥnafs / mawtakyēta fīsēʔ ‘she thinks she’ll come back soon’ M.NS

hankark ḥnōfī / hawtark ‘I realised I regretted [it]’ M.NS

kisk ḥnafk / ḏa13-flaḥk axayr ‘Do you m.s. find you are more relaxed?’ M.NS

[ḥɛmak ḥnafk / tsūḳ ṭīyaryat] ḥambarawtan klawṯ lay bi-ḥāmak ‘Did you m.s. dream you were flying a plane? The boys told me about your dream.’ M.PES

hamak bih / ḏa-hēh bār wīṣal ‘I heard that he had arrived’ M.PES

5.1.7.2.2 Hypotactic linkage

Hypotactic linkage of object clauses is more common with verbs of knowledge, thinking and certainty than with other verbs of perception. Object clauses introduced by an independent pronoun have a higher likelihood of being linked hypotactically. Thus, of the first two examples below, the complement clause with the initial pronoun is linked hypotactically to the verb, while the complement clause with the initial independent noun is not:

hēt ḥɛmak fnōhan šība yōm / ḏa-sēh ḥaybitk bawmah ḏōmah ġrōy ṣadḳ aw bēdī ‘You m.s. dreamt a week ago that your camel was here, is that true or false?’ M.PES

hēt ḥɛmak fnōhan šība yōm / ḥaybitk bawmah ḏōmah ġrōy ṣadḳ aw bēdī ‘You m.s. dreamt a week ago that your camel was here, is that true or false?’ M.PES

Further examples of hypotactically linked pronoun-initial object clauses include:

at-tǟ [taġrēbäm tǟn / ḏä-nḥah bǟr wiḳʕan būmäh]14 ‘so that you m.pl. know that we belong here’ Sima78:3

12 Cf. ahōgis / hanhayk tilifūnī bark amṭām ‘I think I forgot my telephone in the restaurant’

(M.NS) with no reflexive pronoun. 13 ḏa- here is the aspectual marker (cf. 2.5.1.5, 2.9.5.1), and not the complementiser. 14 The object clause in this example can also be analysed as a complement to the object in t-ǟn

‘us’.

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aġayg fnōhan yiṯōbat ḥnafh / ḏa-hēh min adāyrat ḏa-hēh man śfōr ‘the man showed himself to be from this place that he was from Dhofar’ M.PES.MA

wīda bīn / ḏ-anḥah ankyēya ‘he knew that we were coming’ M.NS

wkō ḏa-ġribš / ḏa-hōh ḏ-aġawlaḳ man ḥaybaytī ‘How did you f.s. know that I was looking for my camel?’ M.N.04.14

hīs taww [yifōkar bīs / as-sēh15 ḏa-ḳīsēt taśḥūk lih] ‘he should realise that she means to laugh at him’ M.NS

ġribkə tah / ḏa-hēh āśamah arībāʔī ‘I knew that he used to be my friend’ M.trns

ḥabraytī [ḥtamk līs / as-sēh farat bark amdarsēt] ‘I am certain that my daughter is clever at school’ M.NS

aḥsūs ḥanōfī īmoh / ḏa-hōh gihmīt arḥabēt ‘I feel I f.s. will go to the town today’ M.PES.MA

The few verbs of witness in the data link object clauses hypotactically:

täśhūd sīyäryät käll / ḏ-hēh bʕīr ḏ-bär ḥlīmäh ḏa-xṭūh ‘the whole car testified that it was bar Ḥlīmah’s camel who had been at fault’ Sima31:36

āmūr [Aašhad bi-llāhA / ḏa-hamak bar nuwās] ‘he said, ‘I give witness to God that I heard Bar Nuwās’’ M.N.Rabkūt

5.1.7.3 Verbs of volition, ability, daring, deciding and manipulation

Object clauses to verbs of volition, ability, daring, deciding and manipulation are invariably linked paratactically to the head verb and usually take the verb in the subjunctive:

a-ḥōm l-hēkal ḥā-rawn [1S-want.IND 1S-bring.back.early.evening.SUBJ DEF-goat.FPL] ‘I want to bring the goats back in the early evening’ M.NS

5.1.7.3.1 Verbs of volition

Verbs of volition include ḥōm ‘to want’, ʕajōb (āgūb) ‘to want’, fīraḥ ‘to enjoy, like’, aśtōraġ ‘to desire, wish’, ḥsōb (ḥsūb) ‘to look forward to’. In Mehreyyet, they also include the conditional mood of the verbs yikūn ‘to be’ and kīwar ‘to love’. Object clauses to these verbs can also be considered as objective or prepositional annex complements when the subject of the object clause is co-referential with the object or prepositional annex of the main verb (cf. 5.2.4.2, 5.2.4.3). In the following examples, the object clause takes the verb in the subjunctive:

nṣarōmäh hōh ḥōm / laġtīr šīkäm ‘now I want to talk to you m.pl.’ Sima4:1

15 < *ḏa-sēh.

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ḥamk / täklēṯ hīni, hībōh yaʕmīläm wdōyäm wa-dḳayf w-źījāʕ ‘I want you m.s. to tell me how they m. make wdīmat-huts, daḳf-huts and źayjaʕ-huts’ Sima17:2

aḥamš / taḳfēlī (a)bōb ‘I want you f.s. to shut the door’ M.NS

aġayg yḥōm / yhafrak atēṯ min ḏār aġaygis ‘the man wants to take the woman from her husband’ M.NS.Rabkūt

ḥābū kall aḥād [yāgōb / yiḳatwūt l-amflēh] ‘everyone likes to eat as he wishes’ M.NS

[yifōraḥ / yinḥāg] lahinna yikhōl bīs wīyan lā ‘he likes to play, but he can’t do it f. very well’ M.NS

nkīran / nankaʔ faxra hōh wa-hēh tōlī ḏ-axxarf wa-ḥāwēl ḏ-aṣayrab ‘we want to come together, me and him, at the end of the monsoon period or the beginning of the post-monsoon period’ M.NS

tkīnan / tśxawwal bi-brīṭānya snēt lagrē ḏa-tālalōm anglīzī taww ‘Do you m.s. wish you could stay in England for a year, so you could learn English properly?’ M.NS.MA

The object clause may be NP initial, as in the following example:

ḏa-śtarġan / xarf ḏ-asnēt ḏīmah yiḳāʔ axayr man ḏīk ḏa-lāyōman ‘we hope that the monsoon season this year will be better than that of last year’ M.NS.MA

In the case of ḥsōb (ḥsūb) ‘to look forward to’, the object clause may be introduced by the interrogative mayt:

ḏ-aḥōsab / mayt lankākam ~ ḏ-aḥōsab / lankākam ‘I am looking forward to when I come to you m.pl.’ M.NS

Verbs of volition in the conditional mood in Mehreyyet take a verb in the perfect in the complement clause when the desired event or state has passed:

akīnan / tuwak ṣayd lā ‘I wish I hadn’t eaten fish’ M.PES

tkīnan / syarš aśyaft ‘Do you f.s. wish you had gone to the wedding?’ M.NS

Where the desired state could obtain at the present time, verbs of volition in the conditional may take a following verbal clause with the verb in the indicative, or a nominal or locational clause:

akīnan / akhōl bi-saykal hīs tēš ‘I wish I could [ride] a bike like you f.s.’ M.NS

tkīran / lyōmah ḥabinša ‘Do you f.s. wish those were your children?’ M.NS

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In contrast to verbs of volition, the subject of clausal objects to verbs of ability, daring and determining is invariably co-referential with the subject of the main verb.

5.1.7.3.2 Verbs of ability

The principal verbs of ability in the two dialects are khēl, ḳdōr (ḳdūr) and hamm. These take the verb in the object clause in the subjunctive:

wa-näsyūr h-ṭād, [yäkhōl / yaḥḏēr] ‘and we go to someone who can build [huts]’ Sima77:5

[akhōl / laxbēz] hōh ṣarōmah ḏ-axōbiz ‘I can bake [bread]. I am baking at the moment’ M.NS

aḳōdar lā / lhazyad ḥnōfī akṯēr man wṭōmah lā ‘I can’t stay any longer than this’ M.NS

[tḳōdar / tślalh lā] la-hāśan hēh aṯḳāl mans ‘she can’t carry it m., because it is heavier than her’ M.NS

ḳadrīta / taḳfēlī xawfēt ḏa-srayš ‘Can you f.s. close the window behind you?’ M.NS

hām hammakam / tamnēʔam tah ‘if you m.pl. are able to catch him’ M.N.Rabkūt02.33

The verb in the object clause may be in the imperative when order is implied:

hām hammak / ḥawṣal aḳarmōś lyōmah šūk abayt ‘if you m.s. can, take those things with you to the house’ M.PES.MA

5.1.7.3.3 Verb of daring

The verb of daring, šānūs, takes the verb in the object clause in the subjunctive:

w-ʕād šǟnusk lǟ / lšukf aṯ-ṯār säṭḥ ‘and I no longer dared sleep on the roof’ Sima95:14

kall ḏ-inṭawṭ min yiṣṣayt wa-l-bīham ṭād [šānūs / yaḳrabs] lā ‘everyone shook in fright and not one of them m. dared approach it f.’ M.NS

tšānūs / taġtayr lā ‘she doesn’t dare talk’ M.NS

5.1.7.3.4 Verbs of deciding, determining, persuasion and manipulation

The verbs šāmūn ‘to believe, be persuaded’, ḳyīs ~ ḳīs ‘to intend’, hānūh ~ haʔnūh ‘to intend, do [s.th.] deliberately’ (M),16 ātōnī ‘to do [s.th.] specifically’ (M), ṭlōb (ṭlūb) ‘to demand’, ʕazōm (āzūm ~ azūm) ‘to decide, determine, mean’, and jzōm

16 Cf. 9.1.3 for ḏa-haʔnūh in its grammaticalised adverbial sense ‘deliberately’.

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(gzūm) ‘to swear, force’ take a following object clause with the verb in the subjunctive.

šāmanūt / tabrēk lā ‘she couldn’t be persuaded to kneel’ M.N.Rabkūt02.29

ḳisn / naġlēḳ män märʕā h-mōlän ‘we will/intend to look for grazing land for our livestock’ Sima8:5

nḥah [ḳisn / naʕmōl ḥläkmäh ḥafrēt] ‘we will/intend to make a hole there’ Sima50:23

ḏa-ḳyisk / laḥlēb k-aṣōbaḥ ‘I will/intend to milk in the morning’ M.NS.Rabkūt

ḏa-haʔnayš / tinkāy ‘Do you f.s. mean to come?’ M.NS

ḏa-haʔnayk / laṭraḥkam wa-l-lankākam lā ‘I mean to leave you m.pl. and not come to you’ M.PES.MA

ṭlūb / yhɛtam hnīn ta k-ṣōbaḥ ‘he asked us [to let] him spend the night with us until the morning’ M.N

ʕzōmän / naʕmōl AraḥlahA ‘we decided to go on a journey’ Sima60:2

tōlī ʔāzūm / yūtaġs ‘then he determined to kill her’ M.N

nkatan [ḏ-ātanyōt / thawṣal xālid] ‘she just came to us to bring Khalid’ M.N

ʕazōm (āzūm ~ azūm) also has the grammaticalised sense of ‘to be about to’:

āzūm / yišawġar la-hbɛr ‘he was about to attack the camels’ M.PES.MA

āzūman fōna / nsēr bark ḥawōdī ṭayt al-ḥaḳ ‘we had meant to go upstream in one of the wadis’ M.N.Rabkūt02.22

hīs ḳarban līham ḥaybīt [āzamūt / thahḳaṭ] ‘as we approached them m., the camel was about to give birth’ M.N.Rabkūt02.28

|�¤�vz ھ�v� Â ا�ysن وھ ازs£ �¶~ه wa-hām [azamk / lagrah] tā amkōn kūṯōna hayš ‘and when I am about to get to the place, I’ll tell you f.s.’ M.txt

gəzəmōt: / l-εšfōḳ əḥād tā l-əfdē ḥəbār ḏə-ḥáybi ‘she swore: I shall marry no man till I win back my father’s camels’ Johnstone (1987:129)

The verb jzōm (gzūm) ‘to swear’ functions as a verb of manipulation in certain contexts, as in:

AiḥtikākA [gzūm līn / niśxawwal] tawlū l-nḥōm ‘arthritis forces us to sit, even if we don’t want to’ M.NS

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5.1.7.4 Object clauses of other transitive verbs

Object clauses of other transitive verbs can also occur headed by interrogative pronouns:

yiśtīm / hān yḥaymah ‘they m. buy whatever they want’ M.NS

śill / hān barkih ‘he took what was in it m.’ M.NS

amērī hēh / hān śinšə tah axayr ‘Tell f.s. him what you think is best!’ M.NS

uم ھ��~�sv� o¤v�³ر ذ�� ھzا v� v�� sūbōna tā anhūr ḏa-sabt / hāśan yāmēram haynī ‘I will wait until Saturday [to see] what they m. will say to me’ M.txt

5.2 Complements

In addition to objects, phrases may be completed by a complement. There are four main types of complements: adverbial noun complements that complement verbs or adjectives; PP complements that complement verbs, adjectives and a few adverbs; and predicative complements that complement verbs.

5.2.1 Adverbial noun complements

Adverbial noun complements (henceforth ANC) differ from objects in that they are syntactically indefinite, they cannot be pronominalised or take a following anaphoric pronoun, and they have an adverbial-type interpretation (cf. Cowell 1964: 441; Watson 1993: 144). ANCs may complement either a verb within a VP or, occasionally, an adjective within an AP. Examples include:

Complementation of VP

ḏa-mīlī / yā ʕāyś yā dījar ‘full of either sorghum or beans’ Mo.N.01.09

aḳāʔ kallah [ḏa-maylī / frūḳ ḏa-rawn] ‘the whole land is full of herds of goats’ M.NS

ḥōram [ḏa-milūt / sarībūn] ‘the road is full of groups of children’ M.NS

ġirḳak / šnēt ‘I fell into a deep sleep’ M.NS

ašahay [ḏa-nḳawṣ / skēr] ‘the tea is lacking in sugar’ M.NS

ahaytam [ḏa-ġaṭyēt kallas / āfūr] ‘the sky was full of clouds’ M.NS

ḥābū [ḏ-īragzam / ṣafawf ṣafawf]: aḥād danadan w-aḥād b-ārabayyat w-aḥād ḏ-īraḳdan ‘people sing in rows: one [sings] danadan, one [sings] in Arabic and one dances’ M.PES.MA

Where a verb takes both an object and an ANC, the ANC follows the object:

syark aśḥayr / AraḥlahA ‘I went to the mountains on a journey’ M.NS

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Complementation of AP

fargīś17 / skēr18 ‘packed with sugar’ M.NS

sēh [ḳśayt / ḥruh] [lit. she dry of head] ‘she is stubborn’ M.PES

aġayg [ṣnīw / ḥayḏān ṭayt] ‘the man is deaf in one ear’ M.NS

aġiggīn [ṯfayl / fɛm ṭayt] ‘the boy is lame in one leg’ M.NS

The ANC may be morphologically definite, but syntactically indefinite. Thus the latter two examples above compare with the two below in which the noun takes a pronoun annex, but remains syntactically indefinite (cf. 3.1.5; 3.3.3.2):

aġayg [ṣnīw / ḥayḏānah ṭayt] ‘the man is deaf in one ear of his’ M.NS

aġiggīn [ṯfayl / fɛmah ṭayt] ‘the boy is lame in one leg of his’ M.NS

5.2.2 The internal object

Another type of ANC common in Semitic languages is the paronymous complement, also known as the absolute object (al-mafʕūl al-muṭlaq in Arabic) or the internal object. Here the indefinite verbal noun or verbal derivative complements the verb. It differs functionally from common objects in that it could be replaced by an adverb(ial). When the internal object occurs with modifiers, it describes the type of state/action involved:

nḥah ʕyōśän nḥah / ʕayś ḏ-ḏäll [lit. we lived we life of misery] ‘we lived miserably’ Sima76:9

wōḏam layš [taxdēmī / xadamēt gidat] [lit. incumbent on you f.s. you do good work] ‘you f.s. have to work well’ M.NS

śinš tay [ḏ-aġtūrī / ġrōy gīd] [lit. you f.s. see me I speak good speech] ‘Do you f.s. think I speak well?’ M.NS

maḥkə19 tah / mḥāt ‘I oiled it m. with oil’ M.NS

When the internal object occurs without modifiers, it intensifies the sense of the VP:

yisḥōṭ ḥābū / saḥṭ [lit. he slaughters people slaughter] ‘he absolutely slaughters people [with his prices]’ M.NS

ślāk / śall ‘it f. sweeps you m.s. away’ [saying, said of strong wind] M.NS

ḥśūr ḥābū / ḥāśar ‘he wiped the people out’ M.NS

17 Lit. lump, piece (of e.g. sugar, salt, antimony) (Miranda Morris, p.c.). 18 Better: fargīś ḏa-skēr, according to MA. 19 < *maḥḥak tah through syncope (1.3.2.1), degemination (1.3.2.4) and epenthesis (1.3.2.2).

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mahśah aʔaylīg / mhēś ‘the [young male] camel threw him’ M.N.Rabkūt02.40

A verbal derivative or noun from which the verb is derived may function as the object of the verb, but in this case is not replaceable by an adverb(ial), and may, as in the third example below, be definite.

wat HyxaymH yaxbēzäm / xabz ‘when they m. want to bake bread’ Sima10:2

ḏawyak / ḏay ḳōmaḥ ‘I smelt a bad smell’ M.NS

ašanafkī / ašnayf ḥāwalay w-ašnayf amšēġar ‘we DUAL went round the first bend and the second bend’ M.N.Rabkūt02.08

ḥābū [sḥāṭam hīn / masḥaṭōt] ‘people slaughtered an animal for us’ M.N.Rabkūt02.52

5.2.3 PP complements

Several verbs, adjectives and a few adverbs are lexically specified to take a particular PP complement. In a few cases, verbal nouns also take PP complements. PP complements differ from prepositional adverbial phrases in that they are generally restricted to occur to the right of the verb,20 whereas adverbial phrases may occur to the right or left of the verb with little effect on the communicative focus. PP complements with pronoun annexes occur closer to the verb than independent NP or clausal objects, or than subjects in VS word orders. The most common prepositions to head PP complements are ba- (bi-) and la-. Rubin (2010: 173–202) provides lists of verbs that take particular PP complements. A few examples are provided below. In larger contexts, the verb and PP complement are bracketed off and the PP complement split by / from the verb:

Verb + ba- (bi-)

yūhīb / b-Mähriyōt lǟ ‘they m. don’t say prayers in Mehri’ Sima68:18

mōn [nūkaʕ / b-raʕbūt] män ḥāwēl ‘Who first brought [the knowledge of] raʕbūt?’ Sima1:34

amtalēʔan [haman / b-arībāʔan] amkə tah wufūd ‘then [we heard about our friend], I think he had got engaged’ M.N.MA

[nhamdūd / bi-ḥaymal] wa-[nšamdūd / bīs] ‘we give with the right and receive with it f.’ M.NS

āgōb / b-attōmar ‘I like dates’ M.PES.Ndēt

20 Prepositional complements may be placed to the left of the verb to attract focus, as in: bay

taḳtalōb lā ‘Don’t m.s. worry about me!’ (M).

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hanśaftōh / bi-nīśāf ḥlakmah ‘they f.DUAL put down a rug/mat there’ M.PES.Ndēt

wa-ḥmūh [ḏa-ṯḳawl / bīn] akṯēr man aḳarmaśyan kall ‘and the water weighed us down more than all our [other] things’ M.N

Adjective + bi-

ībīt maġrabūt / b-aśxōf wa-xfayn ‘a camel well known for [its] milk and speed’ M.N.04.01

Verb + la-

w-hōh [mäddōnä / līkäm] ḳimtäsän ‘and I will give you m.pl. what they f. cost’ Sima61:9

[śatūḳak / līkam] wīyan ‘I miss you m.pl. a lot’ M.NS

yiṣṣak / līkam ‘I am afraid for you m.pl.’ M.NS

hīs taww [laġtayḏ / la-ḥnōfī] ār hōh ‘I should be cross with myself’ M.NS

tmōna / l-aḳamtas ‘it f. keeps its price’ M.NS

[ġaṣabūt / līn] ībīt ‘a camel had gone off [from us]’ M.N.Rabkūt02.02

ṭhask tā [šūḳāk / la-ḥruhī] ‘I slipped and landed on my head’ M.NS

Adverb + la-

ḳrīb / lä-ssift ‘near to the fish grounds’21 Sima23:1

ḳrayb / l-arḥabayt ‘near to the town’ M.NS

Verb + bak ~ brak (bark)

ysämḥam l-mōl [ykēb / bäk ḏikm bäḳʕāt ḏikmäh] ‘they m. allow the livestock to go into that, that area’ Sima56:174

wkūban / barkih ‘we went into it m.’ M.N.Rabkūt

Verb + man

yiṣṣ / man aryēś ‘he is afraid of snakes’ M.NS

amūr hōh ġayg [ḏ-aġawlaḳ / man aḥād yisādī] ‘he said, ‘I am a man who is looking for someone to help me’’ M.N.04.13

ftūkan / manh ‘we went out of it m.’ M.PES.MA

21 Also seashore.

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Adjective + man

APs headed by elatives and adjectives functioning as elatives are completed by a PP headed by man (cf. 2.6.1.4) Thus a comparison of A with B takes one of the following structures:

A–ELATIVE–man–B

A–ADJECTIVE–man–B

Examples include:

baʕli raḥbēt ykūn šīhäm läbs jīd, [axayr / män ḏēk ḏä-k-baʕli śḥayr] ‘the people of the village have better clothes than those of the people of the mountains’ Sima26:6

šūk bɛr mēkan ‘Have you m.s. many camels?’ axass ~ axāyas22 / min ṯamānīn ‘Less than eighty!’ M.NS.Rabkūt

ṣlōlat [axayr / min arḥōyab kall] ‘Salalah is better than all [other] towns’ M.PES.Ndēt

agaww ḏ-īmōh [ahwēb / min imših] ‘the weather today is warmer than yesterday’ M.PES

hēt [ḳannitt / minay] ‘you f.s. are younger than me’ M.NS

Other adjectives that take a complementary PP headed by man include Mehreyyet: śōya ‘injured, ill’, as in śōya man āḏamaytī ‘I m. am injured in the back’.

Adverb + man

rǟḥaḳ / män ḥābūn ‘far away from other people’ Sima65:33

rēḥaḳ / m-bawmah ‘far from here’ M.NS

Verb + ha-

w-lǟkän [kälṯōn / hūk] bä-l-hīs akhōl bēh ‘but I’ll tell you m.s. what I know of it m.’ Sima17:7

amark / ḥḥanōfī23 ‘I said to myself’ M.PES

ḥṣawb / h-amśabawt ‘he/they m. put small pebbles on the fire [for roasting meat]’ M.PES

22 Diminutive. 23 < *ha-ḥanōfī.

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Adjective + ha-

axayr / hūk ‘it is better for you m.s.’ M.NS

xass / hayš ‘it is worse for you f.s.’ M.NS

Verb + sār

tāb / srīs ‘he was upset about it f./her’ M.NS

mšawḥaśēta / sār Janet ‘I f. will miss Janet’ M.NS

Verb + ka-

ykūn ḏä-ḳlōbän ǟr ḏaḥyän / kä-slēbän ‘we kept our mind on our weapons’ Sima33:47

ḳlūban hanwan / k-aġyūg ḏa-haḳbīl ūdīn ‘we turned our attention to the men who had come to us’ M.PES.MA

A few nouns typically take PP complements, thus hanw-PRONOUN takes a PP complement headed by the preposition of accompaniment ka-:

w-hēt ykūn [hänwak / šīsän] ‘and you m.s., your mind should be on them f.’ Sima14:17

hanwī ʔār / šīkam ‘my mind is just with you m.pl.’ M.PES

5.2.3.1 Double PP complements

A number of verbs take two PP complements, most commonly la- and bi-, li- and man, or ha- and bi-. In this case, the PP headed by la- or ha- almost invariably precedes the PP headed by bi- or man irrespective of the relative weight of the PPs:

ḳalyōn bǟr [klōṯäm / hūk / bīsän] ‘the children told you m.s. about them f.’ Sima17:3

ḳlēbī / la-baʔlī bayt / bi-slōm ‘Greet f.s. the family!’ M.NS

ġayg [al-xṣawb / līham / bi-xaṭṭ] [wa-l-xṣawb / līham / bi-śī] ‘the man hadn’t sent them m. a letter or sent them anything’ M.N.03.13

riddak / layš / bi-rsōlat lā ‘I didn’t send you f.s. a text’ M.NS

yiṣṣak / līkam / man sīyaryōt ‘I am afraid for you m.pl. because of the cars’ M.NS

sīrūt […] [tġōlaḳ / hīham / min mtāt] ‘she went […] to look for food for them m.’ M.N.Rabkūt01.02

The use of one PP complement rather than another may alter the meaning of the VP:

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ḏ-īġawlaḳ / bīs ‘he is looking at her’ versus ḏ-īġawlaḳ / mans ‘he is looking for her’ M.NS

sḥāṭam / lih ‘they m. slaughtered [after he had died]’ versus sḥāṭam / hēh ‘they m. slaughtered [after he had returned]’ M.NS

ṯbatk / līs ‘I like it f.’ versus ṯbatk / bīs ‘I suit it f./it f. suits me/I look good in it f.’

Preposition + clause

man may head a PP in which the annex is a clause and the verb in the subjunctive. This is particularly frequent where negative purpose is intended. Negative purpose through man is dealt with elsewhere (9.2.6); however, in contrast to the structures considered in chapter 9, the verbs considered here, ḥaḏḏūr ‘to be careful; watch out’, xzūh ‘to refuse’ and yiṣṣ ‘to be afraid’, require a following complement and the clause headed by man almost invariably takes an anaphoric pronoun referring back to the verbal subject, object or prepositional annex.

ḥaḏḏayr / man yiḳattal ḏayriš aśxōf ‘Make sure the milk doesn’t spill on you f.s.!’ M.NS

ḥaḏḏayr / man taḳlālī ʔātarīt ‘Make sure you f.s. don’t spill fermented milk!’ M.NS

ḏa-yiṣṣak / man laḳā bār hanhayk amahrayyat ‘I am afraid I may have forgotten Mehri’ M.NS

ḏa-yiṣṣaš l-aġayg / man yhɛras ‘you f.s. are afraid the husband may marry [again]’ M.NS

aġaygis xzuh / man yxalyis ‘her husband refused to divorce her’ M.NS.Rabkūt

The man-clause may occur to the left of the verb:

min thanḥī bi-xlayḳiš / ḥaḏḏayrī man śīwōṭ ‘So that you don’t burn your f.s. dress, beware of the fire!’ M.NS

The clause following man is usually verb initial; however, there are a few examples of NP-initial clauses in the database:

yiṣṣōt / man atayyah yidḥars ‘she is afraid the male goat will butt her’ M.NS

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5.2.4 Predicative complements

Verbs may be complemented by complete predicates which are co-referential with the verb’s subject, object or prepositional annex (Watson 1993: 151 ff).24 Predicative complements are sub-classified as subjective, objective and prepositional complements. Predicative complements may be clauses or phrases, and, where phrases, are typically realised by indefinite phrases, as are ANCs. Predicative complements act as predicates of the subject, object or prepositional annex of the verb, whether current or existing in the case of stative verbs, or resulting from the action described in the verb in the case of dynamic verbs.

In the English example below, the subjective complement ‘winner’ is conditioned by the stative verb ‘to be’ and is co-referential with the subject ‘the camel’:

The camel is a winner

In the example below, ‘fat’ is conditioned by the dynamic verb ‘to become’ and is co-referential with the subject ‘the horse’:

The horse became fat

In the example below, the objective complement ‘boiled’ describes the state of the object ‘camel’s milk’ at the time of being drunk:

I always drink camel’s milk boiled

And below, the objective complement ‘winner’ results from the action of the dynamic verb ‘made’ and is co-referential with the object ‘the camel’:

They made the camel a winner

Following verbs of perception, volition, request and ability, clausal subjective and objective complements can also be classified as object clauses (5.1.7).

5.2.4.1 Subjective complements

A limited set of verbs, which following Cowell (1964: 452) and Watson (1993: 154) I term here linking verbs, typically require subjective complements, including the many verbs of being and becoming: yikūn ‘to be’, wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) ‘to become’, ḳatlab ‘to turn into’, haṣbāḥ ‘to be/become [in the morning]’, haḳṣawm ‘to be/become [in the hot part of the day]’, watxaf ‘to be/become [in the early evening]’,25 hātūm ‘to be/become [at night]’, lbōd (ūbūd) ‘to be/become’. The translocative verbs nūkaʕ (nūka) basically meaning ‘to come’ and rudd (ridd) basically meaning ‘to return’ have secondary senses which take subjective complements ‘to turn out, become, be’ and ‘to be again’ respectively.

24 Cf. also paratactic circumstantial clauses (9.2.10). 25 Also ‘to come in the early evening’.

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VP and clausal subjective complements

Verbs indicating to be or become at certain times of the day often take VP or clausal complements. The subject pronoun in the VP or clausal subjective complement is co-referential with that of the complemented term:

nṣarōmäh ḥābū [lbōdäm käll / yäḳfīdäm zämmäthäm] ‘now people have taken to all going down, most of them m.’ Sima56:68

w-ūbūdan / yaxah anḥah ġāyw ‘we became like [= as if we were] brothers’ M.NS

aġiggīt ḏīmah [watxfūt ilīlah / ḏa-širiḥawt] [lit. this girl is/has become this evening happy] ‘that girl is happy this evening’ M.NS

haṣbaḥk / al-hōh ḏa-ḳdark lā [lit. I in the morning not I able not] ‘I was not able to in the morning’ M.NS

ilīlah mšukfēta fīsēʔ lagrē [lhaṣbaḥ / ḏa-hanśark] ‘tonight I f. will go to sleep early so that I wake up refreshed’ M.NS

hōh w-atēṯ syarkī ḥawōdī wa-hālaḳkī śīwōṭ śxawalākī l-śīwōṭ wa-ḥirḳakī mans wa-[watxafan / ḏa-ḳaṭan] ‘me and the woman went to the wadi and lit a fire; we DUAL sat by the fire and got burnt by it f. and in the evening we were tired’ M.NS.Rabkūt

As a linking verb, rudd (ridd) can take a following VP to indicate repetition of an action or state. The complementary verb agrees with rudd (ridd) not only in number, gender and person, but also in aspect and mood:26

ridd wufūd bi-sārah [return.PRF.3MS ask.for.hand.PRF.3MS bi-Sarah] ‘he then went and asked for Sarah’s hand’ M.NS

ridd-am šūkīf [return.PRF-3MPL sleep.PERF.3MPL] ‘they m. went back to sleep’ M.PES.MA

a-ḥōm la-rdēd la-šukf [1S-want.IND 1S-return.SUBJ 1S-sleep.SUBJ] ‘I want to go back to sleep’ M.PES.MA

ridd-īta mšukf-ēta [return-FUT.FS sleep-FUT.FS] ‘she/you f.s./I f.s. will go back to sleep’ M.NS

The linking verb may be separated from its complementary VP by an adverbial, as in the bracketed off īmoh and īmoh ṭawr amšēġar in the following examples:

26 It thus appears to function similarly, if not identically, to Soqoṭri kanaḥ, of which Leslau says:

‘kánaḥ placé avant un autre verbe au parfait ou à l’imparfait sert à exprimer l’action répétée … Les deux verbes s’accordent dans la plupart des cas en temps, genre et nombre … kánaḥ ṭáher <il retourna>’ (Leslau 1938: 221).

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bār ḳfawlas ḥāyōm lyōmah w-imših šġālam tēs [wa-riddam [īmoh] ḳfawlas] ‘they m. shut it f. down [i.e. television channel] the past few days, and yesterday they put it f. on then they shut it down again’ M.NS

ktabk sēlam h-amdarsēt imših [wa-riddak [īmoh ṭawr amšēġar] asaglak tah hnīham] ‘I registered Sēlam in the school yesterday and then I registered him with them m. again today’ M.NS

NP subjective complements

NP subjective complements are common after verbs of becoming:

ḏäkmäh rġōd ykūn bärh śōx, [yäḳtälōb / śāʕar] ‘when the grass is tall, it m. becomes hay’ Sima81:33

ḏa-ġrūb aḳaʔyūt [ḏa-ḳatūbūt / tēṯ] ‘he knew that the spirit had turned into a woman’ M.PES.MA

ḳatlab lakī / šaršayr ḳōmaḥ ‘it m. turned into a difficult, narrow path [for us DUAL]’ M.N.Rabkūt02.10

[ūbūd / xarf klayf] ʕiśś bih śgēr kall w-[ūḳōt / snēt ḏa-xayr] ‘it m. became a hard monsoon period, [and] all the trees grew and it f. became a year of plenty’ M.PES.MA

AP subjective complements

The verbs yikūn and lbōd (ūbūd), and, as linking verbs, nūkaʕ (nūka), rudd (ridd) typically take AP subjective complements. Inflectable adjectives agree with the verbal subject in shared number–gender categories:

wat sēh ṣalḥayt [tkūn / jitt] ‘when it f. [i.e. the sardines] is fat, it f. is good’ Sima2:6

wa-ḥḥādär [ynōkaʕ / ḥōwar] ‘and the ḥādär [fish] becomes black’ Sima44:27

nūʕ [ynōkaʕ / mäsḥ] ‘one type is smooth’ Sima59:95

hīn zīdōt mälḥath ʕaynät AxalāṣA [ylōbäd / ṭayf] ‘if there is a bit too much salt, it m. becomes bitter’ Sima16:39

yräfsämsän wa-mġōn [tlobdän / ḥawr] ‘they m. [i.e. the cows] trample on them f. and then they f. [i.e. the stalks of straw] become black’ Sima77:18

ḏ-ūbūd / ṣaylaḥ ‘he had become fat’ M.N.Rabkūt

riddam / ṣaḥawīḥ ‘they m. came back to life’ M.NS

yaxahēh bār ġduh wa-[ridd / ṣaḥḥ] ‘as if he had died and come back to life’ M.NS

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The AP complement may precede the verb:

wḳōnä hīs ḏīm bäyt ṭūläs, ṭūläs [ṭwīl / tnōkaʕ]27 ‘its f. length is like [that of] this house, its length is long’ Sima60:15

ḥabrays śōx / nūka ‘her calf was born big’ M.N.Rabkūt02.32

PP subjective complements

Verbs of being or becoming at certain times of the day may take a PP subjective complement:

lbōdän / hīs ġwūtän ‘we became like brothers’ Sima33:65

[nihṣōbaḥ / bi-sēkan] wa-[nitxawf / bi-sēkan] ‘we spend the morning with one family and spend the evening with another’ M.N.MA

5.2.4.2 Objective complements

In complementation of objects and annexes (cf. 5.2.4.3), the complemented term may be either an independent NP or pronoun suffix. In the case of predicative complements to independent NP complemented terms, the object/annex and its following complement may stand alone as an independent clause, usually with a different temporal or aspectual interpretation. Consider the following clause:

hankūran ḥmūh / fśāl fanwīn [lit. we realised the water plenty in front of us] ‘we realised there was plenty of water in front of us’ M.N

Here the object, ḥmūh, with the objective complement, fśāl fanwīn, may function as an independent clause ḥmūh fśāl fanwīn ‘there is plenty of water in front of us’. In the following example, the object aḳāʔ and its complement axtalūf līn is an acceptable independent clause in aḳāʔ axtalūf līn ‘the land changed [for us]’:

kūsan aḳāʔ axtalūf līn [lit. we found the land changed for us] ‘we found the land had changed for us [since we’d been away]’ M.N.MA

NP objective complements

In the case of NP objective complements, the NP generally agrees with the object in shared number–gender categories. Thus in the first example below, jzīrät ‘island’ shares the feminine gender and singular number of the 3fs object pronoun.

w-ḥābū ykäbyim[äs axah ḳǟd ǟr / jzīrät] ‘and the people thought it f. was nothing other than an island’ Sima37:7

śinkī t[ēs / wōdī mayar] ‘we DUAL saw it f. was a steep wadi’ M.N.Rabkūt02.09

akōb [ḥabritš / tēṯ] ‘I thought your f.s. daughter was a woman’ M.NS

27 Note agreement of the verb with the annex of ṭūl ‘length’ and not with the annexed noun.

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After hjōs (hgūs), the object pronoun is often lacking on the verb before an NP objective complement:

ahōgis / nōgar28 ‘I think [it is] a low cliff of conglomerate’ M.NS

ahōgis / tēṯ ‘I think [it is] a woman’ M.NS

AP objective complements

AP objective complements often occur after verbs of perception. The adjective in AP objective complements agrees in values for shared number–gender categories with the object. Thus, arḥaymat ‘beautiful f.s.’ in the example below agrees with the 3fs object pronoun in singular number and feminine gender:

śinkə t[ēs / arḥaymat] [lit. I saw her beautiful f.s.] ‘I thought she was beautiful f.s.’ M.NS

kiskə t[ēs / ḳśayt] ‘I found it f. dry f.s.’ M.NS

ḏa-hgiskə t[ēk / ḥaywal] ‘I think you m.s. are mad m.s.’ M.N

ād ḥābu ḏa-ḥṣawb[ah / ṣaḥḥ lā] ‘people no longer thought he was alive m.s.’ M.N.03.15

śīnan [ḥawōdī / ṭwaylat] līn ‘we saw the wadi f. was long f.s. [for us]’ M.N.Rabkūt02.04

kisk [amṭabāx / ṯayrī axayr min imših] ‘I found the kitchen damper today than yesterday’ M.PES.MA

akōb [ḥabritš / āḳār man ūṭōmah] ‘I thought your f.s. daughter was older than that’ M.NS

o�� Äs~��ت و~³sا Ân~وھ� ط wa-hēt ṭarḥaš [amahrayyat / maġrabūt] wīyan ‘and you f.s. have made Mehreyyet f.s. very well known f.s.’ M.txt

PP or adverbial objective complements

The pronominal annex of a PP objective complement will be co-referential with the object, as in the example below. Co-referentiality is indicated by subscript i:

kiskī t[ēsi / bīsi amtwē] [lit. we DUAL found it f. in it f. grazing] ‘we found there was grazing there’ M.N.Rabkūt02.13

As an objective complement, the adverbial pronoun waḥś- ‘alone’ takes a pronoun suffix that is co-referential with the object:

ʕādi ǟr akäys[äki / waḥśūki] ‘Just let me once more find you m.s. on your own!’ Sima33:49

28 In these two examples, the object pronoun is lacking on the verb.

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śinkə t[ēki / waḥśūki] at-tasūḳ29 AdarrāgahA wa-tḥōm tafrēr wa-hīs taww tsēḳ wṭakmah lā ‘I saw you m.s. on your own riding a motorbike and wanting to fly. You shouldn’t drive like that!’ M.PES.MA

Where the objective complement is realised by a PP with an independent NP annex or by an adverbial, no co-referentiality can be shown with the object.

wi-yʕajnäs wi-yḳayr[äs / ḥläkmäh] ‘and he makes it f. into maʕjīn and hides it there’ Sima12:7

hankark t[ēk / bark amasgīd] ‘I realised/thought you m.s. were in the mosque’ M.NS

ahōgis [tilifūnī / bark amṭām] ‘I think my telephone is in the restaurant’ M.NS

VP and clausal objective complements

In the case of VP or verbal clause object complements, the verb in the objective complement is in the subjunctive mood where the main verb/participle is a verb/participle of volition, demanding, determining, permission, choice or manipulation (cf. 5.1.7.3) and the action or state indicated by the subordinate verb has either not taken place or may not have taken place. The verbal subject pronoun in the complement is usually co-referential with the object it complements, as indicated in the examples below:

wa-nṣarōmäh nḥam[kämi / täślīlämi] hǟn ṣawt ḏ-rōräm ‘and now we would like you m.pl. to sing us a song from the sea’ Sima65:39

niḥam[hi yabtīśali] man amdarsath lā ‘we don’t want him to be distracted from his studies’ M.NS

ṭlawb[ani / naxdēmi hnīham] ‘they m. asked us to work for them’ M.NS

yiṭarḥam ta[hi / yišawnaxi swānōt] ‘they m. left him to rest for a bit’ M.NS

l-ād antaḳaylan [aḥādi / yibḳāśi wa-yixdēmi xadamēt gidat axayr manš lā] ‘I couldn’t choose anyone to run and work better than you f.s.’ M.NS

Where there is certainty or reasonable certainty that the action indicated in a dynamic complementary verb had taken place at the time reference of the main verb, the verb is in the perfect aspect (cf. 2.5.1.5). This is also the case in yes–no questions, as in the first example below, where certainty that the action took place is lacking:

hama-k t-īsi ġətəry-ōti śī [hear.PRF-2MS ACC-3FS talk.PRF-3FS thing.MS] ‘Did you m.s. hear her say anything?’ Stroomer94:17

29 < *ḏa-tsūḳ.

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ksūh darhīsi […] bār mōti [find.PRF.3MS kid.MS bār die.PRF.3MS] ‘he found the kid had died’ Mo.N.01.35

wat śīn-äk tī-säni bhēli [when see.PRF-2MS ACC-3FPL be.ready.PRF.3FPL] ‘when you m.s. see they f. are ready’ Sima14:17

Where a state has been entered into and continues to obtain at the time reference of the main verb, the complementary verb is in the perfect, often prefixed by the aspectual marker ḏa- (cf. 2.5.1.5):

śīnän [ḥābūi / ḏä-rsīyämi] ‘we saw the people at anchor’ Sima52:2

hēt ḏa-ġribkə t[ayi / śatūḳak līkam] ‘you m.s. know I miss you m.pl.’ M.trns

Where an action described in the complement clause was or is continuing or was or is thought to be taking place at the time reference of the main verb, the complementary verb is in the indicative prefixed by the aspectual marker ḏa-:

śin-š hi-bɛri at-ta-baḳś-ani [see.PRF-2FS DEF-camel.FPLi ḏa-3F-run.IND-PLi] ‘you f.s. saw the camels running’ M.NS

ks-at-hi a-tēṯ ḏ-ī-bayki [find.PRF-3FS-3MSi DEF-woman.FS ḏa-3MS-cry.INDi] ‘the woman found him crying’ M.N

The object pronoun may be lacking on the head verb before a VP or clausal objective complement, most commonly in the case of the verb of volition ḥōm ‘to want’, or the verbs of perception hjūs (hgūs) ‘to think’, hankūr ‘to realise’ and ḥuss (ḥiss) ‘to feel’. In the following example, the 1pl subject of the object clause is not marked as the object of the verb tḥōm ‘you m.s. want’:

tḥōm nabōṣar abayt [lit. you m.s. want we go at twilight the house] ‘Do you m.s. want us to go back home at twilight?’ M.NS

Other contextual examples where the object pronoun is lacking on the head verb include:

tḥaym / alḳarabš [lit. do you f.s. want I help you f.s.] ‘Do you f.s. want me to help you?’ M.NS

hām [tḥaym / nsōgal hayš] msaglūtan bark abitš ‘if you f.s. want us to record for you, we’ll record in your house’ M.NS

The verb in the objective complement may take an object pronoun that is co-referential with the object of the complemented verb. In the following examples, the object pronoun -ah in lhäfḳ-ah ‘I marry him’ is co-referential with the NP ḥabrī ‘my son’, and the object pronoun -äh in yäsʕifm-äh ‘they m. thresh it m.’ with the object pronoun in t-ēh:

ḥōm ḥabrīi lhäfḳ-ahi hnīkäm [lit. I want my son I marry him to you m.pl.] ‘I want to marry my son into your m.pl. family’ Sima76:7

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ǟr hēhi [ḏ-ʕamläk t-ēhi yäsʕifm-ähi] [lit. only it m. I think it m. they m. thresh it m.] ‘I think that they m. thresh it m.’ Sima56:121

Locational clauses also function as objective complements, in which case a preposition takes a pronoun annex that is co-referential with the object:

kūsa sēkäni šī-hämi raḥmǟt [lit. he found the people with them m. rain] ‘he found the people had already had rain’ Sima8:15

5.2.4.3 Prepositional annex complements

Like subjective and objective complements, prepositional annex complements can be realised by phrases or clauses. As seen above, where the annex is realised by an independent NP, the annex and its complement could form an independent clause potentially with a different temporal or aspectual interpretation. Thus in the example, ḥisk b-amūsē ḏār awaghī ‘I felt the rain on my face’, the element amūsē ḏār awaghī ‘the rain is on my face’ is an acceptable clause.

Further contextual examples of phrasal prepositional annex complements include:

l-ḥād wīdaʕ b-[ḏikm śäfrēt / ḥläkmäh] ‘no one knew about that knife there’ Sima42:19

ḏ-ʕimläm b[ēh / hīs ḳabbēt] ‘that they m. made it m. like a ḳabbēt’30 Sima19:1

yiʔamram h[ēh / frayś] ‘they m. call it m. frayś [female camel calf]’ M.N.Rabkūt

Examples of VP and clausal prepositional annex complements include:

baʔlī bayt barham ḏ-iśtarġam h[aynī / lankaʔ] ‘the family are anxious for me to come back’ M.NS

hōh wadak b[īkam / la-ḥō syēra lā] ‘I don’t know where you m.pl. are going’ M.N.03.06

hamak bi[h / syūr maskūt] ‘I heard he had gone to Muscat’ M.trns

hamak b[ayš / ṭalaš aśḥayr] ‘I heard you f.s. had gone ھÂ�� £p طÂl ا¤¦�~up to the mountains’ M.txt

30 Wooden device designed to prevent circumcisee from moving and hurting himself during

operation (cf. Sima19).

6 Predication

Clauses comprise the clausal subject, which, following Bohas, Guillaume & Kouloughli (1990), Watson (1993) and Dickins (2010) for Arabic, I describe here as the predicand, and a predicate, which comments on the predicand. Clauses can be subcategorised according to the category of the predicate into nominal, locational, verbal and topic–comment clauses. Nominal clauses have a nominal – NP or AP – predicate. Locational clauses have a PP or adverbial predicate. Verbal clauses have a VP predicate – either headed by a fully inflected verb or a future participle. Topic–comment clauses have an initial topic predicand and a clausal predicate which itself divides into predicand and predicate.

In this chapter, I begin by discussing features of the predicand and predicate; I then examine nominal and locational clause types, their constituents, rules of agreement, word order, use of the copula and incomplete predication; I then examine the syntax of verbal clauses including an extended discussion on word order in verbal clauses, subject clauses, and topic–comment clauses.

6.1 The predicand and predicate 6.1.1 The predicand

The predicand is the theme of the clause, about which something is predicated. It is usually an NP, but may in limited circumstances be a PP or clause. A substantive predicand may be definite or indefinite, but is more commonly definite, where definiteness can be morphologically or syntactically expressed, and is better known or more specific than the predicate. In verbal clauses, an explicit predicand requires verbal agreement in the predicate; in nominal clauses, the predicand requires agreement in shared number–gender categories in the predicate; in nominal clauses with a substantive predicate, the predicate usually agrees in shared morphological categories with the predicand; in locational clauses where the predicate is a PP or a locative adverb, no agreement is shown between predicand and predicate due to lack of shared morphological categories.

6.1.2 The predicate

The predicate is either an AP, NP, VP, PP or adverb. The predicate is the message that is predicated of the predicand and is the lesser known element in the clause. The predicate hence attracts the communicative focus within the clause, usually reflected acoustically in raised intensity and pitch. An AP or VP predicate inflects to agree in shared morphological categories with the predicand. Except in the case of equational clauses, an AP or NP predicate is usually indefinite, and even where definite the

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predicate tends to be less specific than the predicand. We can view nouns and adjectives not simply in terms of having one of two values for definiteness – definite and indefinite – but rather falling along a definiteness hierarchy from the most specified first person pronoun to the least specified bare undefined noun or adjective. Adapting the definiteness hierarchy for Arabic from Zamakhshari (1859: 81; cf. Watson 1993: 19–20), a definite noun in order of specificity is either a personal pronoun (first > second > third person), a proper noun, a demonstrative pronoun, a definite substantive with suffixed pronoun, a definite substantive with attributive demonstrative, a definite substantive annexed to a substantive, or a non-modified definite substantive. An indefinite nominal is an indefinite pronoun or an indefinite noun or adjective, but even here degrees of specificity exist, and both an attributed or annexed indefinite noun and an indefinite pronoun are more specific than a bare noun or adjective and may occur in positions otherwise reserved for definite nominals.

6.2 Nominal clauses

There are three main types of nominal clause depending on the identity of the predicate and the semantic relationship between the predicand and the predicate. These are: proper inclusion, equation and attribution. In all cases, the unmarked structure of nominal clauses is juxtaposition of an NP predicand to a NP or AP predicate.1

6.2.1 Proper inclusion

In clauses of proper inclusion, the predicand is a member of the class of items specified in the predicate. Thus, Muhammad is a camel herder states that Muhammad is a member of the class of camel herders, and Sarah is a girl states that Sarah is a member of the class of girls. The predicand is generally definite – either by virtue of being a proper noun, demonstrative, personal pronoun, or by taking the definite article in Mehreyyet with or without a possessive pronoun, or by taking a possessive pronoun in Mahriyōt; the predicate is usually an NP and generally indefinite. The structure of clauses of proper inclusion is:

NPDEF–NPINDEF

The predicate usually shares the number and gender values of the predicand, as in the examples below:

mḥammad baʔl mōl [Muhammad.MS owner.MS livestock] ‘Muhammad is an owner of livestock’ M.NS

sārah ġiggīt [Sarah.FS girl.FS] ‘Sarah is a girl’ M.NS

1 Cross-linguistically, NP–NP juxtaposition is the most common structure for proper inclusion

and equational clauses (Payne 1997: 114).

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Where the predicand is a first person pronoun, which does not encode gender, the predicate of a clause of proper inclusion agrees in number with the predicand and gender with the real-world referent:

nḥah ġawtan [1PL sister.FPL] ‘we [f] are sisters’ M.NS

nḥah baʔl-ī hi-bɛr [1PL owner.M-PL DEF-camel.FPL] ‘we [m] are camel men’ M.NS

hōh ġayg [1S man.MS] ‘I [m] am a man’ M.NS

Where the predicand is a dual pronoun, which also does not encode gender, a nominal predicate agrees in gender with the real-world referent, but usually takes plural rather than dual number:

atay ġāyw [2.DUAL brother.MPL] ‘you [m] DUAL are brothers’ M.NS

hay ġawtan [3.DUAL sister.FPL] ‘they [f] DUAL are sisters’ M.NS

In the case of a coordinate complex predicand referring to two entities, the noun in the predicate is usually plural rather than dual:

ḥaybī wa-ḥaybiš / banī dīd ‘my father and your f.s. father are paternal cousins’ M.NS

hōh wa-hēt / arbāt ‘you s. and I are friends’ M.NS

6.2.2 Equational clauses

Equational clauses assert that a particular entity is identical to the entity specified in the predicate. Both the predicand and predicate are definite in the structure:

NPDEF–NPDEF

The predicand is generally higher up on the definiteness hierarchy than the predicate: personal pronouns, proper nouns and demonstratives typically function as predicands in equational clauses, and defined substantives as predicates. In the following example from Mehreyyet, ḏīmah ‘this f.’ is definite by virtue of being a demonstrative pronoun (cf. 2.4.4) and ḥaybaytī ‘my camel’ by virtue of taking the definite article ḥa- and the possessive pronoun suffix -ī:

ḏīmah ḥa-ybayt-ī [this.FS DEF-camel.FS-1S] ‘this f. is my camel mare’ M

In the following example from Mahriyōt, ḏīmah ‘this f.’ is definite by virtue of being a demonstrative pronoun, and baytī ‘my house’ by virtue of taking the possessive pronoun suffix -ī:

ḏīmah bayt-ī [this.FS house.FS-1S] ‘this f. is my house’ Mo

In Mahriyōt invariably, and in Mehreyyet in the case of nouns with certain initial consonants (cf. 1.1.1.3.3, 2.3.5), definiteness is not encoded unless the noun is

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inherently definite – i.e. a proper noun, personal pronoun or demonstrative – or a noun with a proper noun, pronoun or demonstrative annex, or a noun modified by a demonstrative. Thus, the distinction between proper inclusion and equation can either not be made or can only be made from the wider context. The following examples could be either clauses of proper inclusion or equational clauses:

ḏīmah bayt [this.F house.FS] ‘this is a house’ [proper inclusion]; ‘this is the house’ [equation] Mo

ḏōmah fīgōn [this.M cup.MS] ‘this is a cup’ [proper inclusion]; ‘this is the cup’ [equation]

By virtue of the fact that the predicand and predicate in an equational clause refer to one and the same entity in the real world, they usually agree in shared number–gender categories. In the above examples, ḏīmah ‘this f.’ and bayt ‘house’ share the gender value feminine and the number value singular, and ḏōmah ‘this m.’ and fīgōn ‘cup m.s.’ share the gender value masculine and the number value singular. The predicand and predicate do not usually agree in person. A substantive noun2 predicate shares the number and gender values with the predicand, but where the predicand is a personal pronoun not (necessarily) the person value. Compare the following two examples:

hīt ḥām-ī [2FS mother.FS-1S] ‘you f.s. are my mother’ Mo

sēh ḥām-ī [3FS mother.FS-1S] ‘she is my mother’ Mo

There are obvious instances where the predicand and predicate will not share values for number and gender: for example, where someone says sēh / ḥāmay wa-ḥaybī ‘she is my father and my mother’ (M) where the predicand is singular but the coordinate complex predicate is essentially dual. Similarly where an entity is labelled in the predicand and identified in the predicate, the predicand and predicate do not necessarily share values for shared morphological categories:

ʕaylōḳ ḏōmäh šäbdīt ḏä-lxaym [shark’s.liver.MS this.M liver.FS ḏa-shark.MS] ‘that ʕaylōḳ is shark’s liver’ Sima16:9

Partial agreement

An elative phrase headed by xyūr ḏa- ‘the best of’ may function as the predicate of an equational clause. Since the element following ḏa- is plural, morphological values are shared between the predicand and the predicate in gender only, expressed in the gloss of the examples below by subscript i.

hēh xyūr ḏ-ax-xal-ya kall [3MiS best.PL ḏa-DEF-uncle.MiPL-1S all] ‘he is the best of all my uncles’ M.NS

2 Assumed to take third person value.

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sēh xyūr ḏa-h-bar-ya kall [3FiS best.PL ḏa-DEF-camel.FiPL-1S all] ‘she is the best of all my camels’ M.NS

6.2.3 Clauses of attribution

In clauses of attribution, the predicate is usually expressed by an AP (cf. Payne 1997: 111–112)3 and attributes one or more features to the predicand. Clauses of attribution have the typical structure:

NPDEF–APINDEF

The adjective agrees with the head noun in shared number–gender categories.

ḥām-ay nōb [mother.FS.DEF-1S old.FS] ‘my mother is old’ M

sann-as śōx [age.MS-3FS old.MS] ‘she is old’ M

a-byōt nyōb [DEF-house.FPL big.FPL] ‘the houses are big’ M

a-śāhar ḳṣayr [DEF-back.MS short.MS] ‘the back is short’ M.N.Šlaym01.04

Further examples include:

mxawzän lyōmäh / mäbnō bä-ṣwīr ‘those stores are built from stone’ Sima78:6

wa-ḏayk amšaġarēt / ūbanīt ‘and that f. other is white’ M.NS.Nīsaḥ

hō w-harbātya / AtābānīnA man abanšar ‘me and my friends were tired because of the puncture’ M.N.MA

In the case of undeclinable adjective predicates (cf. 2.6.1.3), number–gender agreement is not shown in the predicate:

ḥā-rīt fśāl [DEF-moon.FS full] ‘the moon is full’ M

w-a-śany-as axayr [and-DEF-look-3FS better] ‘and she looks better’ M.N.Šlaym01.05

a-bit-š aʔḳār man abyōt kall [DEF-house.FS-2FS larger than house.FPL all] ‘your f.s. house is bigger than all the (other) houses’ M.PES.Ndēt

fnūk4 / aḳrāb man ḳbēlak ‘fnūk is closer than ḳbēlak’ [i.e. the distance implied is closer] Mo.NS

A predicate adjective may be diminutive to the exclusion of the predicand, as in śayāxān and aʔḳāyar (cf. 2.6.1.4) in the following:

3 Described by Payne (1997: 112) as attributive clauses, but here as clauses of attribution to avoid

confusion with attributive clauses that modify a NP (3.2). 4 Here the PP fnūk ‘in front of you m.s.’ functions as an NP, and may be considered an

abbreviation for ‘the phrase/word fnūk’.

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ʕaylīg / śayāxān ʕaynat ‘the male camel calf is a little bit bigger’ M.NS

aḥmēd / hanna aʔḳāyar man sēlim ‘Ahmad is a bit bigger than Sēlim’ M.PES.MA

The predicand may be realised by baʕś (bāś), in which case agreement in the predicate is with the real-world referent rather than the noun, as in:

baʕś lēban [some white.PL] ‘some are white’ Mo.NS

bāś nyōb [some large.FPL] ‘some are large’ M.NS

Where baʕś (bāś) is modified by an attributive PP headed by man, agreement in gender and number is invariably with the annex of man and not with the head of the NP (cf. 3.1.9). Agreement is indicated in the morphemic gloss of the following examples by subscript i:

baʕź män-s ṣalḥayt [some of-3FSi fat.FSi] ‘some of them [= it f.] are fat’ Sima2:6

w-baʕź män-sǟn śīyaxtän [CONJ-some of-3FPLi big.FPLi] ‘and some of them f. are big’ Sima9:3

w-baʕź män-h ʕrīź [CONJ-some of-3MSi wide.MSi] ‘and some of them [= it m.] are wide’ Sima47:66

bāś mansēn / rīḥamtan ‘some of them f. are good-looking’ M.PES.MA

Similarly, where baʕś (bāś) heads an annexion phrase, number–gender agreement in the adjectival predicate is with the annex and not with the head noun:

bāś hi-bɛr lēban wīyan [some DEF-camel.FPLi white.PLi very] ‘some camels are very white’ M.N.Rabkūt

bāś ḥā-bū dīḥōs [some DEF-person.MPLi annoying.MPLi] ‘some people are annoying’ M.PES.MA

Non-NP predicand

Clauses describing weather and the environment are headed by a term that typically functions as an adverb of time.

naṣrōmah śābal wīyan [now cold very] ‘it is very cold now’ Mo.NS

illōh ḥbūr [last.night cold] ‘last night was cold’ M.NS

ilīlah hōb [tonight warm] ‘tonight is warm’ M.NS

īmōh ḥarḳ [today hot] ‘today is hot’ M.NS

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The predicand in a clause of attribution may also be a PP, usually headed by man; in this case, a declinable adjective in the predicate agrees in number and gender with the prepositional annex (cf. above):

mans / jitt [of-3FSi good.FSi] ‘some of them are good’ Mo.NS

abaʕyōr [manhēm / ġalwōm] [DEF-camel.MPL of-3MPLi in.rut.MPLi] ‘some male camels are in rut [and potentially aggressive]’ M.PES

abyōt [mansēn / dīwātan] [DEF-house.FPL of-3FPLi old.FPLi] ‘some houses are old’ M.PES

Non-AP predicate

The predicate of a clause of attribution is not invariably an AP, but may be a PP headed by man, a quantifier adverb, or the PP bi-xayr:

sān / man ṭʕōr ‘they f. are [made out] of clay’ Mo.NS

azōlayyat ḏīmah / man aġōzal ‘that carpet is made of cotton’ M.PES.MA

abyōt / mēkan ‘there are many houses’ M.NS

aśxōf / xawr ‘the milk is in short supply’ M.NS

ḥibya / b-xayr ‘my parents are well’ M.NS

Clauses of attribution can also involve a ḏa-NP predicate which describes the purpose or material of the predicand. Such clauses are questioned by (ḏa-)hāśan:

lǟkän zämmǟt ḏ-ḥābū [ʕaṯkǟn ǟr / ḏ-ḥanźāb] ‘but [for] most people decorative tassels tied to the end of plaits are [made] of glass beads’ Sima59:82

[sān / ḏa-ḥmūh] wa-[sān / ḏa-jalʕaym] ‘they f. are for water and they f. are for bean stew’ Mo.N.01.15

6.2.4 Word order

The typical word order of all nominal clauses is predicand–predicate. The word order can be reversed, with additional intonational focus falling on the fronted predicate. Predicate fronting occurs in all three types of nominal clause in both main and subordinate clauses:

Clauses of proper inclusion

baʔlī śḥayr / hēm [lit. Śḥerɛt speakers they m.] ‘they m. were Śḥerɛt speakers’ M.N.Rabkūt01.11

bar ḥōfī / ḏakmah ‘son of a camel that has recently given birth, that m. one is’ M.NS

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Equational clauses

ḥabrītī / sēh [lit. my daughter she] ‘she is my daughter’ Mo.NS

ḥāmay / sēh [lit. my mother she] ‘she is my mother’ M.NS

Clauses of attribution

hām ṭrayrat / ḥaybīt [lit. if narrow the camel] ‘if the camel is narrow’ M.N.Šlaym01.18

śayḳ / amkōn ḏōmah [lit. cramped this place] ‘this place is cramped’ M.PES.MA

ḥazmayyat / sēh [lit. black camel she] ‘that’s a black camel’ M.N

[ḳannitt / sēh] [ḳannitt / sēh] raḥbānōt ḳannitt wḳōn barkīs ʔašrayn bayt bass [lit. small it f. is, small it f. is] ‘it f. is small, it is small, [it’s] a small village, there will be only around 20 houses there’ M.N.Ndēt

gidat / amgārīt [lit. good lying down] ‘lying down is good’ M.NS

[gidat / śīwōṭ] ḥyūt [lit. good fire life] ‘fire is good, [it has] life’ M.NS

bi-xayr / hēm ‘they m. are well’ M.NS

The predicate–predicand word order is often found in formulaic phrases, rhetorical phrases, or in euphemistic idioms. These include:

maḥmīd / arḥamōn [lit. praised God] ‘Praised be God!’ M.NS

[gīd / aḳawt] wa-[ḳōmaḥ / agwēʔ] [lit. good the food and bad the hunger] ‘food is good and hunger is bad’ M.NS

ġšaymat / alḥiyēt [lit. stupid the beard] ‘stupid’ M.NS

In some replies to invocations of God, the predicate precedes the predicand:

abɛli b-āfyat – [gidat / āfyat] ‘God [brings] health and well-being!’ ‘Good is health and well-being!’ M.NS

As a predicate, the phrases axayr ha-PRONOUN and xass ha-PRONOUN precede the predicand:

axayr hayš / aśxōf [lit. better for you f.s. the milk] ‘it’s better for you f.s. to have milk’ M.NS

xass hūk / aśxōf ḏa-hbɛr [lit. worse for you m.s. the camel milk] ‘it’s bad for you m.s. to have camel milk’ M.NS

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Following Clark (1978), clauses of location, possession and existence are categorised as locational clauses. I also include here clauses of accompaniment. All these clause types imply the place of an entity – possession places the entity with the possessor, accompaniment places the entity with the companion, location specifies the location of the entity, and existence specifies the presence of the entity within a specified place or within the world as a whole. In some cases, it is difficult to distinguish sub-types of locational clause: Mahriyōt hnān ʕayd [lit. with us sardines], for example, could be interpreted as possession (‘we have sardines’) or existence (‘there are sardines where we are’). In Mehri, locational clauses comprise a NP and a PP or, in the case of location and existential clauses, an adverbial.

Existential clauses (6.3.1) and clauses of possession in which the focus is on the possessee (6.3.2.1) consist of a PP or an adverbial followed by a usually indefinite NP.

PP ~ AdvP–NPINDEF

A clause comprising a PP or adverb followed by an indefinite NP questions or identifies an entity within a specific location or possessed by a specific possessor. Indefinite NPs typically lack the key features associated with predicands, while attracting the communicative focus typical of predicates. Since the communicative value of PP–NP clauses lies in stating what type of entity is possessed or located in a particular place, rather than where a particular entity is found, the following indefinite NP is analysed here (as in Beeston 1970: 68–70 for Classical Arabic; Watson 1993: 120–121 for San’ani Arabic) as the predicate.

6.3.1 Existential clauses

Existential clauses can be divided into those that state the absolute existence of an entity and those that state the existence of an entity in a particular location. Absolute existence is expressed by the adverbial locative ḥlawk, ḥlakm ~ ḥlakmah ‘there’ followed by an indefinite NP, as in:

ḥlakmah / sinnawrat ‘there is a cat’ M.NS

ḥlakmah / ġayg ‘there is a man’ M.NS

ḥlakm hinīn / ḳāʔ hawrat ‘there [with us] is dry land’ M.N.Ndēt

Existence of an entity within a particular location is expressed by a locative adverbial or PP followed by an indefinite NP, as in:

hnǟn / ʕayd ‘there are sardines where we are’ Sima2:31

hnīn / ḥarḳ [lit. with us hot] ‘it’s hot here’ M.NS

hnīn / ḳāṣam [lit. with us cold] ‘it’s cold here’ M.NS

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manwīs / gbēl ‘between them [= it f.] there is a mountain’ M.N.Ndēt

bark āmḳas / gbēl ‘there is a mountain in the middle of it f.’ M.N.Ndēt

[barkīs / mṭāwam] ū-[barkīs / dkaknat] ‘there are restaurants there [in the town] and shops there’ M.N.Ndēt

In response to a yes–no question, absolute existence can be expressed by śī–NP:

śī sinnawrat hnīkam ‘Is there a cat with you m.pl.?’ ahāh śī / sinnawrat ‘Yes, there is a cat!’ M.NS

Absolute existence is questioned by śī in both dialects. Existence within a particular location is questioned by śī or by final rising intonation alone:

śī / gbēl ‘Are there any mountains?’ M.NS

śī bawmah hnīkam / ġyūg ~ bawmah hnīkam / ġyūg ‘Are there any men here with you m.pl.?’ M.NS

śī bawmah / ambarawtan śīyēx ~ bawmah / ambarawtan śīyēx ‘Are there any older boys here?’ M.NS

6.3.2 Clauses of possession

Clauses of possession5 can be subcategorised into two types: clauses in which the focus is on a (usually) indefinite possessee, which take the PP–NPINDEF

6 structure of existential clauses with the possessee in the NP; and clauses in which the focus is on the possessor, which take the structure NP–ḏa-NP ~ ka-NP with the possessor in the ḏa-phrase or the annex of the PP.

6.3.2.1 Focus on possessee

In clauses of possession in which the focus lies on the possessee, the PP is headed by the preposition of accompaniment ka- (š- before pronominal suffixes) in the case of either kinship or alienable possession, or by ba- (bi-) in the case of inalienable possession. The prepositional annex expresses the possessor and the NP the possessee. Here I use the term inalienable possession to indicate possession of things on or within the entity, including part of the whole, qualities such as beauty, and temporary bodily conditions such as illnesses (cf. also 3.1.10.1; cf. Rubin 2010: 278).

5 For possession in modern dialects of Arabic, cf. Naïm (2008). 6 But not AdvP–NP.


239

6.3.2.1.1 Alienable possession

Alienable concrete possession

tkäys baʕź män ḥābū [šīhäm / xōtäm b-ḥīdäh] ‘you m.s. find some people, they m. have a ring on their hand’ Sima26:23

šīn / bayt ‘we have a house’ M.NS

šūk / ʔībīt āfarūt ‘you m.s. have a red f. camel’ M.NS

Alienable abstract possession

ḏ-šēh / fēśäl lǟ ‘he who has no work’ Sima11:9

šay / waḳt ‘I have time’ M.NS

šīn / ḥbūr [lit. with us cold] ‘it’s cold’ M.NS

6.3.2.1.2 Inalienable possession

Part of the whole

bēh / šaršarōt ‘he has a lump of fat on the back of his neck (from being overweight)’ Mo.NS

bay / śiff sabṭ ‘I have straight hair’ M.PES.MA

būk / āyantan ḥāwar ‘you m.s. have black eyes’ M.PES.MA

Location of entity within entity

aḳāʔan [bih / ṣwayr mēkan] ‘our land has lots of stones’ M.PES

gbēl / bīs m-bōh ū-bīs m-bōh ‘it f. has mountains from here and there’ M.N.Ndēt

Illness/temporary state

rōram [bīs / ʕāṣaf] [lit. sea with it f. storm] ‘there’s a storm at sea’ Mo.NS

bī / hōfal [lit. with me stomach] ‘I’ve got diarrheoa’ Mo.NS

bay / fṭāṭ b-awaghī ‘I have spots on my face’ M.PES

būk / śī lā ‘you m.s. don’t have anything wrong with you’ M.PES

Quality

sēh [bīs / kubrah] [lit. she with her pride] ‘she’s proud’ Mo.NS

bīs / arḥūmat ‘it f. has a beauty’ M.N.Šlaym01.16

bīs / ḳamḥayn fśāl ‘it f. has a lot of ugliness’ M.PES.MA

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hōh [bay / ṣābar] ‘I have patience’ M.NS

Negative characteristics, such as debt, blame, worry and fear, are associated with the possessor through the preposition la-:

w-hēh mōl [lēh / ḏänb lǟ] [lit. and it m. the animals to it no blame] ‘and the animals are not to blame’ Sima24:5

bnǟdäm ḏōmäh [lēh / ḳaźwē] ‘that person, he has a debt of blood money’ Sima28:12

ādh lay / ašrayn ‘I still owe 20 [Omani riyals]’ M.NS

[layš / lawm] hīs taww tlēmī ḥnafš wa-l-tāmēl wṭōmah lā ‘you’re f.s. to blame; you should blame yourself and shouldn’t do that’ M.PES.MA

[lūk / mḥanēt lā] al-tāṣawṣ man śī lā ‘you m.s. haven’t got anything to worry about, don’t be afraid of anything’ M.PES.MA

[līn / yiṣṣayt lā] kāśī yan fanwīn ār taww ‘we haven’t anything to be afraid of, everything before us is fine’ M.PES.MA

layš / śī lā ‘you f.s. haven’t done anything wrong’ ~ ‘you f.s. have nothing to fear’7 M.NS

In kinship possession, including friends and possession of livestock, the following NP is morphologically definite, but syntactically indefinite (cf. also 3.1.5; 3.3.3.2). In the case of kinship possession, the NP most often takes a possessive pronoun annex referring to the possessor (cf. Rubin 2010: 276).

š-ūk at-taṯ-k [with-2MS DEF-wife-2MS] ‘you m.s. have a wife’ M.NS

š-ay a-ġayg [with-1S DEF-husband] ‘I have a husband’ M.NS

šī-ham hi-bɛr wa-ḥā-rawn [with-3MPL DEF-camel.FPL CONJ-DEF-goat.FPL] ‘they m. have camels and goats’ M.NS

š-ay / harbāt-ya mēkin [with-1S friend.MPL-1S many] ‘I have lots of friends’ M.NS

In Mehreyyet, the syntactic indefiniteness of the NP can be seen when the NP is expanded through adjectival attribution, where the adjective fails to take the definite article:

šay / arībātī nōb ‘I have an old female friend’ M.NS, cp. arībātī ḥanōb ‘my old female friend’

7 Cp. šayš śī lā ‘you f.s. haven’t got anything’; bayš śī lā ‘you f.s. have nothing wrong with you’;

hayš śī lā ‘you f.s. won’t receive anything’.


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šīs / arībātas ṣalḥayt ‘she has a fat female friend’ M.NS, cp. arībātas aṣalḥayt ‘her fat female friend’

The possessee may fall within an annexion phrase headed by a numeral (cf. 4.1.3.2):

š-īs ībayt a-ġaw-sa [with-3FS seven.M DEF-brother.P-3FS] ‘she has seven brothers’ M.NS

wa-bār š-īs śahlīṯ ḥabant-sa [CONJ-bār with-3FS three.F daughter.DEF.FPL-3FS] ‘and she has three daughters [= female calves]’ M.N.04.15

In yes–no questions, clauses of possession involving bi- or ka- are questioned by final rising intonation alone and, for emphasis, by the adverbial particle śī before, less commonly after, the NP:

šīkam / mōl ‘Do you m.pl. have any livestock?’ Mo.NS

šūk / xadamēt ‘Do you m.s. have work?’ M.PES.MA

šīkam / śī mōl ‘Have you m.pl. any livestock?’ Mo.NS

šīš / śī ḥbūn ‘Have you f.s. any children?’ Mo.NS

šūk / śī ʔībīt āfarūt ‘Do you m.s. have any red f. camel?’ M.NS

šūk / mḥanēt śī ‘Have you m.s. a problem/something on?’ M.NS

Clauses of possession involving bi- or ka- are questioned by a following interrogative hāśan in the case of wh-questions:

bayš / hāśan ‘What is wrong with you f.s.?’ M.NS

līs / hāśan ‘What has she done wrong?’ ~ ‘What is she worried about?’ M.NS

śīkam / hāśan min mōl ‘What type of livestock do you m.pl have?’ M.NS

Possession of time

Clauses expressing the length of time an entity has been in a particular state are usually conveyed by a PP headed by ha-, occasionally by ka-, followed by an indefinite time phrase.

[bār hīn / waḳt] wa-nḥah faxra [lit. to us time and we together] ‘we’ve been together a long time’ M.N.MA

[bār hūk / warx] man hīs nakak [lit. to you m.s. a month since you came] ‘you m.s. have been here a month’ M.PES.MA

bār hīs / śahlīṯ snay ‘it f. has been [away] for three years’ M.N.04.10

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šay / arbā snay ‘I’ve been [here] four years’ M.N.Rabkūt8

Clauses indicating the length of time an entity will be in a particular state are conveyed by a PP headed by š- or la-. Where preceded by the adverbial particle ʕād (ād), the particle commonly takes a 3ms dummy pronoun:

ādh šay / wḳōna warx ‘I have around a month left’ M.PES.MA

ādh lay / ōśar wa-sɛ yōm tā lkōmal awarx wa-gihmīta ‘I’ve got nineteen days before I complete the month and go’ M.PES.MA

Clauses indicating possession of time are questioned by kam. kam normally occurs in initial position, but may also follow the PP:

kam / hayš min aġaygiš [lit. how long to you f.s. from your husband] ‘How long have you f.s. been away from your husband?’ M.NS

kam / ād šayš bawmah [lit. how long still with you f.s. here] ‘How much longer do you f.s. have here?’ M.NS

ādh šūk / kam yōm mśxawwal bīsan bawmah ‘How many more days are you m.s. going to stay here?’ M.PES.MA

Other clauses indicating inalienable possession are expressed with ha-, including:

mahriyōt [hīs / maḳṣā lā] [lit. Mahriyōt to it f.s. end not] ‘Mahriyōt has no end’ Mo.NS

lxaym [hēh / mawsäm] [lit. sharks for it m. season] ‘sharks have their season’ Sima2:48

ha- can also introduce a future possessor or benefactor of an entity, as in:

hōh šī hūk / śī ḳźīyät lǟ ‘I haven’t got anything I can compensate you m.s. with’ Sima73:6

wa-hūk / ār lē hīs lēyak [lit. and for you m.s. a cow like your cow] ‘and you’ll get a cow like your cow’ Mo.N.01.50

šay hayš / śī ġōlī tāgēbī bih [lit. I have for you f.s. something precious you like] ‘I have something precious you f.s. would like’ M.PES.MA

hūk / śī lā ‘you m.s. aren’t going to receive anything’ M.PES

6.3.2.2 Focus on possessor

Where the focus is on a specific, animate possessor, possession clauses are expressed by the structure NP–ḏa-NP. In general, both NPs are definite, whether or not definiteness is explicitly marked.

8 Older female speaker who recently came to Rabkūt from the desert.


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lyōmäh hbǟr ǟr / ḏ-hēh ‘those camels are just his’ Sima18:11

abayt ḏīmah / ḏa-mḥammad ‘this house is Muhammad’s’ M.NS

aśaygaʔ ḏōmah / ḏa-baʔlī hbɛr ‘that cave belongs to camel herders’ M.PES.MA

Since the possessor in ḏa-phrases is usually human, such clauses are questioned by the interrogative pronoun mōn:

ḏ-mōn / ḏēh ‘Whose is this m.?’ Sima11:31

ḏa-mōn / aḥḥōfī ḏīmah ‘Whose camel mare is that which has newly given birth?’ M.NS.Nīsaḥ

abayt ḏīmah / ḏa-mōn ‘Whose house is that?’ M.NS

Possession of a definite inanimate entity with focus on a non-specific or pronominal possessor may be expressed by NPDEF–ka-NP. These clauses are also questioned by (ka-)mōn.

fäźźāt ǟr / k-ḥād män ḥād [lit. silver only with someone from someone] ‘only the odd person had silver’ Sima59:82

w-ʕādäs / k-ḥābū [lit. still it f. with people] ‘people still have it f. [custom]’ Sima12:40

[faḳḥas / šīn] wa-[faḳḥas / šīkam] [lit. half of it f. with us and half of it f. with you m.pl.] ‘we have half and you m.pl. have half’ M.NS

6.3.3 Location clauses

Location clauses describe the location of a particular entity and consist of a NP predicand and a PP or adverbial predicate. The NP is usually assumed to be definite, even where definiteness is not explicitly marked. Location clauses differ from existential clauses in that they present the position of a specific entity rather than the existence of an entity (in a particular location), the NP in location clauses is usually definite, and the intonational focus lies on the PP or adverbial rather than the NP. The unmarked order for location clauses is NP–PP ~ AdvP:

NP–PP

xlōwaḳ / brak šanṭah ‘the clothes are in a/the bag’ Mo.NS

skēr / brak junyat ‘the sugar is in a/the sack’ Mo.NS

hōh / b-adiffatk ‘I am at your m.s. side’ M.N.04.16

hōh / hāl ḥaybī ‘I am with my father’ M.NS

šyūx ḏa-mahrah / hinīn ‘the sheikhs of Mahrah are at our house’ M.NS

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NP–AdvP

hēt / fōna ḥlōk ‘you m.s. were there’ Mo.NS

wa-ḥābū / rēḥaḳ mans ‘and the people were far away from her’ M.N

axxaylī / bawmah ‘my uncle is here’ M.N.MA

[fīgōn / bawmah] [fīgōn / bīyawmah] ‘the cup is here; the cup is right here’ M.PES

[talfizyūn / ḥlawk] [talfizyūn / ḥalīyawk] ‘the television is there; the television is there [nearer]’ M.PES

In both existential clauses and location clauses, the predicate may precede the predicand, with additional intonational focus falling on the fronted predicate:

sinnawrat / ḥlakmah ‘a cat is there’ M.NS

ṣarōmah bark abayt / hōh ‘now I’m at home’ M.NS

6.3.4 Clauses of accompaniment

Clauses of accompaniment identify the location of an animate – usually human – entity in terms of its companion. The accompanied entity is expressed as a definite NP or indefinite pronoun which either precedes or follows a PP headed by ka- (š- before pronoun suffixes).

NPDEF–PP

PP–NPDEF

Where the prepositional annex is a phonologically independent NP, the PP usually comes in second position with focus falling on the prepositional annex. There is, in this case, no structural difference between a clause of accompaniment and a clause of possession with focus on the possessor (6.3.2.2). Where the prepositional annex is a pronoun and the companion a phonologically independent NP, the PP precedes and focus falls on the NP in the unmarked case. Compare the following:

hōh / ka-ˈfaṭmat ‘I am with Fatmat’ M.NS

šay / ˈfaṭmat ‘I have Fatmat with me’ M.NS

Where the NP is an indefinite pronoun, such as aḥād, aḥād usually comes in initial position:

aḥād / šayš ‘Is anyone with you f.s.?’ M.NS

Other examples include:

wa-mġōrän maxṭār hōh / k-baʕl hbǟr ‘then once I was with the camel herders’ Sima30:3

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hǟm / k-ḥārawn ‘they m. are with the goats’ Sima70:27

sēh / k-aḳīyōʔ ‘she is with the spirits’ M.N.04.07

atēṯ / k-aġaygis ‘the woman is with her husband’ M.NS

6.3.5 Comparative clauses

Clauses in which the predicand is compared to the annex of the preposition fit uneasily within the category of location, since no location is implied. However, I include clauses of comparison in this category since they share with location clauses the syntactic structure predicand–PP. The predicand is usually an NP, but may also be the particle śī or a PP headed by man, the following PP expressing comparison is headed by the preposition of comparison hīs:

ʕād śī lā / hīs lyōmah ‘there aren’t any more like those’ Mo.NS

sēh / hīs nṯīfōt ġahrīt lǟ ‘it isn’t like the other [better] bone with bone marrow’ Sima11:24

flān / hīs dukk ‘so-and-so is like a cockerel’9 Mo.NS

sān / hīs ṭīṭīdaysan ‘they f. are like each other’ Mo.NS

hēm / hīs ṭādīdayham ‘they m. are like each other’ M.PES.MA

ḥabraytī / hīs tay ‘my daughter is like me’ M.PES.MA

6.4 Copula

In the unmarked case, the predicand is juxtaposed to an NP or AP predicate in nominal clauses and to a PP or adverbial predicate in locational clauses. As in dialects of Arabic, however, Mehri does have copulas – here yikūn and wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) – where a verb is required by the syntax, where modality is required, or for stylistic reasons. yikūn is restricted to the indicative or the conditional (cf. Rubin 2010: 263), while wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) occurs in the perfect, subjunctive and as a future participle. The copula typically occurs when a nominal or locational clause is the main clause to an adverbial clause (most commonly conditional or time clause), where the predicate is modified by a focussed adverb or adverbial, including ʕād (ād), or within the comment part of a topic–comment clause (cf. 6.9). It may also function as a copula optionally within independent and conjoined main clauses. The future participle of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) typically places a nominal or locational clause in the future, and the perfect of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) places a nominal or locational clause in the past. The subjunctive of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) expresses potential or deontic modality (cf. 2.8.5) and also occurs in nominal or locational clauses after adjunctions such as lajrē ḏa- (lagrē ḏa-) ‘in order that’ that require a following subjunctive verb (cf. 9.2). The

9 Euphemism: i.e. in his sexual behaviour.

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conditional of yikūn expresses optative modality. In the following examples, the copula is placed in square brackets.

6.4.1 Main clause to adverbial clause

baʕź mäns wat sēh ṣalḥayt / [tkūn] jitt ‘some of them [= it f.] when they are fat are good’ Sima2:6, cp. mäns jitt ‘some of them are good’

wat sǟʕat tnōkaʕ ʕayd, / [ykūn] bärkīs lxaym ‘sometimes sardines come, and there are sharks amongst them’ Sima2:52, cp. bärkīs lxaym ‘sharks are amongst them’

hīn ṭād yxōm yaġtīr bīs mǟkän, [yḳāʕ] ṭwīlät ʕaynät ‘if one wants to talk about it f. a lot, [it] can be a bit long’ Sima26:1, cp. sēh ṭwīlät ʕaynät ‘it f. is a bit long’

aḏanūb hām bih śiff mēkan wa-ṭwayl ha-xōṭar / [tkūn] ḥaybīt arḥaymat ‘the tail, if it m. has lots of hair and hangs down long, the camel will be beautiful’ M.N.Šlaym01.15, cp. ḥaybīt arḥaymat ‘the camel is beautiful’

aḥḥazmayyat hām aḏanōbas bih śiff lā / [ykūn] ḏōmah ʔayb ‘the ḥazmayyat camel, if its f. tail doesn’t have [much] hair, that m. is a fault’ M.N.Šlaym01.15, cp. ḏōmah ʔayb ‘that is a fault’

6.4.2 Following a focussed adverbial or topic

After an adverbial, including ʕād (ād), or following the topic of a topic–comment clause, a nominal or locational clause is frequently introduced by a copula:

sōbär [ykūn] bärkēh ǟr ḳayźar ‘there was always a leopard in it m. [i.e. the cave]’ Sima41:8

hīn bǟr zīdōt bēh mälḥōt, / l-ʕād [ykūn] bēh ṭʕām lǟ ‘when there is too much salt in it m., it m. will no longer have any taste’ Sima16:39

hām ār ṭrayr anxarīr / l-ād [tkūn] arḥaymat lā ḥaybīt ‘if the nose is narrow, the camel won’t be beautiful’ M.N.Šlaym01.14

dmäšḳāt ḏīk [...] / xuhs [ykūn] ḳannūn ‘that dmäšḳāt [fish] [...], its f. mouth is small’ Sima2:40

kōwi ḏäkmäh / [ykūn] bēh xīṭayt ‘that buoy has a string on it’ Sima6:28

6.4.3 Within a main clause

Within a main nominal or locational clause, the predicate may be optionally linked to the predicand through a copula:

brūṣi [ykūn] män ḥdīd, wa-ḥanjīr [ykūn] män ṣōwar ‘the anchor is [made] of iron and the weight of stone’ Sima6:9

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xann [ykūn] ār ġāzir ‘the hold is deep’ Mo.N.02.16

w-aḥḥagg [yikūn] bi-snēt ār ṭawr ‘the hajj is only once a year’ M.N.Rabkūt03.05

Where the predicand is lacking in a second conjunct, yikūn functions as a copula:

bāś min ḥārawn bīsan ḳrūn lā / [tkūn] ḳarwaḥtan ‘some goats don’t have horns and are [described as] ḳarwaḥtan’10 M.N.Rabkūt04.06

6.4.4 Future and past time

Reference to future or past time in nominal and locational clauses is realised periphrastically through the wider context or a time adverbial (cf. 2.5.1.5), or through the future participle or perfect aspect of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) respectively, as below:

hōh [wḳōna] ka-hbɛr ‘I [m] will be with the camels’ M.NS

bi-saʕūdīyah [wḳayta] axayr ‘[you] f.s. will be better in Saudi’ M.NS

w-lū amnādam yiwōdaʔ la-hān [wḳōna] lih ‘and if man knew what was going to happen to him’ M.R

bār [wīḳa] ḥlakmah mūsē ‘there had been rain there’ M.N.Rabkūt02.14

6.4.5 Modality

In nominal and locational clauses, potential or deontic modality can be expressed by the indicative of yikūn, by a modal particle (2.8.5) and/or by the subjunctive of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa):

w-hēt [ykūn] hänwak šīsän ‘and you m.s., your mind should be on them f.’ Sima14:17

fīn śaxṭ aw [yḳāʕ] śaxṭ bǟr nūkaʕ ṭawr ḏäkmäh ḳǟd w-hōh aġarbäh lǟ ‘before matches, or matches may have already been around at that time, but I didn’t know’11 Sima10:25

aġōrab [yiḳā] mdayd w-aṭwāl man aśāhar ‘the part in front of the hump should be long and higher than the back’ M.N.Šlaym01.04

When a nominal or locational clause follows a modal particle that requires a subjunctive verb, wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) in the subjunctive precedes or follows the predicand:

aḥḥazmayyat sēh AlāzimA aḏanūb [yiḳāʔ] ṭwayl [wa-yiḳāʔ] bih śiff wa-śōx ‘[that’s for] the ḥazmayyat camel – the tail has to be long and have lots of hair’ M.N.Šlaym01.15

10 Lit. female donkeys. 11 Translation corrected from Sima (2009).

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Optative modality in locational clauses is expressed in Mehreyyet by the conditional of yikūn or kīwar ‘to like’ (cf. 2.5.1.3.2.3):

[akīnan ~ akīran] barī bi-maskūt ‘I wish I were in Muscat’ M.NS

yھ�� ¼l¤ ي �~ك~� o��|ا [akīnan] barī bark AṯalgA hnīkam ‘I wish I was with you m.pl in the snow’ M.txt

6.5 bār as modifier of the predicand

In nominal and locational clauses, bār may modify a pronominal or prepositional predicand, usually emphasising the actuality of the situation (cf. also Rubin 2010: 248–251).

Pronominal predicand

bäry / ṭawr ḏäkmäh ḏ-ädōräs xtīmǟt ‘at that time, I was learning Qur’anic recitation’ Sima33:3

barh / bawmah ‘he is already here’ M.NS

barī / bi-maskūt ‘I’m already in Muscat’ M.NS

barn / kalānī ḥlakmah ‘we were there by the evening’ M.N.MA

Prepositional predicand

bǟr hīni / sǟʕat män śḥayr ‘it is some time since I was in the mountains’ Sima17:5

bār haynī / warx man hīs nakak ‘it is a month since I came’ M.NS

śxawalūl tā [bār hēh / ašrīn snay] ‘he stayed until he’d been there twenty years’ M.N

In positive topic–comment clauses, the anaphoric pronoun or PP predicand may be introduced by bār:

lyōmäh / bärhäm ṯrōh maġrōb axah ‘these two m. were well known, that’s to say’ Sima33:12

mġōrän ḏōmäh dǟḥal ḥābū / bärhäm maġrōb ‘then this beehive, people are known [for being able to find it]’ Sima54:3

ḏīmäh ḳaṣṣāt / bǟr hīs mäyd ‘this story is from a long time ago’ Sima40:6

After an adjunction, a pronominal or prepositional predicand frequently takes bār, not as a place holder as claimed by Rubin (2010: 249ff, 295), but to emphasise completion of an event or actuality of a state:

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hǟs / bärhäm ruddäm l-hǟl ḥmūh ‘when they m. had returned to the water’ Sima8:8

wat / bärhäm hīs taww, yḳalbäm aṯ-ṯīräh ḥīrēz ‘when they m. are properly [cooked], they m. pour the rice over it m.’ Sima13:21

mat / barsan hīs fnōhan ‘when they f. are as [they were] before’ M.N.04.16

wat / bars amdaharēt aḏ-ṯabatūt ‘when the fire has taken hold’ M.N

hōh ḏ-ahtōyan tālū / barī ʔāgawz ‘I’m joking, even though I am old’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Where steady or permanent state relationships are described between the predicand and the predicate of an adverbial clause, an independent pronoun predicand follows the adverbial adjunction. In the first two examples, the camels concerned have always been the daughter of their mother; the second two examples similarly describe permanent or steady characteristics of the predicand:

hǟn / sēh bärt Rōhäm ‘if she is a daughter of Rōham’ Sima47:8

w-hīn / sēh bärt Sḥāmäh ‘and if she is a daughter of Sḥāmah’ Sima47:40

wut / hēh xarfī ‘when it m. is monsoonal’ Sima47:86

wut / hēh män maʕrīb ‘when it m. [the wind] is from the west’ Sima64:5

6.6 Incomplete predication

Nominal and locational clauses can lack either an explicit predicate or an explicit predicand in certain contexts and text types.

6.6.1 Ellipsis of the predicate

Ellipsis of the predicate occurs in non-initial greetings, such as wa-hēt ‘and you s.’ in the following exchange:

hībōh ḏ-ūbadš ‘How are you f.s.?’

bi-xayr [wa-hēt] ‘Well, and you s.?’ M.NS

It also occurs in yes–no questions where the questioned element is understood or retrievable from a previous statement:

barš ‘Are you f.s. [ready]?’ M.NS

bark abayt [aw ādš] ‘[Are you f.s.] in the house or are you not yet?’ M.NS

6.6.2 Predicand-less predication

Predicand-less predication is common in certain weather-related terms, and mandatory in certain exclamations involving temperature adjectives and metaphors derived from temperature adjectives.

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šaḥḥ ‘[It’s] very hot!’ Mo.NS

śābal ‘[It’s] very cold!’ Mo.NS

ktīw ‘[It’s] dark!’ M.NS

śīwōṭ [lit. fire] ‘[It’s] very hot/expensive!’

ḳāṣam wīyan ‘[It’s] very cold!’ M.PES.MA

hōb wīyan ‘[It’s] very warm!’ M.PES.MA

Imperative and cohortative particles typically lack a predicand:

ndōh ‘Give!’

bassī [lit. my enough] ‘Enough [for me]!’

ġdūh ‘Let’s go!’

Questions and answers to questions often lack a second person pronominal predicand. Lack of a predicand is more common in certain questions than in others: in exchanges asking about someone’s location the predicand is usually omitted, while in asking about someone’s health the predicand is usually present, but may be omitted:

man ḥō [lit. from where] ‘Where are you?’ M

man abayt [lit. from the house] ‘[I’m] at the house’ M

hāl ḥadidya [lit. with my uncles] ‘[I’m] with my uncles’ M

hībōh ‘How [are you]?’ M

bart kam snay ḏik awaḳtan [lit. girl of how many years at that time] ‘How old [were you f.s.] at that time?’ M.NS.Nīsaḥ

In response to questions about health, the predicate usually stands alone:

bi-xayr ‘well’

maḥmīd arḥamōn [bi-xayr] ‘Thanks be to God, [I’m] well!’ M

Other nominal clauses may lack a predicand where the referent can be inferred, or where it has been previously mentioned:

[rēḥaḳ] wa-hēm ykībah ḳrayb ‘[it’s] far, and they m. thought it m. was close’ M.PES.MA

barsan min imših [ḳīwātan] ‘they f. are from yesterday [they f. are] hard’ M.NS

ḥaybīt ḏīmah al-sēh ṭwaylat wa-l-sēh ḳṣayrat [āmḳiyēt] ‘this camel is neither tall nor short, [she’s] in between’ M.PES.MA

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lūk lawm lā hām aftaxark [śabb wa-rḥaym] ‘you m.s. can’t be blamed if you are proud, [you’re] young and good-looking’ M.PES.MA

axayr (ha-) ‘it is better for/one should’ and xass (ha-) often occur as independent predicates, where the subject clause (cf. 6.8) can be inferred from the extra-linguistic context:

axayr hayš ‘[it’s] better for you f.s.’ ~ ‘you f.s. should’, xass hūk ‘[it’s] bad for you m.s.’ ~ ‘you m.s. shouldn’t’

6.7 Verbal clauses

A verbal clause has a VP predicate which may occur without an explicit predicand, since Mehri is a pro-drop language, or in initial or second position in relation to the predicand. Thus verbal clauses take one of the following structures:

VP

Predicand–VP

VP–predicand

Examples of verbal clauses lacking an explicit predicand include:

xdōm mġār ‘he worked frankincense’ Sima8:18

yāgōb b-amdīt w-anśxayt ḏ-axxarf ‘he likes the southern wind and the gentle rain of the monsoon period’ M.NS

ḏa-śatūḳak līkam ‘I miss you m.pl.’ M.NS

In this section, I begin by considering agreement within verbal clauses. I then consider predicand-less predication, and in section 6.7.3 examine word order within verbal clauses.

6.7.1 Agreement within verbal clauses

The VP predicate may be realised by a fully inflected verb or a future participle. The verb agrees in shared morphological categories with the predicand or, in the case of predicand-less predication, the real-world referent. Thus a fully inflected verb agrees in person, number and gender with the referent or predicand, and a future participle, which lacks the person category, agrees in number and gender with the referent or predicand. In agreement with a first person or dual pronoun, the future participle will agree in gender with the real-world referent. Examples include:

Fully inflected verb

wa-ttēṯ ḏikmäh / täśxūlūl aṯ-ṯīräs ‘and that woman sits over it f.’ Sima21:4

tā: ḥaybī / wīṣal ʕayn šxabūr ‘when my father reached al-Ayn, he asked’ M.N.01.16

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āmawr / ḥābū ‘the people said’ M.N.01.16

sēn / tašxalyan min aġyīgīsan ‘they f. seek divorce from their husbands’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Future participle

ḥābū / kaṯyēra ‘people will multiply’ M.NS

hōh / mṣalyēta ‘I f. will pray’ M.NS

Where the predicand is a coordinate complex, the verb in a following VP mandatorily agrees with the predicand in person, gender and number, though the verb may show plural rather than dual number after a dual predicand, as in the second example below (cf. also 7.2.1.1).

Agreement with preceding coordinate predicand

hōh wa-hēh syar-kī [1S CONJ-3MS go.PRF-1/2DUAL] ‘me and him went’ M.NS

hōh wa-hēt syūr-an [1S CONJ-2S go.PRF-1PL] ‘me and you s. went ’ M.NS

hōh w-a-ġayt-ī gihm-awtī [1S CONJ-DEF-sister-1S go.FUT-FDUAL] ‘me and my sister will go’ M.NS.Rabkūt

The verb in a preceding VP, by contrast, may fail to agree in plural or dual number with the coordinate complex predicand, as in:

syur-k hōh w-ṭād rībāʕ-i [go.PRF-1S 1S CONJ-one.M friend-1S] ‘I went with one of my friends’ Sima90:38

اظ��mذردود ھ�ه و�� os ظvر ḏ-ardūd / hōh wa-sʕīd man ḏār aśyaft ‘I am coming back with Saeed after the wedding’ M.txt

Compare the following, where the verb agrees in dual number value with the following coordinate complex predicand:

ruddä-ki hōh w-Sǟmi [return.PRF-1/2DUAL 1S CONJ-Sami] ‘me and Sami returned’ Sima90:12

sīr-ōh ḥayb-ī wa-ḥā-gūr [go-PRF-3MDUAL father.MS-1S CONJ-DEF-slave.MS] ‘my father and the slave went’ M.N.01.10

As for nominal and locational clauses, the predicand of a verbal clause may be a PP headed by man. In this case, the verb agrees in person, number and gender with the prepositional annex, as shown in the examples below, the first of which is morphemically glossed:

man-h y-tī [of-3MS 3MS-eat.IND] ‘some of them [= it m.] eat’ Mo.NS

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[mänhǟm / yaʕmīläm hitt] w-[mänhǟm / yaʕmīläm hōbaʕ] ‘some of them m. make [it] six and some make [it] seven’ Sima6:28

mänhǟm / yḳalbäm bärkīs ṣayd ‘and some of them m. put fish in it f.’ Sima7:15

mänhǟm / yaʕmilmäs l-ṣabbōr ‘and some of them m. make it f. with tamarind fruit’ Sima7:15

abaʕyōr [manhēm / yarafdan lā] tawlū śīyēx ‘some male camels don’t stand up for themselves, even when [they m. are] fully grown’ M.PES.MA

The elative form ḏa-xyūr ‘the best’ may function as a predicand in Mehreyyet. No examples of the Mahriyōt form ḏa-xxiyōr as predicand were attested in the Mahriyōt texts, though this may be an accidental gap in the data. The predicate takes singular number in this case to agree with the real-world referent, and not plural to agree with the pronoun annex:

ḏa-xyūrham / yafhūm fīsēʔ ‘the best of them m. understands quickly’ M.NS

ḏa-xyūrsan / ḏa-tnōka fīsēʔ ‘the best of them f.12 is coming in quickly’ M.PES.MA

ḏa-xyūrsan / haḏḳat tafhūm fīsēʔ ‘the best of them f. is clever; she understands quickly’ M.PES.MA

Agreement in case of dual predicand

Dual is the most marked number in both dialects, and agreement with dual predicands is particularly unstable. In the case of a dual explicit or implicit predicand, the verb may inflect for either dual or plural number. Dual agreement is often restricted to contexts where the duality is crucial to the context, or where the predicand is a dual pronoun or the dual form of kall. As examples below show, however, even in the case of a dual pronominal predicand, the verb may inflect for plural number.

Full agreement

bärhi / ḏi-yräddōh män Ġayźat ‘they m.DUAL were returning from al-Ghaydhah’ Sima39:5

kläyki, / syärki ‘you both go’ Sima48:28

Ḥmǟdōh w-ʕAskäri / ntōḥōh ‘Ḥmǟdōh and Askari are fighting e.o.!’ Sima33:36

12 E.g. camel in a race.

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w-wiḳʕaki härbāʕat / hōh wa-Ḥmǟdōh ‘we DUAL became friends, me and Ḥmǟdōh’ Sima33:66

hōh wa-hēt / aḥamōh lšūgabah ‘me and you s. want to confess’ M.ES

ṯrayt / twukbōh ‘two f. will come in f.DUAL’ M.PES.MA

aġaggawtī / haśkartōh ‘the girls DUAL got lots of milk [through milking]’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Partial agreement

Agreement in gender but not in number with a dual predicand is most common where the predicand is an explicit NP and duality is not crucial, but also occurs where the predicand is a dual pronoun, as in the first two examples below. In Mehreyyet, which has a feminine dual verbal inflection, the verb takes feminine plural far more commonly than feminine dual to agree with a feminine dual predicand:

akay / faśyūtan min amṭām ‘we DUAL will have lunch f.pl. from the restaurant’ M.NS

hay / yiśtabham ‘they DUAL resemble e.o. m.pl.’ M.PES.MA

tēṯī ṯrayt / tḥōman tšawgaban ‘two women want to confess f.pl.’ M.ES

ṯrayt / twukban ‘two f. will come in f.pl.’ M.PES.MA

In a clause containing two or more verbs, in complex clauses, or where clauses are coordinated, the first verb may inflect for dual number and the following verbs for plural number, as in the following extracts from texts (relevant verbs are placed between square brackets):

ṣarōmah hōh w-aġaytī [gihmawtī] la-hāl ḥaskōn wa-[nḥōm] [naśnēham] atā m-bād swānōt [nardūd] ‘Now me and my sister will go f.DUAL to the families. We want PLURAL to see PLURAL them m., and then after a little while we’ll return PLURAL.’ M.NS.Rabkūt

hīs anhūran [haḳṣamōh] nhūran ḥarḳ wa-l-[īḳadram] lā [yisēram] ‘Around midday, they rested m.DUAL from the heat. At midday, it was very hot and they couldn’t m.PLURAL move on m.PLURAL.’ M.N.01.10

[haḳbākī] l-ḥaḳ [tabakī] b-śafs swānōt l-ād [kūsan] śaff lā [kūsan] ṣarāf ḥlakmah ‘We went DUAL upstream following DUAL her track. After a little while, we didn’t find PLURAL any tracks. We found PLURAL large slabs of rock there.’ M.N.Rabkūt02.10

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Agreement with real-world referent

baʕś (bāś), invariably, and kall ḥād, frequently, take plural agreement in the verb when the real-world referent is plural. Co-referentiality is indicated in the morphemic gloss in the following examples:

baʕź y-ʕamr-äm hī-s raʕbūt [somei 3M-call.IND-PLi ha-3FS raʕbūt] ‘some m. call it f. raʕbūt’ Sima1:3

w-baʕź yä-mṣīṣ-am mäḳbäṣ [and-somei 3M-suck.IND-PLi bite] ‘and some suck the bite’ Sima1:32

y-baʕr-äm käll ḥād mkōn [3M-go.night.IND-PLi every INDFPRONi DEF-place] ‘everyone goes to [their own] place at night’ Sima85:39

Where baʕś (bāś) takes a nominal annex, the verb agrees in number and gender with the annex, as for nominal and locational clauses:

baʕź ḥābū kīnaḥ y-härḳ-am mōl ḏ-ḥābū ġahrūtän [some person.MPLi also 3M-steal.IND-MPLi livestock ḏa-person.MPL other.PL] ‘some people also steal other people’s livestock’ Sima12:6

When kall ḥād or baʕś (bāś) take plural verbal agreement, an anaphoric pronoun later in the clause may exhibit singular number agreement:

ridd-am kall aḥād a-mkōn-ah [return.PRF-3MPLi every INDFPRONi DEF-place-3MSi] ‘everyone went back to their m. place’ M.NS

nak-am kall aḥād b-a-ġdayl-ah [come.PRF-3MPLi every INDFPRONi bi-DEF-bundle-3MSi] ‘everyone came with their m. bundle’ M.NS

Where kall ḥād refers to individuals with individual actions or feelings rather than to a group with group actions or feelings, the verb and anaphoric pronoun take singular number:

w-käll ḥād / yaʕzūz ǟr ba-ġyūjiyäh ‘and everyone receives honour only through his men’ Sima40:32

kall aḥād / yišaʔsūr hān hēh ḏa-hēh ‘everyone likes whatever he has that is his’ M.NS

wa-kall aḥād manīn / ḳfūd man wōram ‘and everyone of us went down a track’ M.N

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6.7.2 Predicand-less verbal clauses

As a pro-drop language, verbal clauses in Mehri frequently lack an explicit predicand. In the case of a fully inflected verb, the referent can usually be interpreted independently from the wider linguistic or real-world context, as we saw at the beginning of 6.7. However, where a predicand-less verbal clause is headed by a future participle, which exhibits number and gender categories only, the referent can be recovered only from the real-world context or the wider linguistic context:

farḥayta bīkam wīyan [lit. will be happy f.s. with you m.pl. very] ‘I’m/you f.s. are/she is really looking forward to [seeing] you m.pl.’ M.NS

maġtabarī mġōran abū ḏabī [lit. will meet m.DUAL later Abu Dhabi] ‘we/you/they m.DUAL will meet later in Abu Dhabi’ M.PES.MA

wa-maśxawalūtan ḥlakmah bark ayśar yōm [lit. and will stay pl. there around ten days] ‘and we/you pl./they will stay there around ten days’ M.PES.MA

wa-ḳawbītīsan13 hīs fnōhan [lit. and will turn f.s. them f. like before] ‘I f.s. will turn them f. back as [they were] before’ M.N.04.16

oو�~��Äs maġtabarūtan [lit. will meet pl.] ‘we/you pl./they will meet’ M.txt

6.7.3 Word order

Where a verbal clause has an explicit predicand, the VP may precede or follow the predicand, and a predicand that follows the verb may precede or follow a phonologically independent object. A number of factors govern word order in Mehri. All else being equal, the element with the greatest prosodic weight or the greatest communicative focus comes at the end of the clause: thus heavy NP predicands are likely to be post-posed due to their prosodic weight, and indefinite NP predicands are more likely to be post-posed due to their communicative focus. An element may, however, be preposed to attract focus. Discourse-type and morpholexical factors are also crucial in affecting word order, as corpus-based quantitative methods have shown both for dialects of Arabic (Dahlgren 1998; Owens & Dodsworth 2009a) and for Arabic and Aramaic (Owens & Dodsworth 2009b). Thus word order in Mehri is not freely variable,14 but subject to a complex set of morpholexical and discourse constraints.

6.7.3.1 SVO word order

SVO word order is more common than VSO or VOS in certain discourse types and where the predicand exhibits particular morpholexical features. At the beginning of narratives, the theme of the narrative and hence the predicand invariably occupies

13 < *ḳawbīta tīsan. 14 According to Simeone-Senelle (1997: 411), verbal clauses can have either VSO or SVO word

order, but where the subject is an independent pronoun the order is SVO.

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initial position or immediately follows an adverbial. SVO is almost invariable when the predicand is a quantifier or a pronoun, including nominals with pronominal reference, such as ḥābū ‘people’, ḥād ~ aḥād ‘one’, ṭād ‘one’ and bnādam (mnādam) ‘person’. In invocations of God, the name of God invariably precedes the verb.

6.7.3.1.1 Narrative-initial

The theme of a narrative is almost invariably introduced through (Adverbial)SVO word order. The NP referring to the theme is, with few exceptions, indefinite, providing a text-type-dependent counterexample to the expected VSO word order where the predicand is indefinite (cf. 6.7.3.2.2). Once the theme has been established, word order within the narrative is predominantly VSO (6.7.3.2.1):

maxṭār Bǟ Xuwǟs / syōr, syōr, syōr, syōr ‘once Bā Nuwās went and went and went’ Sima38:2

xaṭarāt ġayg / yiḥōm yisēr ḥagg ‘once a man wanted to go on the hajj’ M.NS

xaṭarāt ġayg wa-tēṯ / hūrīd abḳārīham ‘once a man and a woman took their m. cows to water’ M.N.Rabkūt

ġayg / yahthūm taṯh bi-sēḥar ‘a man accused his wife of witchcraft’ M.N

6.7.3.1.2 Substantive predicand

As topics of utterances, non-heavy NPs headed by substantives usually occur in initial position, either in a single independent clause or within a larger utterance:

ʕayd / tkūn jitt ‘sardines are good’ Sima2:5

ʕayd ḏikmäh / at-taxšūš ‘that type of sardine goes off’ Sima2:6

w-mǟkan ġōfǟr / ytī ‘but [the fish type known as] ġōfar eats [people]’ Sima2:38

aġayg / syūr ṣarōmah ftūk m-bawmah ‘the man has gone; he has just left here’ M.PES.MA AamināraA / xtafyēt ‘the minaret has disappeared’ M.NS

hibɛr / tiśaklan lā ‘camels don’t have twins’ M.NS

The predicand to a sequence of coordinated verbs typically occupies clause-initial position, since the coordinated verbs carry more prosodic weight:

aġyūg / ḥlawb wa-ḥṭawb wa-śrawf w-āḏawb b-aśxōf ‘the men milked and fetched wood and made the mśarfēt-fire and put red-hot stones in the milk’ M.NS

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6.7.3.1.3 Quantifiers, pronouns and demonstratives

Quantifier, independent personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun and indefinite pronoun predicands almost invariably precede the verb.

Quantifiers

[baʕź / yʕamräm hīs raʕbūt], w-[baʕź / yʕamräm hīs ʕarräyt] ‘some call it f. raʕbūt and some call it f. ʕarrayt’ Sima1:3

baʕź ḥābū / yaʕtaḳīdam b-šaʕwaḏah w-baʕź lā ‘some believe in magic and some don’t’ Sima1:42

w-ḥābū käll / ynäkʕam män bōh wa-m-bōh ‘everyone comes together from here and there’ Sima35:14

källähäm / yaġdīläm ʕayd ‘all of them m. bring sardines [on land]’ Sima51:12

wa-hbɛr bāś / tkūnan AṣufrA ‘some camels are yellow’15 M.N.Rabkū t

Personal pronouns

Independent personal pronoun predicands precede the verb, by virtue of both being pronouns and through their function as topics within topic–comment clauses (cf. 6.9.3):

wat hōh / ḳiṭʕak yaxläfy ‘when I get tired, he takes over from me’ Sima1:39

wa-nḥah būmäh / nḳōdar līs lǟ ‘and we here aren’t able to [catch] it f.’ Sima2:61

sēn / tintawḥan ‘they f. are fighting’ M.NS

Demonstratives

Demonstrative predicands typically occur in clause-initial position:

wa-lyēk / yhardīdam lēh ‘and they m. repeat after him’ Sima1:22

lǟkan lyōmäh / ynäfʕam män śī lǟ ‘but those m. are of no benefit’ Sima2:59

w-ḏäkm / ytī lǟ ‘that m. one doesn’t bite’ Sima2:44

ḏakmah / yikhōl bi-śī lā ‘that m. one can’t do anything’ M.PES.MA

Indefinite pronouns

The cardinal ṭād ‘one m.’, ṭīt (ṭayt) ‘one f.’, and bnādam (mnādam) ‘someone’ occupy clause-initial position in all clause types. ḥābū ‘people’ as a noun of general reference frequently occupies clause-initial position:

15 Generally whitish hairs with black tips, like a Siamese cat (cf. Eades & Watson, in press a).

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hīn ṭād / HyxōmH yaġtīr bīs mǟkän ‘when someone wants to talk about it f. a lot’ Sima26:1

wut bnǟdäm / ḳībǟṣ ‘when someone is bitten’ Sima1:32

l-ʕād ḥād / ḏi-yaḥḥams ‘no one wants it f. anymore’ Sima1:31

lǟkan näṣrōmah ḥābū / bǟr afsǟḥam bä-lyōmäh ‘but now people have given up with those [sorts of things]’ Sima1:40 AzamānA ḥābū / yikāṯam bīs ‘people used to tell it f. a long time ago’ M.N.Rabkūt01.01

[wat amnādam / ḳbēṣ] yirayb lih ‘when someone is bitten, they m. perform rābūt on him’ M.PES.MA

Invocations of God involve SVO word order:

baʕli / haxräj ʕaynäs ‘May God take out its f. eye!’ Sima2:62

abɛlī / ysɛdiš ‘May God help you f.s.!’ M.NS

abɛlī / ywafḳak xayr ‘May God grant you m.s. success!’ M.NS

abɛlī / yishēl ḥarmak16 ‘May God make your m.s. road easy!’ M.NS

abɛlī / yihōrak mnay ‘May God keep you m.s. from me!’ M.NS

abɛlī / yiślāk ‘May God take you m.s.!’ M.NS

Responses to invocations of God, such as abɛlī yisāmak ~ yisāmiš, take SV word order with an independent pronoun predicand:17

wa-hēt / (ta)slēm(ī) ‘and you f.s. be blessed’ M.NS

wa-hēt / (ta)slōm ‘and you m.s. be blessed’ M

In coordinated clauses which differ only in the identity of the verb in the second conjunct, word order is almost invariably SV(O) since the communicative focus lies on the contrasting verbs:

[ḳōm / yinōka] wa-[ḳōm / yisyūr] ‘one set of people would come and one would go’ M.N.MA

[ṭād / wkūb] wa-[ṭād / ftūk] ‘one m. came in and one m. went out’ M.NS

16 Said before undertaking a journey or challenging work. 17 As seen above, the verb can be omitted: wa-hēt ‘and you s.’ M

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6.7.3.2 VS(O) and VOS word order

VS(O)/VOS order is predominant in narratives once the theme has been established, in cases where a predicand is repeated from an earlier clause, within yes–no questions, in certain greetings, and where the verb is repeated in strings of coordinated clauses and thus the communicative focus falls on the contrasting subjects. A non-pronominal indefinite predicand follows the verb, for communicative focus to fall on the unknown element; and heavy NPs or coordinate complex predicands almost invariably follow the verb due to their relative prosodic weight.

Where the verb in verb-initial clauses takes a verbal complement or an object that is prosodically lighter than the predicand, the predicand almost invariably falls in final position. Thus where an object pronoun is suffixed to the accusative affix, ta-, the ta-phrase lies closest to the verb, as in the following examples:

nak-am t-īn śīfōn [come.PRF-3MPL ACC-1PL guest.MPL] ‘guests came to us’ M.NS

laḳf-am ta-h a-ġyūg [catch.PRF-3MPL ACC-3MS DEF-man.MPL] ‘the men caught him’ M.NS

Similarly a complementary or adverbial PP with a pronoun annex typically lies between the verb and predicand, as in the following examples:

y-kūn bark-īs lxaym [3MS-be.IMPF in-3FS shark.MS] ‘there will be sharks among them’ Sima2:6

fizz-ūt l-īn ḥyūm [set.PRF-3FS to-1PL sun.FS.DEF] ‘the sun set on us’ M.N.MA

wḳ-ōna manway-kī tilifūn [be.FUT-MS between-1DU telephone.MS] ‘we will be in touch’ M.txt

ʔāmōr h-eh śέreʔ [say.PRF.3MS to-3MS judge.MS.DEF] ‘the judge said to him’ Stroomer19:4

ʔaymal ḏayr-ah śabkēt [put.PRF.3MS over-3MS net.FS] ‘he put a net over himself’ M.N.Rabkūt

6.7.3.2.1 VS(O)/VOS within narratives

We saw above that the unmarked order for narrative-initial clauses is SVO. Once the theme has been established, however, VSO/VOS word order is significantly more frequent than SVO. In the Mehreyyet Rabkūt text (M.N.Rabkūt01), for example, there are 27 instances of verbal clauses of which 17 have VS and 9 SV word order. VSO/VOS order can either place focus on the predicand or object, or conversely emphasise the sequentiality of events or states of affairs placing main sentence stress on the initial verb, and detracting from a following definite NP. Sentence stress on the verb in wa-ˈmōt / darhīs ‘then the kid died’ in the Mahriyōt Bā Nuwās text

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(Mo.N.01.35), for example, contrasts with stress on the indefinite subject in ankʕōt / ˈḥōz ‘a goat came’ (Mo.N.01.29) in the same text:

Further examples of VSO/VOS word order within narratives include:

wa-hātīm / aġyūj ḏār ramsēt w-amġafalēt ‘the men spent the night sitting around talking and chatting’ M.N.MA

tabaḥ / ḥaybī ‘my father went after him’ M.N.01.17

wzawmah AgawāzA / ḥābū ‘the people gave him a passport’ M.N.03.27

sīrūt […] tġōlaḳ hīham / ṯabarayn ‘the hyena went to look [for something] for them m.’ M.N.Rabkū t01.02

A common feature of narratives in Mehri is the repetition of a verb across two or more coordinated clauses. In this case, the predicand, which is usually definite, is the only element that varies. It carries communicative focus and attracts sentence stress. Examples include:

[amūr / šēx] [amūr / ḥaybī] ‘the sheikh said, my father said’ M.NS

[klūṯ / aġayg] wa-[kūṯūt / tēṯ] ‘the man said and [then] the woman said’ M.PES.MA

6.7.3.2.2 Indefinite predicand

Non-pronominal simplex and modified indefinite predicands in all text types generally follow the VP, since by virtue of being indefinite they bear the communicative focus of the clause:

wat sāʕat tnōkaʕ / ʕayd ‘sometimes sardines come’ Sima2:6

nukʕōt / ḥaybīt ‘a camel came’ Mo.N.01.46

wḳōt / śīwōṭ bark ʔamḳ ḏa-sēkin ‘a fire broke out in the middle of the homestead’ M.NS

abanšar / aṭāyir ṭād ‘a tyre burst’ M.N.MA

yibagdam tah / itīt ġyūg ‘six men chased him’ M.N.01.26

6.7.3.2.3 Coordinate complex predicands

Just as a string of coordinated verbs follows the predicand due to its relative prosodic weight, so a predicand that comprises a string of coordinate complexes follows the VP:

yarʕaybam / ġyūj wa-ḥḥaynāṯ w-lī ār ġyūj ‘Do men and women or just men carry out raʕbūt?’ Sima1:46

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nakam tīn / aḥād man śḥayr w-aḥād man abadyat w-aḥād man arhabēt ‘some came to us from the mountains, some from the desert and some from the town’ M.N.MA

Simple coordinate complex predicands frequently follow the VP, but they may also precede the VP, as in the first example below, since they bear less prosodic weight than strings of coordinate complexes:

hōh wa-hēt / sīrawtī ‘me and you f.s. will go’ M.PES

sīrawtī / hōh wa-hēt ‘me and you f.s. will go’ M.PES

sīrawtī / akay wa-hēt ‘we f.DUAL will go with you s.’ M.PES

ذ��ر ھ�ه وار��vي ḏ-asyūr / hōh w-arībāy ‘I’m going with my friend’ M.txt

In the case of a conflict between communicative focus and prosodic weight, weight usually outweighs focus. Indefinite pronoun predicands generally occur in SVO clauses; however, a coordinate complex of two indefinite pronouns is more likely to follow than to precede the verb due to the extra prosodic weight of the coordinate complex:

b-ḥāwēl wat bǟr sḥāṭam / ḥābū w-lī bnǟdäm ‘at first when people or a person has slaughtered’ Sima12:9

6.7.3.3 Word order in adverbial clauses

In contrast to modern dialects of Arabic, adverbial adjunctions have no effect on the relative order of verb and predicand, and the verb may either come immediately after the adverbial adjunction or follow the predicand. Where the predicand is the name of God, an independent personal pronoun or a noun of general reference, word order is SV(O) in an adverbial clause as it is a main clause. Compare the following main clauses with their adverbial clause counterparts:

abɛlī / ysɛdiš ‘God help you f.s.!’ M.NS

hām abɛlī / yḥōm ‘If God wishes!’ M.NS

hōh / ḳiṭʕak ‘I am tired’ Mo.NS

wat hōh / ḳiṭʕak ‘when I get tired’ Mo.NS

tēṯ / barwūt ‘the woman gave birth’ M.NS

hām tēṯ / bərwūt ‘if the woman gives birth’ Stroomer7:18

Consider the following additional contextual examples of SV(O) word order after adjunctions:

män hǟl ḥād / yäśnäyh lǟ ‘where no one can see it m.’ Sima65:33

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min hāl aġayg / sōfar tsafran ših ‘wherever the man went, she went with him’ M.NS

w-hīs tēṯ / bärwōt ‘when the woman gave birth’ Sima3:4

wat / ḥābū aʕyīdäm lēh ‘when people celebrate with him’ Sima12:42

w-mət ḥābū / śīnəm tīs yāṣayṣ ‘and when the people saw it f., they m. were frightened’ Stroomer16:2

6.7.3.4 VOS ~ VPPS in greeting routines

Many opening greetings, including expressions of thanks or congratulations, involve an initial verb in the subjunctive followed by a direct object or a complementary PP and predicand. The return greeting reverses the word order within the VP; the post-posed predicand is normally omitted in the reply, and in some cases, particularly in my database of text messages, the verb is also omitted: thus, for example, the reply to Mehreyyet taxf lūk āfyat ‘may you m.s. be well in the evening’ can be either wa-layš ~ lūk taxf ‘and to you s. well-being in the evening’ or wa-layš ~ lūk ‘and to you s.’. Consider the following exchanges from Mehreyyet:

ta-gham-š āfyat [3FS-come.in.morning.SUBJ-2FS well.being.FS] ‘May you f.s. be well [in the morning]!’ Reply: wa-t-ēš ta-ghūm [CONJ-ACC-2FS 3FS-come.in.morning.SUBJ] ‘And may you f.s. [also be well] in the morning!’

t-šaxbar l-ayš āfyat [3FS-ask.SUBJ to-2FS well.being.FS] ‘May you f.s. be well!’ Reply: wa-layš ~ lūk (āfyat) ‘And may you f.s./m.s (be well)!’

thaḳṣam lūk āfyat ‘May you m.s. be well in the heat of the day!’ Reply: wa-lūk thaḳṣam ‘And may you m.s. [be well] in the heat of the day!’

thaṣbaḥ layš āfyat ‘May you f.s. be well in the morning!’ Reply: wa-layš ~ lūk thaṣbaḥ ‘And may you s. [be well] in the morning!’

taxf līkam āfyat ‘May you m.pl. be well in the evening!’ Reply: wa-līkam taxf ‘And may you m.pl. [be well] in the evening!’

6.8 Subject clauses

One case in which the predicate almost invariably precedes the predicand is where an initial element functions as the predicate to a following subject clause (cf. Wagner 1953: 123 for western Yemeni Mehri; Watson 1993: 167 for San’ani Arabic). Subject clauses are rare in the texts, but relatively common in natural speech and in text messages, which reflect natural speech. The initial element is one of a closed set of verbs, participles, adjectives and the noun ḳyūs ‘proportion; appropriateness’. Subject clauses in English most commonly come in second

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position in structures involving a dummy ‘it’–PREDICATE–SUBJECT (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 423):

It is eˈssential that you clean the bathroom

It is imˈpossible for him to go now!

It ˈshould be done!

In Mehri, as in English, the intonational focus rests on the initial predicate, but unlike English, the subject clause is invariably linked paratactically to the predicate:

ˈwōḏam layš / taxdēmī xadamēt gidat [lit. incumbent on you f.s. you work good work] ‘you f.s. have to do good work’ M.NS

While English introduces the initial predicate with a dummy ‘it’, Mehri, as for Arabic, uses an invariant or unmarked (3)ms form of the verb, participle or adjective (cf. Watson 1993: 167 for San’ani Arabic). Thus, the verbs yijūz (yigūz), yiwōḳaʕ (yiwōḳa), yikūn and wīḳaʕ (wīḳa) take the 3ms form, the participles wōḏam and wōjab (wōgab) the ms form, the elative adjectives axayr and xass the invariant form, while lāzim is a frozen (ms) form borrowed from Arabic. In all cases, the verb in the subject clause is in the subjunctive.

The elatives axayr18 and xass, the verb wīḳaʕ (wīḳa)19 and the participles wōjab (wōgab) and wōḏam ‘necessary’ generally take a complementary PP in which the prepositional annex is co-referential with the verbal subject pronoun in the subject clause, as seen in the morphemically glossed examples below.

axayr h-ūk aṭ-ṭarḥī20 la-wayd-ī [better to-2MS 2MS-leave.SUBJ-1S to-own-1S] ‘it would be better for you m.s. to leave me alone’ Mo.N.02.06

axayr hī-s ta-ġtayr faransī [better to-3FS 3F-speak.SUBJ French] ‘it’s better for her to speak French’ M.NS

o� [xar hayš / tinkān] barn ḏa-śatūḳan layš ¹~ھ�vy�� Âن �~ن ذÂ�� o¬��À وwīyan ‘you f.s. should come to us; we really miss you’ M.txt

xass h-ūk t-sēr a-rawram waḥś-ūk [worse to-2MS 2MS-go.SUBJ DEF-sea on.own-2MS] ‘it’s bad for you m.s. to go to the sea on your own’ M.PES

wīḳa hay-nī l-ardēd l-ayš lā [become.PRF.3MS to-1S 1S-return.SUBJ to-2FS NEG] ‘it turns out I couldn’t get back to you f.s.’ M.NS

18 Often reduced to xar or axar in context. 19 Also attested in western Yemeni Mehri, apparently with a prepositional complement headed by

li-: wîqa lî, l-asêr lähäl rībây yillú ‘ich hätte gestern zu meinem Freund gehen sollen’ (Wagner 1953: 123).

20 < *taṭarḥī.

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wōḏam l-ayš t-habṭ-ay bark xadamēt [necessary.MS to-2FS 2-delay.SUBJ-2FS in work] ‘you f.s. have to stay late at work’ M.NS

wōgab layš / tagrēfī (a)śaygaʔ wa-thaṯbatah ‘you f.s. must sweep out the cave and do it m. well’ M.NS

Another phrase which typically takes a following subject clause is the predicate–predicand structure: la-PRONOUN ḥōgat lā [to-PRONOUN need not], as in: līs ḥōgat lā / taḳā šīn ‘there is no need for her to be with us’. In this case, the pronoun annex is co-referential with the verbal subject pronoun in the subject clause.

Lack of co-referentiality between the predicate and the following subject clause occurs where the predicate lacks a complementary PP. Thus, axayr and wōḏam may lack a following PP:

Ï��¤ ا��n {ھ os ¡sوا �� axayr / taġrēbī ātarīt wa-maḥḥ man اu�~Ä� ~�¹ ا�~hāl ḥābū śīyēx ‘it’s better you f.s. get to know about fermented milk and clarified butter from older people’ M.txt

�� و��~ي وإت �¦�اvy�� ~�¹ي �~ك ��~ axayr / tankāy bark sīyaryat wa-tsīrī wat tḥaym ‘it’s better you f.s. go by car and go when you want’ M.txt

wōḏam / śaḳafas yiḳāʔ śōx ‘her frame should be big’ M.PES.MA

The initial predicates ḳyūs ‘proportion = appropriate’ and wōjab (wōgab) when negated, yijūz (yigūz) lā, and lāzim typically lack a complementary PP before the subject clause:

ḳyūs lā ~ wōgab lā / tsīrī wa-tṭraḥī (a)śīfōn ḏa-hnayš ‘it’s not right for you f.s. to go and leave the guests who are with you’ M.NS

yigūz lā / yūtīġ AšaʕbahA man śōn yiśxawwal ḏār karsay ‘it’s not right that he kills his people in order to sit on the [president’s] chair’ M.PES.MA AlǟzämA / yäšnōḥan ‘he had to fight/make problems’ Sima89:22 AlāzimA / yiḳā śībaṯ yiḳā ḏa-ḳfūd xōṭar ‘the lip should hang down’ M.N.Šlaym01.13 AlāzimA / amṣawrits taḳāʔ nōbat ‘her frame should be big’ M.PES.MA

The subject clause may occur in initial position, particularly when the predicate is either yikūn lā, yiwōḳaʕ (yiwōḳa) lā or yijūz (yigūz) lā:

�¶�ز ��r�Ç~ي ks�� v¦zو ��~�� tšwagarī sīyaryat wa-nḥah bawmah / yigūz lā ‘you f.s. hiring a car while we are here won’t do’ M.txt

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6.9 Topic–comment clauses

Topic–comment clauses comprise an initial topic and a predicate which in itself is a complete clause and includes an anaphor referring back to the topic.

predicand–[predicate [predicand–predicate]]

Topic–comment clauses are extremely common in Mehri. They fall into three main types:

(a) The topic is followed by an independent anaphoric pronoun or by a pronoun attached to bār, which functions as the predicand within the clausal predicate.

(b) The clausal predicate involves an initial annexion phrase where the pronominal annex is an anaphor of the topic.

(c) The clausal predicate is a VP in which either the inflectional subject pronoun, object pronoun or prepositional annex of a complementary PP is an anaphor of the topic.

6.9.1 Topic followed by independent pronoun

Here the pronoun predicand of the clausal predicate is co-referential with the topic of the topic–comment clause. In the examples that follow within this chapter, dependent anaphoric pronouns are hyphened off for clarity.

w-ḏōmähi hēhi fēśäl ḏu-wdōyäm [CONJ-this.Mi 3MSi work.MS ḏa-hut.FPL] ‘and this m. is the work for wdīmat-huts’ Sima17:52

Suffixation of the anaphoric pronoun to bar- indicates that the topic has reached the state indicated in the predicate of the clausal predicate:

wat ḥabrīsi / bar-hi śīyāxān aynat ‘when her son has grown a little’ M.N.Rabkūt

6.9.2 Topic followed by annexion phrase

Here the predicand of the clausal predicate is an annexed noun or preposition with a pronoun suffix which agrees in person, number and gender with the topic NP. This type of structure may be used to avoid complex attributive phrases involving ḏa-. Very few examples occur in the texts where the singular form hamm ‘name’, for example, heads an attributive phrase with a ḏa-phrase attribute.21 Far more common is the topicalised structure NP–hamm-PRONOUN:

arḥabēti / hamm-asi ndēt ‘the town, its name is Ndēt’ M.NS.Ndēt

ḥībii / hämm-ähi ǟr Sēläm ‘my father, his name is Sēlam’ Sima3:1

21 One of the few examples in the texts is: ḏīkär [humm / ḏ-maʕjīn] ‘he mentioned the name of

[the dish] maʕjīn’ (Sima12:1).


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Other examples where the clausal predicate involves a nominal annexion phrase predicand include:

xīṭayti / ykūn ṭūl-äsi arbaʕ bwāʕ ‘the string, its length is four arm spans’ Sima6:28

ḏōmahi / ḳōsī aḳāb-ahi ‘that one, his heart is hard’ M.NS

Topicalisation of an independent pronoun may serve to focus the topic:

w-hēti / ḳaṣṣat-ki hǟśän ‘And what is your m.s. story?’ Sima73:19

w-hōhi / hämm-ii ʕīsē bär Ḥmǟd bär ʕīsē bär Sōläm al-Qmayri ‘and my name is ʕīsē bar H mǟd bar ʕīsē bar Sōläm al-Qmayri’ Sima49:6

hēti / ḥallat-ši aġlē min AaduwalA kall ‘your f.s. country is more expensive than all [other] countries’ M.PES.Ndēt

Topicalisation is particularly common where the predicate is a locational clause:

a-ḳāʔani / bi-hi ṣwayr mēkan ‘our land has lots of stones’ M.PES

hōhi / hn-ayi swēʔ ‘it’s all the same to me’ M.NS

w-[sīyäryät ṭīt]i / bärk-īsi ṭād hummäh Šaġräh ‘and one car had someone in it f. called Šaġräh’ Sima31:20

baʕź män ḥābūi / šī-hämi xōtäm b-ḥīd-ähi22 ‘some people have a ring on their

m. hand’ Sima26:23

[bāśi23 / šī-hami hibɛr] wa-[bāśi / šī-hami ḥārawn] ‘some m. have camels and

some m. have goats’ M.N.Ndēt

abayti / bark-īsi aḥād lā ‘there is no one in the house’ M.N

ūšīni / bī-si āśayś lā ‘the tongue has no bones’24 M.PES

6.9.3 Topic followed by VP

Where the clausal predicate is a VP, the anaphoric pronoun may be the verbal subject, the verbal object, or the annex of a complementary PP.

Verbal subject

hēti / ʕiml-äki hǟśän [lit. you what did you do] ‘What did you m.s. do?’ Sima73:19

22 Note the singular anaphoric pronoun in ḥīd-äh ‘his hand’, cf. 6.7.1 above. 23 Note agreement in the pronoun with the plural referent of bāś and not grammatical agreement. 24 i.e. talking is easy.

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hēti / šaxbär-ki tī män mänźō ‘you m.s. asked me about mänźō’25 Sima21:1

hōhi / amar-ki hūk ‘I told you m.s.’ M.N

hōhi / mat-ki ‘I have died’ M.N

As a topic before a negative clause, the indefinite pronoun ḥābū ‘people’ may take the indefinite pronoun ḥād as an anaphoric pronoun:

ḥābūi / l-ʕād ḥādi ysōkän b-Qāṭan lǟ nṣarōmäh ‘no one lives in the dry upland area26 anymore’ Sima29:33

ḥābūi / l-ʕād ḥādi yaʕmälsän lǟ ‘people no longer make them f.’ Sima14:24

Verbal object

w-hǟn bnǟdämi / ḳabṣat-hi rēśīt [lit. and if someone bites him a snake] ‘and if someone is bitten by a snake’ Sima1:10

śäyraxi / b-ḥāwēl nxadmä-säni bä-źwaġyät ‘rock lobsters, we catch them f. first with seine nets’ Sima2:2

[abayt ḏīmah]i / śatm-īsi a-ġayg ‘this house, the man bought it f.’ M.NS

ḏīmahi / bār śīnan t-ēsi sɛtin ‘that one f., we have just seen it f.’ M.NS.Nīsaḥ

[karmaym ṭayt]i / aḳafd-isi ‘one hill, I go down it f.’ M.NS

Prepositional annex

maxfīfi / yʕamräm h-ēhi ‘maxfīf, they m. call it m.’ Sima26:2

āfarūti / ḥābū yfarḥam b-īsi h-amzāyanah axayr ‘the red [camel], people at beauty competitions will like her more’ M.N.Šlaym01.05

6.9.4 Double topics

Topicalisation can involve two separate topics which each have an anaphoric pronoun in the clausal predicate. In the following example, the anaphoric pronoun of the initial topic, tǟm ‘you m.pl.’, is the verbal subject pronoun in taʕmīläm, while the anaphoric pronoun of the second topic, ḥaybīt ḏīmäh ‘this camel mare’, is the prepositional annex in h-īs:

wkōh tǟmi ḥaybīt ḏīmähii taʕmīlämi h-īsii jfōn [lit. why you m.pl. this camel you make for it f. a tulchan] ‘Why do you m.pl. make a tulchan for this camel mare?’ Sima47:44

25 ‘Post-partum fumigation’ (Miranda Morris, p.c.). A pit filled with charcoal and covered with

earth and then a cloth or blanket that a parturient then sits on for the flesh to recover after childbirth. Description of mänźō in Sima21.



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Consider also:

ḏōmi / hōhii / ḏa-ġräb-kii t-ōhi ‘this m. is what I know’ Sima10:24

Topicalisation may also involve recursion. In the following example, the comment, aḏarwats āds ṭawran bīs arḥūmat ‘its hump also has a [part in] conformation’,27 is the predicate to ḥaybīt ‘the camel’, and āds ṭawran bīs arḥūmat ‘also has a [part in] conformation’ is the predicate to the predicand of the comment, aḏarwats ‘its f. hump’:

ḥaybīti [aḏarwatii-si [ād-sii ṭawran b-īsii arḥūmat]] ‘the camel, its f. hump also has a [part in] conformation’ M.N.Šlaym01.16

In the following example, ḥabray śīnī ġaganōt ‘my son saw a girl’ is the predicate to hōh ‘I’, and śīnī ġaganōt ‘he saw a girl’ is the predicate to ḥabray ‘my son’:

hōhi [ḥabrii-ayi [śīnīii ġaganōt]] ‘I, my son saw a girl’ M.NS

6.9.5 Post-posed topic

A dependent cataphoric pronoun referring to a post-posed (pro-)nominal topic is relatively common in both dialects. The function of post-posing the topic appears to be either afterthought, in which case it may be considered an appositive to the earlier mentioned pronoun, or focus of the topic.

laḥḳ-ōti bīs lǟ / raʕbūti ‘It f. didn’t work with her, raʕbūt?’ Sima1:53

ḥād ytäyw-asi lǟ hnǟn nḥah / näšḥōti ‘no one eats it f. here where we are, the bat’ Sima9:6

flūti bi-ḥanafh / hēhi [lit. he escaped with himself he] ‘he fled’ M.N.Rabkū t01.10

š-īni śī lā bḳār / nḥahi ‘we don’t have any cows, us’ M.NS

š-īsani āfēʔ / hibɛri ‘they f. have it good, the camels’ M.PES.MA

bar-si ḳannitt / ḥyōmi ‘it f. is already small, the sun’28 M.NS.Rabkūt

6.9.6 Post-posed anaphoric pronoun

In locational clauses and clauses of attribution, an independent anaphoric pronoun frequently occurs in clause-final position.

wa-mġōrän š-īsi mǟkän ḳṣīd / sēhi ‘and moreover it f. has many songs’ Sima1:12

ḥōzi bawmah / sēhi [lit. the goati here it f. i] ‘the goat is here’ M.MA

27 Lit. ‘beauty’. 28 ḥyōm is often used to refer to the day. īmōh ḥyōm ḳṣayrat ‘the day is short today’, īmōh ḥyōm

ṭwaylat ‘the day is long today’ (M.NS).

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aḥmēdi bi-xayr / hēhi [lit. Ahmedi well hei] ‘Ahmed is well’ M.NS

atēṯi imšēh k-aġayg-isi / sēhi ‘the woman was with her husband yesterday’ M.MA

abaytīi l-arawram / sēhi ‘my house is by the sea’ M.NS

assinnawrati ḥlakmah / sēhi ‘the cat is there’ M.NS

akambyūtari xōṭar / hēhi ‘the computer is downstairs’ M.NS

7 Coordination

Coordination involves conjoining two conjuncts either syndetically, by means of a conjunction,1 or asyndetically, without a conjunction. The conjunction of two conjuncts produces a coordination complex. I follow Zhang (2010) and others in claiming that the conjunction has no intrinsic categorial features in itself and that a coordinate complex acquires its categorial features from one of the conjuncts. The syntactic category of the whole coordination complex is identical to at least one of the conjuncts: thus, where two NPs are conjoined the coordination complex has the syntactic category of NP, where two VPs are conjoined the coordination complex has the syntactic category of VP, etc. In contrast to other parts of speech, conjunctions ‘serve not directly as carriers of meaning, but only as markers of the structural relationships between other forms’ (Hockett 1958: 153). Thus, the basic conjunction in Mehri, wa-, or a null conjunction may link elements that have an adversative, consequential or disjunctive relationship, although the conjunction itself lacks adversative, consequential or disjunctive meaning.

7.1 Coordination facts

In Mehri, as in many other languages (Zhang 2010), two conjuncts may have different categorial features. Essentially, however, the left-most conjunct has to have the categorial features required by any preceding head element – verb, noun, preposition or subordinator. Thus the unmarked conjunct generally precedes the marked conjunct: in the following example, the subordinator tā requires a following verb in the subjunctive – here lkōmal ‘I complete’ – while gihmīta in the second conjunct is a future participle and lacks the categorial features required by tā:

ād-h l-ay ōśar wa-sɛ yōm tā l-kōmal a-warx / wa-gihm-īta [still-3MS la-1S ten CONJ-nine day.FPL until 1S-SUBJ.finish DEF-month CONJ-go.FUT-FS] ‘I’ve got nineteen days before I complete a month and go’ M.NS

Coordinate complexes can fulfill any syntactic function – predicand, object, indirect object, complement, attribute, nominal or prepositional annex, predicate, supplement – and the coordinated elements may be any grammatical category apart from bound suffixes – i.e. dependent pronouns2 – and other conjunctions.

1 Also termed ‘coordinator’. 2 The coordination of dependent pronouns requires the repetition of the relevant noun, verb or

preposition head, as in Mehreyyet: abɛlī ysāmak wa-ysāmis ‘may God bless you m.s. and her’, ḏīmah abaytī w-abitk ‘this is my house and your m.s. house’, and riddak layš wa-līham ‘I replied to you f.s. and them m.’.

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7.1.1 Asymmetry between conjuncts

While the first conjunct in phrasal conjunction must have the categorial features required by the head element in a phrase, the second conjunct is more closely bound to the conjunction than the first conjunct. wa- in Mehri, like ‘and’ in English, forms a phonological unit with the following conjunct. While phrases and clauses cannot usually end in a conjunction, and where they do end in a conjunction convey the sense of incompleteness, phrases involving wa- and the second conjunct may stand alone. Replies to greetings or elements within greeting exchanges often involve initial wa-:

wa-hēt hībōh [lit. and you s. how] ‘And how are you s.?’ M.NS

wa-hēt ‘and you s.’ M.NS

wa-lūk taxf [lit. and to you m.s. may [health and well-being] come in the evening] ‘Good evening to you m.s.!’ M.NS

wa-lūk taghūm [lit. and to you m.s. may [health and well-being] come in the morning] ‘Good morning to you m.s.!’ M.NS

Non-dialogue-initial declarative and interrogative clauses may begin with wa-:

wa-hēt w-ḥaṯṯak [lit. and you m.s. and your luck] ‘and it depends on your m.s. luck’ Mo.NS

wa-bīs nāʕas ‘And is there any bait on it f.?’ Sima2:24

wa-hōh ṭawran ‘and me too’ M.NS

Conjuncts are also asymmetrical in terms of specificity. In the conjunction of NPs that differ in terms of specificity or definiteness, the first conjunct is more specific or higher on the definiteness hierarchy (cf. 6.1.2) than the second conjunct (cf. also Watson 1993: 289 for San’ani Arabic). Thus, personal pronouns precede proper nouns, demonstratives, definite annexion phrases, other definite NPs and indefinite NPs. In the following example, a personal pronoun occupies the first conjunct, and a substantive occupies the second conjunct.

fīn nhōri ṯrīt – [nḥah / w-ḥḥambärō] ḏä-nḳayr ‘two days ago, we and the boys were reading’ Sima10.1

In the following example, the personal pronoun hōh precedes a proper noun, which precedes the indefinite NP käll.

[hōh / w-ʕAbd al-ʕAzīz / w-käll] ‘me and Abd al-Aziz and everyone’ Sima1:52

In the coordination of unequal personal pronouns, first person precedes second and third person, and second person precedes third person.

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[hōh / w-hēh] mkōnän ‘me and him [took] our place’ Sima53:28

[hēt / w-hēh] syärki faxrä ‘you m.s. and he went together’ Sima48:27

7.1.2 Ellipsis in coordination

In coordination of words or phrases within larger phrases, the second conjunct can often be interpreted as involving ellipsis to avoid repetition of the phrasal head. In the following examples, the position of the elided element is indicated by 0 and the translation of the supposed elided element placed in square brackets:

Ellipsis of verb or VP

wa-ḥābū yaxxarījäm ṣadḳāt / aw 0 zkōt ‘and people give ṣadḳāt alms or [give] zakāt alms’ Sima28:2

aḥḥawalk / aw 0 lǟ ‘Have you m.s. understood or [have you] not [understood]?’ Sima2:10

lǟkän ḏīk bäkrīyät taʕmōl śī ḳabšīš lǟ / w-0 śī lǟ ‘but these early sardines don’t bring maggots or [bring] anything else’ Sima2:7

śill azwōdah / wa-0-ḥagtah ‘he took his supplies and [took] his things’ M.N.04.11

śatūḳak layš ‘I miss you f.s.’ wa-hōh 0 ṭawran ‘And I [miss you] too!’ M.NS

Ellipsis of noun

ḏ-jōd ḏ-ḥōz / w-lī 0 ḏa-ʕrīṯ w-lī 0 ṯīwīt ‘of the leather of a goat or [of the leather] of a kid or [of the leather of] a sheep’ Sima27:3

hībōh xadmǟt ḏä-śäyrax / w-0-ʕayd ‘How is working with rock lobsters3 and [working with] sardines?’ Sima2:1

aḳādar śōx / w-0-aḳannawn ‘the big pot and the small [pot]’ M.NS

la-hāl adaffēt ḏīh / wa-0-ḏīh ‘from this side to that [side]’ M.NS

Ellipsis of attribute

ḳaṣṣāt ḏ-īmōh / aw ḳaṣṣǟnōt 0 ‘today’s story or [today’s] short story’ Sima17:1

3 Palinurus (Miranda Morris, p.c.), a genus of spiny lobsters.

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Ellipsis of preposition

färḳ mǟkän lǟ bīn yaʕni Ġayźat / w-0-Jōdäb / w-0-Ṣēḥawt / w-0-Qāśän ‘there isn’t a lot of difference between al-Ghaydhah and [between] Jōdab and [between] Ṣēḥawt and [between] Qishn’ Sima26:12

mōn ḏa-nūka bi-ʕaylīg / wa-0-frayś ‘whoever came with a male camel calf and [with] a female camel calf’ M.NS

Ellipsis of adjunction

wa-mġōrän wat kä-źyōyäf / w-lī 0 kä-zhē ‘then at the time of weddings or [at the time of] a wedding feast’ Sima26:6

Less commonly, a modifier may be absent from initial conjuncts. In the following example, the attributive phrase ḏ-ʕayd ‘of sardines’ occurs at the end of the final conjunct, but not in the initial conjuncts:

wi-yġalḳam män ʕayd, ykūn nähb bōh 0 / w-lī nähb bōh 0 / w-lī mäsraḥ bōh 0 / w-lī mäsraḥ bōh ḏ-ʕayd ‘they m. look for sardines: they’ll be a small shoal here [of sardines] or a small shoal there [of sardines] or a large shoal here [of sardines] or a large shoal there of sardines’ Sima20:6

7.1.3 Anaphora in coordination

Part or whole of the first conjunct can be the antecedent of a pronoun in the second conjunct, but the second conjunct cannot be the postcedent of a pronoun in the first conjunct (Zhang 2010: 11). While -h and ġayg fḳayr are co-referential in (a), they essentially have different referents in (b) where the pronoun occurs in the first conjunct:

(a) kisk [ġayg fḳayr]i wa-wzumkə ta-hi drēham ‘I found a poor man and gave him money’ M.NS

(b) kisk ta-h wa-wzumk [ġayg fḳayr] drēham ‘I found him and gave a poor man money’

In the following example, the pronoun attached to the accusative affix ta- in the second conjunct is co-referential with ṭād ‘someone’ in the first conjunct:

kisk ṭādi ḏ-īġōlaḳ man ābarayt / wa-śillak ta-hi šay ‘I found someone looking for transport and took him with me’ M.PES.MA

In the second conjunct of the following example, the pronouns attached to the accusative affix ta- and to the preposition bi- are co-referential with ḥabray ‘my son’ and ġaganōt ‘a girl’ respectively:

hōh ḥabrayi śīnī ġaganōtii / wa-ḏ-amkə ta-hi wfūd b-īsii ‘my son has seen a girl, and I think he has asked for her hand’ M.NS

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Indefinite pronouns can also function anaphorically: ṭād ‘one’ in the second and third conjuncts in the following example is co-referential with the noun in the initial conjunct, ʕaylīg ‘camel calf’:

ʕaylīgi bar ḥawl / wa-ṭādi bar ḥawli ṯrōh / wa-ṭādi bar śāṯayt ḥwūl ‘a one-year old male camel calf, and one of two years and one of three years’ M.NS

Where independent and co-referential dependent pronouns are involved in the conjunction of NPs, the conjunct with the independent pronoun should precede the dependent pronoun in Mehri, as in (a); the conjunct with the independent pronoun following the dependent pronoun, as in (b), is considered weak:

(a) hēt wa-ḥāmē-k ‘you m.s. and your mother’ M.NS

(b) ?ḥāmē-k wa-hēt ?‘your m.s. mother and you’

In clausal conjunction, the conjunct with the independent pronoun is more likely to occur in initial position, but the conjunct with the co-referential dependent pronoun may occur initially. For clarity, co-referentiality is indicated by subscript i and relevant dependent pronouns hyphenated off:

hām [hēti hwayn / wa-ḳabṣat-ki rēśīt] tašḳayw bi-ḥnafk tūṣōl ḥābū fīsē lā ‘if you m.s. are weak and a snake bites you, you are not able to get to people quickly’ M.NS

hām [ḳabṣat-ki rēśīt / w-hēti hwayn man fnōhan] ḳrayb ār thamwatk ‘if a snake bites you m.s. and you are already weak, it f. will soon kill you’ M.NS


As in English and Arabic, coordination in Mehri can take place by means of an explicit conjunction or by means of a null conjunction. The most common conjunction in all dialects of Mehri is wa-, which can conjoin all phrases and clauses.

7.2.1 Noun phrases

NPs functioning as the predicand, predicate, verbal complement, object or prepositional annex are typically linked syndetically. The syndetic coordination of NPs is obligatory in Mehri where at least one of the conjuncts is a pronoun or takes a pronoun annex:

Predicand

yärʕaybäm [ġyūj / wa-ḥḥaynǟṯ] ‘Do men and women carry out raʕbūt?’ Sima1:46

[mulkam / wa-ḥulkam] ba-xayr ‘Your m.pl. livestock and your state are well?’ Mo.NS

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nkīran nankā faxra [hōh / wa-hēh] ‘we want to come together, me and him’ M.NS

[ḳayśar / wa-wōz / wa-ḳaṣab] bark bayt ‘a leopard, a goat and [some] straw are in a house’ M.N

Predicate

wa-hnǟn [ḥamśēk, / w-ṣarʕayt, / wa-ḥḥōwar, / wa-xxadyīt] ‘we have ḥamśēk, and ṣarʕayt and the black fish and xadyīt’ Sima2:31

hēh [aġaygī / w-arībāy] faxra ‘he is my husband and my friend at the same time’ M.NS

Objects and complements

yälḳōf ǟr [jēdär / w-ṭarnīk, / w-ḳaṣʕayr / wa-śśärwīn / w-zäynūb] ‘they m. just catch [the fish types known as] jēdär, ṭarnīk,4 ḳaṣʕayr, śärwīn5 and zäynūb’ Sima2:29

yäjhīmäm [mänt lä-Kwayt / w-mänt Händ / w-mänt Ašärg IfrīgiyaA] ‘they m. went to Kuwait, to India and to East Africa’ Sima10:5

śitmak [taywī / wa-ṣayd] ‘I bought meat and fish’ M.NS

wa-kūsan [ḥīṭār / wa-ʔārōḏ / wa-tayyah / wa-rawn] ‘and we found female and male kids, a billy goat and female goats’ M.N.Rabkūt04.01

wa-haṣbāḥam [ġayg / wa-tēṯ] ‘they m. became man and wife’ M.N.04.24

Prepositional annex

In the following examples, the conjuncts are annexes to the prepositions bi-, man and la- respectively.

wa-nxōdäm b-[źāġi / w-ḳarḳūr faxrä] ‘and we work with the long, narrow net and the fish trap together’ Sima2:2

ślēl bāś man [tōmar / w-āyś] šūk ‘Take m.s. some dates and rice with you!’ M.N.04.07

Âm�¦� u��¬ ḳlēbī la-[ḥnafš / w-aġaygaš] bi-slōm ‘Send و�l�� Â¶�Æمgreetings to yourself f. and your husband!’ M.txt.MA

4 Many of the English and Latin equivalents of the Mehri fish names have not yet been properly

established. ṭarnīk is translated as narrow-barred Spanish mackerel by Geva-Kleinberger (2009: 55).

5 Striped bonito (ibid).


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7.2.1.1 Order and partial agreement in coordination of NPs

Where NPs are coordinated within a verbal clause, the coordinate complex may precede or follow a verb or future participle. When the coordinative complex occurs in initial position, number agreement in the verb or future participle must be with the combined elements of the coordinate complex. A coordinate complex predicand combining two actors may take dual or plural agreement (cf. 6.7.1).

hōh wa-sēh sīyēra [1S CONJ-3FS go.FUT.MPL] ‘me m. and she will go’ M.NS

hōh wa-sēh sīr-ōn-ī [1S CONJ-3FS go.FUT-M-DUAL] ‘me m. and she will go DUAL’ M.NS, *hōh wa-sēh sīr-ōna [1S CONJ-3FS go.FUT-MS]

hōh wa-sēh sīr-awtī [1S CONJ-3FS go.FUT-F.DUAL] ‘me f. and she will go DUAL’ M.NS.Ndēt

hōh wa-sēh sīr-ūtan [1S CONJ-3FS go.FUT-FPL] ‘me f. and she will go’ M.NS.Ndēt, *hōh wa-sēh sīr-īta [1S CONJ-3FS go.FUT-FS]

By contrast when the coordinate complex follows the verbal element, number agreement can be either with the initial element of the coordinate complex or with the combined elements:6

sīr-ōna hōh wa-sēh [go.FUT-MS 1S CONJ-3FS] ‘I m. will go, me and her’ M.NS

sīyēra hōh wa-sēh [go.FUT.MPL 1S CONJ-3FS] ‘we PLURAL will go, me and her’ M.NS

sīr-īta hōh wa-sēh [go.FUT-FS 1S CONJ-3FS] ‘I f. will go, me and her’ M.NS

sīr-awtī hōh wa-sēh [go.FUT-FDUAL 1S CONJ-3FS] ‘we DUAL f. will go, me and her’ M.NS

Partial agreement is explained by one of my consultants as linking the verb form with the first conjunct and appending the second conjunct, thus: [sīrīta hōh] wa-sēh. Full agreement is explained as viewing the complex coordinate as a single grammatical entity, thus: sīrawtī [hōh wa-sēh].

Similarly where an element with a dependent pronoun is preceded by a coordinate complex to which it refers, the dependent pronoun must show dual or plural number to agree with the combined number of the coordinate complex: in the example below, a first/second person dual pronoun is annexed to the nouns in the predicate in agreement with the first person dual coordinate complex predicand:

hēt w-hēh / ʕayśēki ṭāṭ wa-fśēki ṭāṭ ‘you m.s. and him, your supper is the same and your lunch is the same’ Sima48:28

6 Cf. Wagner (1953: 69) for the same phenomenon in western Yemeni Mehri, giving examples

such as: siyôr he w-askêr [lit. he went he and the soldiers] ‘er und die Soldaten gingen’ versus jihêmen ho wa-hé [lit. we went I and he] ‘ich und er gingen’.

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By contrast, where an element with a dependent pronoun is followed by an appositional coordinate complex, the pronoun can either agree in number with the initial conjunct (ai), (aii), or with the complete coordinate complex (bi), (bii):

(ai) ʕamōr lōb takmal-ki [hēti / wa-ḥāmāk] ‘he said, ‘It’ll certainly take you m.s., you m.s. and your mother’ Mo.N

(aii) aḥōm lazam-ki fśē h-ūki [hēti / wa-ḥāmēk] ‘I want to give you m.s. lunch, for you m.s., you and your mother’ M.PES.MA

(bi) aḥōm lazam-kīi fśē [hēt / wa-ḥāmēk]i ‘I want to give you DUAL lunch, you m.s. and your mother’ M.PES.MA

(bii) ḳaṣṣat-kii [hōh wa-Ḥmǟdōh]i ‘our DUAL story, [of] me and Ḥmǟdōh’ Sima33:1

7.2.2 Adjective phrases

Attributive and predicative APs are coordinated syndetically when they refer to different entities in the real world, or when they refer to different aspects of the same entity (cf. also 7.2.8):

Different entities

l-hǟn bēh män śäyrax [ḳannättän / w-śīyaxtän] ‘whatever it m. has in terms of small and large rock lobsters’ Sima6:15

maḳdōd [ṭīwōl / wa-ḳīṣōr] ‘long and short strips of meat’ Mo.NS

aḳādar [śōx / w-aḳannawn] ‘the big and the small pot’ M.NS

abyōt [ḳannattan / wa-nyōb] ‘the houses are small and large’ M.PES.MA

Different aspects of one entity

w-ʕarbīyät tkūn dfäts [jīdät / wa-ṣlībät] ‘the Arabiyat [camel], her body [lit. side] is good and sturdy’7 Sima47:75

abayt [nōb / wa-dwaylat] tāṣawṣ līs man tahwah ‘the house is big and old; you m.s. are afraid of it f. falling down’ M.PES.MA

ībīt [āfarūt / wa-nōb / wa-ṣalḥayt / w-āḏayḳat] ‘a large, fat, red camel with large udders’ M.N.Rabkūt02.20



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7.2.3 Adverbs and adverbial phrases

Adverbs and AdvPs are typically linked syndetically in coordinate complexes.

yṯōfäl k-ṣōbaḥ, lä-frūź, [k-ṣōbaḥ, / w-kä-ṯṯuhr, / w-kä-lʕayni] k-maġrāb ‘he spits in the morning, at the prayer times, in the morning, at noon and in the evening at sunset’ Sima1:60

nkīran nankā faxra hōh wa-hēh [tōlī ḏ-axxarf / wa-ḥāwēl ḏ-aṣayrab] ‘we want to come together, me and him, at the end of the monsoon period or the beginning of the harvest period’ M.NS

This includes idiomatic adverbial expressions such as:

šxabīr lih ḥābū [ġawf / wa-xōṭar] ‘people asked about him left, right and centre’ M.N.03.15

7.2.4 Verb phrases

In a pro-drop language such as Mehri, VPs are sometimes difficult to distinguish from verb-initial verbal clauses. Here I take an element to be a VP where an adverb or adverbial phrase or an explicit predicand occurs earlier in the utterance. Although there are certain contexts in which asyndetic coordination is more likely, as we will see below, both syndetic and asyndetic coordination of VPs and verbal clauses is attested. Examples of syndetically coordinated VPs include:

w-ġajjǟn ḏōmäh ykūn k-baʕl hbǟr, [yfōraḥ šīhäm / wi-yġōfäl šīhäm / wa… ykūn šīhäm] ‘that boy is with the camel herders; he loves being with them and enjoys being with them and stays with them’ Sima30:25

män ḥläkmäh [syärk, / w-ṭulʕak śḥayr] ‘from there I went and climbed the mountain’ Sima4:26

wa-[śxawalūl ḥlakmah / w-āyūś bark ḥābū / wa-khēl bīham] ‘he settled there and lived among the people; he got to know their m. ways’ M.N.03.12

bar nuwās [ḏ-ūbūs amlābas ḏ-aḥḥōkam / wa-ḏ-hanśūr / wa-ḏa-btōdī / wa-ḏ-ūbīnū n / wa-ḏ-ūbūd ṣaylaḥ] ‘Bar Nuwās was wearing the ruler’s clothes and was refreshed and relaxed; he’d become white and become fat’ M.N.Rabkūt

7.2.5 Clauses

Syndetically coordinated clauses frequently take similar or identical initial elements or/and similar clausal structures.

7.2.5.1 Nominal clauses

In the first two examples below, the conjoined nominal clauses are headed by the PP mänh ‘of it m.’. In the second two examples, the conjuncts are headed by the quantifier baʕś, and in the third by independent pronouns.

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mänh śōx / w-mänh ḳannūn [lit. of it m. big and of it m. small] ‘there are big ones and there are small ones’ Sima2:38

baʕź mäns ṣalḥayt / w-baʕź mäns xaṯmīt ‘some of them f. [= it f.] are fat and some of them are thin’ Sima2:6

w-baʕź mänsǟn śīyaxtän / w-baʕź mänsǟn ḳannättän ‘and some of them f. are big and some of them are small’ Sima9:3

hēh xṯaym / wa-sēh ṣalḥayt ‘he’s thin and she’s fat’ M.NS

7.2.5.2 Locational clauses

Conjuncts in the first example of syndetically coordinated locational clauses below share the initial PP (šēh ‘with him’). Conjuncts in the second example the noun źaġyät, and conjuncts in the third example take initial independent pronouns.

ḏ-[šēh fēśal lǟ / w-šēh śī źāḥi lǟ] ‘he who has no work and has no animal to sacrifice’ Sima11:9

źaġyät m-bōh / w-źaġyät m-bōh ‘there’s a long net from here and a long net from there’ Sima2:3

hēh fnōhan / wa-hōh man srīh ‘he is in front and I am behind him’ M.NS

7.2.5.3 Verbal clauses

Syndetically coordinated NP-initial or PP-initial verbal clauses frequently take identical or similar initial elements. In the first example below, the conjuncts take initial pronominal elements (ṭāṭ [< *ṭād] ‘one’ and the demonstrative pronoun lyēk ‘those’). Conjuncts in the further examples share a predicand:

ṭāṭ yḳōdäm, / w-lyēk yhärdīd lēh ‘one m. [sings] first and those m. follow him [with the chorus]’ Sima1:22

baʕź yʕamräm hīs raʕbūt, / w-baʕź yʕamräm hīs ʕarräyt ‘some m. call it f. raʕbūt and some call it ʕarräyt’ Sima1:3

ḥād yxabzäs b-ṣafrīyät, / w-ḥād yxabzäs bä-mṭablōt / w-ḥād yxabzäs bä-ttännūr ‘some bake it f. in a pan, some bake it on hot stones and some bake it in the oven’ Sima5:2-3

mänh ytī ḥābū / w-mänh ytī ḥābū lǟ ‘some of them [= it m.] eat people and some of them don’t eat people’ Sima2:35

Syndetically coordinated verb-initial verbal clauses may exhibit shared initial elements, as in:

amūr [kisk ḥābū bi-xayr / wa-kisk ʕōmak AfulānA / wa-kisk ḥāmēk] ‘he said, ‘I found the people well, and I found your m.s. grandfather so-and-so and I found your mother’’ M.N.Rabkū t


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They may alternatively exhibit shared structures. In the first example below, the conjuncts share the structure V–Predicand, in the second and third examples the structure VP–PP:

barwūt tēṯ / wa-nūka ġiggīn ‘the woman gave birth and a boy was born’ M.N.MA

xīlaḳk ba-jōdab / wa-šaḳnayk ba-ġadwūd ‘I was born in Jōdab and brought up in Ghadwūd’ Mo.N.02.01

wa-[xdōmän tōs bä-ḳräḳrät / wa-nxōdäm b-źāġi w-ḳarḳūr faxrä] ‘and we caught them [rock lobsters] with fish traps and we catch [them] with a beach seine and a fish trap together’ Sima2:2

7.2.5.4 Negative phrases and clauses

Negated phrases and clauses of all types are linked syndetically in both dialects. Consider the examples below. For further examples and discussion, cf. 8.6:

amwāṣalāt al-śī / w-aṭīyaryōt al-śī / wa-ssīyaryōt al-śī ‘there were no communications, no planes and no cars’ M.NS.MA

l-äśunyäs / wa-lä-śśunyä ‘I don’t see her and she doesn’t see me’ Sima76:9

ġayg ḏa-[l-šay AgawāzA wa-l-šay AiṯbātA] ‘a man who has [= I have] no passport and no identification papers’ M.N.03.23

l-ād šīs rawn / wa-l-ād šīs śī ‘she no longer had any goats or had anything’ M.N.Rabk ūt

7.2.5.5 Conjunction of clausal conjuncts of differing types

wa- can link clauses of different types, particularly where the clauses perform the same function: in the following examples, the two conjuncts (nominal clause and verbal clause, in the first example, verbal clause and nominal clause in the second) form the protasis of the conditional clause, and either conjunct could function on iots own as the protasis of the conditional clause:

hēt hǟn [lbädk mīśäṭ / w-sēh zbänyōt] ‘if you m.s. strike a mīśäṭ-tree and it f. is an old tree’ Sima2:11

hām [hēt hwayn / wa-ḳabṣatk rēśīt] ‘if you m.s. are thin and a snake bites you’ M.NS

In the following example, the conjoined nominal clause and verbal clause function as the object to amūr ‘he said’:

amūr [ḥāmēš saḥarat / wa-ttayw ḥabinyan] ‘he said, ‘Your f.s. mother is a witch and kills our children’’ M.N

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7.2.6 Multiple conjuncts

Multiple syndetically linked clausal or phrasal conjuncts are common, particularly in narratives and/or in the listing of events, states or objects:

Phrases

ʕaylīg bar ḥawl / wa-ṭād bar ḥawli ṯrōh / wa-ṭād bar śāṯayt ḥwūl ‘a one-year old camel calf, and one of two years, and one of three years’ M.NS

hamam bīn ḳōmōn ḳuwēmat ḳuwēmat nakam tīn [aḥād man śḥayr / w-aḥād man abadyat / w-aḥād man arḥabēt] ‘lots of small groups of people heard about us: some came to us from the mountains, some from the desert and some from the town’ M.N.MA

Clauses

nḥah ṣayd ḏēh ḏä-hnǟn nḥah [hnǟn śärwīn, / wa-hnǟn ḳaṣʕayr, / wa-hnǟn ʕnībōt, / wa-hnǟn ʕayd, / wa-hnän ḥamśēk] ‘the fish that we have, we have śarwīn,8 we have ḳaṣʕayr, we have ʕnībōt, we have sardines, we have ḥamśēk’ Sima2:31

w-rōdän bä-lyäkmäh ṯīrōb / wa-nḥājän faxrä / wa-lbōdän hīs ġwūtän ‘we threw away those sticks and played together and became like brothers’ Sima33:65

ʕuśśän / wa-mtäsyän / wa-stämḥan / wa-ṣtäfyän ‘we got up, hugged each other, forgave each other and made up’ Sima33:64

šwādak harbātya bark AagāmiʔaA / w-agōb laxtalōf lā / w-amērī hēh wtōkī fīsēʔ ‘I’ve made an appointment with people I know at the university; I don’t want to change [it], so tell f.s. him to come back quickly’ M.NS

syūran kaštah bark ḥawōdi [śillan aḳarmaśyan / wa-syūran ḳabalēt / wa-hālūḳan śīwōṭ ḥlakmah / wa-rmūsan la-śīwōṭ ḥallēwan / wa-ʕamlan šahay ḏār śīwōṭ / wa-ʔakūsan] lā tāgōb ār wṭakmah

‘We went on a trip into the wadi. We took our things with us and went in the direction of Mecca. We made a fire there and had a good time chatting by the fire all night. We made tea on the fire and took photos. Perfect.’ M.NS

7.2.7 Embedded coordination

The examples considered above of multiple clausal conjuncts involve the linking of equally ranked events or states. Clausal conjuncts may be embedded within a larger structure. In the first example below, the conjuncts [aḳafrarya ḏ-ḳaśʔam / wa-ṣ-ṣaṭṭak tēham] ‘my lips have dried out and they hurt’ function as objective

8 Striped bonito (Geva-Kleinberger 2009: 55).


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complements to akūsa ‘I find’, [wa-l-wadak lā hāśan bīham] ‘I don’t know what is wrong with them’ is conjoined to the preceding clause in an adversative relationship, and the final conjunct [w-akīran laḳfēd sbētar] ‘and I want to go down to the hospital’ is conjoined to the entire preceding clause in a consequential relationship – i.e. I want to go to the hospital because of the combined facts that my lips hurt and that I don’t know what is wrong with them.

[akūsa [aḳafrarya ḏa-ḳaśʔam / wa-ṣ-ṣaṭṭak tēham]] [wa-l-wadak lā hāśan bīham]] [w-akīran laḳfēd sbētār9]] ‘I find my lips have dried out and they m. hurt and I don’t know what is wrong with them, and I’d like to go down to the hospital’ M.NS

In the following example, the coordination complex [hēt śōṭ manay bāś ʔaynat ḏōraʔ / wa-śāṭayta mank ʔaynat ḏō raʔ] itself forms a coordination complex with [wa-ḏīmah mūkīt] which provides an appellation for that described in the initial coordination complex.

[hēt śōṭ manay bāś ʔaynat ḏōraʔ / wa-hōh śāṭayta mank ʔaynat ḏō raʔ] […] [wa-ḏīmah amūkīt] ‘you m.s. take from me some, a little, blood, and I f. will take a little blood from you, and that is [known as] mūkīt [possessing each other in marriage]’ M.N.04.23

7.2.8 Coordinated attributes and distributive readings

Where two or more attributes refer to different aspects of the head noun, where they refer to separate entities, and within ḏa- attributive phrases, they are linked syndetically. In coordinated attributes, the conjuncts may either modify the same entity in the real world, or different entities, in which case they have a distributive reading. In some cases, they may refer in one reading to a single entity and in another to two different entities.

Single entity

aḳassēt [ḏa-hōh / wa-harbātyan] ‘the story of me and our friends’ M.N

Here there is a single story to be told, which concerns both conjuncts hōh ‘I’ and harbātyan ‘our friends’, hence the conjuncts refer to the same entity in the real world. In the following example, the attributive adjectives āfarūt, nōb, ṣalḥayt and āḏayḳat describe different aspects – the colour, height, fatness and size of the udders – of a single entity (a camel):

klūṯan līham amūran ībīt [āfarūt / wa-nōb / wa-ṣalḥayt / w-āḏayḳat] ‘we told them m., we said a large, fat, red camel with large udders’ M.N.Rabkūt02.20

9 Old word, rarely used today. Possibly from the English ‘hospital’.

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Different entities

aḳādar [śōx / w-aḳannawn] ‘the large and small pot’ M.NS

An object cannot be simultaneously big and small, so here śōx ‘big’ is referring to a different entity in the real world from aḳannawn ‘(the) small’. Where coordinated attributes require a distributive reading since they refer to different entities in the same world, ellipsis of the head noun in the second conjunct can be assumed: thus aḳādar śōx w-aḳannawn can be thought of as involving ellipsis of aḳādar ‘the pot’ before the attribute aḳannawn. The coordination of attributive demonstratives invariably requires a distributive reading where one demonstrative refers to one entity and the second to a separate entity:

la-hal adaffēt [ḏīh / wa-ḏīh] [lit. to this side and to this] ‘from this side to the other’ M.NS

7.2.9 The relationship between conjuncts

In the coordination of clauses and VPs, the relationship between conjuncts linked by wa- can be one of:

(a) simultaneity or addition, where events or states occur at the same time, or where no judgement can be made about the sequencing of the events or states;

(b) sequence, where the event or state described in the second conjunct follows that described in the initial conjunct;

(c) consequence, where the event or state described in the second conjunct results from that described in the initial conjunct;

(d) adversity, where the event or state described in the second conjunct conflicts with that described in the initial conjunct;

(e) reason, where the event or state described in the second conjunct provides the reason for that described in the initial conjunct;

(f) alternation, where the event or state described in the second conjunct is an alternative to the one described in the first conjunct.

7.2.9.1 Simultaneity

In the following examples, the event or state described in the first conjunct may or does take place at the same time as the event or state described in the second conjunct:

hām syark man bawmah [bakyīta / wa-maśtūḳāta līkam mēkan] ‘when I leave here I’ll cry and really miss you m.pl.’ M.NS


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kūsam [ḥaybīt bars śamēt ḏ-aššayx śamīs ḥāgūr / w-amandawḳ bār śamēt] ‘they m. found the camel mare had been sold, the sheikh’s, the slave had sold it f., and the gun had been sold’ M.N.01.30

wa-śxawalūl ḥlakmah / w-āyūś bark ḥābū ‘he settled there and lived among the people’ M.N.03.12

7.2.9.2 Sequence

In the following examples, the event described by the VP in the second conjunct essentially did, does, or will take place after the event described by the VP in the initial conjunct:

bār kurr būmah / wa-syōr ‘he stayed here a short while and left’ Mo.NS

w-jähmōt sēh ʕmǟn / w-bärwōt ‘and she went to Oman and gave birth’ Sima4:7

hām ʕiśśak / wa-kisk aṭīyaryat bars sīrōt ‘if I had got up and found the plane had already gone’ M.NS

wkūb barkih / wa-šḳarōh barkih ‘he went into it m. [the ship] and hid in it’ M.N.03.03

nḥa [wṣyēla ṣarōmah mandīr ḏa-brīṭānya / wa-ḳafyēda] ‘we’re coming into the port of Britain and disembarking’ M.N.03.08

nabgēd ḥakamōt / wa-nardēd b-aḳlāl ‘let us chase old age away and bring youth back again’ M.NS

The sequential aspect of the second conjunct in non-completed events or states can be reinforced by a future participle in the second conjunct, but not in the first:

azamī sīyaryatk wa-harxaṣ lay tīs / wa-hōh wuzmōn tēk amandawḳī wa-ḥaybaytī ‘give m.s. me your car and make it f. cheap for me and I’ll give you my gun and camel’ M.PES.MA

The sequential aspect of the second conjunct can also be reinforced by one of the temporal conjuncts mġōran, mġōh, (a)tōlī or Mehreyyet imtalē-PRONOUN ‘then’:10

yaʕmīl źāġi ḏ-näylūn, […] / wa-mġōrän yṭalʕam źāġi ḏōmäh h-rōräm ‘they m. make a nylon net […] and then they take that net to the sea’ Sima6:6

hōh fōna ʕtalamk mahrīyōt la-maḥy ḏa-faḳḥ ḏa-warx / w-mġōran hanhayks kallas ‘I had learnt Mehri for two weeks and then I forgot it f. all’ Mo.NS

10 mtéllī ‘dann’ occurs in the western Yemeni Mehri texts of the Viennese Expedition (Bittner

1914: 27).

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mġōrän ṣōwar ḏikmäh w-ḏäkmäh ḥdīd [wi-ynäkʕam b-ṭād yʕamräm hēh ḥarrīḳ […] / w-tōli yälsīkäm ḏäkmäh ḥarrīḳ aṯ-ṯār ḏäkmäh ʕaybēl] ‘then that stone and that piece of metal, and they m. bring something they call ḥarrīḳ [i.e. tinder], and then they strike that ḥarrīk on the special stone [called ʕaybēl] [= flintstone]’ Sima10:9–11

fnōhan ḏ-aṣalū ḏ-affējar [ʕiśśan / wa-mġōran man ḏār fējar bsūṭan wa-śxawlūlan] ‘before the dawn prayer we got up and then after dawn we had breakfast and sat’ M.N

Â�À ~��Äs رن�Äsو k�À ~��Äs maġtayr šēh / wa-mġōran maġtayr šayš ‘[I] will speak to him and then will speak to you f.s.’ M.txt

wa-ḥād aḳdīd wa-nśōr taywī / w-amtalēham bāś aġyūg amkə tēham ḥawḳāʔam bark aṣafarīyat w-āgawn ‘another cut up and hung up strips of meat. And then some of the men I think they m. put [it] in the pot and made māgīn’ M.N.MA

7.2.9.3 Consequence

The event or state described in the second conjunct can occur as a consequence of that described in the first conjunct, as in the following example where her lying down is as a consequence of her being ill:

gilwōt / wa-ḏ-gārūt ‘she’s ill and lying down’ M.NS

The following example can be interpreted as the referent (i.e. the pupils) making more effort as a consequence of their delight in the praise:

hām madḥak tīham [yifarḥam / wa-yhaghīd axayr] ‘if you m.s. praise them m., they are happy and make more effort’ M.NS

In the following example, the woman was taken to the doctor as a consequence of people being afraid the sole of her foot would fall apart:

lǟkän [fizʕan xaffäs ḏ-yänṣalṣal / w-awadyimäs l-hǟl daxtär] ‘but we were worried the sole of her foot would fall apart, so we took her to the doctor’ Sima1:54

The consequential conjunct can take a future participle:

ḏa-ġatīḏak l-aġaygī / wa-ṭarḥaytah11 šība yōm maġtaryēta šēh lā ‘I’m cross with my husband, so I’m going to leave him for a week without talking to him’ M.NS

11 < *ṭarḥayta tah.


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7.2.9.4 Adversity

The conjunction wa- may conjoin conjuncts which present contrasting topics, as in the following example, where ‘she’ contrasts with ‘her sister’;

šīs ṯrayt ġaggūtan / w-aġits šīs ār ṭayt ‘she has two girls, but her sister has only one’ M.NS

It may conjoin conjuncts relating the unexpected conjunction of events or situations, as in:

tälḥaḳs mälsē wīyän wīyän lǟ, / wa-l-sēh mṣā b-järbīb tǟl ḳaśʕayt ḳaśʕayt lǟ ‘the rain doesn’t reach it as much, but neither is it as [very] dry as down on the plain’ Sima23:10

syūran ṯamarīt / wa-hōh fōna ḥōm amġsayl ‘we went to Thamarit, but I had wanted to go to Mughsayl’ M.NS

syūran dawrah [wzawman AgāʔizahA / wa-nišhūl ḏ-axayr mans] lahinna ṯlawman ‘we went on a course, and they m. gave us a prize, but we deserved better something better, but they were unfair to us’ M.PES.MA

And it may conjoin conjuncts presenting contrasting topics and the unexpected conjunction of events: in the example below, aġaygis contrasts with sēh, and the fact that she has left her husband contrasts with the husband refusing to divorce her:

sēh ṣarōmah fōrak / w-aġaygis xzuh min yxalyis ‘she has left her husband now, but her husband has refused to divorce her’ M.NS.Rabkut

In the following example, ṭād manhēm contrasts with hōh, and the children’s failure to pick up the phone contrasts with my writing to them:

hōh ḏ-akōtab ḥḥabinya / wa-l-ṭād manhēm śill atilifūn lā ‘I text my children, but none of them pick up the phone’ M.NS

In the conjunction of clauses with contrasting topics, the two conjuncts often have the same clausal structure and differ only in the initial or latter element.

Shared initial element

aṭrēf ḏōmah ḥaymal bi-xayr / w-aṭrēf ḏōmah śaymal wuṭīyuh ‘the right side is okay, but the left side is not quite right’ M.NS

wat ṭawr yikawn faxra / w-wat ṭawr yibaddīd ‘sometimes they m. are together, but sometimes they separate’ M.NS

Shared following element

hōh bay ṣābar ḏa-tālōm / wa-hēt būk ṣābar ḏa-tālōm lā ‘I have patience to study, but you m.s. don’t have the patience to study’ M.NS

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ḥall ḏ-aśētū ykawn mkōn / wa-ḥall ḏ-aṣayrab ykawn mkōn ‘in the winter, they’ll m. be in one place, but in the post-monsoon period, they’ll be in [another] place’ M.NS

7.2.9.5 Reason

The second conjunct can provide the reason behind the event or situation mentioned in the first conjunct. Although conjuncts in such a case are typically linked asyndetically (cf. 7.4.7), examples of syndetic linkage do occur:

at-tamadḥan ḥanfāykan – [nmōdaḥ ḥanfāyan / wa-nišhūl amadḥ] ‘Are you praising yourselves f.?’ ‘We are praising ourselves and [i.e. because] we deserve the praise.’ M.NS

7.2.9.6 Alternation

Alternative conjuncts are rarely linked by wa- in Mehri. This is probably due to the fact both that disjunctive conjunctions exist, and that alternative conjuncts in many cases are linked asyndetically (7.4.4). As in many Arabic dialects, including San’ani (Watson 1993: 285–286), however, wa- does link negative phrases in an alternative relationship (cf. 8.6):

aḥḥawalk / wa-la ḥḥawalk ‘whether I understand or not’ Mo.NS

amūr hōh [al-šay AgawāzA / wa-l-šay Aayya ḥāgahA] ‘he said, ‘I haven’t got a passport or anything’’ M.N.03.08

ġayg [al-xṣawb līham bi-xaṭṭ / wa-l-xṣawb līham bi-śī] ‘the man hadn’t sent them m. a letter or sent them anything’ M.N.03.13

wa- can also function as a more frequent alternative to aw in linking alternative conjuncts involving bār–IND:

w-bǟr tġōnäṯ b-maḥḥ xōzär / w-bǟr tġōnäṯ b-maḥḥ maxxamī ‘you m.s. could either pour small lumps of butter or you could pour clarified butter [over it]’ Sima58:45

bār tʔōmar ṯrōh ġayjī ṯrōh ġribkə tēham lā / wa-bār tʔōmar ṯrannēhi ġribkə tēhī lā ‘you can either say ṯrōh, two men I don’t know them m., or you can say ṯrannēhi [two.DIM] I don’t know them DUAL’ M.PES.MA

7.2.9.7 Listing

As seen above, multiple syndetically linked clausal and phrasal conjuncts occur in the listing of entitites or events:

nḥah ṣayd ḏēh ḏä-hnǟn nḥah [hnǟn śärwīn, / wa-hnǟn ḳaṣʕayr, / wa-hnǟn ʕnībōt, / wa-hnǟn ʕayd, / wa-hnän ḥamśēk, / w-ṣarʕayt, / wa-ḥḥōwar, / wa-xxadyīt] ‘the fish that we have, we have śarwīn, we have ḳaṣʕayr, we have


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ʕnībōt, we have sardines, we have ḥamśēk, and ṣarʕayt and the black fish and xadyīt’ Sima2:31

ṭawr yiġtayīḏ / wa-ṭawr yisdawd / wa-ṭawr yibakyam ‘now they m. get angry and now they make up and now they cry’ M.NS

7.2.10 Adversative conjuncts

wa- is purely functional, with the function of conjunction, and may conjoin conjuncts inter alia in an adversative relationship: to introduce a contrastive topic, or to say something unexpected about the topic at hand. However, both dialects also have explicit adversative conjuncts. The original adversative conjunct in Mehreyyet is lahinna, which is interchangeable with lākan; the main adversative particle in Mahrīyōt is lākan and its rarer variant mākan, homophonous in this dialect with mākan ‘much, a lot’. lākan may be introduced by the conjunction wa- in the Mehreyyet texts, but considerably less in my texts than in those collected by Johnstone.12 ār and ār hīs can be used in both dialects to introduce an adversative conjunct. mākan in Mahriyōt, occasionally in Mehreyyet, and Mehreyyet mākanáy ~ mākanī13 link contrasting topics in particular, and may introduce an initial focussed topic in the same way as amma. Adversative conjuncts most frequently conjoin clauses and verbal phrases.

7.2.10.1 lākan and lahinna

lākan and lahinna can introduce something unexpected about the topic in the first conjunct, or introduce a contrastive topic, as exemplified below.

Same topic, unexpected second conjunct

baʕlīt ḳrōn ḏīk ḏu-wṭōh, / lǟkän attī lǟ ‘that one with horns is the same, but it f. doesn’t eat [people]’ Sima2:36

sēh nṯīfōt, / lǟkän sēh hīs nṯīfōt ġahrīt lǟ ‘it f. is a bone with bone marrow, but it isn’t like the other [better] bone with bone marrow’ Sima11:24

aḥōm lāmōl tigōrat / lākan šharbak axsōrat ‘I would like to trade, but I’m worried about losing money’ M.NS

amūr śink śī lā / lākan hōh šay hayš […] AkanzA ‘he said, ‘I haven’t seen anything, but I do have some treasure for you f.s.’’ M.N.Rabkūt01.16

12 In the texts collected by the Viennese Expedition, lakên is only attested with wa- (in the form

walākin) in the Bible texts translated from Arabic; in all other cases it occurs without wa- (Wagner 1953: 102).

13 Given as mākənnáy in Johnstone (1987, etc.); however, there is no evidence of gemination of /n/.

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[hōh fōna īmōh akīran lasēr la-famya / lahinna haṣbaḥk al-hōh aḏ-ḳdark lā] wa-syark bark mōtar ‘I wanted to go by foot earlier today, but it turned out that I couldn’t and [so] I went by car’ M.NS

ḥōm albōdal wa-lūbūs / lahinna yiṣṣak ma14 laṭhūs ‘I want to get changed, but I’m worried about slipping’ M.NS

āśamī śnawwan ḥnōfī bay AḏaġṭA / lahinna hīs fḥaṣk ṭōla bay AiltihābA ‘I used to think I had blood pressure, but when I had tests it turned out I had inflammation’ M.NS

Contrasting topics

taʕmōl tawʕāl w-taʕmōl ḳabšīš, / lǟkän ḏīk bäkrīyät taʕmōl śī ḳabšīš lǟ ‘it f. brings worms and maggots, but the early sardines don’t bring maggots with it’ Sima2:7

ḏīmah hawbas Alā bāsA / lākan bālīt aśfīt aṭlayḳat tkūn arḥām axayr ‘that f. is okay, but the one with smooth fur is [considered] more beautiful’ M.N.Šlaym01.20

lākan is often introduced syndetically by wa-. The Jōdab texts in Sima (2009) have 48 instances of w-lākan within 148 overall instances of lākan. According to Rubin (2010: 236–237), Johnstone’s texts have more instances of wa-lākan than bare lākan, but in my Mehreyyet data, lākan is more frequently linked asyndetically to the preceding conjunct. Examples of syndetic linkage include:

w-lǟkän mġōrän hīs ḳfädk raḥbēt śīnän śaxṭ, / w-lǟkän wakt axah ḏ-nūkaʕ bēh śaxṭ Abi-ḏabṭA axah widʕak tēh axah mäytän lǟ ‘but then when I came down to the town we saw matches, but the time matches came, when it m. was, I don’t know’ Sima10:20

ḥaybitk ṣaḥḥayt / wa-lākan sēh k-aḳīyōʔ ‘your m.s. camel is alive, but she is with the spirits’ M.N.04.07

śxawalīl faxraʔ ḥlakmah / wa-lākan wīḳa śī manwīham ‘they m. stayed there together, but something happened between them’ M.N.04.18

lākan and lahinna most commonly link clauses or VPs, but may link contrasting predicative APs, as in the first example below, or attributive APs as in the following examples:

al-hēh ḳōmaḥ lā / lākan ṭrayr ‘it m. isn’t bad, but narrow ~ thin’ M.N.Šlaym01.18

14 < *man.


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šay kamkēm īdīn / lahinna ḳṣayr ‘I have a new indigo headscarf, but [it is] short’ ~ ‘I have an indigo headscarf [that is] new, but short’ M.NS

ḏōmah mkōn maṯmōm / lahinna kfēḥ ‘that is a fertile place, but [it is] narrow’ M.NS.Rabkūt

lākan can link conjuncts of differing categories, such as the VP and locational clause below, both of which function as predicate to the predicand ḏäkm ‘that one m.’.

w-ḏäkm ytī lǟ, / lǟkän bēh ǟr škī ‘and that one m. doesn’t eat [people], but it has a sword’ Sima2:44

In some cases of linkage of conjuncts of contrasting categories, ellipsis appears to be involved. In the following example, the verbal clause in the initial conjunct is linked with a NP in the second conjunct. The coordinate complex is to be interpreted as ‘we work with the long net and the fish trap together, but [we don’t work with the long net and the fish trap for] sardines’.

wa-nxōdäm b-źāġi w-ḳarḳūr faxrä, / lǟkän ʕayd lǟ, ʕayd bä-śbēk ‘we work with the long net and the fish trap together, but not [for] sardines, sardines [we catch] with fine-meshed nets’ Sima2:2-3

7.2.10.2 ār and ār hīs

The exception particle, ār, sometimes in combination with hīs, also links adversative conjuncts both where the topic of the second conjunct is the same as that of the first conjunct and where the second conjunct introduces a contrasting topic:

maḥjīr ykūn AdāʕirähA, aṯ-ṯīrōb, [hīs bäyt / ǟr sēh tkūn män ṯīrōb m-bōh m-bōh] ‘the threshing floor is round, [from] branches; [it is] like a house, but it f. is [made of] branches on all sides’ Sima63:31

ḥōm laġtayr / ār hīs al-matwiyak lā ‘I want to speak, but I’m not able to’15 M.NS

ḥōm lhaḳṣam lih / ār hīs ḥyūm ḥarḳ ‘I want to go to him at midday, but the sun is too hot’ M.NS

wa-šūkūf yihōgis ḥnafh mōt / ār hēh mōt lā ‘and he fell asleep, thinking he had died, but he hadn’t died’ M.N

v��¸ £m|�À أر ��¬� �� ار ھ�ه Âl¢ھ�� ا� hēt AatṣalšA ār bi-waḳt taww / ār hōh šūkafk fīsēʔ ‘you f.s. called at the right time, but I had gone to sleep early’ M.txt.Rabkūt

ār may introduce a correction of the proposition in the initial conjunct:

ġāk lǟ, / ǟr bär ġitk ‘not your m.s. brother, but your sister’s son’ Sima48:30

15 i.e. I am busy.

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7.2.10.3 amma, mākan, mākanay ~ mākanī

While lākan and lahinna introduce both propositions that are unexpected in view of what has just been said and contrasting topics, only amma,16 mākan and Mehreyyet mākanay ~ mākanī can introduce an initial focussed topic:

fǟjōš nawʕi ṯrōh: mǟkän fjōš ṭād ḏōmäh ḏä-nḥah ntäyw, […] / w-mǟkän fǟjōš baʕź mänh lbōn ‘there are two types of mushroom: this one mushroom that we eat, […] and some mushrooms are white’ Sima70:24

amma hōh manáy śī lā / wa-lākan aġaygī awōdaʔ lā ‘I have nothing against it, but my husband I don’t know’ M.NS

amma baḳyis ‘as for the rest of it f.’ M.NS

mākanay šay ġayg ṭād aw ḳassēt ṭayt ḏa-bar nuwās ‘I have a man or a story about Bar Nuwās’ M.N

u-mākan ḥōram ḏīmah thaḳbūl ṣlōlat / wa-mākanay ḥōram ḏīh thaḳbūl mazyūnah ‘that road goes to Salalah, but that road goes to Mazyūnah’ M.NS.Rabkūt

amma is used by some speakers far more than others – my Mahriyōt consultants use amma relatively frequently, and among the Mehreyyet consultants Ali Musallam uses amma significantly more than the other consultants. When I spoke to Ali Musallam about the use of amma, he said it was loaned from Arabic. My other consultants tend to use mākanī ~ mākanáy in place of amma. In non-initial position, mākan and Mehreyyet mākanī ~ mākanáy, and occasionally amma, introduce focussed contrasting topics.

l-innä däḳf yḥōmäl ḥaḳbōl śīyāx, rkǟn śīyaxtän / ammä źayjaʕ yḥōmäl ṯīrōb ǟr ḳāṭan ‘because the däḳf-hut bears large beams, large beams, but the źaygaʕ-hut just bears slim branches’ Sima77:6

Conjuncts introduced by mākan or mākanay may be linked asyndetically, as in the first four examples below, or syndetically:

mänh ytī ḥābū w-mänh ytī ḥābū lǟ, / mǟkän šīrīt ttī ḥād lǟ ‘some eat people and some don’t eat people, but the šīrīt [fish] doesn’t eat anyone’ Sima2:35

ādan kūsan […] ḥruh ḏa-ḥabrays / mākan aġayg ḏakm arībāy ṭād ḥagūr ḥaybīt ‘we found […] the head of her calf, but that man, my companion, stayed with the camel’ M.N.Rabkūt02.25

ḏīmah tadfadūf bi-ḥāditsa / mākanay ḏikmah trūkaś bi-fāmsa aḥād yaḳrabs lā ‘this f. one hits out with her forelegs, but that f. one kicks with her hindlegs so no one [dares] go near her’ M.NS

16 As noted by Rubin (2010: 244).


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hēt bayš ṣābar h-aḳanyawm / mākanī hōh bay ṣābar lā ‘you f.s. have patience with children, but I don’t have patience’ M.NS

tkūn ḥaybīt arḥām bālīt śiff aṭlāḳōt / ū-mākanī bālīt śiff ḳarṭarāṭ aw ḥasist ‘the camel is more beautiful, one with smooth fur, but one with curly fur or not much fur [isn’t so beautiful]’ M.N.Šlaym01.20

ḏīmah ḥamaymat nʔōmar hīs ḥamaymat nḥah tnōka tōlī ḏ-aḳayḏ wa-fanwē ḏ-axarf ʔaynat / wa-mākanay lḥaymar yinōka [ā]r ṣarbay ‘That [rain] is ḥamaymat. We call it f. ḥamaymat. It comes at the end of the hot period and a little before the monsoon period. The lḥaymar rain comes just in the post-monsoon period.’ M.N.Rabkūt02.15–16

aḳanyawn śīnam harawḳat wa-rōdam tēham ba-ṣwayr ṭarḥam tēsan hōlaʔ ḏayrhim17 / ū-mākanay hōh bḳaśk srīham u-manak tēham wa-nakak bīham ‘the children saw thieves and threw so many stones at them m. they m. made a shadow over them, but I ran after them and caught them and brought them [back]’ M.NS

ḏah ṯabarūt ḥayḏānah / wa-mākanay ḏah bih śī lā ‘that m. one’s handle is broken, but that m. one doesn’t have anything wrong with it’ M.NS

Other parts of speech may be contrastively focussed, as in the adverbs of time illōh ‘last night’ and ilīlah ‘tonight’ below:

illōh hātamūt bilēt wīyan wa-barkīs haḳḳ wīyan / wa-mākanī ilīlah watxafūt amdīt w-āfūr wa-śarabēt ḳāṣam wīyan ‘last night there was lots of northern wind with lots of cold, but tonight there is a southern wind and clouds and [it is] very cold’ M.NS

Where the contrast lies in the attribute rather than in the head noun, the head noun may be elided from the second conjunct. Below, two types of sleep are contrasted: sleep after lunch and sleep after mid-afternoon, and the head noun, ašnēt ‘sleep’, is absent from the second conjunct:

ašnēt min bād afśē gidat / mākanay 0 min bād al-ʔaṣar tkūn mrīś wa-tāb tḳōdar thanśar lā ‘sleeping after lunch is good, but [sleep] after the mid-afternoon prayer time it [makes you] ill and tired and you m.s. can’t wake up refreshed’ M.NS

7.2.10.4 madanī

Mehreyyet madanī, with stress on the penultimate syllable, is a presentative or mirative particle rather than a conjunct, but since it links a conjunct which is unexpected in view of the first conjunct, it is considered here (cf. also 9.1.8.4).18

17 Saying. 18 mdéni, also written as mdénī, mdêni, madéni is given as ‘sieh! sieh da!’ in works on western

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There are few examples of madanī in the database: I have examples for Mehreyyet, though it is not mentioned by Rubin (2010); no examples occur in Sima (2009) or in my own Mahriyōt data. According to my informants, the proposition in the second conjunct is significantly more unexpected when linked by madanī than by lahinna or lākan. madanī takes a following independent pronoun, and the predicand of the second conjunct is present in some form in the first conjunct, but it is not necessarily the predicand of the first conjunct (as in the final example below where sēh is co-referential with the object in the first conjunct):

ḳf awd aġyūg yaḥṭābam / madanī hēm kūsam aḳā gadab min aḏīrōb lahinna hēm śwōḳaḳ wa-nakam kall ḥād b-aġdaylah ‘the men went down to fetch wood, but they m. [unexpectedly] found the land empty of wood; however, they were clever and every one of them came with his large bundle’ M.NS

[hīs wuṣlam amṭār / madanī nḥah bi-harbātyan] aṭarḥan tēham man hāl syūran śafham bār wuṣlam fanwīn ‘when we arrived at the airport, there were [unexpectedly] our friends; we left them m. when we went and it turned out they arrived before us’ M.PES.MA

syark abayr lankā bi-muh / madanī sēh ḳśayt ‘I went to the well to fetch water, but it f. was dry’ M.NS

7.2.11 Disjunctive conjunctions

Alternation in Mehri can be expressed by linkage with wa- (7.2.9.6) or asyndetic linkage (cf. 7.4.4). Both dialect groups also have the disjunctive conjunctions aw,

walī and walā. In a few cases, and particularly where numerical phrases are linked, yā links alternative conjuncts in a non-polysyndetic construction. Alternation can be exclusive or inclusive (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 258). In exclusive alternation, only one of the alternates may hold: in a clause such as ‘it was a man or a woman’, the real-world referent may only be one of the two alternatives. In inclusive alternation, either one or both of the alternates may hold: in a clause such as ‘she is looking for a man who is good looking or rich’, we can assume that the subject would not turn down a man who was both good looking and rich.

7.2.11.1 Exclusive alternation

Exclusive alternation can involve the disjunction of incompatible propositions or compatible propositions. Incompatible propositions are often opposites of some type. They can be positive and negative counterparts, as in:

aḥḥawalk / aw lǟ ‘Have you m.s. understood or not?’ Sima1:2

Yemeni Mehri by the Viennese Expedition (Bittner 1914: 37); it apparently takes pronoun suffixes, but in the example given by Bittner mdêni-hem the pronoun could be equally an independent or a dependent pronoun.


295

taxšūš / aw taxšūš lǟ ‘Does it f. rot or not?’ Sima2:11

hēh [ykūn ḥabrēs / aw yk ūn ḥabrēs lǟ] ‘Is it her son or is it not her son?’ Sima47:57

They can be antonyms, as in:

śōx / aw ḳannūn ‘big or small’ Mo.NS

ṣalḥayt / aw xaṯmīt ‘fat f.s. or thin f.s.’ M.PES.MA

Or they can be alternatives that otherwise cannot simultaneously hold, as in:

tḥayman nbār / aw tḥayman nhaṣbaḥ tā k-ṣōbaḥ ‘whether you m.pl. want us to go at night or you want us to wait until the morning’ M.N

taywī ḏa-bōkar / aw gzawr ‘meat of a young camel or an old camel’ M.PES.MA

masbīġ / aw ʔōfar ‘[tea] with milk or black’ M.NS

Compatible propositions are propositions in which one may be properly included within the other: for example, ‘four days’ in ‘he stayed for four days or five days’ is a portion of and properly included within ‘five days’. Most disjuncts of compatible propositions involve numerical phrases or phrases of measure:

bärn [arbaʕōt / yǟ hītīt] ‘we were around four or six’ Sima33:43

wkōn [sǟʕah bärs AsabʕahA / yǟ Asǟʕah sittah w-nuṣṣA] ‘it was around seven or six thirty’ Sima61:75

[śīlaṯ yōm / aw rība yōm] assinnawrat maḳtūbētā tēṯ ‘on the third day or the fourth day, the cat will turn into a woman’ M.N.04.09

wa-hīs ḥaybī bād [snēt / aw snētī ṯrayt] ridd ‘and when my father went back a year or two later’ M.N.01.31

7.2.11.2 Inclusive alternation

Inclusive alternation occurs in the conjunction of synonyms or identical elements, which is particularly common in greeting routines, or where an alternative reformulation or more precise formulation of the first conjunct is provided in the second conjunct:

Greetings

ḥād [śattar / walī aġtiyūr] ‘Is anyone hurt or changed?’ Mo.NS

śī xbōr [man bōh / walī man bōh] ‘Is there any news from here or there?’ Mo.NS

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śī ṣfōt [m-bōh / walī m-bōh] ‘Is there any urgent news from here or there?’ Mo.NS

Reformulation

ḳaṣṣāt ḏ-īmōh / aw ḳaṣṣǟnōt ‘today’s story or short story’ Sima17:1

kälṯōn hūk bä-l-hīs [akhōl bēh / aw ḏa-ġräbk tōh] ‘I’ll tell you m.s. as much as I can or know about it’ Sima17:7

w-[käll snǟtän / aw khǟn] ‘and a while ago or a long time ago’ Sima18:12

Inclusive alternation also occurs in the conjunction of non-synonymous alternatives, such as:

yässaʕīdän ḥaskänyäh, hīn [šēh śī fēśäl / aw šīhäm śī źāḥi bäk bäyt] ‘he helps his family when he has work or they m. have an animal to slaughter in the house’ Sima11:9

wiḏ HtxōmH [täḳlēb bärkēh nṣarōmäh śī ṯūm / aw täḳlēb bärkēh śī bzōr / aw śī män AḥǟjǟtA lyōmäh] ‘if you m.s. wish you can now put in some garlic or can put in spices or something like that’ Sima16:38

7.2.11.3 Sequences of alternative conjuncts

As for coordination with wa- and asyndetic coordination, sequences of phrasal or clausal alternative conjuncts can be linked, as in Sima16:38 above, and as in:

wat bǟr sḥāṭ [lē / aw ḥaybīt / aw ḥōz] ‘when he has slaughtered a cow or a camel or a goat’ Sima12:9

ḏ-jōd [ḏ-ḥōz / w-lī ḏa-ʕrīṯ / w-lī ṯīwīt] ‘of the leather of a goat or of a kid or of a sheep’ Sima27:3

wat bnǟdäm [mätḥan / aw šēh särbēt / aw šēh śī l-hīs yḥōm lǟ], yšärfōd ‘when someone is in need, or has a lot of children, or doesn’t have what he needs, he will ask for alms’ Sima28:7

wa-Afulān bin fulānA šēh mōl hibɛr / walā ḏīk šēh abḳār / walā ḏīk šēh ḥārawn ‘and so-and-so had camels, and that one had cows, and that one had goats’ M.N.03.26

sād [šēh baśāt / aw šēh bɛr / aw šēh farahayayn] ād al-wadan lā hāśan šēh man lyōmah ‘Saad has commodities or camels or horses; we don’t yet know what he has of those [things]’ M.PES.MA

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7.3 Polycoordination

Polycoordination involves a conjunction to the left of the initial conjunct as well as the second conjunct. Polysyndetic coordination may involve both conjuncts being introduced by the alternative conjunction aw, walī or walā, the first conjunct being introduced by swē or, less commonly, amma, and the second by yā or aw, or both conjuncts being introduced by yā or, in Mehreyyet, yamma. Polycoordination which does not involve two separate conjunctions also occurs: in this case, a pronoun which agrees in number and gender with the noun in the conjunct may introduce the initial conjunct and yā the second and subsequent conjuncts. In Mehreyyet, a pronoun may introduce each conjunct. All phrase and clause types can be polycoordinated. Polycoordination generally involves exclusive alternative conjuncts, although the first example below could be read as allowing either one or both conjuncts:

7.3.1 aw … aw ~ walā … walā ~ walī … walī

nḥah ʕyōśän nḥah ʕayś ḏ-ḏäll, ǟr [w-lī sēh taʕjōb bī lǟ / w-l-aʕjōb bīs lǟ] ‘we lived a wretched life: either she didn’t love me or I didn’t love her’ Sima76:9

taḥlōb ḥall ṭād [walā k-ṣōbaḥ taḥlōb / walā kalaynī] ‘you m.s. milk one time: either in the morning you milk or in the evening’ M.NS

tinōka [wlā bi-ʕaylīg / walā frayś �] ‘she’ll give birth either to a male camel calf or a female camel calf’ M.NS

7.3.2 yā … yā

In the first example, yǟ occurs after the initial conjunct, probably as an afterthought, and the first two conjuncts are split by the parathetic phrase ʕād b-ḳalbi:

AwaḷḷahA män ldāʕ hōh [bä-Kkähf yǟ ʕād b-ḳalbi / yǟ b-Tǟnǟyäk / yǟ ʕād b-hõ] ‘By God, I don’t know, was it in Kähf or, I think, in Tǟnǟyäk or where?’ Sima13:4

yǟ ʕād bä-Źfōr / yǟ ʕād b-śī män arūź ḏ-Mährēh ‘either in Dhofar or somewhere in Mahrah’ Sima40:7

hām [yā ḏ-ijhīm afrīgya / yā ḏa-nakʕam man afrīgyā ‘either they m. were going to Africa or had come from Africa’ Mo.N.02.08

xōṭar ba-ḥnafh [yā yafyēl / yā lā] ‘he took a risk: he would either get away with it or not’ M.NS.MA

taḥlōb [yā kalaynī / yā k-aṣōbaḥ] ‘you m.s. milk either in the evening or in the morning’ M.PES.MA

[yā sār akarmaym ḏih / yā sār akarmaym ḏih] wadan tah ḥō šḳarōh lā ‘either behind that hill or this hill, we don’t know where he is hiding’ M.NS

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ġabrih man ād ladā ḥō [yā hēh bi-sawḳ / yā hēh b-agarbīb] ‘he met him I don’t know where, either in the market or on the coastal plain’ M.PES.MA

yā before the initial conjunct can be omitted, indicated below by 0:

wa-sēh ḏik awaḳtan ḏa-ʔamkə tīs [0 ġaganōt / yā tuwaṯṯōt] ‘and she at that time I think she was [either] a girl or a young woman’ M.N.MA

7.3.3 swē ~ amma … yā

More common in the Mahriyōt data than the Mehreyyet data, this construction may be due to Arabic influence and was analysed as such by Alexander Sima (p.c.). Mehreyyet uses more commonly yā … yā, as above, or yamma … yā yamma given below:

ammä ḏä-ḏhēb / aw ḏ-fäźźāt ‘either of gold or of silver’ Sima26:23

ammä ykūn ṭād / aw šēh härbaʕtiyäh – ṯrōh w-lī śaʕṯäyt ‘he is either one [i.e. on his own], or he has two or three friends with him’ Sima12:8

l-innä [AswǟA ḳǟd lē / aw ḥaybīt] ‘because either a cow or a camel’ Sima11:19

wa-ḥābū yaxxarījäm ṣadḳāt aw zkōt, [swǟ ḳǟd b-raḥbēt / aw b-bädyät] ‘and people give ṣadaḳāt taxes or zakāt taxes, whether in the village or the desert’ Sima28:2

yamma šaṣfūh mnīn lā / yā yamma ḏa-haʔnūh yinkā lā ‘either he hasn’t heard the news from us, or he’s deliberately not coming’ M.PES.MA

yamm aġayg ḏōmah ḏa-ḳyīs yaḥśēr ḥābū / yā yamma AmasʔūlīnA ḏa-nxalha ḏ-ībadyam bih ‘either that man intends to massacre the people, or the officials below him are lying to him’ M.PES.MA

7.3.4 Pronoun … yā

wīṣal arḥabēt ma ldā hāśan hammas [sēh Newcastle / yā London / yā hāśan] ‘he came to a town, I don’t know what its f. name was, either Newcastle or London or whatever’ M.N.03.11

7.3.5 Asyndetic polycoordination

Asyndetic polycoordination takes place where both conjuncts are introduced by an independent dummy pronoun hēh:

ġabrih ma ldāʔ [hēh bark amṭām / hēh hāśan] ‘he met him, I don’t know, either in a restaurant or whatever’ M.N.03.17

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7.3.6 Sequence of polycoordinated conjuncts

As for coordination with wa- and the alternative conjunctions, three or more polycoordinated conjuncts are frequently attested in both dialects:

ammä ḏ-lōtaġ / aw ḏ-därmǟt / aw ḏä-šnūḥōt / aw śī ‘whether it is due to murder or hamstringing an animal or fighting or whatever’ Sima28:11

ynōkaʕ b-mäsḥīṭōt [swǟ ʕrīṯ / aw ḥōz / aw l-hīs wīḳaʕ män mäsḥīṭōt / aw fʕōr] ‘he brings an animal to slaughter, either a kid or a goat or whatever animal there is to slaughter, or a bull’ Sima65:27


Asyndetic coordination appears less frequently than syndetic coordination in Mehri. It may occur as a stylistic variant to syndetic coordination, it frequently occurs within narratives, particularly after the verb ʕamōr (amūr) ‘to say’, as we see below; however, it is also used where conjuncts have a particular semantic relationship or where particular conjuncts are involved. Common uses of asyndetic coordination include apposition, counting, alternation in numerical phrases, reformulation, the expression of sequence, consequence, reason and adversity, the linkage of certain imperatives, and repetition.

7.4.1 Apposition

Two nominal conjuncts that share the same referent are typically linked asyndetically (cf. 3.3).

ḥābū / ḥibha ḏa-bawm ba-śfūr ‘the people, his parents here in Dhofar’ M.N.03.13

mġōran ḏ-isyūr [ṭād ma-bawmah / mahray] ‘then someone from here, a Mahri, was travelling’ M.N.03.17

In apposition, the second conjunct may be separated from the first (cf. 3.3.3.2):

[ḥābū] ḏik awaḳtan [aḥād] yikhōl bi-l-inglīzī lā bawmah ‘people at that time no one [i.e. none of them] knew English here’ M.N.03.28

7.4.2 Asyndetic linkage of adjectives

Where two adjectives are synonyms or otherwise refer to the same aspects of the same entity, they are linked asyndetically.

wa-xxuhs hīs-wōt, yäḳtalōb [ḳann ūn / źayḳ] ‘and its mouth should be small and narrow’ Sima13:9

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wa-mākanī hēh [ḳṣayr / āḏafēt19 ḏa-ġayg] ‘but he is short, a stump of a man’ M.PES.MA

tēṯ ḏīmah [ḳwīyat / ṣlaybat] ‘this woman is strong and sturdy’ M.NS

wa-fʔamsa [nyōb / arwaśtan] ‘and her feet [have to be] large and wide’ M.N.Šlaym01.18

7.4.3 Counting

In counting, the conjuncts are invariably linked asyndetically, as in the following count from one to twenty:

ṭād / ṯrōh / śāṯayt / arbūt / xmōh / itīt / ībayt / ṯamanīt / sʕayt / āśarīt / āśarīt wa-ṭād / āśarīt wa-ṯrōh / āśarīt wa-śāṯayt / āśarīt w-arbūt / āśarīt wa-xmōh / āśarīt w-itīt / āśarīt w-ībayt / āśarīt wa-ṯamanīt / āśarīt wa-sʕayt / āšrayn

7.4.4 Alternation

The coordination of PP and NP time phrases and/or numerical phrases in an alternative relationship is often asyndetic, but does not appear to be as frequently asyndetic in Mehri as it is in dialects of Arabic (cf. Watson 1993: 312 for San’ani; cf. 7.2.11.1):

yrädyäm bēh […] [män k-ṣōbaḥ / män kälʕayni] ‘they m. throw it m. [out] in the morning or in the evening’ Sima6:23

mġōn yaʕmilmäs śī [śīlat yōm / rībaʕ yōm] ‘then they m. do it f. for three or four days’ Sima1:43

[nhūr / nhūrī ṯrayt] wa-ṣaḥbōn alang ḏakmah ‘after one or two days, that ship was going to leave’ M.N.03.02

w-āyūś ḥlakmah wḳōn [snēt / snēti ṯrayt] ‘and he lived there around one or two years’ M.PES.MA

mśxawwal ba-śfōr [warx / warxi ṯrōh] ‘[I]’ll m. stay in Dhofar for a month or two’ M.PES.MA

bār haynī [hitt / hōba snay] ‘it’s around six or seven years since I …’ M.NS

Clausal coordinate complexes in which the relationship between conjuncts is one of alternation may involve asyndetic linkage of conjuncts:

ykūn śōx, / yk ūn ḳannūn ‘it m. may be either large or small’ Sima2:39

19 Metaphor: āḏafēt ‘stump [e.g. of wood]’.


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7.4.5 Reformulation

Coordination is ordinarily asyndetic where the second conjunct provides a reinterpretation, unpacking or provision of further information, a (partial) paraphrase or a correction of the initial conjunct. This can also be considered as apposition (cf. 3.3):

Phrase

w-kä-lʕayni / k-maġrāb ‘and in the evening, at sunset’ Sima1:60

hīs ḥābū barham [la-ḥaḳ / bark arōram la-ḥaḳ] ‘when the people were already far out to sea’ M.N.03.04

m-bawmah / man śafōr / man aśḥayr ‘from here, from Dhofar, from the mountains’ M.N.03.01

[klūṯ lih / amūr] sray ṯabarayn ‘he told him, he said, ‘There’s a hyena behind me’’ M.N.Rabkūt01.14

Asyndetically conjoined phrases usually share the same categorial features – NP, VP, adverb, PP – as in the above examples. There are exceptions, as in the following example where aḳawt ‘the food’ takes two synonymous predicates: the adjective fśāl ‘plenty’ and the VP ḏa-kīṯar ‘is in a state of abundance’ (cf. 2.5.1.5).

aḳawt [fśāl / ḏa-kīṯar] b-awaḳt ḏōmah ‘there is lots of food at this time’ M.PES.MA

Clause

lyōm ḏ-ḳabṣ / ḏōm ḏ-rēśīt ‘these [are the words] for a bite, that m. is for a snake [bite]’ Sima1:12

ḥād būmah lā / ḥād yardūd lā ‘no one’s here, no one answers’ Mo.NS

bū sēlim ḏōmah [l-ād hēh ṣaḥḥ lā / bār ġdūh] ‘that Bū Sēlim, he’s no longer alive; he has died’ M.N.03.15

syūr ta l-baḥrayn / syūr tā xalīg ‘he went to Bahrain; he went to the Gulf’ M.N.03.01

akhōl laxbēz / hōh ṣarōmah ḏ-axōbaz ‘I can bake [bread]; I am baking at the moment’ M.NS

amūr aġayg [al-ād yitayw śī ḏa-xawr lā / yiḥawśar l-hān kūsa] ‘the man said he would no longer eat a little, he devours whatever he finds’ M.PES.MA

In the following example, the conjoined clauses function as object to the verb wīda:

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la-wīda [hībōh yāmōl lā / hībōh yiwōṣaf aḳassēt ḏīmah lā] ‘he didn’t know what to do, how he could describe that story [i.e. what had happened]’ M.N.04.04

Where the second conjunct unpacks or serves to provide further information about the first conjunct and itself comprises a coordinate complex, the conjuncts within the second conjunct are ordinarily linked syndetically (separated here by //):

ʕayd swē lǟ, / baʕź mäns ṣalḥayt, // w-baʕź mäns xaṯmīt ‘sardines aren’t all the same: some of them are fat and some of them are thin’ Sima2:6

ṯamarēt kallas al-sēh gidat lā / bīs man gīd // wa-bīs man ḳōmaḥ ‘fruit isn’t all good: some of it f. is good and some of it f. is bad’ M.NS

In the following example, ḥābū ḥād bärkīsan lǟ serves as an explanatory conjunct to the initial conjunct, and the following coordinate complex beginning with baʕź serves as an explanatory conjunct to ḥābū ḥād bärkīsan lǟ:

byōt baʕź mänsǟn xīläytän, xīläytän, / ḥābū ḥād bärkīsän lǟ, / baʕź ahläsän bǟr mōtäm // w-baʕź ḏä-jhǟmäm ‘the houses, some of them f. are completely empty, no one is in them: some of their inhabitants have died and some of them m. have left’ Sima45:4

Reformulative conjuncts may be separated by parenthetic or other material. In the example below, the NP in the initial conjunct (ḳōmōn ḳuwēmat ḳuwēmat) about which the second conjunct is providing more information is separated from the second conjunct by the VP nakam tīn ‘came to us’:

hamam bīn [ḳōmōn ḳuwēmat ḳuwēmat [nakam tīn] / aḥād man śḥayr // w-aḥād man abadyat // w-aḥād man arḥabēt] ‘lots of small groups of people heard about us: some came to us from the mountains, some from the desert and some from the town’ M.N

7.4.6 Sequence

Conjuncts in a sequential relationship may be linked asyndetically within a narrative, particularly, but not exclusively, when an element of consequence is involved:

jhǟmäm, jhǟmäm, jhǟmäm at-tǟ wiṣläm b-ʕamḳ, / kōsäm ḥmūh ‘they m. went on and on until they got to the middle, then they found water’ Sima8:3

amurt ayyah āfdīta / āfadūt ‘she said, ‘Yes, I’ll jump!’ [So then] she jumped’ M.N.Rabkūt01.18

nakam / amawr hīs ‘they m. came and said to her’ M.NS


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As for syndetic coordination, the sequential aspect can be reinforced by one of the sequential conjuncts, including the adverb swaʕnōt (swānōt), which occurs in this sense only at the head of an asyndetically linked conjunct (cf. also 9.1.1.3):

w-hǟm lu-wṭakmäh sätmäräm aṯ-ṯār baʕyäryihäm / swaʕnōt ʕmōr tēk:20 “ḏ-ʕamälk tōh ḏōm Šēx bär ʕAlī Dhēb” ‘they m. were [as if] nailed to their camels; then after a little while, [one of them] said, ‘I think that is Sheikh bar Ali Dhēb’’ Sima39:16–17

tabakī tēs bark ḥawōdī ḏikm amṣa mṣa / swānōt kiskī ṣarḥūb ḳāmaḥayn ‘we followed her along that wadi further and further downstream; after a little while, we found [difficult] poor paths with lots of stones’ M.N.Rabkūt02.11

xazyīw / amtalēham šūgīb ‘they m. refused, and then they confessed’ M.PES.MA

7.4.7 Reason or consequence

Where the second conjunct provides the reason behind the proposition in the initial conjunct, linkage is typically asyndetic:

ād al-ḳadūran naślalh lā / ḥabrays śōx nūka ‘we can’t carry it m., [because] her calf was born big’ M.N.Rabkūt02.32

amūr [hēt bēdī / bar nuwās bār mōt] ‘he said, ‘You’re a liar, [because] Bar Nuwās is dead’’ M.N.Rabkūt

grēḥam afśē / ḥābū wuṣlam ‘Put the food out m.pl.! People have arrived.’ M.PES.MA

Ñ¦Òش ر~�� Â�� ھ Ç م�� Â�� os k�rsا layš lawm lā hām tabš / syarš rēḥaḳ man imšēh ‘you f.s. can’t be blamed if you’re tired, [because] you travelled a long way since yesterday’ M.txt

’fśēyam / hōh bār faśk ‘Have m.pl. lunch! I’ve already eaten ¸¨�� ھ�ه �~ ¸¨£M.txt

Ç o� ,aḥtamīdan arḥamōn / bay wīyan lā ‘I thank God ا�p�n ن ار�pnن �u و[because] I haven’t got much [wrong]’ M.txt (cp. 9.2.5.2)

Asyndetic coordination of clauses may occur where the second conjunct provides the consequence of the proposition in the initial conjunct:

ʕād ṣburk lǟ [faḥli ṣarrōt / HxōmH ǟr lähfǟḳ] ‘I can’t wait any longer! My penis is standing up! I just want to get married!’ Sima4:24

hōh bār faśk / fśēyam ‘I have had lunch, [so] have lunch m.pl!’ M.PES

20 Punctuation corrected from Sima (2009).

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šxabīr lih ḥābū ġawf wa-xōṭar wadam bih ḥō man aḳā lā / nḥāram lih ‘People asked about him left, right and centre. They m. didn’t know where on earth he was. [So] they slaughtered for him.’21 M.N.03.15

7.4.8 Adversity

Two clausal conjuncts in an adversative relationship may be linked asyndetically:

amūr alay adammah mḥammad ḏa-haftakah / śinkə tah lā bi-ʔaynī ‘Ali said, ‘It was probably Muhammad who took it off, [though] I didn’t actually see him [do it]’’ M.NS

ḏa-ḥibrak fōna / ṣarōmah šagnēk bark AkanbalA ‘I was cold before, but now I have warmed up under the blanket’ M.NS

amawr sēlim bār asōfar / nḥah šīn ṣfōt lā manh ‘they m. said Sēlim had gone, but we haven’t any news about him’ M.PES.MA

7.4.9 Asyndetic linkage of imperatives

Two imperatives are linked asyndetically where the first imperative is a verb of motion, in the case of near-synonyms, and in the case of repetition of identical elements:

ā ġiggīn [sēr / haśśab] aśxōf ‘Boy! Go and heat up the milk!’ M.NS

sēr / xōṭam ḥaybīt ḏikmah ‘Go m.s. and bridle that camel mare!’ M.PES

[sēr / arōga hāl aḥmēd] wa-rdēd abayt fīsēʔ ‘Go m.s. and study with Ahmed and come back home quickly!’ M.PES.MA

[inkāy / ṭāfī l-aġitš] mġōran rdēdī l-hāl ḥāmēš ‘Come and visit your f.s. sister, then go back to your mother!’ M.PES.MA

ḥaḏḏūr ma (t)sēr mkōn / ḥaḏḏūr man tāṣōṣ ‘Make sure you m.s. don’t go anywhere! Make sure you are not afraid!’ M.N.04.08

wa-l-hīs tḥōm manh [śōṭ […] / tē] ‘and whatever you m.s. want of it m., take and eat’ Mo.N.01.07

7.4.10 Repetition

Repeated words, phrases or clauses may be linked asyndetically to convey intensity, intensity in terms of number, repeated or extreme continuous action, or to convey distributive effect, where each conjunct refers separately to one or more separate tokens.

21 Because they assumed he was dead.


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7.4.10.1 Intensity

Intensity can be conveyed by repeated adverbs or adjectives: AṣunūfA ḏä-lxaym [mǟkän, / mǟkän] ‘there are very many types of shark’ Sima2:34

tälḥaḳs mälsē [wīyän / wīyän] lǟ, wa-l-sēh mṣā b-järbīb tǟl [ḳaśʕayt / ḳaśʕayt] lǟ ‘the rain doesn’t reach it f. as much, but neither is it f. as [very] dry as down on the plain’ Sima23:10

ṣwārīn ṭawr ḏäkm hǟm mǟkän lǟ [xṭā / xṭā] ‘at that time, there were not many sarongs around, [they m. were] very rare’ Sima26:6

yaʕmīläm tōh l-hǟl AmänǟṭigA lyēk [źābäl / źābäl / źābäl] ‘they m. send it m. to those very cold places’ Sima2:57

sēh [ṭwīlät / ṭwīlät] ‘it f. was very tall’ Sima33:14

śīnī ḥaybī ṯamēn AraxīṣA [wīyan / wīyan / wīyan] ‘my father saw the price was very, very cheap’ M.N.01.06

ḥfūr [xōṭar / xōṭar / xōṭar] ta bḳawṯ ḥnafh wōram ‘he dug down and down and down until he had bored himself a path’ M.N.Rabkūt

7.4.10.2 Intensity of number

The repetition of plural nouns functions iconically to express intensity in the number of entities:

wa-ttīwi ḏakmah yäḳdidmäh [mäḳdōd, / mäḳdōd, / mäḳdōd] ‘and that meat, they m. cut it m. into lots and lots of strips’ Sima12:11

taʕmälh [kmǟz / kmǟz] ‘you m.s. make it m. into lots of small balls’ Sima16:20

wa-mġōrän yaʕmīläm tēh [krēd / krēd] wṭōmäh h-ḳalyōn, jähhǟl ‘then they m. make it m. into lots of small pieces for the children’ Sima21:9

hamam bīn ḳōmōn [ḳuwēmat / ḳuwēmat] ‘lots of small groups of people heard about us’ M.N

In the following example, repetition of the noun wḳāṣ conveys intensity in terms of number, while repetition of the attributive adjective ḳannättän conveys intensity in terms of quality, in this case smallness:

w-yänṣiṣmäh [wḳāṣ, / wḳāṣ, / wḳāṣ] [ḳannättän, / ḳannättän] ‘and they m. divide it m. into lots of very small pieces’ Sima12:16

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7.4.10.3 Repeated action

Repeated or extreme continuous action can be expressed by repetition of the verb or the manner demonstrative wṭōh, wṭōmah or wṭakmah:

hōh [wṭakmäh / wṭakmäh / wṭakmäh] ‘it went back and forth with me like that’ Sima4:20

wut bnǟdäm ḳībǟṣ […] w-[yämṣaṣh, / yämṣaṣh, / yämṣaṣh] ‘when someone has been bitten […] and [someone] sucks and sucks and sucks [at the bite]’ Sima1:32

[jhǟmäm, / jhǟmäm, / jhǟmäm] at-tǟ wiṣläm b-ʕamḳ ‘they m. went on and on until they got to the middle’ Sima8:3

maxṭār Bǟ Xwās [syōr, / syōr, / syōr, / syōr], at-tǟ nūkaʕ at-tǟ ṭād ġayj ‘once Bā Nuwās walked and walked and walked, until he came across a man’ Sima38:2

[ġlūḳ / ġlūḳ / ġlūḳ / ġlūḳ] tā swānōt l-ād śinīha lā ‘he looked and looked and looked, after a little while [he realised] he couldn’t see him’ M.N.01.12

7.4.10.4 Distributive effect

Distributive effect is conveyed typically by repetition of adverbs, PPs, NPs, and occasionally clauses, as in the first example below.

ṭīt bōh / ṭīt bōh ‘one’s f. here, one’s f. there’ Mo.NS

hār [wṭōh / wṭōh] ‘for such and such’ Mo.NS

la-[ṭīt / ṭīt] ‘one f. by one f.’ Mo.NS

[kalayni / kalaynī] walā [k-aṣōbaḥ / k-aṣōbaḥ] ‘each evening or each morning’ M.NS

klūṯ b-aḳassath w-āmūr wīḳa lih [wṭōma / wṭōma / wṭōmah] ‘he told his story and said this, that and the other happened to him’ M.PES.MA

wa-šxabīr lih ḥibha [ma-boh / m-boh / m-boh / m-boh] ‘his parents asked about him from here, there and everywhere’ M.N.03.13

yahbōṭa yartūḳī [bahlīt / bahlīt] ‘he takes a long time; he reads out word by word’ M.NS

In the following example, the conjunction of two asyndetically linked coordinate complexes conveys both the distributive effect of individuals possessing rings and intensity in terms of paucity of number of individuals:

ġyūj ṭawr ḏäkm tkäys baʕź män ḥābū šīhäm xōtäm b-ḥīdäh, AyaʕniA [[ṭād / ṭād], / [ṭād / ṭād]], xōtäm b-ḥīdäh ‘men at that time, a few people, you would


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find with a ring on their hands, that is to say, the odd one had a ring on his hand’ Sima26:23

7.4.11 Asyndetic coordination within narratives

Within narratives, clauses are often linked asyndetically.22 Asyndetic coordination can convey a sense of events overlapping or occurring in rapid succession. In the following section from the Father Story (M.N.01), the confusion of the propagonist is emphasised by asyndetic linkage of the ellipitical object clauses (1), and the rapid succession of following events by asyndetic linkage of verbal clauses (2):

āmūr ḏōmah (1) [hībōh axah / wḳōn lā] (2) [ḥaśś śaff ḏa-ḥaybīt / syūr yiḥśāś śaff ḏa-ḥaybīt / hīs ḥaśś śaff hankūr śaff al-hēh śaff ḏa-msēr ʕādī lā ḏa-msēr bi-ḥḥays]

He said what’s [he done]? He tracked the camel’s prints, he went and tracked the camel’s prints. When he tracked the prints, he realised that they weren’t prints made at a normal pace but at speed. M.N.01.13

Within narratives, clauses which involve a shared initial element – usually the verb – are linked asyndetically. This is particularly noticeable where verbs of utterance (usually ʕamōr (āmūr ~ amūr)) are involved.23 In narratives, main clauses beginning with ʕamōr ‘he said’ are almost invariably linked asyndetically in the two dialects. In Sima’s Jōdab texts, of 263 tokens of ʕmōr, including ʕmōr ‘he/they f. said’, ʕmōram ‘they m. said’ and ʕmōran ‘we said’ only 11 are linked syndetically. In the Mehreyyet texts, the Ship Story (M.N.03) has 19 tokens of āmūr ~ amūr in its various inflected forms, the Cat Story (M.N.04) 28 tokens, and the Father Story (M.N.01) 34 tokens. Of these, none are linked by wa- in the Ship Story or the Father Story, and only two are linked by wa- in the Cat Story. Below are extracts from a section of Sima (4) and Sima (30) for Mahriyōt, and the Ship Story and the Cat Story from Mehreyyet. Conjuncts are separated by a forward slash /:

Sima 4

4. ʕmōr [hēh] ġayj: “šūk hǟh?” źayf ḏä-hnǟn /

5. ʕmōr: “šī ġajjǟn”, / ʕmōr: “ahämm bēh l-hämmi hōh, ʕAlī Jūdaḥ”

4. He told [him] the man, ‘What do you m.s. have ?’ Our guest [said that]

5. He said, ‘I have a boy.’ He said, ‘Call him by my name, Ali Jūdaḥ!’

Sima 30

16. ʕmōr: “ā ʕAskäri!” / ʕmärk: “hawah?”/

22 As noted by Wagner (1953: 101) for MSAL in general and particularly western Yemeni Mehri. 23 Also noted for Soqoṭri (Naumkin, Kogan et al 2011).

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17. ʕmōr: “šīki käm ḳwahhär, hēt w-ḥāmǟk, bäk lyōmäh hbǟr?”/

18. ʕmärk: “hībōh ʕmärk?”/ ʕmōr: “šīki käm ḳwahhär?”

16. He said, ‘Askari!’ I said, ‘What?’

17. He said, ‘How many milk camels do you and your mother have from these camels?’

18. I said, ‘What did you say?’ He said, ‘How many milk camels do you two have?’

Mehreyyet text 03 Ship story

5. āmūr hēh man ḥō nakak hēt / amūr hōh ġayg ḏ-ūkabk bawmah wa-ḏa-šḳarayk bawmah w-aḥōm šīkam /

6. amūr xarāna wadak tīn la-ḥō syēra hīs ḏ-ūkabk šīn wuṭōmah / amūr hōh wadak bīkam la-ḥō syēra lā w-hōh ār šīkam /

7. amūr xarāna nḥa syēra brīṭānya nḥah ṣarōmah bār ḏa-nsḥūb bār hīn kam man āṣawr w-ād mharradūtan tēk lā / amūr xarāna hōh ār šīkam / amūr xarāna wa-sḥābam

Translation

5. He [the captain] said, ‘Where have you come from?’ He [Bū Sēlim] said, ‘I am a man who came in here and hid here, and I want to stay with you.’’

6. He said, ‘Okay, did you know where we were going when you came in to be with us like that?’ He said, ‘I don’t know where you are going, but I’m with you.’

7. He said, ‘Okay, we’re going to Britain. Now we’ve been gone so many nights, we’re not going to take you back.’ He said, ‘Fine, I’m staying with you.’ He said, ‘Fine.’ And they went.

Mehreyyet text 04 Cat story

13. śxawallūt ḳrayb lih / w-āmarūt mōn hēt wa-man ḥō nakak / amūr hōh ġayg / ḏ-aġawlaḳ man aḥād yisādī […]24 hām tḳaydar /

14. amarūt wa-yaḥōl laḳawdar hēt tḥōm ḥaybitk / āmūr yāḥūl wkō ḏa-ġribš ḏa-hōh ḏ-aġawlaḳ man ḥaybaytī / āmarūt ḏa-ġribk / āmarūt hēt ḥɛmak fnōhan šība yōm ḥaybitk bawmah ahā lāʔ / āmūr yāḥōl […] ḥɛmak /

24 Original repetition removed.


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15. āmarūt hōh nakak tēk wa-kliṯk hūk bi-ḥaybitk / āmūr aġayg hēt mōn al-hēt ansānīyah lā / āmarūt lāʔ hōh al-hōh ansānīyah lā hōh ḳāʔyūt hōh assinnawrat ḏa-nakak tēk āṣawr alyōmah /

Translation

13. [She] sat close to him. She said, ‘Who are you and where have you come from?’ The man said, ‘I am a man who is looking for someone to help me, if you can.’

14. She said, ‘Of course I can! You want your camel.’ He said, ‘Yes! How do you know that I am looking for my camel?’ She said, ‘I [just] know.’ She said, ‘You dreamt a week ago that your camel was here, didn’t you?’ He said, ‘Yes, I dreamt’.

15. She said, ‘I came to you and told you about your camel.’ The man said, ‘Who are you? You aren’t human.’ She said, ‘I am not human, I am a spirit. I am the cat that came to you those nights.’

8 Negation 8 Negation

In Mehri, the negative particles are based around l- and m-, including lā, man ~ mā, maḳāʕ (maḳā ~ maḳāʔ). Constituents may be negated by lā or by ġayr ~ ġār, which functions as a preposition. In exception clauses, the indefinite pronoun ḥad ~ aḥāḍ can function as a negator in the sense of ‘no one’. Most negation involves negation of the predicate; however, we see a few obvious instances in the data of constituent negation.

The majority of MSAL differ from other Semitic languages insofar as the main, l-based, negative particle generally follows the whole proposition even where the negated term is the initial element. In the examples below, the negative particle comes at the end of the object clause, although the main verb (the fact of knowing) is negated rather than the subordinate verb (the fact of staying in Muscat in the first example, or the identification of ‘far’ in the second example):

wadak kam laśxawwal bi-maskūt lā [lit. I know how long I stay in Muscat not] ‘I don’t know how long I’ll stay in Muscat’ M.txt

widʕak hõ rǟḥaḳ lǟ [lit. I know where ‘far’ not] ‘I didn’t know where ‘far’ was’ Sima78:17

Lucas (2009) and Lucas & Lash (2010) have suggested that the MSAL exhibit varying stages of Jespersen’s Cycle in negation, a historical process whereby new markers of negation emerge in post-verbal position and eventually come to replace earlier pre-verbal markers of negation. The term Jespersen’s Cycle (henceforth JC) was coined in 1979 by Dahl (1979). Jespersen’s original observation is as follows:

The history of negative expressions in various languages makes us witness the following curious fluctuation: the original negative adverb is first weakened, then found insufficient and therefore strengthened, generally through some additional word, and this in its turn may be felt as the negative proper and may then in course of time be subject to the same development as the original word (Jespersen 1917: 4).

In languages that undergo JC, stage I is marked by a pre-verbal negator, as in Old French and Old English ne; at stage II, the pre-verbal negator is reinforced by a post-verbal element which is grammaticalised to form a bipartite negative construction, as in Middle English ne … noht, and French ne … pas/rien, etc.; at stage III, the pre-verbal negator is replaced by the post-verbal element that is reinterpreted as a negative particle in its own right, as in Early Modern English I say not and some varieties of Modern French je sais pas ‘I don’t know’ (Lucas & Lash 2010).

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Lucas & Lash (2010) view the stages of JC to be occupied as follows by the various MSAL: stage I, exhibited solely by Soqoṭri, widely acknowledged to be the most conservative MSAL, is marked by a pre-verbal negator: ål ~ ɔl in declarative clauses, ʔa ~ ʕa(n) ~ ḥa in negative command (Simeone-Senelle 1994: 198, 207; 1997: 414); stage II, exhibited by Śḥerɛt (Hofstede 1998: 158) and Mehreyyet, is marked by bipartite negation: the post-verbal negator lɔ in Śḥerɛt, lā in Mehri, is said to result from a reanalysis of the anaphoric negator as a clause-final negator in ‘resumptive’ contexts in declarative clauses (‘I don’t want, no’) and in tag questions (‘You didn’t like that, no?’); and stage III, exhibited in most contexts by Ḥarsūsi and western Yemeni Mehri, is marked by monopartite post-negation. Lucas & Lash’s (2010) proposal that post-negation in MSAL results from grammaticalisation of the anaphoric negator and that the MSAL exhibit various stages of JC is, without doubt, the correct analysis. No other Semitic language family, including the closely related Ethio-Semitic languages and southern Arabic, negates by means of postposed l. The ancient Semitic languages, including Ancient South Arabian and Ge’ez are recorded as having at least one negative particle involving l or derived from *l that precedes the negated element. Furthermore, frozen negated phrases and, in many cases, coordinated phrases in all major Mehri dialect groups and in Ḥarsūsi are negated through initial l with no final negation particle, adding strength to the claim that monopartite clause-initial negation was the original structure, and that bipartite and monopartite post-negation emerged later.

In this chapter, I show that not only different MSAL, but also that different dialect groups within Mehri exhibit stages of JC in negation. Mehreyyet exhibits significantly more bipartite negation – with a negative particle (realised as al-, l- or la-)1 both preceding and following the negated element – than Mahriyōt. Mahriyōt exhibits bipartite negation in contexts where western Yemeni Mehri shows only monopartite post-negation, and thus appears here, as elsewhere, to occupy a stage between that of the most conservative dialect group, Mehreyyet, and the least conservative western Yemeni Mehri dialect group. Dialect differences in negation are acknowledged in the literature, where bipartite negation is said to be exhibited in Mehreyyet and some eastern Yemeni dialects while western Yemeni dialects exhibit monopartite (post-)negation (Simeone-Senelle 1997: 413–414, 2011b: 1103).2 However, as seen below, bipartite negation exists alongside monopartite post- and pre-negation in both Mehreyyet and Mahriyōt, and, indeed, does occur in limited contexts in western Yemeni Mehri. The choice of monopartite or bipartite negation, as I argue below, is constrained in all dialect groups to a large degree by morpholexical and syntactic factors.

I begin by examining negation through lā and then consider negation through non-l-based particles. In section 8.1, I examine constraints on monopartite versus

1 In both dialects, the negative particle is /la/. al- results from sonorant metathesis (cf. 1.3.2.7),

and the vowel-less variant l- from elision of the initial vowel. 2 Simeone-Senelle (1994: 201) describes bipartite negation only for the Mehri of Dhofar.

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bipartite negation of the predicate in the two dialects, looking at main and subordinate clauses, clauses introduced by the indefinite pronoun, coordinated clauses, topic–comment clauses, and negation in the case of ʕād (ād) … lā structures. This section is concluded by a discussion of cases where the right-most negative particle does not fall in clause-final position. In sections 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5, I examine constituent negation, absolute negation, negative command, and exception clauses respectively. In section 8.6, I examine negative fixed phrases, coordinated negative and coordinated positive–negative clauses and phrases as common instances of monopartite pre-negation. In section 8.7, I consider negative tag questions. In section 8.8, I examine negation through the non-l-based particles man ~ mā, maḳāʕ (maḳā ~ maḳāʔ), ġayr ~ ġār. In section 8.9, I consider particles which function specifically to emphasise negation.

8.1 Negation of the predicate

The choice of monopartite or bipartite negation in negation of the predicate in non-topic–comment clauses is subject to certain morpholexical and syntactic constraints in both dialects. With few exceptions, main and subordinate clauses exhibit monopartite negation in Mahriyōt. Personal-pronoun and VP-initial conditional clauses may exhibit bipartite negation. The choice of monopartite or bipartite negation in main clauses in Mehreyyet is subject to the following morpholexical constraints: monopartite negation is mandatory where the clause-initial element is a PP, existential śī, a locative, a substantive, an indefinite pronoun, or a demonstrative. Bipartite negation may occur for emphasis where the clause-initial element is an independent personal pronoun or a VP. Bipartite negation in subordinate clauses and syndetically linked coordinated clauses may occur unless the initial element is a substantive or a demonstrative.

8.1.1 Predicate negation in Mahriyōt

PP-initial main clauses in Mahriyōt invariably exhibit monopartite post-negation whether they are independent main clauses or second conjuncts:

šī ḥatm lā ‘I’m not sure’ Mo.NS

wa-hīsan maḳṣā lā ‘and there’s no end to them f.’ Mo.NS

w-bīs śī xadmǟt ġahrīt lǟ ‘it f. doesn’t have any more work [i.e. there isn’t any other work associated with it]’ Sima6:17

NP-initial clauses of all types are almost always subject to monopartite post-negation. The following examples include a locational clause, three nominal clauses, and a verbal clause. The forward slash is placed before the NP in the first three examples below.

w-lǟkän / sēh hǟl ḥābū käll lǟ ‘but it f. [i.e. the knowledge of raʕbūt] is not with everyone’ Sima1:7


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wat syōr […] / hēh rībāʕak lǟ ‘when he goes […], he is [no longer] your m.s. companion’ Sima48:31

barkīham ṭād ḏakm rḥīm lākan / hām rīḥōm mākan lā ‘there’s one good-looking one among them, but they m. are not very good-looking’ Mo.NS

naḥj ḏōm jīd lā ‘that game isn’t good’ Mo.NS

w-ḏäkm ytī lǟ ‘and that one m. doesn’t eat [people]’ Sima2:44

ḏ-šēh fēśäl lǟ ‘he who has no work’ Sima11:9

A personal-pronoun-initial clause may have bipartite negation in subordinate clauses, though cases are rare. In the conditional clauses below, bipartite negation is shown in the first example, monopartite negation in the other two examples:

w-hǟn l-sēh zbänyōt lǟ ‘and if it is not an old [tree]’3 Sima2:16

hǟn sēh mḥōläm lǟ ‘when it f. is not a [matter of] blood poisoning’ Sima1:58

w-hīn […] sēh ʕayd ḥnōb lǟ ‘and when […] they [= it f.] are not big sardines’ Sima51:16

VP-initial main and subordinate clauses are subject to monopartite post-negation, although they may exhibit bipartite negation in a positive–negative or negative coordinate complex (cf. 8.1.4). Within larger contexts, a forward slash indicates the beginning or end point of the negated verbal clause.

Of the following negated main verbal clauses, the two final examples involve conjuncts:

yḥarsäm hēh lǟ ‘they m. don’t guard it m.’ Sima56:81

mäkk täfsaḥ b-näbyūḳ ḏä-ttōmär lǟ ‘Won’t you m.s. stop taking the dates?’ Sima33:34

widʕak hēh män ṯār rämźōn aw fīn ʕīd ḏ-yäźḥā […] lā ‘I don’t know whether it m. is after Ramadan or before Eid al-Adha’ Sima28:1

ḥābū kall snīnan yġarbam śī lyōmah ḏa-nṣrōmah lā / yġarbam śī AmustawradA man barr lā ‘people in the past didn’t know these [things] of now; they m. didn’t know about [things] imported from abroad’ Mo.N.01.16

aḥōm ḏēh lā / aḥōm ār ḏēh ‘I don’t want that, I just want that’ Mo.NS

The following are negated object and adverbial (conditional and time) verbal clauses respectively:

ʕmōr: / “aḳōdär lǟ läwadyikäm” ‘he said, ‘I can’t take you m.pl.’’ Sima61:64


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hǟn mōt īmōh lǟ ‘if he doesn’t die today’ Sima74:16

wa-tfäsk b-ʕaynǟtä ḥmūh, tfäsk, tfäsk, / at-tǟ yḳāʕ rġāź wīyä lǟ / wi-yḳāʕ ḳwī ḳwī lǟ ‘you m.s. soften [it] with a little water, until it m. becomes neither too soft or too hard’ Sima57:93

A VP-initial conditional clause may have bipartite negation in Mahriyōt (compare the first example below with hǟn mōt īmōh lǟ above), particularly where two or more conjuncts are involved, as in the second example below, though examples in the data are rare:

hǟm lä-tġarbämsän lǟ ‘if you m.pl. don’t know them f.’ Sima99:33

hīn lä-rḳank lēh tū lǟ / w-l-aśśäbaʕk män mälḥōt lǟ ‘when you m.s. haven’t preserved it m. well or put enough salt in’ Sima58:44

8.1.2 Predicate negation in Mehreyyet PP-initial clauses

In Mehreyyet, the predicate in PP-initial main clauses typically exhibits monopartite post-negation. In the examples below, PP-initial clauses are bracketed off where they occur within larger contexts. Where they occur at the end or beginning of larger contexts, for example where the PP-initial clause follows the conjunction lahinna ‘but’, the PP-initial clause is separated by /:

nakan [šīn ḥōgat lā] xaṭṭawr ‘we came, we had no particular reason, [we were] passing through’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Ç ت�zت اد�m· uÀ šay ṣfōt īdanōt lā ‘I don’t have any new news’ M.txt

Ç ��~¸ uÀ o³� lahinna / šay farsēt lā ‘but I don’t have the opportunity’ M.txt

In contrast to Mahriyōt, a PP-initial main clause may have bipartite negation in Mehreyyet to intensify the sense of negation:

Ç ksذو ~��Ã� ت�m· urا� al-šay ṣfōt bi-xbēr ḏōmah lā ‘I haven’t heard that news’ M.txt

PP-initial conditional clauses are subject to monopartite post-negation in the unmarked case, but again may exhibit bipartite negation, as in the final example below:

wa-hām bīs ḳrūn lā / tkūn ḳarḥayt ‘and if she has no horns, she’s [described as] ḳarḥayt’4 M.N.Rabkūt04.06

4 Lit. female donkey.


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ḥabyēsa tēk ḥābū / hām šūk AgawāzA lā ‘people will arrest you m.s., if you have no passport’ M.NS

wa-lū mank lā / ankāʔan bawmah lā ‘and if it weren’t for you m.s., I wouldn’t have come here’ M.PES

wa-lū man aġaygī lā / aḳāʔan ḏ-asafrak lā ‘and if it weren’t for my husband, I wouldn’t have travelled’ M.PES

aśigarīt klift / hām al-būk ḥamāt lā ‘the mountain pass is difficult, if you m.s. don’t have strength’ M.PES

PP-initial clauses introduced by the attributiviser ḏa- are typically subject to bipartite negation (cp. Mahriyōt ḏ-šēh fēśäl lǟ ‘he who has no work’ Sima11:9):

ḏa-l-šēh mġarbēt lā yūḳōf ‘he who has no knowledge remains silent’ M.PES.MA

ḏa-l-šēh AgawāzA lā ‘he who has no passport’ M.NS

NP-initial clauses

In the unmarked case, non-topicalised NP-initial main clauses of all types are subject to monopartite post-negation. Of the following examples of pronoun-initial clauses, (ai) and (aii) are locational clauses, (bi) and (bii) nominal clauses, and (ci) and (cii) verbal clauses:

Pronoun-initial clauses

(ai) hōh bawmah lā ‘I am not here’ M.NS

(aii) hēt bark abayt lā ‘you s. aren’t at home’ M.NS

(bi) hōh fōna ḥbūr lā ‘I wasn’t cold before’ M.NS

(bii) hēt ansyūt lā / hēt ār ḳaʔyūt ‘you s. are not human, you are a spirit’ M.N

(ci) hō ḳdark latiḳḳah waḥśī lā ‘I can’t drink it m. all myself’ M.N.Rabkūt01.17

(cii)

�È ذھ�Ç o¤vوھ�ه وداك wa-hōh wadak tēs ḏa-hāśan lā ‘and I don’t know what it f. is about’ M.txt

In contrast to Mahriyōt, however, the predicate in utterance-initial pronoun-initial declarative clauses may be subject to bipartite negation in Mehreyyet. Bipartite negation in this case is said by speakers to intensify the sense of negation:

al-hēh wōḏam yiḳāʔ šīn lā ‘there is no need for him to be with us’ M.NS

lā, al-hēh ḏa-haʔnūh lā ‘no, he didn’t do it deliberately’ M.NS

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waylōb al-hōh sīrōna waḥśay lā ‘I’m certainly not going on my own!’ M.PES.MA

In contrast to Mahriyōt, Mehreyyet typically exhibits bipartite negation of pronoun-initial conditional and circumstantial clauses:

hām al-hēh man ḥaybī lā ‘if it m. weren’t for my father’ M.NS

adammis faṣṣawt tilifūn / wa-l-sēh ḏa-haʔnūt lā ‘she probably leant on her phone unintentionally’ M.NS

Again in contrast to Mahriyōt, pronoun-initial hypotactically and paratactically linked complement clauses are typically subject to bipartite negation in Mehreyyet, as in the following examples:

hāśan haġrabūk tay / ḏa-l-hōh šūkafk lā illōh ‘What made you m.s. know that I wasn’t able to sleep last night?’ M.PES.MA

haṣbaḥk / al-hōh aḏ-ḳdark lā ‘it turned out that I was [= I became] unable to’ M.NS

ḏa-śnawwan ḥnafs / al-sēh ankayta fīsēʔ lā ‘she thinks she won’t be back soon’ M.PES.MA

hankūr śaff / al-hēh śaff ḏa-msēr ʕādī lā ‘he realised the prints weren’t prints made at a normal pace’ M.N.01.13

Ç ks�� o��n م��n~¨�Ò ء �¹لvy�� ذ¤��ك ا��³ه ¬ رون ḏa-śnawwak / al-hōh ḳadrōna lankā AxilālA ayśar ḥāyōm ḥawlaytan lyōmah lā ‘I think I won’t be able to come during these next ten days’ M.txt

Èاھ�� Ç ن�p�� k�³� ahōgis / la-hēh bi-ʕamūn lā ‘I think that he is not in Oman’ M.txt

Ç Ñ��¦� k³ا� ~�sÇ م�¦� lḥōm lāmēr / al-hēh taḥḳayḳ lā ‘I meant to say that it m. wasn’t certain’ M.txt

Substantive or demonstrative-initial clauses

The predicate in clauses with an initial substantive or demonstrative is invariably subject to monopartite post-negation in both main and subordinate clauses:

Main clause

abayt nōb wīyan lā ‘the house isn’t very big’ M.NS

ḥaybitk ṣalḥayt lā ‘your m.s. female camel isn’t fat’ M.NS

ḏōmah yinōfa śī lā ‘this m. is no use’ M.ES.MA


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Subordinate clause

aḥḥazmayyat [hām aḏanōbas bih śiff lā] ykūn ḏōmah ʔayb ‘the ḥazmayyat [camel], if her tail doesn’t have much hair, that m. is a fault’ M.N.Šlaym01.15

īrān tḥōm sūriya tiftēk lā ‘Iran doesn’t want Syria5 to leave’ M.NS

Ç ءv�yzه اÕ�vه ا��sر ا�pq ذvا�� AustāḏA ʕamūr īmōh AasātiḏahA ankyēyāʔ lā ‘the lecturer said, ‘The lecturers aren’t coming today’’ M.txt

After the particle ār linking an adversative conjunct in Mehreyyet, the predicate shows monopartite post-negation in NP-initial clauses, even where, as in the following examples, the initial element is an independent personal pronoun:

wa-yihōgis ḥnafh mōt / ār hēh mōt lā ‘he thought he had died, but he hadn’t died’ M.N

akabk tśxawwal haynī bawmah / ār hēt śxawalāk lā ‘I thought you m.s. were going to stay here for me, but you didn’t stay’ M.PES

akabk fōna tsēr amdarsēt / ār hēt syark lā ‘I thought you m.s. were going to the school, but you didn’t go’ M.PES.MA

VP-initial clauses

In the unmarked case, VP-initial main and complement clauses are subject to monopartite post-negation in Mehreyyet:

Main clause

siddam lā ‘they m. didn’t make up’ M.NS

imših bīśak lā ‘yesterday it m. didn’t snap’ M.NS

wat ḏa-ḥatūgak tʔōmar lā lā ‘when you m.s. are in need, you don’t say ‘no’’ M.NS

Complement clause

amark hīham matwiyak lā ‘I said to them m., ‘I can’t’’ M.N

aġarbah yifōraḥ b-ārēb lā ‘I know he doesn’t like Arabs’ M.N

ġrūb mharradūtan tah lā ‘he knew they m. wouldn’t send him back’ M.N.03.04

5 i.e. the Syrian government. Recorded in February 2011 during the protests in the Arab world

that removed the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt.

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A VP or pronoun-initial main clause without an initial topic may have bipartite negation in Mehreyyet, although this occurs considerably less in my data6 than suggested by Rubin for the Johnstone texts (Rubin 2010: 265–266). Bipartite negation is almost invariably characteristic of non-utterance-initial clauses, most particularly second conjuncts, and where it does occur in utterance-initial clauses serves to intensify the sense of negation. Thus, both the following partially elicited clauses express the proposition ‘I didn’t forget my phone in the restaurant’, with negation intensified in the first, bipartite example:

al-hanhayk tilifūnī bark amṭām lā ‘I didn’t forget my phone in the restaurant’

hanhayk tilifūnī bark amṭām lā ‘I didn’t forget my phone in the restaurant’ M.PES.MA

Bipartite negation may serve to disambiguate a complex clause in Mehreyyet. Thus the first, monopartite post-negated example below is ambiguous between negation of the fact of writing and negation of going to Rabkūt. Bipartite negation in the second and third examples disambiguate, negating the fact of writing and the fact of going to Rabkūt respectively:

ktabk ḏa-hōh sīrīta rabkūt lā ‘I wrote that I wasn’t going to Rabkūt’ ~ ‘I didn’t write that I was going to Rabkūt’ M.PES

al-ktabk ḏa-hōh sīrīta rabkūt lā ‘I didn’t write that I was going to Rabkūt’ M.PES

ktabt ḏa-l-hōh sīrīta rabk ūt lā ‘I wrote that I wasn’t going to Rabkūt’ M.PES

Similarly, bipartite negation in the first example below negates the proposition in the main clause – the fact of knowing – while monopartite post-negation in the second example is ambiguous between negation of the fact of knowing or of coming.

al-hēh ḏa-wīda bīn ḏa-nḥah ankyēya lā ‘he doesn’t know that we are coming’ M.PES.MA

ḏa-wīda bīn ḏa-nḥah ankyēya lā ‘he knows that we are not coming’ ~ ‘he doesn’t know that we are coming’ M.PES.MA

The predicate in syndetically linked VPs and in VPs and verb-initial clauses linked by the adversative conjunct ār hīs is more often subject to bipartite than monopartite negation in Mehreyyet, as exemplified below:

hōh baʔlīt abayt / wa-l-hamrīta lā ‘I’m f.s. one of the family and I won’t be shy [and hold back from eating]’ M.NS

6 Including that supplied by Johnstone’s informant, Ali Musallam.


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hīs anhūran haḳṣamōh nhūran ḥarḳ / wa-l-īḳadram lā yisēram ‘around midday, they m.DUAL rested from the heat; at midday, it was very hot and they couldn’t move on’ M.N.01.10

ḥōm laġtayr / ār hīs al-matwiyak lā ‘I wanted to speak, but I couldn’t’ M.NS

Bipartite negation of VP-initial conditional clauses occurs far more frequently in Mehreyyet than in Mahriyōt:

wa-hām al-ḏa-ratkaz ḥayḏantsa lā ‘and if her [the camel’s] ears aren’t pointing up’ M.N.Šlaym01.10

Finally, VPs involving aḥōm ‘I want’ more frequently exhibit bipartite negation in main and independent clauses than other verbs. The frequency of occurrence of pre-negated aḥōm in Mehreyyet has led to lḥōm occurring in place of aḥōm in positive clauses, as in the second and third examples below:

lḥōm lankā lā ‘I don’t want to come’ M.NS

lḥamš bi-xayr ‘I want you f.s. well’ M.NS

kھ u��y� Âp¦� lḥamš taktēbī hēh ‘I want you f.s. to write to him’ M.txt

8.1.3 Indefinite pronoun predicand

Clauses with an initial indefinite pronoun predicand ḥād ~ aḥād usually show monopartite post-negation in both dialects:

ḥād ḳǟd yḳōdär līs lǟ ‘no one can manage [to catch] it f.’ Sima2:61

w-ḥād mänkīh ḏ-äṭōräb l-ḥād lǟ, w-ḥād mänkīh yäfrōḳ ḥād lǟ ‘neither of you DUAL has [officially] offered protection to the other, but neither of you DUAL fears the other’ Sima48:27

ḥād yiḳōdar yiśnē śī lā ‘no one can see anything’ M.NS

hūṭayḳ aḥād yikhalah lā ‘[it’s so] sour no one can stand it’ M.NS

In syndetically linked conjuncts, (a)ḥād-initial clauses may be subject to bipartite negation in both dialects with the effect of intensifying the sense of negation:

w-šī ḥābū män Ṣūr wa-l-ḥād mnǟn sīläm lǟ ‘I had people from Ṣūr with me, and not one of us was saved’ Sima75:23–24

Ç u¤ k� دvnÇو o�nv�~s س��¦sا amaḥbōs AmurtāḥīnA wa-l-aḥād bih śī lā ‘the prisoners are comfortable, and no one has anything [wrong] with him’ M.txt

8.1.4 Coordinated clauses

Syndetically linked independent-pronoun-initial clauses may exhibit bipartite negation in Mahriyōt, as in the first two examples below, and (almost) invariably exhibit bipartite negation in Mehreyyet, as in the final example:

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bäḳʕāt tkūn bäk ʕamḳ, tälḥaḳs mälsē wīyän wīyän lǟ, / wa-l-sēh mṣā b-järbīb tǟl ḳaśʕayt ḳaśʕayt lǟ ‘the place is in the central region, the rain doesn’t reach it f. that much, nor is it f. as dry as on the coastal plain’ Sima23:10

mhärʕay axah färd män ḳbīlät ġayj män ḳbīlät [l-hēh ġayj mḳaddäm lǟ, / wa-l-hēh ḳbīl lǟ] ‘someone under the authority of a tribal leader is someone from the tribe, a man from the tribe who is neither a leader nor a ḥalfēt-partner’ Sima48:13

fāmha ḏ-īgirśsan b-aḳāʔ [wa-l-hēh ḏa-rīkab lā / wa-l-hēh ḏ-isyūr lā / wa-l-hēh bark hōla lā / wa-l-hēh bark ḥarḳ lā] ‘his feet were dragging on the ground, and he wasn’t mounted and he wasn’t walking, and he wasn’t in the shade and he wasn’t in the heat’ M.N.Rabkūt

In both dialects, at least the second conjunct in a coordinate complex of verbal predicates may exhibit bipartite negation as an alternative to monopartite pre-negation (cf. 8.6.2):

ʕamōr abdan [aṭʕamh lā ḳaṭ / wa-l-ḥamh lā] ‘he said, ‘No way! I won’t taste it m. and I don’t want it!’’ Mo.N.01.11

w-ḥābū lyēk [ḳǟd rīźam / aw l-rīźam lä] ‘these people will either agree or not agree’ Sima48:30

hōh ḥijjōna [wa-l-yiḳtalīb bay lā / wa-l-yiṣayṣ lay lā] ‘I am going on the hajj and they m. shouldn’t worry about me or be afraid for me’ M.N.02.06

8.1.5 Negation within comment of topic–comment clause

In contrast to western Yemeni Mehri (cf. Wagner 1953: 33), bipartite negation usually takes place in Mehreyyet and may take place in Mahriyōt when the whole predication within the comment of a topic–comment clause is negated and the predicand within the comment is an independent pronoun.7 Where a clause takes an initial substantive or demonstrative predicand, a negated clause is said by Mehreyyet informants to be topicalised for preference. In the negated topic–comment clause, the anaphoric pronoun predicand of the comment clause is usually pre-negated.8 In the less acceptable negated non-topic–comment clause, the predicand is not pre-negated. Thus, while both the following clauses are acceptable, the bipartite negated topic–comment clause in the second example is preferable:

7 Bipartite negation in the case of a clause-initial independent pronoun is significantly more

common in Mehreyyet than Mahriyōt: in the 75 Jōdab texts in Sima (2009), for example, there are six tokens of pre-negated hēh ‘he’ and three tokens of pre-negated sēh ‘she’, but no other independent pronouns are pre-negated. There are no examples of pre-negated pronouns in the Rēhan texts.

8 However, even here there are exceptions, as in Mehreyyet: Ç ks�� k�� ى~¢z naṣrā sēh bawmah lā ‘Nasra isn’t here’ (M.txt); wa-ḏīmah sēh karmaym lā taghūm ‘that f. isn’t a mountain moving’ (M.N.Rabkūt05.06).


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a-ḳlēm gīd lā [lit. the pen good not] ‘the pen is not good’ M.ES.MA

a-ḳlēm al-hēh gīd lā [lit. the pen not it m. good not] ‘the pen is not good’ M.ES.MA

Further contextual examples of bipartite negation within topic–comment clauses from Mehreyyet include:

bawmah agaww / al-hēh śabṭ lā ‘here the weather isn’t settled’ M.NS

[ṭayt / al-sēh ḥūrūt wīyan lā] nʔōmar haśarīt [lit. one f. not she very black not we call haśarīt] ‘one f. [camel] that is not very black we call haśarīt’ M.N.Rabkūt

amma hōh manay śī lā wa-lākan [aġaygī / l-awōda lā9] ‘I have no objection, but my husband, I don’t know’ M.N

Ç رvء ذھ�v¬ا k³ا��} ا� agbēl / al-hēh aḳāʔ ḏa-hbɛr lā ‘the mountains are not the place for camels’ M.txt

In Mahriyōt, the personal-pronoun-initial predicate of a topic–comment clause may exhibit bipartite negation, but considerably less instances of bipartite negation are shown in this dialect than in Mehreyyet. In the following examples, the predicate of the topic–comment clause is separated by a forward slash, and the entire topic–comment clause placed in square brackets where it occurs in a larger context. Compare the first example below in which bipartite negation is exhibited, with the second and third examples in which it is not:

w-ṣarbī ynōkaʕ b-[{śī} / l-hēh lbōn lǟ] [lit. and post-monsoonal comes with {s.th.} not it m. white not] ‘and the post-monsoonal butter has {something} that is not white’ Sima27:22

järmīyät / sēh xwōrät lǟ [lit. jarmīyat it f. xwōrat not] ‘the jarmīyat camel is not [like] the xwōrat camel’ Sima47:75

w-ḏēh / hēh mšändīb lǟ ‘and this one m. is not someone who knows about raʕbūt’ Sima1:36

The VP predicate of a topic–comment clause may have bipartite negation in Mahriyōt, as in the first example below, but is more frequently subject to monopartite post-negation, as in the second.

ǟr ḳǟd [hēt maḥḥ ḏēk xōzär / lä-träḳnäh wīyän lǟ] ‘that [fresh] butter, those small lumps of fresh butter, you m.s. can’t preserve it m. very long’ Sima58:42

9 Topic–comment clause lacking anaphoric object pronoun.

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wa-ʔār [hōh baʕś manhām / aġarbaham lā] ‘but I, some of them m., I don’t know them’ Mo.N

In Mehreyyet, a PP-initial predicate in a topic–comment clause may be subject to monopartite post-negation, particularly when the topic is a personal pronoun:

hēt bayš ṣābar h-aḳanyawm mākanī [hōh / bay ṣābar lā] ‘you f.s. have patience with children, but I don’t have patience’ M.NS

nḥah / šīn ṣfōt lā manh ‘we haven’t had any news about him’ M.PES.MA

śafš / šayš ġayg lā ‘it turns out you f.s. don’t have a husband’ M.PES.MA

bāś min ḥārawn / bīsan ḳrūn lā ‘some goats, they f. don’t have horns’ M.N.Rabkūt04.06

In the case of a substantive or demonstrative topic, the PP-initial predicate of a topic–comment clause is more commonly subject to bipartite negation, as in the examples below:

arabd / al-hēh dīwē lā [lit. treachery not to it m. cure not] ‘there is no cure for treachery’ M.NS

wa-hēh ġayg ḳaṭ [aḳrawš ḏ-aḥḥagg / al-šēh ḳrawš lā] ‘and he was a man certainly [in terms of] money for the hajj, he had [= with him] no money’ M.N.02.09

~��¹ �³�pت ا��y�s ul��Ø�¤ baʔlī maskūt / al-manhēm xbēr śī lā ‘the people of Muscat, there is no news of them m.’ M.txt

In Mahriyōt, by contrast, a PP-initial predicate in a topic–comment clause is subject to monopartite post-negation, irrespective of the morpholexical identity of the topic:

ḥābū / šīhäm xaṣṣōr lǟ ‘people don’t have a relish’10 Sima12:38

bīḏōrät – bäk ḳalbi – / šīs häbbōt lǟ ‘sowing, I think, doesn’t have a song’ Sima63:48

nḥah / šǟn śī ʕilm lǟ būmäh ‘we don’t have any experience here’ Sima2:70

Pronoun topic

Bipartite negation in topic–comment clauses (cf. 6.8) is mandatory in both dialects where a pronoun topic takes an anaphoric pronoun as predicand of the clausal predicate (cf. Rubin 2010: 265):

w-hēh / l-hēh xōdäm ḏ-ḏäkmäh baʕl mōl lǟ ‘and he who is [no longer] a worker for that m. livestock owner’ Sima18:24

10 i.e. usually something to go with rice.


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hōh / al-hōh waḥī lā ‘I am not an angel’ M.N

hōh / al-hōh ḏa-ʔgizk lā ma11-laskēb ‘I, I am not incapable of pouring’ M.NS

hām āzūm al-śī wa-[hēh fnōhan / al-hēh šīh śī lā] ‘when he is determined [to do] something, and before he has nothing’ M.N.02.16

However, where the anaphoric pronoun is post-posed after the predicate (cf. 6.9.6), bipartite negation takes place iff a second anaphoric pronoun also occurs predicate-initially. Thus, the first two examples below which exhibit bipartite negation contrast with the third, which does not.

aġāy al-hēh bawmah lā ‘my brother, he isn’t here’ M.NS

aġāy al-hēh bawmah hēh lā ‘my brother, he isn’t here’ M.NS

aġāy bawmah hēh lā ‘my brother, he isn’t here’ M.NS

In other cases of anaphora, bipartite negation usually takes place rather than monopartite post-negation in Mehreyyet. Co-referentiality is indicated in the following examples by subscript i:

ʕāyantani ṭawran bīsan arḥūmat lākan / al-sēni AmahammA lā ʕāyantan ‘the

eyes can sometimes be beautiful, but they are not very important, the eyes’ M.N.Šlaym01.12

amšaġarēt yḳāʔ aġaṯyasi / al-hēhi ḳṣayr lā ‘the next thing is that her neck should not be short’ M.N.Šlaym01.07

Compare the following example from Mahriyōt, where bipartite negation is not exhibited in the case of anaphora:

ḏōmähi / ḏ-hēhi mšandīb lǟ ‘the one m. who is not someone with raʕbūt knowledge’ Sima1:38

8.1.6 ʕād (ād) … lā structures

In all major dialects of Mehri,12 bipartite negation takes place in all clause types where the clause is modified by the adverbial particle ʕād (ād). With few exceptions,13 l- precedes ʕād where the ʕād element is negated along with the following phrase, and follows ʕād where only the following phrase is negated. Thus, Mehreyyet l-ād śinkə tēham lā ‘I haven’t seen them m. again’ – i.e. I am no longer

11 < *man. 12 Including western Yemeni Mehri, where otherwise double negation is not attested (Bittner

1914: 31; Wagner 1953: 33). 13 E.g. amūr ḏōmah [l-ād ġduh lā] ḏōmah bawmah hēh ‘he said, ‘that one m. has not died, he is

here’’ (M.N.03.21); or double pre-negation, as in: l-ād al-bih wōram lā ‘there wasn’t yet a road’ (M.N.Rabkūt02.41).

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in a state where I see them – contrasts with ād al-śinkə tēham lā ‘I have not yet seen them m.’ – i.e. I am still in a state where I have not seen them.

8.1.6.1 ʕād (ād) la-

ʕād (ād) la- typically negates a following locational or verbal clause, as exemplified below:

Locational clause

ḥābū ʕād l-šīhäm byōt mǟkän lǟ ‘people didn’t yet have many houses’ Sima33:17

Ç È�� Èذو¬�ت ھ� �m�Ì o�rواد ا� w-ād al-šīn śyaft ḏ-ūḳōt hīs tīs lā ‘we have not yet had a wedding like it f.’ M.txt

Verbal clause

With a following perfect verb, ʕād (ād) la- denotes that the action or state has not, or had not, yet occurred:

ʕād l-śīnäk tēh lǟ ‘I hadn’t yet seen it m.’ Sima10:16

ʕād lä-hfäḳk lǟ ‘I hadn’t yet got married’ Sima4:2

ḥom alsēr wṭoh la-ḥbinya bār haynī sɛt manhēm / ād al-śinkə tēham lā ‘I want to go to my children; it’s some time since I saw them.’ M.NS

ād al-aḥād xadmīs lā ‘no one had yet made it f.’ M.N.Rabkūt02.41

With a following imperfect verb and a focussed time or place adverbial, ʕād (ād) la- may restrict the action or state to the time or place indicated. Here the clause has monopartite pre-negation, as for other exception clauses (cf. 8.5 below):14

ād al-ahōmaʔ aġrōy ḏōmah ār ṣarōmah [lit. I don’t hear that talk except now] ‘that is the first time I’ve heard that talk’ M.NS

ād al-aśaynham ār īmōh [lit. I don’t see them m. except today] ‘I saw them m. for the first time today’ M.NS

8.1.6.2 l-ʕād (l-ād)

l-ʕād (l-ād) may negate a following nominal, locational or verbal clause:

wa-nṣarōmäh särḥat ḏīmäh l-ʕād sēh mǟkän lǟ ‘and now we don’t have this custom much anymore’ Sima20:24

l-ʕād śī ṭwōlaʕ lǟ ‘now there is no longer any ‘coming [of the fish]’’ Sima2:51

14 No examples of this type of structure are attested in the Mahriyōt data.


325

hīn bǟr zīdōt bēh mälḥōt, l-ʕād ykūn bēh ṭʕām lǟ ‘if there is too much salt in it m., it won’t any longer have any taste’ Sima16:39

l-ʕād yaxyūs lǟ ‘it m. will no longer go bad’ Sima27 :10

l-ād āḏar lā [lit. no longer an excuse] ‘there is no excuse’ M.NS

l-ād šīham matāt lā ‘they m. didn’t have any food left’ M.N.Rabkūt01.01

ḳhawr ykūn l-ād bīs śxōf wīyan lā ‘the ḳhawr [camel], she doesn’t have much milk left’ M.NS

In both dialects, but more commonly in Mahriyōt than Mehreyyet, ʕād-initial phrases may lack the pre-ʕād negator in verbal and locational clauses. Exceptional instances of monopartite post-negation here involve negation of the entire phrase including ʕād (ād):

nṣarōmäh ʕād yärʕaybäm lǟ ‘now don’t they m. do raʕbūt anymore?’ Sima1:56

ʕād widʕak hīboh laʕmōl lǟ ‘I no longer knew what to do’ Sima4:5

ʕād hūk śī śärṭ15 lǟ ‘You m.s. can’t claim anything!’ Sima75:23

“ʕād ṣburk lǟ” ‘I can no longer wait!’ Sima4:25

ād ḥābū ḏa-ḥṣawbah ṣaḥḥ lā ‘people no longer thought he was alive’ M.N.03.15

8.1.7 Word order

The right-most negative particle does not always come at the end of the proposition, or indeed to the right of the negated term. In some cases, in particular the negation of propositions involving wīdaʕ (wīda) ‘to be able’, ḳdōr (ḳdūr) ‘to be able’ or šānūs ‘to dare’, the negative particle may follow the initial verb rather than the whole proposition. This movement of the post-negator closer to the verb is observed in several languages, including French (Rowlett 1998), English (Lucas & Lash 2010) and Welsh (Willis 2012), and arguably represents stage I´ in JC (Lucas & Lash 2010: 380).

In both dialects, final complement clauses may follow the right-most negator:

ʕmōr: “[aḳōdär lǟ / läwadyikäm]” ‘he said, ‘I can’t take you m.pl.’’ Sima61:64

widʕan lǟ / sēh tḳāʕ ṣudḳ ‘we don’t know if it f. is true’ Sima9:2

nḳōdär lǟ / naxrēj bärr ‘we couldn’t go outside’ Sima77:13

15 Lexical meaning ‘condition; claim’. Cf. the Mehreyyet expression hūk ḏayrī śarṭ lā ‘you m.s.

don’t have any claim on me’.

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w-ʕād šǟnusk lǟ / lšukf aṯ-ṯār säṭḥ ‘and I no longer dared sleep on the roof’ Sima95:14

atēṯ masūmēt tḳawdar lā / tšēfaḳ ṯrōh ġaygī ṯrōh ‘a human woman can’t marry two, two men’ M.N.04.21

wa-l-šānūs lā / yaklēṯ l-ḥibha ḏa-hēh sīrōna ‘and he didn’t dare tell his parents that he was going’ M.N.02.04

In both dialects, final adverbials, including adverbial PPs, frequently occur to the right of the right-most negator:

näṣrōmäh ḏōmäh ḏ-yämṣūṣ ṣamm ḏ-rēśīt, [yäźtärūr lǟ / mänh] ‘Now the one who sucks out the snake poison, isn’t he harmed by it?’ Sima1:44

ḥābū [l-ʕād ḥād ysōkän b-Qāṭan lǟ / nṣarōmäh] ‘no one lives in the dry uplands anymore’16 Sima29:33

lǟkän tšäkhils lǟ / män mlōyaḥ ‘but you f.s. can’t manage [to eat] it f. because of the salt’ Sima58:28

śafs illōh [šukafūt lā / min aśarb ḏa-haflas] ‘it turns out she didn’t sleep last night because of the pain in her stomach’ M.NS

hōh fōna śxawalāk lahinna [ġafāk lā / waḥśay] ‘I was sitting, but I wasn’t happy on my own’ M.NS

hanwī śattal lā / man ḥlakmah ‘my mind hasn’t moved from there’ M.PES.MA

A post-posed topic or predicand may follow lā in both dialects:

Topic

w-lǟkän šīkäm śī lxaym lǟ / tǟm ‘but you m.pl. haven’t got shark’ Sima16:43

ḥād yäbtirnäs lǟ / śōḥawṭat ‘no one catches it f., the whale’ Sima44:50

Predicand

laḥḳōt bīs lǟ / raʕbūt ‘Didn’t raʕbūt work with her?’ Sima1:53

mäṭwīlä lǟ / hōh b-härjēt ‘I [m] won’t take a long time talking’ Sima24:1

ʕamōr takmalī lā / faṭh al-ṃaʕīn ‘he said, ‘Fatḥ al-Maʕīn won’t cope with me!’’ Mo.N

ḏah ṯabarūt ḥayḏānah [mākanay ḏah ṯabarūt lā / ḥayḏānah] ‘that m. one’s handle is broken, but that m. one’s handle isn’t broken’ M.NS


8.2 Constituent negation

327

In text M.N.Šlaym01, there are several instances of a pre- and post-negated personal pronoun, with the right-most negative particle preceding rather than following the negated predicate.

taḳāʔ [al-sēh lā] ḳannitt [lit. she should be she not small] ‘she should not be small’ M.N.Šlaym01.02

wa-ʔamānyat [al-sēh lā] AmaṭlūbA [lit. and the Omani she not required] ‘and for the Omani [camel] it isn’t required’ M.N.Šlaym01.13

wa-fʔamsā nyōb arwaśtan [al-sēn lā] ṭīrartan ‘and her feet have to be large and wide and not narrow’ M.N.Šlaym01.18

[al-hēh lā] waṣf ḏa-ḥazūmī ‘it m. is not the description of the ḥazmayyat camels’ M.N.Šlaym01.06

8.2 Constituent negation

A particular constituent within a proposition may be negated to the exclusion of other constituents. Constituent negation involves monopartite post-negation in both dialects. It is, however, sometimes difficult to distinguish constituent negation from negation of the predicate. Negation of a repeated predicand in the second conjunct but not in the first, for example, could either be seen as negation of the predicand or negation of an elided predicate, as in the example below:

baʕź ḥābū yaʕtäḳīdäm b-AšaʕwaḏähA / w-baʕź lǟ ‘some people believe in magic and some don’t’ Sima1:31

Negation of the fronted adverb below could imply negation of the whole predicate:

ṭawr lā / hamak bahlīt arabīyat ‘not once did I hear an Arabic word’ M.NS

Negation of the constituent occurs in reformulative apposition, when a negated phrase is apposed to an incorrect positive phrase:

ʕādi hōh ḳannūn – ḳannūn lǟ ‘I was young – not [very] young’ Sima33:2

ṯrōb lyōmäh ǟr ḳanyūn – ḳanyūn lǟ ‘those branches are just small – not small’ Sima90:18

Similarly in syndetically or asyndetically conjoined APs and AdvPs, the constituent in the second conjunct may be negated to the exclusion of the first:

yġarbam [īdīn / w-adwayl lā] ‘they m. know the new, but not the old’ M.NS

hōh aġśōn minsēn [āśamī / ṣarōmah lā] ‘I used to be fond of them f., [but] not now’ M.N.Rabkūt04.07

kanhūr tayw [nhūr / wa-nhūr lā] ‘in the past, she used to eat one day and one day not’ [i.e. she used to eat every other day] M.NS

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Ç o� / wḳōna man fnōhan ḏa-ġrūb [aʕaynat و¬�os vz ¸��ھo ذÆ~وب ا��q وwīyan lā] ‘he may have already known a little, but not much’ M.txt

8.3 Absolute negation

In absolute negation or existential negation, the dialects differ. In a simplex clause of absolute negation, Mehreyyet allows śī lā–NOUN, NOUN–śī lā or śī–NOUN–lā. Of these, Mahriyōt allows śī lā–NOUN or śī–NOUN–lā (cf. Simeone-Senelle 1994: 193). Examples from Mahriyōt include:

śī lā fēśal ~ śī fēśal lā ‘there’s no work’

śī lā xrūj ~ śī xrūj lā ‘no exit; no going out’

śī lā wkūb ~ śī wkūb lā ‘no entry’

śī mälsē lǟ, śī raḥmēt lǟ ‘there [was] neither soft rain nor heavy rain’ Sima8:6 AzamānA ḥābū [śī ṣfūrī lā / śī mʕawdan lā] ‘for people in the past, there were no metal pots or containers’ Mo.N.01.15

Examples from Mehreyyet include:

nfēs śī lā ‘there’s no room’

śī ḥyūt lā ‘there’s no life’

śī mḥanēt lā ‘there’s no problem’

śī lā sīyaryōt ~ sīyaryōt śī lā ‘there are no cars’ M.NS

akswēt aġahrīt śī lā ‘there weren’t any other clothes’ M.N.02.12

’rabkūt bīs śī lā sawḳ ‘Rabkūt doesn’t have any shops ر��yت ��Ç u¤ È ��قM.txt.Rabkūt

In strings of absolute negation conjuncts and within narratives, Mehreyyet commonly preposes the negative element to give al-śī (< *lā śī), which can either precede or follow the negated element:

w-axxarf AkaḏālikA ṭawran ḥābū [kiswēt al-śī] [lit. in the monsoon period also as well people clothes not] ‘and in the monsoon period too, people didn’t have [many] clothes’ M.N.02.12

man dwēl ād awaḳt ḥāwalay [amwāṣalāt al-śī / w-aṭīyaryōt al-śī / wa-ssīyaryōt al-śī] ‘in the past, early on, there [were] no forms of communication, no planes and no cars’ M.NS

syūran rēmal wa-ḳaṭʔōt bīn sīyaryat man ḳall batrūl ġatrīyan fōna ba-talifōn al-kūsan irsāl śī riddan hāl sīyaryat nittiḳ wa-l-kūsan ḥmūh śī [wa-ḳawt al-śī wa-hōlaʔ al-śī] ḏa-nhaḳṣam fōna barkih

8.4 Negative command

329

‘We went to the sand desert and our car broke down because of a lack of petrol. We tried to speak by phone, but didn’t find any reception. We returned to the car to drink, but didn’t find any water, and there wasn’t any food or shade we could spend the hot part of the day in.’ M.PES.MA

8.4 Negative command

Negative command is expressed by the subjunctive followed by lā in both dialects.17 My database for Mehreyyet and Stroomer (1999) have a few examples of bipartite negation in negative command, but the majority of examples have monopartite post-negation. Examples include:

“taxrējäm lǟ!” ‘Don’t m.pl. go out!’ Sima77:13

taġtīr at-tǟ bählīt ṭīt lǟ ‘Don’t say a single word!’ Sima33:28

thayyaṣ bay lā / al-hōh ḏa-yiṣṣak ‘Don’t m.s. try to frighten me! I’m not scared!’ M.NS

amūr tarēwī lā ‘he said, ‘Don’t m.s. be shy!’’ M.N

tāṣayṣī lā ‘Don’t f.s. be afraid!’ M.NS

Ç u��l�� taḳtalēbī lā ‘Don’t f.s. worry!’ M.txt.MA

āmūran hīham / atēm tagḥayd lā ‘we said to them m., ‘Don’t you m.pl. deny it!’’ M.N.Rabkūt02.20

In Mehreyyet, bipartite negation of negative command may occur to intensify the sense of prohibition, when ād precedes the verb, and in second conjuncts. No examples of bipartite negation of negative command are attested in the Mahriyōt data:

al-tabarḳay lā / sīrī l-xarxawr ḥōram mayar fanwayš ‘Don’t f.s. run! Go slowly! The road in front of you is steep.’ M.PES.MA

l-ād thasray lā bi-śigarīt xṭayrat ‘Don’t f.s. speed down dangerous defiles again!’ M.NS

hīs taww tlēmī ḥnafš / wa-l-tāmēl wṭōmah lā [lit. you f.s. should blame yourself and not do like that not] ‘You f.s. should blame yourself and not do that!’ M.PES.MA

Ç u��l�� و�� ¸~Æش ط�ي اxyz ھ hām nakaš ṭlāy aġarfēt [wa-l-ād taslēbī lā] ‘When you f.s. arrive, go up to the room and don’t hang around!’ M.txt

17 According to work by the Viennese Expedition, in western Yemeni Mehri the negated

indicative is more common in negative command than the negated subjunctive (Wagner 1953: 13), but this is not confirmed by Simeone-Senelle (1994: 206).

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8.5 Exception clauses

In Mehri, the exception particle ār excludes the following element from the scope of negation;18 for this reason, exception clauses are treated here under negation (as they are by Woidich 2006: 347ff. for Cairene Arabic). Mahriyōt ʕsē (from Arabic ʕasā) may also act as an exceptive particle, often preceded by ār. ʕsē is relatively rare in the data, with 15 tokens in the Jōdab texts and 8 tokens in the Rēhan texts. The excluded element can function as predicate, predicand, object, complement or supplement. Here negation is most commonly monopartite with pre-negation before propositions involving ʕād (ād) and post-negation in other cases.

In the examples below, the indefinite excluded element is the predicate. Thus, in the first example, ṭād functions as the predicate of a locational clause. In the positive non-exception clause equivalent, šūk ṭād ‘with you m.s. one m.’ ~ ‘one m. is with you m.s.’, communicative focus is placed on the indefinite NP ṭād.

bawmah l-ād šūk ār ṭād [lit. here no longer with you m.s. except one m.] ‘here you m.s. have only one’ M.N

nḥah šǟn śī lǟ ʕsē tōmär ‘we have nothing apart from dates’ Sima79:3

In the examples below, the definite excluded element is part of the predicand, such that the predicate applies to nothing apart from the excluded element: in the first example, nothing is with me but God. In the positive non-exception counterpart, abɛlī šay ‘God is with me’, focus is placed on the PP predicate.

šay aḥād lā ār abɛlī [lit. with me no one except God] ‘I have no one but God with me’ M.NS

l-ʕād ǟr źayjaʕ19 ‘there is nothing apart from deserted camps’ Sima1:27

In the following examples, the excluded element functions as an adverbial: in the positive non-exception equivalents w-ʕijbäk wṭōm bäss ‘and I loved just like that’, and haġdayk tilifūnī xaṭarāt ḏīmah ‘I forgot my telephone that time’ the excepted element could be omitted and the clause still stand independently (w-ʕijbäk ‘and I loved’, haġdayk tilifūnī ‘I forgot my telephone’):

w-ʕijbäk lǟ ǟr wṭōm bäss [lit. I loved not except like that only] ‘and I didn’t love except like that’ Sima4:2

ād al-haġdayk tilifūnī ār xaṭarāt ḏīmah ‘this is the first time I have lost my phone’ M.PES.MA

Below the excluded element functions as the predicand of a verbal clause. The excluded element could in a positive non-exception clause fill the position occupied by ḥād, to give ġayg ḳbēlī yišānūs yinkā ‘a tribesman dare come’:

18 As in Śḥerɛt (Hofstede 1998: 169). 19 Lit. caves, but comes to mean also huts and in this particular context deserted camps.

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ḥād yišānūs yinkā lā ʔār ġayg ḳbēlī ʔār ġayg ḳbēlī hām ših mandūḳ [lit. one dare come not, except a tribesman except a tribesman if with him rifle] ‘no one dares go there apart from a tribesman, apart from a tribesman with a rifle’ M.N.01.28

In the following example, where all but two females are excluded from entering, the verb inflects for feminine plural. The positive non-exception counterpart would require the verb to inflect for feminine dual, if emphasis is placed on the number of permitted females, as in: twakbōh ṯrayt [come in.F.DUAL two.F] ‘two come in’:

al-takēban ār ṯrayt [lit. not enter f.pl. except two f.] ‘only two f. may come in’ M.NS.MA

Here, ḥād mšändīb ‘someone with raʕbūt knowledge’ functions as the annex of the preposition hǟl, as we see in the positive non-exception equivalent w-lǟkän sēh hǟl ḥād mšändīb ‘but it f. [knowledge] is with someone with raʕbūt knowledge’:

w-lǟkän sēh hǟl ḥābū käll lǟ, ǟr ḥād mšändīb ‘but it f. [knowledge] isn’t with anyone, except someone with raʕbūt knowledge’ Sima1:7

In the following example, mrawḳad ‘tracks made up with stepping stones’ functions as the object of yṭarḥam ‘they m. leave’:

wa-l-ʕād yṭarḥam ǟr mrawḳad ‘and they m. only leave [a few] tracks made up with stepping stones’20 Sima63:7

In the examples below from the two dialects, the excluded element is a VP or, as in the final example, a complete (locational) clause:

ḳīsän nzämkäm tīsän lǟ, ǟr ʕsē l-baʕl šǟn yänkāʕ ‘we won’t give them f. to you m.pl. unless the owner comes with us’ Sima99:31

hōh l-ʕād šī ǟr laʕmōl ḥnōfi kīnaḥ, ḥād ḳalyōn yḳāʕ šī ‘there was nothing else for me to do except make sure I also had children with me’ Sima33:41

lä-tfōraḥ ǟr täṭʕōm wa-ttēh ‘you’re m.s. not happy until you taste and eat it m.’ Sima17:42

amūr al-šay ār lantayf man aḳā ḏōmah ‘he said, ‘There is nothing for me except to leave this land’’ M.N

laskēb – lā, ār hēt hām tḥaym tanśēzī ‘Should I pour?’ ‘No, unless you f.s. want to drink tea.’ M.NS

wa-l-ād lūk ār taḥlēb ‘and you m.s. have nothing to do but milk’ ~ ‘all you have to do is milk’ M.NS


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hīs bars bi-ḥōram ġabarūt ḳayśar / wa-l-ḥissūt bih ār barh fanwīs bark awaghis ‘on her way she met a leopard, and she didn’t realise it m. was there until it was right in front of her’ M.N

Where the excluded element is a complete clause, as in the following examples, ār may take following wa-.21

w-lǟkän wut tärbūbäh lǟ, ǟr w-bǟr sädxōt22 ṭawri ṯrōh, śaʕṯäyt ṭwōr ‘sometimes she doesn’t accept it m.23 until the milk shows in her teats twice or three times’ Sima47:58

wa-yhūdar ḳardī lā ḏōm ḳutkan ār wa-xlaṭkan hīnī […] ḥaṭṭōtī ‘That food of yours f.pl. will only go down my throat if you mix in […] my bean!’ Mo.N.01.11

tiḳaydar tiḥayṣal AalkanzA lā ār w-āfidš […] amahaṣāt ḏīmah ‘You f.s. can’t get the treasure unless you jump across that waterscrape!’ M.N.Rabkūt01.17

In some instances, the excluded element may interrupt the proposition. Here the proposition lā ḥād hammah ūṭōmah [lit. not one his name like that] is interrupted by ār atēm:

lā ḥād [ār atēm] hammah ūṭōmah [lit. not one except you m.pl. his name like that] ‘no one apart from you m.pl. has that name’ M.NS

In Mehreyyet, but not attested in the Mahriyōt data, a few examples of exception clauses involving ʕād (ād) al- phrases show bipartite negation before ār:

ād al-haġdayk tilif ūnī lā ār aṭawr ḏōmah24 [lit. I have not lost my phone not apart from this time] ‘this is the first time I have lost my phone’ M.NS

21 Three tokens of ār w- in the Jōdab texts and none in the Rēhan texts. Several examples are

given for western Yemeni Mehri of ār u- or ġayr ~ ġār u- in Wagner (1953: 153). 22 Not translated in Sima (2009) and not listed in Johnstone (1987). Cf. Hobyōt sidxot ‘milch

camel come into milk’ (Miranda Morris, p.c.). 23 The calf of another camel. 24 Cf. monopartite negation in similar example above.

8.6 Fixed phrases and clauses and coordinated clauses and phrases

333


Monopartite pre-negation takes place in fixed phrases and in cases of coordinated negated phrases and clauses usually restricted to two conjuncts.

8.6.1 Fixed negative phrases and clauses

Fixed negative phrases, such as la-hanw-PRONOUN ‘not in mind’ and wa-l-ḳayrab ~ wa-l-ḳarabōt [lit. and it didn’t come near] ‘not at all!’ are subject to monopartite pre-negation:

la-hanwīh ‘he didn’t mean it’ M.NS

la-hanwī / ḥiskə25 bih lā ‘I didn’t mean it. I didn’t notice it m.’ M.NS

aġāk ḏa-ġatyaḏ lay imših – wa-l-ḳarabōt ~ wa-l-ḳayrab ‘Did your m.s. brother get angry with me yesterday?’ ‘Not at all!’ M.NS

Post-posed negative conditional clauses hām (ḏa-)al X ‘if not X’, negative concessive clauses, and negative phrases invoking God also involve monopartite pre-negation:

bark warx warx ū-faḳḥ / hām ḏa-l-axayr ‘around a month or a month and a half, if not longer’ M.N.02.08

šay wḳōna ʔašrayn / hām al-axayr ‘I have around twenty, if not more’ M.NS

yaftūśaḥ aġayg / hām al-syūr šīham ‘the man will be embarrassed, if he doesn’t go with them m.’ M.NS.MA AiḥtikākA gzūm līn niśxawwal / tawlū al-nḥōm ‘arthritis forces us to sit, even if we don’t want to’ M.NS

abɛlī al-tawuzmī tēṯ wṭōmah ‘God, please don’t give me a woman like that!’ M.NS

Negative questions with a rhetorical sense frequently involve monopartite pre-negation, as in:

hīs aġiggīn sabṭayš [wkōh al-(t)šwayf bi-ḥnafš] ‘When the boy hit you f.s., why didn’t you get your own back?’ M.NS

sabṭay hīs mġōran afakrak [wkōh al-aṭawlab bi-ḥnōfī] ‘he hit me, then I thought, why didn’t I get my own back?’ M.NS

In both balanced coordinated phrases in which the second element alone is negated and in coordinated negated clauses and phrases, pre-negation is often found to the exclusion of both monopartite post-negation and bipartite negation in the two

25 < *ḥissak bih (cf. 1.3.2.4, 1.3.2.1).

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dialects.26 For both dialects, monopartite pre-negation takes place irrespective of the morpholexical identity of the clause-initial element. Data such as these and data which show monopartite pre-negation exclusively in set phrases suggest that the original negator was the initial element and that bipartite negation resulted from the addition of a negative element based on the anaphoric negator lā.

8.6.2 Coordinated negated clauses

Syndetically coordinated negated clauses of all types in the two dialects are typically subject to pre-negation of both conjuncts (as in Śḥerɛt, cf. Hofstede 1998: 167). Of the following examples from Mahriyōt, the first three examples are negated verbal clauses, of which the first takes an initial indefinite pronoun, and the final example a negated clause of attribution:

l-ḥād wīdaʕ b-ḏikm śäfrēt ḥläkmäh / wa-l-ḥād wīdaʕ b-hǟh śī mädfīn ‘and no one knew about that knife there and no one knew what was hidden’ Sima42:19

l-äśunyäs / wa-lä-śśunyä ‘I don’t see her and she doesn’t see me’ Sima76:9

la-šaʕjūn / wa-l-šaxbūz27 Bā Nwās ‘he can’t be kneaded or baked, Bā Nuwās’ Mo.N.01.31

tʕajnäh at-tǟ yḳāʕ [l-hēh ḳwī ḳwī, / wa-l-hēh rġāź rġāź] ‘you m.s. knead it m. until it is neither too tough nor too soft’ Sima84:4

Of the following examples of coordinated negated clauses from Mehreyyet, examples (ai) and (aii) are verbal clauses; (bi) and (bii) are nominal clauses – a clause of attribution and a clause of proper inclusion respectively; (ci) and (cii) are locational clauses:

(ai) hōh [al-hōh ḏa-gilwak / wa-l-hōh b-xayr] ‘I am neither ill nor well’ M.NS

(aii) lū amnādam yiwōda l-hān wḳōna lih taksāyan tah [l-ād yitāyw / wa-l-ād yiśḥōk] ‘if man knew what was coming to him, you would find him no longer eating and no longer laughing’ M.R

(bi) ḥaybīt ḏīmah [al-sēh ṭwaylat / wa-l-sēh ḳṣayrat] amḳiyēt ‘this camel is neither tall nor short, [she’s] in between’ M.PES.MA

(bii) la-hēh nagd / wa-l-hēh śḥayr ‘it is neither the desert nor the mountains’ M.NS

26 As in Ḥarsūsi (Johnstone 1977: 2) and in western Yemeni Mehri, where otherwise only

monopartite post-negation is found: e.g. ū ġálagak lâ śiwôṭ ū lâ nûr? ‘und hast du weder Feuer noch Licht gesehen?’ (Wagner 1953: 33).

27 Saying: you can’t do anything with him.


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(ci) hōh ġayg [ḏa-l-šay mōl / wa-l-šay śī] ‘I am a man who has no livestock or anything’ M.NS

(cii) amūr hōh [al-šay AgawāzA / wa-l-šay Aayya ḥāgahA] ‘he said, ‘I haven’t got a passport or anything’’ M.N.03.08

8.6.3 Coordinated negated phrases

Coordinated negated phrases of all types are pre-negated in the two dialects:

wa-l-ḥād mnǟn sīläm lǟ, [l-śōx mnǟn / wa-l-ḳannūn] ʕsē hōh ‘not one of us was saved, neither old nor young, apart from me’ Sima75:24

yġarbam [al-dwayl / wa-l-īdīn] ‘they m. know neither the old nor the new’ M.NS

kisk śī lā [al-gīd / wa-l-ḳōmaḥ] ‘I found nothing, neither good or bad’ M.NS

ġayg [al-xṣawb līham bi-xaṭṭ / wa-l-xṣawb līham bi-śī] ‘the man hadn’t sent them m. a letter or sent them anything’ M.N.03.13

8.6.4 Coordinated positive–negative clauses and phrases

Coordinated positive–negative clauses and phrases are typically pre-negated:

āṣar ṭwayl wa-ḥyūm hīs tah / wa-l-kūsan ṣdayḳ ḏ-iḳaṣran tah ‘the night is long and the daytime too, and we’ve found no friend to shorten it m.’ M.R

Where a positive phrase is coordinated to its negative counterpart, it frequently involves repetition of the verb:

aḥḥawalk / w-lā aḥḥawalk ‘whether I understand or not’ Mo.NS

[tḥōm / wa-lā tḥōm] madī laḥkām lūk ‘whether you m.s. like or not, I’ll force you’ Mo.NS

The second clausal conjunct may be elliptical in coordinated negated clauses and phrases (cf. 7.1.2):

ḥābū lyōmah [al-šīham muh / wa-l-ḳawt] [lit. those people, not with them m. water and not food] ‘those people have neither water nor food’ M.NS

sēh [al-ṣabarūt min aḳanyawn / wa-l-min ḥābū śīyēx] [lit. she not manage without the children and not without old(er) people] ‘she can’t do without [other] children or adults’ M.NS

8.6.5 Other cases of monopartite pre-negation

Locational clauses within ʕād … lā phrases may show monopartite pre-negation:

frayś ḏōmah / ād al-hēh ḥawl [lit. that female camel calf still not to him a year] ‘that female camel calf, she is not yet a year old’ M.NS

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8.7 Tag questions

Tag questions turn a declarative clause into a yes–no question that requests confirmation or disconfirmation, but implies expectation of a positive answer (Payne 1997: 296–297). In many languages, tag questions are realised by simple negative or, less commonly, positive particles. Tag questions in Mehri are most commonly realised by lā ‘not’, and for this reason are discussed in this chapter; utterance-final tag questions may also be realised by the positive particle ahā, or by juxtaposition of the positive and negative particles ahā lā ‘yes no’. As in English and many other languages, tag questions are more common among some speakers than among others. In many cases, only the intonation and/or context enables the hearer to differentiate a tag question from a singly post-negated declarative clause. Tag questions are said by speakers of both dialects to emphasise the proposition or to draw the listener in. Examples include:

b-ḥāwēl ḥābū ysäḳfäm ǟr b-mīśäṭ – lǟ ‘At first, people used to just make roofs with [wood from] mīśaṭ28 [wood], didn’t they?’ Sima2:15

hīs nūka hāl baʔlī hbɛr / lā ‘when he arrived at the camel herders [not]’ M.NS

Negative tag questions are used far more frequently in Mehri than in English; they may interrupt phrases and propositions, and are often best left untranslated in English:

[hīs yḥaym yizīm tah AgawāzA / lā] yḥaym yidāʔam bih fnōhan hēh man ḥō ‘when they m. are about to give him a passport [not], they want to know beforehand where he is from’ M.PES.MA

wadaš bi-yaḥyā [lā] fōnaš man AagāmaʕahA ‘do you f.s. know Yahya [not], he’s left the University’ M.NS

wa-hīs mġōran ḥābū [lā] baʔlī AšurṭahA ḏ-išxabīrah ‘and then when the people [not], the police, were asking him’ M.N.03.25

In utterance-final position, tag questions may be realised by the positive particle ahā ‘yes’, and are often realised by juxtaposition of the positive and negative particles, ahā lā ‘yes no’:

bār hayš ṣfōt ḏ-amaḥbōs / ahā ‘You’ve f.s. heard about the prisoners, haven’t you?’ M.NS

bār hayš ṣfōt ḏ-amaḥbōs / ahā lā ‘You’ve f.s. heard about the prisoners, haven’t you?’ M.NS

28 Anogeissus dhofarica (Miller & Morris 1988: 102–103, 345).

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hēt ḥɛmak fnōhan šība yōm ḥaybitk bawmah / ahā lā ‘You m.s. dreamt a week ago that your camel was here, didn’t you?’ M.N.04.14

ā sʕīd ḏakmah bar ḥadaydak / ahā lā ‘Saeed, that’s your [male paternal] cousin, isn’t it?’ M.NS

8.8 Negation through non-l-based particles 8.8.1 man ~ mā

man ~ mā occurs in initial position, taking a following verb in the subjunctive. Both variants are probably derived from grammaticalisation of the preposition man, which may head a clause of negative purpose followed by a verb in the subjunctive (cf. 9.2.6).29 As a negator, it occurs in a very few fixed phrases in all cases followed by a verb in the subjunctive. These include: man ~ ma ldāʕ (ma ldaʔ ~ ma ldā) ‘I don’t know’ and Mehreyyet mā lafṭōn ~ mā lafṭōn ād ‘I can’t remember’. All instances of man ldāʕ in the Sima texts are preceded by waḷḷah ‘by God’:

AwaḷḷahA män ldāʕ män hõ ḳhēbän nḥah ‘by God, I don’t know where we came from’ Sima13:3

ma ldā hāśan hammas ‘I don’t know what it f. is called’ M.N.03.11

8.8.2 maḳāʕ (maḳā ~ maḳāʔ)

maḳāʕ (maḳā ~ maḳāʔ) negates a following proposition, in Mehreyyet often introduced by axah-PRONOUN, and conveys the sense that the current state of affairs belies that that is stated in the main proposition. The particle has probably been derived from grammaticalisation of man + subjunctive of wīḳaʕ (wīḳa):30

w-mänhǟm ǟr yäṯyīmäh ba-ḥdōyäm / mḳāʕ yśänyimäh ‘and some of them m. just smell it m. [i.e. fish] from an isolated place [far from the shore] before they see it [= they don’t see it]’ Sima56:77

maḳāʔ xahēm xlēḳam ‘it’s as if they m. had not been born’ M.NS

maḳāʔ xahēm draws śī / ḥambarawtan ḳaṭ syawr m-bawmah ‘it’s as if they m. had learnt nothing, the boys that just left here’ M.NS

maḳāʔ xahēt bār taxlūḳ / tḥōm taġtayḏ wa-tḥōm tšaryaḥ ‘it’s as if you m.s. hadn’t been born, you can get angry or be content’ M.PES.MA

29 Hofstede (1998: 168) describes mən as used for introducing negative indirect quotes in Śḥerɛt. 30 This particle is rare in the published texts: it is not mentioned in descriptions of western Yemeni

Mehri (e.g. Wagner 1953). There are four tokens in the 110 Sima texts, all of which occur in the Jōdab texts, and four tokens in Johnstone’s texts. Three of the four tokens of məḳā attested in Stroomer’s edition of Johnstone’s texts negate a proposition introduced by xā-PRONOUN (Rubin 2010: 272).

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8.8.3 ġayr ~ ġār

ġayr ~ ġār functions as a preposition and negates constituents in both dialects. It often functions as the annex of the preposition man or, more commonly, ba- (bi-):

lǟkän [ġayr / mawsäm] AhǟḏaA yaxšūš ‘but outside the season it m. goes off’ Sima2:18

[bġār / mälḥōt] yädhōn aw yaxyūs ‘without salt, it m. stinks and goes bad’ Sima12:26

bärh [bġār / ḥass] ‘he was unconscious’ Sima75:20

syark [bi-ġayr / mġarbēt] ‘I went without knowing [where I was going]’ M.NS

kiskə tah [bi-ġayr / sīyaryat] ḏ-isyūr la-fāmha ‘I found him without a car going by foot’ M.PES.MA

nakak [bi-ġayr / śī] ‘I came without anything’ M.PES.MA

It may also exclude the following NP from the scope of the proposition:

kalham ḥāwar [ġayr / ṭād ūbōn] ‘they m. were all black, apart from one white one’ M.N.Rabkūt

8.9 Emphasis of negation

Four specific particles function to emphasise negation: śī, which emphasises negation of a constituent, lōb and waylōb, which emphasise the extent to which the speaker believes in the proposition, the Arabic loan abdan ~ abadan, and Mehreyyet bahaw.

8.9.1 śī

śī, grammaticalised from the noun śī ‘thing’, is used in absolute negation as seen above, and together with lā emphasises negation of a constituent.31 As for absolute negation, śī can occur adjacent to lā or be separated by the negated constituent.

lǟkän ḏīk bäkrīyät taʕmōl [śī ḳabšīš lǟ] w-śī lǟ ‘but these early sardines don’t produce any maggots or anything’ Sima2:7

w-hēt w-ḥaṯṯak, bǟr tähjayḥ w-bǟr tähjayḥ / śī lǟ lxaym ‘it is a matter of luck whether you m.s. do catch or don’t catch any sharks’ Sima2:28

31 Not to be mistaken with śī which functions as a predicand or predicate, as in: ṣarōmah ād šūk śī

lā ‘now you m.s. have nothing’ (M); a verbal object, as in: ḥād yiḳōdar yiśnē śī lā ‘no one can see anything’ (M); or the annex of a preposition, as in: yihōra ḥnafh man śī lā man hīs hēh ‘he has never held back [from food]’ (M).

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nḥah widʕan lǟ, nḥah šǟn [śī ʕilm lǟ] būmäh ‘we don’t know; we don’t have any experience here’ Sima2:70

šūk śī tōmar ‘Do you m.s. have any dates?’ šay [śī tōmar lā] yawjūd lā īmōh bi-sawḳ ‘I don’t have any dates at all; there weren’t any today in the market’ M.NS

šīn [śī lā bḳār] nḥah ‘we don’t have any cows, us’ M.N.Ndēt

8.9.2 lōb and waylōb

lōb32 and waylōb occur at the beginning of the proposition. lōb may add intensity to a positive proposition, in the Mahriyōt texts particularly when followed by ār (cf. 9.1.5.1.1). It also serves to intensify negation. In negating a positive yes–no question, the intensity of lōb may be reinforced by the disjunct bi-ʕaynha ~ bi-ʔaynha ‘Really?!’ in Mehreyyet, as in the first example below. lā usually occurs to the right of the proposition, but may not be omitted, as shown in the alternate lōb b-ʔaynha below.

yikhōl bi-mahrayyat ‘Can he speak Mehri?’ lōb bi-ʔaynha ‘Of course not!’ ~ lōb bi-ʕaynha yikhōl bi-mahrayyat lā ‘Of course he can’t speak Mehri!’ M.NS

lōb aḥamah lā ‘no, I don’t want it m.’ M.NS

lōb akōb ḥanōfī gihmīta rabkūt īmoh lā ‘I really didn’t think I would go to Rabkūt today’ M.NS

waylōb śīnan śī lā ‘No, we haven’t seen anything!’ M.N.Rabkūt01.09

waylōb al-hōh sīrōna waḥśay lā ‘I’m certainly not going on my own!’ M.PES.MA

lōb and waylōb can be followed by a positive alternative, as in:

waylōb tawlū l-tḥōm sīrōna waḥśay ‘even if you m.s. don’t want, I’m going on my own’ M.NS.MA

8.9.3 abdan

The negative adverb abdan ~ abadan, which is almost certainly a loan from the Arabic, may also be used to reinforce a negative particle, as in the first example below, but is mainly restricted to replies to formulaic greetings. It is relatively more common in Mahriyōt than in Mehreyyet, which prefers bahaw.

ḥād śattar w-li aġtiyūr – abdan ‘Is anyone hurt or anything?’ ‘Not at all!’ Mo.NS

32 lob, lob lob and ob are negative response particles ‘no’ in Śḥerɛt (Hofstede 1998: 92).

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śī xbōr man bōh w-li man bōh – abdan ‘Is there any news from here or there?’ ‘Not at all!’ Mo.NS

hām yiḥōm yaʔmēr harḳāt yiʔōmar lā / abdan ‘if he meant to say she had been stolen, he would say, ‘No, not at all!’’ M.N.04.05

āmarūt attēṯ [a:badan] ḏōmah ār aṣadḳ ‘the woman said, ‘Not at all! That was reality!’’ M.N.04.22

8.9.4 bahaw

The negative response particle bahaw is not attested in the Mahriyōt texts, although this may be simply a result of the types of texts examined. In Mehreyyet, as in northern Omani Arabic (Domenyk Eades, p.c.), it is more emphatic than lā, and functions predominantly to give a negative response to a yes–no question or formulaic greeting, occurring in the same contexts as abdan.

śattar śī – bahaw ‘Is anything wrong?’ ‘No!’ M.NS

śinkam śī ībīt ʔamawr [bahaw] śīnan śī lā ‘‘Have you m.pl. seen a camel?’ They m. said, ‘No! We haven’t seen anything!’’ M.PES.MA

bahaw / al-šīn ṣfūt wa-l-wadan bi-śī ‘No, we haven’t any news and don’t know anything!’ M.PES.MA

8.10 Conclusion

Mehri appears to have developed a wider set of negative particles than many other Semitic languages. In terms of negation through the l-based particle, the choice of monopartite or bipartite negation for both dialects is shown to be dependent on a complex set of morpholexical and syntactic factors: in main independent clauses, bipartite negation or monopartite post-negation depends on the identity of the clause-initial element; in subordinate clauses and syndetically linked coordinated clauses constraints are slightly relaxed, allowing bipartite negation in both dialects where only monopartite negation is attested in main independent clauses. We have also seen that monopartite versus bipartite negation in Mehreyyet, at least, can be used to disambiguate clauses.

Monopartite pre-negation is attested in coordinated positive–negative phrases and in the case of two negative conjuncts. Monopartite negation is also attested in fixed negative phrases. The fact that monopartite pre-negation occurs in fixed phrases adds weight to the claim by Lucas (2009) and Lucas & Lash (2010) that monopartite pre-negation is the older form. It is highly probable that negation in Mehri is moving from pre-negation to bipartite negation to monopartite post-negation. The right-most negator can precede a final adverbial or, particularly after the verbs wīdaʕ (wīda) ‘to know’, ḳdōr (ḳdūr) ‘to be able’ and šānūs ‘to dare’, a complement clause. In Mehreyyet, examples are also found of the right-most negator preceding the predicate. This left-ward movement of a final negator appears

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to be a further stage in the cycle of negation. Work by Hofstede (1998: 157–170) indicates that Śḥerɛt exhibits a higher rate of bipartite negation than either Mehreyyet or Mahriyōt, and thus appears to occupy a stage in JC between Soqoṭri, which exhibits only monopartite pre-negation, and Mehri. Mahriyōt, which displays bipartite negation in syntactic contexts where only monopartite negation is attested in western Yemeni Mehri, but less bipartite negation than Mehreyyet, occupies a stage in JC between the more conservative Mehreyyet and the least conservative western Yemeni Mehri.


Text M.N.04 has a good selection of types of negation and negation of different clause types. In this transcription, the boundaries of negated elements are marked with superscript N. The forward slashes indicating pauses have been removed in this version. Similarly, unnecessarily repeated sequences have been removed and indicated by […]. The tokens of negation are pre-numbered sequentially from (1) to (19) for reference. They include PP-initial, VP-initial and NP-initial clauses, absolute negation, negative command, a tag question (10), and use of the anaphoric negator or response particle (6), (12). The elements in absolute negation occur both around the negated term (3) and before the negated term (2). The PP-initial clause (1) is post-negated, since it neither occurs as the predicate of a topic–comment clause nor within a coordinate complex of negative conjuncts. The NP-initial clauses, both with initial pronoun predicand (4), (8) and (18), and an initial explicit NP predicand (19) are post-negated. Of these, the right-most negative particle occurs directly after the verb tḳawdar ‘she is able’ in (19). One VP-initial clause (9) is post-negated. The VP-initial clauses within the structure l-ād … lā (14) and (15) show bipartite negation. The two negated topic–comment clauses show bipartite negation with the initial negative particle preceding the independent pronoun predicand in the predicate of the topic–comment clause (7) and (13). Two non-utterance-initial clauses with an initial verb (5) and with an initial pronoun (11) show bipartite negation.

8.11.1 Ali Musallam cat story

1. xaṭarāt ġayg ḏ-īḳawbaś hibɛrha bi-giddēt (1) Nšēh bɛr mēkin lāN wu-šēh ībīt maġrabūt b-aśxōf wa-xfayn

2. attōlī ta nhūr ṭayt śxawlūl ḏ-īġawlaḳ ba-hbɛrha bīsan ḏ-īġawlaḳ bīsan b-awaḳt ḏakmah ḥaybīt fanwih ḏ-īġawlaḳ bīs wa-lākan bark laḥḏah axtafūt ṭhamūt […] man anḏār ḏ-aʕayantha

3. (2) Nḥlawk śī lā harmaytN ḏ-īhaḳamsam tīs (3) Nḥlakmah śī gīwēʔ lāN tāmēr hwūt bark agīwēʔ ār giddēt xalayyat

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4. swānōt hibɛr ridd […] aġār sēh (4) Nsēh riddūt lāN hēh ḏ-īfakran wa-ḏa-hattam wa-ḏa-ḥyūr aḳābah bīs (5) Nla-wīda hībōh yāmōl lāN hībōh yiwōṣaf aḳassēt ḏīmah lāN yiwōṣaf aḳassēt ḏa-ḥarmas ḏīmah

5. hām yiḥōm yaʔmēr harḳāt yiʔōmar (6) Nlā abdanN ḥaybīt bark fnōhan ʕayantya wa-ḥaybīt bark āmḳ ḏa-hbɛr wa-mġōran (7) Nḥaybīt al-sēh ṣalḥayt lāN ta-tharūḳ ḥaybīt ḥalūb w-aśxafs yisdūd asēkin

6. mat ṭawr yʔōmar ḥnafh ataḳāʔ riddūt twōlī sēkin hīs wīṣal sēkin kalaynī šxabūr ataṯh amarūt amarūt (8) Nnḥah śīnan tēs lāN wukōh klūṯ hīs bi-kalśī kallah śxawalīl ḥlakmah śxawalīl śalīṯ snay wu-hēh sōbar ḏ-īfakran bi-ḥaybith

7. tā ʔāṣar ṭād ḏa-šūkūf ḥaylam mnādam ankayh w-āmūr hēh ḥaybitk ṣaḥḥayt wa-lākan sēh k-aḳīyōʔ hām hēt […] tḥams […] aḳōfī mārīb hām tḥams aḳōfī mārīb ḥsēb ʔōśar ūday m-bawmah w-ōśar wa-ṭayt ḥaybitk ḥlakmah wa-lākan aḳāʔ šōgaʔ w-aḳāʔ ḳaway wa-hām tḥōm tsēr ślēl bāś ślēl bāś man tōmar w-āyś šūk

8. mayt ḏa-wuṣlak ʔōśar wa-ṭayt ḥawday ḳfēd bark amsyūl wa-śxawwal ḥlakmah ḥaḏḏūr ma (t)sēr mkōn ḥaḏḏūr man tāṣōṣ śanyōna mēkin laśyā mēkin śī yiṣṣayt wīyan mhafgaʔ yiṣṣayt mhafgaʔ lākan ḥaḏḏūr man taḥtayīrak man amkōnak hawḳaʔ śīḥaz ḏār śīwōṭ

9. ankaytēk sinnawrat ḥūrūt azams bāś azams tōmar ḥaḏḏūr man twaḏyis w-aḳāʔ wa-šlaṭfas śīlaṯ yōm aw rība yōm assinnawrat maḳtūbēta tēṯ w-ankayta tēk wa-kūṯīta lūk bi-ḥaybitk wa-msādēta tēk

10. k-aṣōbaḥ āmūr h-attaṯh hōh sīrōna laġlēḳ man ḥaybaytī amarūt ataṯh bark aḳābī aḥtawāk ḏ-aḥtawāk taġlēḳ man ḥaybitk ḏa-bār hīs śahlīṯ snay ḏa-bār hīs śahlīṯ snay āmūr gihmōna laġlēḳ mans tawlū amūt

11. śill azwōdah wa-ḥagtah […] tōli ghēm ḥsūb ʔōśar ūday ʔōśar wa-ṭayt ḳfūd bark ḥawōdi śxawalūl ḥlakmah w-aymal l-hīs ḥām klūṯ hēh

12. śīnī mēkan śī śī mēkan mhafgaʔ wa-lākan (9) Nyiṣṣ lāN manhēm arōba ḏ-āṣawr assinnawrat ḥūrūt inkath wuzmīs aʔaynat tōmar wa-šalṭafīs wuzamīs muh haḳayīs sōbar axōmas ḏ-āṣawr śīnī atēṯ arḥaymat inkatah

13. hēh ġrūb ḏ-assinnawrat ḏa-ġrūb assinnawrat ḳatūbūt tēṯ w-ankatah tēṯ śxawallūt ḳrayb lih w-āmarūt mōn hēt wa-man ḥō nakak amūr hōh ġayg ḏ-aġawlaḳ man aḥād yisādī man aḥād yilḥōḳ lay mn aḥād yilḥōḳ lay yinfāyī […] hām tḳaydar


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14. amarūt wa-yaḥōl laḳawdar hēt tḥōm ḥaybitk āmūr yāḥōl wkō ḏa-ġribš ḏa-hōh ḏ-aġawlaḳ man ḥaybaytī āmarūt ḏa-ġribk āmarūt hēt ḥɛmak fnōhan šība yōm ḥaybitk bawmah (10) Nahā lāʔN āmūr yāḥōl […] ḥɛmak

15. āmarūt hōh nakak tēk wa-kliṯk hūk bi-ḥaybitk āmūr aġayg hēt mōn (11) Nal-hēt ansānīyah lāN āmarūt (12) NlāʔN (13) Nhōh al-hōh ansānīyah lāN hōh ḳāʔyūt hōh assinnawrat ḏa-nakak tēk āṣawr alyōmah wa-šlaṭfak tay wa-ʕagbak būk w-ḥaybitk šīn wa-bār šīs śahlīṯ ḥabantsa

16. ṣarōmah śxawwal bawmah wa-ḥaḏḏūr man tāṣōṣ hōh b-adiffatk wu-gihma k-ṣōbaḥ ghōm ḥawōdī mšaġarēt śanōn aġrayb man hāl śxawalūl śxawwal ḥlakmah ksōna ḥlakma ksōna bāś ḳawt wa-muh amma hūh ilīlah […] ḥaybīt wa-ḥbantsa šay wa-ḳawbītīsan hīs fnōhan (14) Nl-ād īśanyam tīsan lāN aḳīyōʔ mat barsan hīs fnōhan (15) Nl-ād īśanyam tīsan lāN w-ankayta tēk gihma […] man ḏār aḏahar

17. hēh śxawalūl hēh āmūr […] hīs taww […] gihma k-ṣōbaḥ syūr ḥawōdī mšaġarēt wa-śīnī aġrayb wu-tbayh tā śxawalūl […] aġayg śxawalūl man hāl aġrayb śxawalūl wa-kūsa kāśī kallah bār ḏ-ūtalūm hēh kūsa kāśī kallah ḏ-ūtalūm hēh

18. śxawalūl ḥlakmah tā: man ḏār aḏahar śīnī atēṯ wa-hbɛr nakam tah śxawalīl faxrā ḥlakmah wa-lākan wīḳa śī manwīham ʕagbam ṭādīdayham aġayg yiġōlaḳ b-attēṯ w-attēṯ ūṭakmah

19. atōlī atēṯ šxabarath āmarūt wkōh hēt tġawlaḳ bay sōbar āmūr (16) Nśī lāN āmarūt klayṯ haynī aṣadḳ āmūr ʔagbak bayš wa-lākan […] wḳōna lay mḥanēt āmarūt hāśan man mḥanēt

20. āmūr hōh ḏa-ġribk hēt šayš aġaygaš w-ādah33 w-ādš hēt ḳaʔyūt amma hōh āmarūt (17) Ntaḳatlūb lāN mašfaḳāta tēk āmūr aġayg wkōh tšafḳī […] wkōh atēṯ tšfūḳ ṯrōh ġayg wkōh tēṯ tašfūḳ ġaygī ṯrōh

21. āmarūt hōh hōh (18) Nhōh law ansānīyah lāN law masūmūt lāN lū tēṯ msūmēt lāN hōh ḳaʔyūt yaḥōl hām (19) Natēṯ masūmēt tḳawdar lāN tšēfaḳ ṯrōh ġaygī ṯrōh tšēfaḳ ġaygī ṯrōh āmarūt aḥōm alšaxbarak hīs hēt mat ṭawr […] taḥlūm twōḳa mayt šūkafk at-taškūf hnūk tēṯ

22. āmūr aġayg yaḥōl wa-lākan ḏōm ār ḥām āmarūt attēṯ a:badan ḏōmah […] ār aṣadḳ aḳaʔaytan tanakan h-amslōm wa-tškūfan šīham wa-hēm yihagsam ār ḥām ṣarōmah hām šfaḳak tēk l-hīs ḥām ḏōmah bark adīnan nḥah amslōm līham śī lā

33 Error.

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23. AkēfA lašamukš wkōh lašamukš āmarūt hēt śōṭ manay bāś ʔaynat ḏōraʔ wa-śāṭayta mank ʔaynat ḏō raʔ […] wa-ḏīmah amūkīt wa-nḳawdar anśnē ṭādīdāyan tawlū bark āmḳ ḏa-ḥābū

24. ʕamlam wṭōmah wa-haṣbāḥam ġayg wa-tēṯ atōlī aġayg nūka bi-hbɛrha hāl saknah ḏīmah aḳassēt tammōt wa-sēh ār xyāl man hāl ālay bar msallam

8.11.1.1 Ali Musallam cat story. Translation

1. Once a man was herding his camels on the plain. He didn’t have many camels, but he had one that was renowned for its milk and speed.

2. Then one day he sat watching his camels, [watching] them. He was watching them. At that time, the camel was in front of him, he was watching her. But suddenly she disappeared. She disappeared from his sight.

3. There weren’t any trees there to hide her. There weren’t any holes so that you could say she had fallen into the holes. Just empty plain.

4. After a little while the camels returned, apart from her. She didn’t return. He was surprised and sad and was confused about her. He didn’t know what to do, how he could describe what had happened, describe what had happened to her.

5. If he meant to say she had been stolen, he’d say, ‘No, not at all! The camel was in front of my eyes. The camel was in the middle of the [other] camels. And in addition, the camel wasn’t fat enough to be stolen. The camel was a milk camel and her milk was enough for the [whole] homestead.’

6. Once he said to himself, ‘Maybe she’s returned to the homestead.’ When he reached the homestead in the evening, he asked his wife. She said, ‘We haven’t seen her, why?’ He told her everything. They stayed there, they stayed three years and the whole time he was thinking about his camel.

7. One evening as he was asleep he dreamt that someone came to him and told him, ‘Your camel is alive, but she is with the spirits. If you want her, set off west. If you want her, set off west. Count ten wadis from here, and in the eleventh is your camel. But be brave, and be strong. And if you want to go, take some, take some dates and rice with you.

8. ‘When you get to the eleventh wadi, go down to bottom of the wadi and wait there. Make sure you don’t go anywhere! Make sure you aren’t afraid! You will see lots, lots of frightening things. There will be lots of fear,


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frightening, fear. But take care not to move from your place. Put frankincense on the fire.

9. ‘A black cat will come to you. Give her some, give her dates. Make sure you don’t hurt her, and be, and be kind to her. On the third or fourth day, the cat will turn into a woman and come to you. And she will tell you about your camel and will help you.’

10. In the morning, he told his wife, ‘I’m going to look for my camel.’ His wife said, ‘I think you’ve gone mad, you’ve gone mad to look for your camel that’s been [away] for three years.’ He said, ‘I’m going to look for her, even if I die.’

11. He took his supplies and his things. Then he set off. He counted ten wadis, [at the] eleventh he went down into the wadi. He waited there and did what the dream had told him [to do].

12. He saw many things, many frightening things, but he wasn’t afraid of them. On the fourth night, the black cat came to him. He gave it some dates and was kind to it. He gave it water. He kept giving it water. On the fifth night, he saw the beautiful woman come to him.

13. He knew that the cat, he knew that the cat had turned into a woman. The woman came to him and sat close to him. She said, ‘Who are you and where have you come from?’ The man said, ‘I am a man who is looking for someone to help me, for someone to help me, for someone to help me, help me, if you can.’

14. She said, ‘Of course I can! You want your camel.’ He said, ‘Yes! How do you know that I was looking for my camel?’ She said, ‘I [just] know.’ She said, ‘You dreamt a week ago that your camel was here, didn’t you?’ He said, ‘Yes, I dreamt’.

15. She said, ‘I came to you and told you about your camel.’ The man said, ‘Who are you? You aren’t human.’ She said, ‘I am not human, I am a spirit. I am the cat that came to you those nights and you were kind to me and I fell in love with you, and your camel is with us. She has three female calves.

16. ‘Now stay here and take care not to be afraid. I am beside you. Tomorrow morning go to the next wadi. You will see the crow. Where it sits, stay there! You will find there some food and water. Tonight I will have […] the camel and her female calves with me. I will turn them back as [they were] before. The spirits will no longer be able to see them, when they are as

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[they were] before. They will no longer be able to see them. I will come to you tomorrow after, after midday.’

17. He sat. He said, he said, ‘Okay.’ He said, ‘Okay.’ The next morning he went to the next wadi and saw the crow. He followed it, until it came to rest. The man, the man sat where the crow sat, and found everything ready for him. He found everything ready for him.

18. He waited there until after midday. He saw the woman and the camels coming to him. They stayed there together, but something happened between them. They fell in love with each other. The man looked at the woman and the woman likewise.

19. Then the woman asked him. She said, ‘Why are you always looking at me?’ He said, ‘It’s nothing.’ She said, ‘Tell me the truth.’ He said, ‘I have fallen in love with you, but it will be a problem for me.’ She said, ‘What sort of problem?’

20. He said, ‘I know you have a husband, and also you are a spirit, but I am […]’ She said, ‘Don’t worry. I will marry you.’ The man said, ‘How can you marry me? How can a woman marry two men?

21. She said, ‘I, if [I was] a human, if I was a human woman [I could]’nt. I am a spirit. Yes, a human woman can’t marry two, two men.’ She said, ‘I want to ask you, sometimes when you dreamt, did it happen that a woman slept with you?’

22. The man said, ‘Yes, but that was just a dream.’ The woman said, ‘Not at all! That was reality! The spirits come to humans and sleep with them, and they think [it] is just a dream. Now if I marry you, [it will be] like a dream. That is in our religion. Humans have nothing to fear.’

23. ‘How can I marry you? How can I marry you?’ She said, ‘You take some blood from me and I will take some blood from you, then we can, and that is marriage, and we will be able to see each other even in the midst of [other] people.’

24. They did that and became man and wife. Then the man brought his camels to his family. This story has ended, and it is an imaginary story from Ali bar Musallam.

9 Supplementation

Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs, clauses and other adverbs. Adverbs and adverbials differ syntactically from complements in that they are supplementary and are not required to complete the proposition, they are less tightly bound to the modified element than complements, and many adverbs are not restricted to a particular position in relation to the modified element. In Mehri, there are a few words and particles that function solely as adverbs (cf. 2.8). These include some adverbs of time and degree ending in -an, -a(h) or -ōh, such as ḥāwēlan ‘earlier’, īmōh ‘today’, nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah) ‘now’, wīyan ~ wīya ‘very; much’;1 adverbial particles such as bār, ʕād (ād) and ār; and interrogative adverbs such as mayt(an) ‘when’, hībōh ‘how’, kam ‘how much, how many’, wkōh ‘why, how’. In particular contexts, NPs and, more commonly PPs, function adverbially. Adverbial clauses are introduced by adjunctions, by wa- in the case of circumstantial clauses, or paratactically. In this chapter, I examine the syntax of adverbs and adverbial phrases within simplex clauses and then the syntax of adverbial clauses.

9.1 Adverbs 9.1.1 Adverbs of time

The largest number of adverbs come under the category of adverbs of time. Adverbs of time can be subcategorised into those denoting a point or period in time, such as ‘in the morning’, ‘last year’, those denoting a boundary in time before or after which an event or state occurred, such as ‘afterwards’, ‘beforehand’, those denoting the duration of a state or event, such as ‘for two days’, ‘a whole year’, and those denoting the frequency of an event, such as ‘once’, ‘never’ (cf. Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 229–230). They include the specific adverbs listed in chapter 2 (tables 81, 82), and adverbial phrases formed from PPs and NPs relating to time, such as the time and days of the week. The time adjunctions wat, hīs and miḏ (Mo) can combine with certain adverbs of time or frequency or NPs of time, such as wat sāʕat ‘sometimes; the odd time’ (Mo), miḏ kalʕaynī ‘in the evening’ (Mo), hīs mġōran ‘then’, hīs nhōr man ḥāyām ‘one day’ (Mo). Phrases involving prepositions that have a prototypical place sense also function as adverbs of time, such as fīn (fnōhan) ‘in front of; before’, sār ‘behind; after’ ṯār (ḏār) ‘on; after’. For the adverbial particles fōna and Mehreyyet āśam-PRONOUN that place a proposition in the past, cf. 2.8.3.3 and 2.8.3.4, and for the Mahriyōt future particle mad, cf. 2.8.3.5.

1 wīyan is extremely frequent in natural speech in both dialects, but rare in the narratives: there

are only six tokens of wīyan in Stroomer (1999) (Rubin 2010: 223). In the Jōdab texts in Sima (2009), wīyä occurs 34 times, wīyän 22 times; in the Rēhan texts, wīyän occurs only twice.

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In the examples below, adverbs and adverbials are separated from the rest of the clause by / where they occur in initial or final position within the example, and by square brackets where they occur clause medially. Where the adverbial modifies an element within a larger utterance, the modified element together with the adverbial is delineated by square brackets and the adverbial separated from the modified element by /.

9.1.1.1 Point in time

Adverbs denoting a point or period in time answer the question ‘when’ or ‘at what time’. The interrogative adverb mayt(an) questions both point and period in time; the interrogative of time can also be expressed periphrastically as: hāśan man ḥall ‘what in terms of time?’ Adverbs denoting a point in time are realised by true adverbs, such as khān (khēn) ‘in the past’, nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah) ‘now’, fnōhan ‘earlier; sooner’, ḥāwēlan ‘earlier’ and their diminutive forms; by adverbs and adverbials referring to days and years in relation to the present, the hour and parts of days, such as: īmōh ‘today’, lʕōm (lāyōman) ‘last year’, nhūra (nhūran) ‘the midday period’, ka-ṣōbaḥ (k-aṣōbaḥ) ‘in the morning’, and, where applicable, their diminutive forms (cf. 2.8.1); by adverbial phrases introduced by the adjunctions wat, miḏ, hīs, tā, etc., and fnōhan ḏa- ‘before’; by certain NPs of time, such as snēt ḏīmah ‘this year’, ṭawr ḏakmah ‘that time’, sāʕat ṭīt (sāʔat ṭayt) ‘one o’clock’, snay lyēk [lit. those years] ‘in the past’; and by some PPs, such as ba-ḥḥāwēl (bi-ḥāwēl) ‘earlier; at first’, man fnōhan ‘before’, bi-ʔamḳ ‘a short while ago’ (M), fnōhan nhūrī ṯrayt ‘two days ago’ (M). The preposition ka- forms adverbials, as discussed in Rubin (2009), to express periods of the day, such as ka-ffējar (k-affēgar ~ ka-fēgar) ‘at dawn’, seasons, such as ka-ṣayrab (k-aṣayrab) ‘in the post-monsoon period’, and some other point or period-in-time phrases such as ka-malsē (k-amūsē) ‘at the time of rain’. Adverbs of time typically modify VPs and clauses. Point in time adverbs may occur before or after the modified term or clause medially.

Adverbs

nṣarōmäh / l-ʕād śī bänj lǟ ‘now there are no longer any lentils’ Sima56:89

[ṣarōmah / ftūk] [ṣarīyōmah / ftūk] ‘he went out now, he went out just now’ M.NS

[āṣarōmah / hēt ḥō] ‘Where are you s. now?’ M.NS.Ndēt

khǟn / ḥaynēṯ tälbōsän ḏhēb, tälbōsän fäźźāt ‘in the past, women used to wear gold, they f. used to wear silver’ Sima59:1

[hīn sīrōt / k-ṣōbaḥ], [kälʕayni / tūtaxōf] ‘when it f. goes in the morning, it comes back in the evening’ Sima70:7

[imših / bīśak lā] w-[īmōh / barh baśkōna] ‘it m. didn’t snap yesterday, but today it’s about to snap’ M.PES.MA

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Adverbial phrases

wat ka-xxarf / yḳafdäm at-tǟ ḥläkm ‘in the monsoon period, they m. come down there’ Sima23:11 Hka-xxorfH / ykīnäm śī lǟ lhäytän tǟl mäjlēl ‘in the monsoon period, there aren’t any cows in the huts’ Sima81:28

ḏōmäh rawʕ ḥābū yaʕmilmäh […] / wat k-yäźḥā ‘that rawʕ [custom]2 people do it m. […] during the festival of sacrifice’ Sima11:2

šay drēham l-AamašrūʕA [wa-hām al-axāṣak / fnōhan ḏ-awarx AsabʕahA lā] yšardīdham manay ‘I have money for the project and if I don’t finish by July, they m. will take it [= them m.] back from me’ M.NS

Prepositional phrases

w-bǟr hrōjäm šī / män fnōhän ‘and they m. had spoken to me [about it] earlier’ Sima65:12

ṭawr [man maddēt ḏ-ōśar wa-xaymah snay] hō w-ambarawtan artōyan ‘once, fifteen years ago, me and [some] boys were discussing’ M.N

mayt ūḳōt mūsē – b-awāmēḳ / ūḳōt / fnē ʔillōh ‘When did rain come?’ ‘It f. came a short while ago, the other night.’ M.NS

The preposition fīn (fnōhan) can denote either a point in time when an event occurred, in the sense of ‘X before’/‘X ago’, or a boundary in time before which an event occurred, in the sense of ‘before X’ (9.1.1.3). Point-in-time examples include:

haxṣabī bi-rsōlat / fnōhan faḳḥ ḏa-sɛt ‘send f.s. a text half an hour beforehand’ M.txt

hēt ḥɛmak / fnōhan šība yōm ‘you m.s. dreamt a week ago’ M.N.04.14

Noun phrases

wut ḏa-xtōnäm ḳalyōn lyäkmäh / ṭawr ḏäkmäh ‘when they m. circumcised the boys at that time’ Sima66:4

ḏa-ḳyisš ḥnafš [hāśan man ḥall] ankayta ‘At what time will you f.s. come?’ M.NS

hōh assinnawrat ḏa-nakak tēk / āṣawr alyōmah ‘I am the cat who came to you m.s. those nights’ M.N.04.15

2 Cf. Sima21.

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9.1.1.2 Days of the week and phrases with reference to the hour

NPs of time with a typical adverbial function include days of the week and phrases with reference to the hour. Neither days of the week nor expressions of time with reference to the hour are traditional in Mehri, and hence adopt structures and lexis loaned from Arabic.

Days of the week are expressed by the structure: nhōr (anhūr) ḏa-(DEF)-DAY (cf. 3.1.10.8). The Arabic definite article l- appears in the vowel-initial days of the week aḥad [one, Sunday], iṯnayn [two, Monday].

Examples in context

at-tǟ nhōr ḏ-jämʕāt / syōräm ‘on Friday, they m. went’ Sima38:4

haġdaykə tah / anhūr ḏa-ṯalūṯ ‘you m.s. lost it m. on Tuesday’ M.NS

faṭmat nkayta / anhūr ḏa-sabt ‘Fatmat will come on Saturday’ M.NS

Traditionally, the time of day would be described in Mehri in terms of the position of the sun. Time phrases involving sāʕat (sāʕah) are clearly loaned from Arabic. In both dialect groups, these time phrases may be Mehrised using the Mehri form of the numeral, or take the Arabic form. Most Arabic dialects express time through an equative predicative structure, as in: as-sāʕah wāḥidah [DEF-hour.FS one.FS = the hour is one] ‘one o’clock’; some dialects, such as the old dialect of San’a in Yemen, by contrast, may express time through an annexion structure, as in: sāʕat wāḥidah [hour.FS one.FS = one of the hour] ‘one o’clock’ (cf. Rossi 1939: 24; Watson 1993: 184). Mahriyōt often uses the Arabic annexed form sāʕat; Mehreyyet alternates between the annexed and the non-annexed form sāʔat ~ (a)sāʕah. Time phrases therefore appear to be either annexion phrases or equational clauses. Thus, Mahriyōt sāʕat ṭīt [hour.FS one.FS] ‘one o’clock’ may be interpreted either as [one of the hour] or [the hour is one]. Given the fact that the structure is loaned from Arabic, however, it is probably preferable to analyse time of day phrases as fixed, internally unanalysable structures.

wat [sǟʕat / arbaʕ] aḳōfäd ‘at four o’clock, I go down’ Sima4:16

[sǟʕat / AsittahA] yḳāʕ HbärkumH hǟl mḥaṭṭat ḏ-AbāṣA ‘At six o’clock, you m.pl. must be at the bus station!’ Sima61:13

yṭarḥah śī [sǟʕat] wṭōmäh ‘he leaves it m. for around an hour like that’ Sima12:15

In Mehreyyet, the form sɛt occurs in questioning the time, as in sɛt kam hnūk ‘What time do you m.s. have?’ The forms (a)sāʕah or sāʔat occur to express the time.

sīrōna / asāʕah ōśar ‘I m. am going at ten o’clock’ M.NS

ḏa-ḳyiskī lariddōh man landan gihma kalaynī / asāʕah hōba wa-faḳḥ ‘we both intend to return from London tomorrow evening at 7.30’ M.NS

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bars / sāʔat ōśar ḳōṣar śī ‘it’s a little before ten o’clock’ M.NS

9.1.1.3 Boundary in time

Adverbs denoting a boundary in time before or after which an event occurred or a state obtained answer the question ‘when’ and are questioned by the interrogative mayt(an). They are realised by specific conjuncts or adverbs, such as mġōran ‘then; afterwards’ and Mehreyyet laʔtēt ‘in an instance’, by adverbs resulting from grammaticalisation of nouns or adjectives, such as swaʕnōt (swānōt) ‘in a little while’, ḳrīb (ḳrayb) ‘soon’ which has a more basic place sense of ‘near, close’, and by PPs with a basic sense of place headed by fīn (fnōhan) ‘before’, at-tā (tā) ‘up to’, or man: man ṯār (ḏār) ‘after’, man baʕd (bād) ‘after’, man sār ‘after’. swaʕnōt (swānōt) may express either a time after which an event or state obtains (cf. also 7.4.6), or duration (cf. 9.1.1.4).

Conjuncts and adverbs

wdōyäm ǟr [mġōrän] wdōyäm nūkaʕ ‘wdīmat-huts only came later’ Sima77:3

hātūman ba-śḥayr [mġōran / amūran nḥōm nhaxlaf mkōn] ‘we spent the night in the mountains, then we said, ‘Let’s change the place!’’ M.PES.MA

nḥah šīn malḥāt lā ʔamūran h-aġiggīn sēr hīn h-amalḥāt [laʔtēt / barh hnīn] ‘We had no salt. We told the boy, ‘Bring us salt!’ In an instant, he was back with us.’ M.NS

tfāk ḏār amṣawbat [laʔtēt / ftū k adamm w-aḏōra w-kāśīyan] ‘I spat on the wound; in an instant, pus and blood and everything came out’ M.N

tabakī tēs bark ḥawōdī ḏikm amṣa mṣa [swānōt / kiskī ṣarḥūb ḳāmaḥayn] ‘we followed her along that wadi further and further downstream; after a little while, we found [difficult] poor paths with lots of stones’ M.N.Rabkūt02.11

riddōna b-īmayl / ḳrayb ‘I’ll get back by e-mail soon’ M.NS

ankayta / fnōhan ḏ-armaśōn ‘I f. will come before Ramadan’ M.NS


Adverbial PPs indicating a time after which an event or state may obtain include:

hīn ʕAbdaḷḷah hīn mätk, AmumkinA ḥbunyäk yšawräṯäm raʕbūt / män srūk ‘Abdallah, when you m.s. die, could your children inherit [the skill and job of] raʕbūt after you?’ Sima1:30

syark / man ḏār fazz ḏa-ḥyūm ‘I went after the sun rose’ M.NS

man ḏār ḥabsan nḥah / himan lībēd ‘after our arrest, we heard shooting’ M.NS

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Adverbial PPs indicating a time before which or up to which an event or state may obtain include:

ṣbēr lay / ta m-ḏār ḥawli ṯrōh ‘wait m.s. for me [to pay] for 2 years’ M.NS

ġtayrī šīs aḥamš tasādī [lhɛtam hinīkam / tā gihma k-ṣōbaḥ] ‘Speak f.s. with her! I want you f.s. to help me [by letting me] stay with you m.pl. until tomorrow morning’ M.NS

śitmak ṣayd / fnōhan amūṣāl ḏa-sʕīd bi-nhūr ṭayt ‘we bought fish a day before Saeed arrived’ M.NS

fnōhan maġrāb ʔaynat / ankaytēkam3 ‘a little before sunset, [I] f. will come to you m.pl.’ M.NS

In PPs headed by man and la-, the locatives ḥlakmah and bōh may convey a boundary in time sense:

män ḥläkm / miḏ bǟr axxarujk lyäkm w-bǟr aḥḥān ṭōmäh tḥōmäl ʕaynät ḥmūh b-ḥaydäk ‘then, when you m.s. have taken those out and such and such [the temperature is right], you take a little water in your hand’ Sima84:16

w-män ṭawr ḏäkmäh [wa-l-bōh] afsāḥam b-lībēd ‘from that time to this, they m. gave up shooting’ Sima35:22

The complex PP man–hīs–PRONOUN functions adverbially in both dialects to denote an earlier period in time, or a long time up to and including the present. The pronoun agrees with the clausal predicand or the real-world referent, and the adverbial phrase modifies the entire clause:

ḥābū [män hīs hǟm / yšaʕdīdäm ṣiftäh bäk lwēḳ] ‘earlier, people used to preserve its m. oil in bottles’ Sima2:46

w-ḏēh hbōyäb ḏa-ġśēr tähbībän [män hīs sǟn] ʕajzōn ‘and the weeding songs the women used to sing’ Sima63:49

män hīs hēh / näylōn śī lǟ ‘there didn’t used to be any nylon’ Sima65:18

man hīs nḥah / nūbūs naylōn lā ‘we have never worn nylon’ M.PES.MA

hīxār [man hīs hēm / yisawḳ lā] ‘old men have never driven’ M.PES.MA

9.1.1.4 Duration

Adverbs denoting duration answer the question ‘how long’. These include adverbs resulting from grammaticalisation of NPs of time, such as swaʕnōt (swānōt) ‘a little while’, sāʕat (sɛt) ‘a long time’, nhōr (anhūr)-PRONOUN ‘the whole time; all day’, ḥallēw-PRONOUN ‘all night’ (M), NPs of time, such as snēt ‘year’, ḥawl ‘year’, nhōr

3 < *ankayta tēkam.

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(nhūr) ‘day’, NPs of time with numeral modifiers, such as snēti ṯrayt ‘two years’, šībaʕ (šība) yōm ‘seven days; week’, and PPs headed by la- such as la-ḳyūs ‘for the duration of’ (M) and la-maḥy (Mo). The interrogative adverb kam questions duration.

Adverbs

tōli [swaʕnōt] widʕan lǟ ‘then for a while we didn’t know [what was going on]’ Sima35:15

ġśāśī / swānōt ‘Close your f.s. eyes for a while!’ M.NS

arṣawnan tah [nḥōm narṣanah / swānōt] ‘we tied him up; we wanted to tie him up for a little while’ M.NS

āśamī [anhūrī / ḏ-aṣaḳiš] [lit. my past my day I call you f.s.] ‘I used to call you f.s. all the time’ M.PES.Ndēt

wa-bikyōh ād ḥlakm hay / anhūrhī ‘and they m.DUAL cried there all day’ M.N.Rabkūt03.07

ḥallēwan / hātūman hāl hibɛr ‘we spent all night with the camels’ M.NS

Noun phrases AmumkinA taxxaznäs / snǟt kämlät ‘you m.s. can preserve it f. for a whole year’ Sima2:10

nhaʕtäm [ʕāṣär källäh] ḏ-näźḥōk ‘we spent the whole night laughing’ Sima60:19

śxawalīl faxra / snēt ‘they m. stayed together for a year’ M.N

šūkīf lā / āṣarham kallah ‘they m. didn’t sleep all night’ M.PES


mġōrän źabṭam ṭādīdäyhäm täṭrūb / l-waḳt ḏ-warx ‘then they m. set a ceasefire for a month’ Sima35:21

habṭāk / la-maḥmēl ḏa-hōfal ‘I waited [after getting married] for as long as a baby takes to come’ M.NS

wa-hōh riddīta hām abɛlī ḥōm / hīs la-ḳyūs ḏa-warxī ṯroh ‘I’ll f. come back, God willing, for two months’ M.NS

9.1.1.5 Frequency

Adverbs of frequency answer the question ‘how often’ or ‘how many times’. These include the adverbs xṭā ‘rarely’, ṭawr ‘once’, maxṭār ‘once’, sōbar ‘always’ and the Arabic loan abdan ~ abadan ‘never’; the adverbial phrases wat ṭawr ‘sometimes’

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(M), mat ṭawr ‘sometimes’, śī man ṭwōr ‘sometimes’ (Mo); NPs with the structure TIMENOUN.S–man–TIMENOUN.P.DEF, as in nhōr man ḥāyām (nhūr man ḥāyōm ~ anhūrat) [lit. day of the days] ‘one day’,4 maxṭār man (a)mxawṭar ‘one time’, ṭawr man (a)ṭwōr ‘one time’, and NPs involving kall and a noun of time, such as kall snēt ‘every year’, ḥāyōm kall ‘always’ (M), aṭwōr kall ‘always’; and PPs, such as Mehreyyet man āśam-PRONOUN. The interrogative adverb kam and sometimes mayt(an) question frequency. Adverbs of frequency modify VPs and clauses:

nḥah [sōbär] naʕmōl wṭōmäh [sōbär] ‘we always do like that, always’ Sima35:9

wi-ykūn [śī män ṭwōr] ġajnōt taʕjōb bī lǟ w-hōh aʕjōb bīs lǟ ‘and sometimes it turns out that the girl doesn’t love me and I don’t love her’ Sima76:8

wa-mġōrän hīs [nhōr män ḥāyǟm] ʕmōräm AmdarrisīnA ‘and then one day the teachers said’ Sima31:2

[ṭawr / yiġtayīḏ] [wa-ṭawr / yisdawd] [wa-ṭawr / yibakyam] ‘now they m. get angry and now they make up and now they cry’ M.NS

bi-nhūr tḥɛbis / ṭawrī ṯrōh ‘during the day, you m.s. milk her twice’ M.N

aṭwōr kall / yihzūz ḥruhha hām ḏi-yaġtūrī ‘he shakes his head the whole time when he talks’ M.NS

min āśamah / yisūḳ lā ‘he has never driven’ M.NS

maxṭār and xaṭarāt denoting a single time in the past almost invariably occur to the left of the modified term in both dialect groups. They commonly introduce narratives and stories. maxṭār can be preceded by the hīs. There are 31 tokens of maxṭār in the Jōdab texts, three of which occur in the phrase maxṭār man mxawṭar ‘one of the times’ (cf. Sima13:1, 33:13, 34:7). Examples include:

maxṭār / ʕijbäk b-ṭīt ‘once, I fell in love with someone f.’ Sima98:1

hīs maxṭār / bärs tǟl ḥāmǟs ‘once, when she was with her mother’ Sima98:15

maxṭār män mxawṭar / Sʕīd bär ʕAṯmōn ynōkaʕ bä-ttōmär at-tǟ Jōdäb ‘once, Sʕīd bar ʕAṯmōn brought dates to Jōdab’ Sima33:13

[xaṭarāt / ġayg ḏ-īḳawbaś hibɛrha] šawġawr lih ḳayśar ‘once, a man was herding his camels [and] a leopard attacked him’ M.N

One or more adverbial of time can be apposed to a second. In this case, the second is usually more specific than the first or provides additional specific information. In the first example below, īmōh and jähmä specify in each case which morning:

4 As in Arabic yawm min al-ʔayyām ‘one day’.

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AmäṯälänA, hīn rdīyäm bīhäm [k-ṣōbaḥ / īmōh], AlǟzämA yäṭlāʕam līhäm ǟr [k-ṣōbaḥ / jähmä] ‘when they m. set them [the nets] this morning, for example, they will only go out for them tomorrow morning’ Sima6:24

nhaʕtäm ʕāṣär källäh ḏ-näźḥōk [at-tǟ jähmä / k-ṣōbaḥ / l-ḥallän] ‘we spent the whole night laughing until the next morning at the same time’ Sima60:19

[gihma / k-ṣōbaḥ] ghōm ḥawōdī mšaġarēt ‘tomorrow morning go to the next valley’ M.N.04.16

w-ankayta tēk [gihma / […] man ḏār aḏahar] ‘and I will come to you m.s. tomorrow after midday’ M.N.04.16

[īmōh / nhūran] ankayta tēš ‘today at midday, I’ll come to you f.s.’ M.NS

śabban aśḥayr anhūr ḏa-laḥad wa-ḏa-ḳyīsan nardēd [anhūr ḏa-liṯnayn / kalaynī] ‘we went to the mountains on Sunday and we intend return on Monday evening’ M.NS

As in other cases of apposition (cf. 3.3), the second adverbial may be separated from the first:

[fnǟ-yällōh] ḥābū bä-l-Fäydämi yṣabyäm [hīs ba-ḥḥalläyy] ‘the other night, the people in Fäydämi were fishing at night’ Sima2:78

9.1.2 Adverbs of place

Adverbs of place are subcategorised into adverbs of location, which answer the question ‘in/at which place’, and adverbs of direction, which answer the questions ‘from which place’ and ‘to/towards which place’. Adverbs of place are realised by locative adverbs, elative phrases headed by arḥāḳ ‘further’ or aḳrāb ‘nearer’, NPs and PPs. The main prepositions for location are bak ~ brak (bark) ‘in’, hāl ‘at’, hār ‘at’ (Mo), tāl5 ‘at’. Adverbials indicating direction are often PPs introduced by at-tā (tā), la-, ha- ‘to’, twēl (twōlī) ‘towards’ and bak ~ brak (bark) ‘into’ when direction towards a place or object is indicated, or man when direction from a place or object is indicated. The interrogative of place ho ~ hō ~ ḥō questions location, and the PPs headed by la- and man + interrogative of place question direction. Other adverbials of place include compass directions and NPs of place headed by mant (bātī) ‘the area of’. In a sequence of adverbs or adverbials, adverbs of place tend to precede adverbs of time.

5 tǟl is relatively more frequently attested in the Rēhan sub-dialect of Mahriyōt than in either

Jōdab or Mehreyyet. In the Jōdab texts, there are 60 tokens of tǟl, 77 tokens of hǟl. In the Rēhan texts, there are 47 tokens of tǟl, 10 tokens of hǟl. tāl is also attested in the Mehreyyet of Ndēt.

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9.1.2.1 Location Locative adverbs

w-būmäh / arźan nḥah yk ūn bēh rēś ‘and here [in] our place there are snakes’ Sima67:2

awtɛdan / ḥlakmah ‘we agreed to meet there’ M.NS

amark aḥōm [lšawnax / bawmah] ‘I said I wanted to rest here’ M.N

ḏa-hgūs ḥanafh yiksē aḏīrōb / ḳrayb ‘he thought he would find the firewood close by’ M.NS

ūḳōt rḥamēt / amaśḳays ‘rain fell in the east’ M.PES.MA

Adjective phrases

hawḳam tīs / arḥāḳ man amkōnas ḥāwalay ‘Put m.pl. it f. further away from its original place!’ M.PES.MA

nūka / ʔaḳrāb ‘he came closer’ M.NS

Noun phrases

bǟr wiḳʕan kä-hbǟr ḥläkmäh / mänt Zablēl ‘we were with the camels there [in] the region of Zablēl’ Sima41:5

syūran / bāti l-kwayt wa-bāti l-baḥrayn ‘we went to the region of Kuwait and Bahrain’ M.PES.MA


yʕamräm ykūn [bärkēh] ḳayźar ‘they m. say there is a leopard in it m.’ Sima41:8

kursay / la-ḳaṭrak ‘the chair is in front of you m.s.’ M.NS

śxawalūlan / hāl śīwōṭ ‘we sat by the fire’ M.NS

aġasrwan / ḏār śīwōṭ ‘we spent the evening by the fire’ M.NS AlāzimA tiḳā ḥaybīt awraksa arwaśtan / man ġayran ‘the camel’s hips have to be wide behind’ M.N.Šlaym01.18

ḥābū yingardīś / b-agardīś ‘people lie down in the gardīś’6 M.NS.Rabkūt

One location adverbial may be apposed to a second, in which case the more specific location is usually expressed by the right-most adverbial:

6 Flat area of the wadi.

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kرط�� n~� oا�� ھ�� agaww [hinīn / b-arḥabēt] AruṭūbahA ‘the weather with us in the town is humid’ M.txt

tā wuṣlan [xōṭar / bark ḥawōdī] ‘until we got to the bottom in the valley’ M.NS

ṭarḥan aḳarmaśyan [ḥlakmah / bark aśaygaʔ] ‘we left our things there, in the cave’ M.N

imšēh angardaśk [bi-ḥawōdī / bi-rabkūt] ‘yesterday I lay down in the wadi in Rabkūt’ M.NS.Rabkūt

9.1.2.2 Direction

Most direction adverbials are expressed by PPs, with man expressing chiefly direction away from, and tā, twēl (twōlī), ha-, ṯār (ḏār) and bak ~ brak (bark) expressing direction towards. The PP of direction l-anxarīr [lit. to the nose] ‘steeply’ has become grammaticalised in the sense that it has lost much of its original semantics. The locatives function as direction adverbs in some contexts, although these most commonly express direction in PPs headed by man or la-. Other adverbs which may express direction include the compass points: of these mārīb ‘west’ and maśḳays ‘east’ are common to both dialects; rōram ~ rawram [lit. sea] ‘south’ and anagd ~ abadyat [lit. desert] ‘north’ feature in the mountain and coastal dialects; within the desert, however, where the sea is far away and anagd ‘the Nagd’ indicates present location, mṣā [lit. down(wards): interpreted as the direction in which the flood waters move] indicates ‘north’ and la-ḥaḳ [lit. inside, within: interpreted as the direction from which flood waters come]7 ‘south’. Other adverbs of direction include mṣā ‘down(wards)’, aġawf ‘on top’, hakban ‘inside, within’ (Mo), la-ḥaḳ ‘inside, within’. The manner adverb wṭōmah, wṭōh can also function as direction adverbials giving unspecified direction:

Locatives

wa-sīyaryat tūṣūl [ḥlakmah] lā ‘and cars can’t reach there’ M.N

lāyōman nakan / bawmah ‘last year we came here’ M.PES.MA

Manner adverbs

wa-dfōrän kä-l-ʕaṣr / wṭōm ‘and we pushed the boat out to sea there’ Sima60:12

tḥōm [wṭōh] afrīgya ‘it f. headed in that direction, Africa’ M.N.01.30

nsēr / ūṭōh ‘Let’s go that way!’ M.NS

7 In reference to the sea, la-ḥaḳ can also mean ‘far out [to sea]’.

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Adverbs

hām hēt tḥams […] [aḳōfī / mārīb] ‘if you m.s. want her, set off west’ M.N.04.07

wa-sēn ḏa-ratkaz / aġawf ‘and they f. [the camel’s ears] are pointing up’ M.N.Šlaym01.09

abaṣran / mṣā ‘we went downstream at twilight’ M.N

mġōran [ġsūman / la-ḥaḳ] [riddan / la-ḥaḳ] ‘then we went upstream in the early morning, we went back upstream’ M.N AlāzimA yiḳāʔ śībaṯ yiḳāʔ ḏa-ḳfūd / xōṭar ‘the lip should hang down’ M.N.Šlaym01.13

As discussed in chapter 2 (2.8), in Mehreyyet the inflectable adverb kīnaḥ (also realised as kanwēḥ according to some informants for all persons) modifies ridd ‘to return’ to convey the sense of returning to the place of origin. kīnaḥ is often followed by an adverbial clause of place or an object for further specification:

[riddam / kanwēḥ] man hāl bār nakam ‘they m. went back where they had come from’ M.N.MA

hōh amtalay [riddīta / kanḥayt] brīṭānya ‘I f. will then go back to Britain’ M.NS.Rabkūt

rəd / kīnəḥ ‘he came back’ Johnstone (1987:212)


[l-ho] lhäflät [män ḏōm ḳayźar] ‘Where should I escape to from that leopard?’ Sima41:13

[män ḥläkmäh] syärk [at-tǟ hǟl bīt ʕAlī Jämʕān] ‘from there I went to the family of Ali Jamʕān’ Sima4:13

nḳōläb AḥannäA / bräk ḥmūh ‘we put henna into the water’ Sima55:6

taxxarijh / h-bärr ‘you f.s. take it m. out’ Sima57:66

wa-ṭwayl / ha-xōṭar ‘and long m.s. [hanging] down’ M.N.Šlaym01.15

ṭwuh / ḏār ḥmuh ‘it m. came at night to water’ M.N

syark / la-ḳaṭar ḏa-ḥōram ‘I went straight down the road’ M.NS

wa-l-ād wadak / la-ḥō lsēr lā ‘I no longer knew where I should go’ M.N

bḳaśk / twāsa ‘I ran towards it f.’ M.N

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yisyūr būk / tā rḥabēt hammas Wanstead ‘it will take you m.s. to a town called Wanstead’ M.N

mayt nakaš / man wṭōh ‘When did you f.s. come from there?’ M.NS

Grammaticalised PPs

karmaym ḏikmah tišrabas / l-anxarīr ‘that mountain, you m.s. climb it f. straight up’ M.NS

nišrōbaʔ / l-anxarīr ‘we go straight up’ M.NS

9.1.3 Adverbs of manner and comparison

Adverbs of manner answer the question ‘how’. Adverbs of manner are realised by the manner adverbs wṭōmah, wṭōh, wṭakmah, by the adverbs xarxōr ~ xārxawr ~ xārxōr ‘slowly’, faxra ‘together’, xawr which, when repeated, indicates ‘slowly’,8 fīsāʕ (fīsēʔ) ‘quickly’, by the reflexive adverb waḥś-PRONOUN; by VPs with a grammaticalised adverbial function such as ḏa-haʔnūh ~ ḏa-haʔnuh [lit. to intend] ‘deliberately’;9 by PPs relating to manner introduced principally by ba- (bi-) ‘by’, hīs ‘like’, such as ba-ḥḥays (bi-ḥays ~ bi-ḥḥays) ‘with energy = quickly; strongly; intensively; by force’. The interrogatives hībōh and occasionally wkōh question manner and comparison. Adverbs of manner typically modify clauses and VPs, and most frequently occur to the right of the modified element.

Manner adverbs

w-yaʕmīläm hīhäm msawkän / wṭōmäh ‘they m. make living quarters for themselves in this way’ Sima78:9

[taxdūm amśabawt / wṭōmah] [wa-mġōran thūḳa taywī / wṭōmah] [wa-mġōran tḳarfadh / wṭōmah] ‘you m.s. make the fire for meat like this, then you put the meat on like that, and then you turn it m. like that’ M.PES.MA

amawr ḥāgūr aymal bīn / wṭōh ‘they m. said, ‘The slave did such and such to us’’ M.N.01.31

wṭōmah can further modify or be further modified by a second, more specific, adverbial:

w-täṭabṭōb [wṭōmäh / b-ḥaydäk] ‘you m.s. pat [it, i.e. dough] like that with your hand’ Sima5:12

Adverbs

ḥād ybōḏär / fīsāʕ ‘some sow quickly’ Sima56:40

8 And is probably the origin of the adverb xārxawr ‘slowly’. 9 Cf. 5.1.7.3.4 for haʔnūh ~ haʔnuh ~ hānuh as a full verb.

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tḳōdar līs [waḥśūk] lǟ täjfäys ‘you m.s. won’t be able to refloat it f. on your own’ Sima46:14

wa-šiḳarawt [waḥśīs] bark aśaygaʔ ‘she hid on her own in the cave’ M.N

tanbarbarī lā [ġatayrī / xarxawr] ‘Don’t f.s. babble, speak slowly!’ M.NS


naʕmuls / hīs däḳf lǟ ‘we don’t make it f. like a däḳf-hut’ Sima77:10

wa-mġōrän [nśäms / b-junyät] ‘and then we sell it f. by the sack’ Sima44:32

wa-tḳāʔan […] ḥayḏantan ḏa-ratkaz / hīs amxayṭ ‘and the ears should be […] pointing up like a needle’ M.N.Šlaym01.09

Â�s ¹ا ul�sا vÀ~¹رvÃ� l-xārxarša / amēlī axadamatš ‘Take your f.s. time! Do your f.s. work!’ M.txt.Rabkūt

wa-ḳfadk [wa-syark / al-xarxawr] ‘and I got out and went slowly’ M.N

Grammaticalised VPs

haġdaykə tah / ḏa-haʔnayk ‘I/you m.s. lost it m. deliberately’ M.NS

ḏa-haʔnuh / yihaġlaṭ līn ba-ḥsōb ‘he deliberately makes a mistake with our bill’ M.NS

ḳafalūt tilifūnis / ḏa-haʔnūt ‘she turned her phone off deliberately’ M.NS

9.1.4 Adverbs of means and instrument

Adverbs of means and instrument answer the question ‘by what means’ or ‘with what instrument’ something is carried out. They are realised by the manner adverb wṭōmah, wṭōh, wṭakmah, by PPs, most commonly headed by ba- (bi-), occasionally by the preposition of comparison hīs, or accompaniment ka- ‘with’, or in specific phrases by la-. In the case of PPs involving bak ~ brak (bark), it is sometimes difficult to distinguish adverbs of place from adverbs of means and instrument due to the fact that bak ~ brak (bark) indicates both place and manner in phrases such as bak (bark) sīyaryat ‘by car’, bak (bark) ṭīyaryat ‘by plane’. The non-use of an instrument is expressed by bi-ġār ~ b-ġayr ~ man ġayr. Means and instrument is questioned by hībōh. Adverbs of means and instrument typically modify clauses, VPs and APs, and most frequently occur to the right of the modified term. As the first example below shows, however, this is order is not invariable:

wṭōh / yäftutḥ ‘it m. opens in that way’ Sima72:42

mxawzän lyōmäh [mäbnō / bä-ṣwīr] ‘these stores were built with stones’ Sima78:6

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täsʕafnäh / k-kawl ḏ-rīyǟḥ ‘you m.s. winnow it m. with the blowing of the wind’ Sima63:37

wa-šūgūśan man amarkēz ḏa-gabgabat kalaynī / bark sīyaryat ‘we went from the centre, Gabgabat, in the early evening by car’ M.N

sabṭah / bi-sabtēt ‘he hit him with a belt’ M.NS

thaftūk tīsan / bi-xīṭayt ‘they f. take them f. out with thread’ M.NS

tūṣōl ba-xayma dḳōyaḳ / la-famsa ‘she arrives in five minutes by foot’ M.NS

9.1.5 Adverbs of degree and quantity

Adverbs of degree and quantity answer the question ‘how much’, ‘how many’ or ‘to what extent’. They are realised by certain specific adverbs, such as wīyan ~ wīya ‘very; much’, xawr ‘a little’, xaybat ‘a little’, by wḳōna ‘around, circa’, by metaphorical use of adverbs of place such as rēḥaḳ ‘far’, ḳrīb (ḳrayb) ‘close, near = almost’, by metaphorical use of certain adjectives, such as maywit ‘dead’, by the quantifier ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat), which commonly functions as head of an annexion phrase, by maḥy ḏa-,10 which expresses approximate quantity in Mahriyōt, by the particle śī, grammaticalised from the noun śī ‘thing’, and by certain PPs such as ba-swaʕnōt (bi-swānōt) ‘by a little’. Colour adjectives can be modified by PPs headed by la-hāl or twēl (twōlī) ‘towards’. The preposition bak ~ brak (bark) approximates a following numerical phrase in both dialects. The interrogative adverb kam ‘how much; how many’ questions degree and quantity. Adverbs of degree and quantity are subcategorised below into intensifiers, downtoners and quantifiers.

9.1.5.1 Intensifiers

Intensifiers heighten or lower the intensity of the meaning. Intensifiers that heighten the meaning include the particles ḳaṭ and lōb, the very common adverb wīyan, rēḥaḳ whose prototypical sense of ‘far’ is metaphorical in certain contexts, and the elatives axayr, akṯēr and arḥāḳ. Intensifiers that lower the intensity of the meaning include xaybat, xawr, ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat), the elative aḳlāl, and certain PPs, such as ba-swaʕnōt (bi-swānōt) which typically lower the intensity of a time adverbial.

9.1.5.1.1 Heighteners of intensity

ḳaṭ and lōb ~ waylōb

ḳaṭ11 and lōb ~ waylōb function as intensifiers in both dialects, and reinforce the speaker’s degree of commitment to the proposition (cf. 9.1.8). lōb (and waylōb) in

10 No instances of maḥy are attested in the Rēhan texts. In Jōdab, maḥy frequently occurs in a PP

introduced by hīs. Of the 12 tokens of maḥy in the Jōdab texts, 8 occur after hīs. 11 Transcribed in Sima (2005, 2009) as ḳǟd.

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particular, tends to occur in a negative context (cf. 8.9.2), either in conjunction with the negative particle lā or with the restrictive particle ār.12 Thus they intensify the negation or the restriction of the proposition. lōb occurs typically before the intensified element; ḳaṭ has more freedom of position and may occur either before or after the intensified element.

Negative contexts

lōb / l-aḥamh lā ‘I really don’t want it m.’ M.NS

ḥād [ḳǟd] ysōmaḥ hīs lǟ ‘no one would allow it f.’ Sima40:17

ḥād ysōmaḥ hīs taġrēs [ḳǟd] lǟ ramḥas ‘no one would allow it f. [the tribe] to stick its spear in’ Sima40:16

ḥaḏḏūr [ḳaṭ] man tsēr al-yaman w-ād al-śīnak adaktūr lā ‘Make absolutely sure you m.s. don’t go to Yemen until you have seen the doctor!’ M.NS

Positive contexts

lob / ǟr baḥḥōr ḏēk ḏ-yäjrūr bä-ssäyb ‘especially that sailor who rows with the oars’ Sima64:2

barkīs [lōb] ṭawr ḏakm ḥībī ‘of course, at that time my father was in it f.’ Mo.N

ʕamōr [lōb / takmalk hēt wa-ḥāmāk] ‘he said, ‘It’ll certainly take you m.s. and your mother’’ Mo.N

lōb / faśśaḥak man aġrōyah ‘I was really embarrassed by his talk’ M.NS.MA

·v¬ ÜÃب و�� lōb / watxaf ḳāṣam ‘it is certainly cold this evening’ M.txt.MA

wa-yḥōm yiftik minh [ḳaṭ] yiśamah ḥayalha ḳaymat ‘he absolutely wanted to get rid of him, selling him at any price’ M.N.01.09

wa-khēl bīham u-barha [ḳaṭ] axahēh ār manhēm ‘he got on with them m. [so well] that it was as if he was one of them m.’ M.N.03.12

wīyan

wīyan can modify APs, VPs and adverbs to heighten intensity. In the unmarked case, wīyan occurs to the right of the modified term; to emphasise intensity, it may be fronted or repeated, as in the final examples of each section below:

12 Of 34 tokens of lōb in the Jōdab texts, 30 are followed immediately by ār.

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Modification of APs

ʕād nḥah [ḳanyūn / wīyän] ‘we were still very young’ Sima10:4

aġaygī [ṭwayl / wīyan] ‘my husband is very tall’ M.NS

šahay ḥalīb [ṯḳayl / wīyan] wa-ʕōfar axfēf manh ‘milk tea is very filling, black tea is lighter than it m.’ M.NS

bāś hibɛr [lēban / wīyan] ‘some camels are very white’ M.N.Rabkūt

ḳāṣam / wīyan ‘very cold’ ~ ‘too cold’ M.NS

akatbinha [wīyan / gīyēd] ‘his books are very good’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Modification of VPs AmumkinA ḥaybīt [tṣōbär män ḥmūh / wīyän] ‘a camel can cope for a long time without water’ Sima47:12

hēh [xarmōn / wīyan] ‘he’s really hooked’ M.NS

faryēḥa bayš / wīyan ‘[we] are really looking forward to you f.s.’ M.NS

tlūdaf / wīyan ‘it f. is breaking heavily [i.e. waves on sea]’ M.NS

ÜÃ� Âو��:o�ا��pه ذ¬Ý£ و wa-layš taxf īmōh [ḏa-ḳaṭak / wīyan] ‘Good evening to you f.s! I’m really tired today’ M.txt

wīyan / ḏ-ifhōś ‘it m. is boiling a lot’ M.NS

Modification of adverbs

wīyan heightens the intensity of certain adverbs and adverbials of degree:

tōwan mǟkän / wīyän ‘we had eaten a lot’ Sima13:27

xawr / wīyan ‘very little’ M.NS

wīyan / nūka bīs ḳrayb [lit. very he brought it f. close] ‘he brought it f. very close’ M.NS

rēḥaḳ ‘far’ and its comparative arḥāḳ modify elative adjectives and adverbs. They may occur before or after the modified term:

ḏ-ūbadk [rēḥaḳ / axayr] man fnōhan ṣaḥḥatk axayr ‘you m.s. are much better than before, your health is better’ M.PES.MA

hēt [axayr / rēḥaḳ] min fnōhan ‘you s. are far better than before’ M.NS

hēt [axayr / arḥāḳ] ‘you s. are far better’ M.NS

Certain prototypical nouns may function metaphorically as adverbs to heighten the intensity of particular adjectives.

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ḳṣīr / maʕḏōf [lit. short stump of wood] ‘very small m.s.’ Mo.N

ḳāṣam / maywit [lit. cold death] ‘extremely cold’ M.PES

ḥbūr / maywit ‘extremely cold’ M.PES.MA

haḳṣawm ḥarḳ / maywit ‘it’s extremely hot [in the middle of the day]’ M.PES.MA

Comparative phrases involving axayr and akṯēr heighten the intensity of adjectives, clauses and VPs:

ḏīmah hawbas Alā bāsA lākan bālīt aśfīt aṭlayḳat tkūn [arḥām / axayr] ‘that f. isn’t bad, but the one f. [i.e. camel] with smooth fur is [considered] more beautiful’ M.N.Šlaym01.20

ḏōmah yhazyūd ḥaybīt arḥūmats / akṯēr ‘that m. increases the camel’s beauty more’ M.N.Šlaym01.16

śatūḳak līkam / axayr man fnōhan ‘I miss you m.pl. more than before’ M.NS

ḥmuh ḏa-ṯḳawl bīn / akṯēr man aḳarmaśyan kall ‘the water weighed us down more than all our [other] things’ M.N

ġyūg baʔlī hbɛr yiġarbam / axayr manay ‘men who are camel herders know better than me’ M.N.Rabkūt

whadš / axayr ‘Are you f.s. calmer?’ M.NS.MA

9.1.5.1.2 Lowerers of intensity

xawr13

xawr generally post-modifies adverbs of paucity, but may pre-modify, as in the final example below:

AtaxtalifA [ʕaynät / xawr] ‘it f. differs very little’ Sima1:6

ḥaybīt ataḳyēt [xawr / ʔaynat] ‘the camel drank very little’ M.PES.MA

xawr / ʔaynat man ḥmuh ādh šīham ‘they m. only have a very little water left’ M.PES.MA

ʕaynat (ʕaynat ~ ʔaynat) post-modifies APs, VPs, clauses and adverbs to lower the intensity of their application:

Modification of APs

yḳāʕ [sic!] [ṭwīlät / ʕaynät] ‘it f. can be a bit long’ Sima26:1

13 18 tokens of xawr in Jōdab texts; 8 tokens in the Rēhan texts.

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wat ḥabrīs barh [śōx / ʔaynat] yʔamram hīs ḳhawr ‘when her [the camel’s] offspring is a bit bigger, they m. call her ḳhawr’ M.N

sēn kall ār swē [ḏayk āḳār / ʔaynat] ‘they f. are all the same, that one f. is a little bigger’ M.PES.MA

Modification of VPs

hīn [zīdōt mälḥath / ʕaynät] AxalāṣA ylōbäd ṭayf ‘if there is a bit too much salt, that’s it, it m. becomes bitter’ Sima16:39

śink ībīt haśarīt [tšiṣhuwūs / ʔaynat] ‘I saw a dark camel, you m.s. would think her a bit fawn-coloured’ M.PES.MA

Modification of adverbs

män maġrāb yxorjäm [ṭōh / ʕaynät] ‘after sunset they m. go out for a bit’ Sima81:29

Other lowerers of intensity include PPs, śī grammaticalised from the noun śī ‘thing’, and the elatives axfēf ‘less; lighter’ and axass ‘worse [= less]’:

tā m-ḏār igzēʔ / bi-swānōt ‘until a short time after sunset’ M.NS

wat bǟr bīräd / śī sēhäl ‘when it m. has cooled a little’ Sima16:17

ḏa-ḥibrak / śī sēhal ‘I’m a bit cold’ M.PES.MA

wa-ḏīmah ūbanīt [tḳōlab / śī l-hāl āfarēt] ‘this one f. is white verging towards red’ M.PES.MA

Downtoners

Downtoners lower the effect of the proposition (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 218). The close avoidance of an event is expressed by fōn(a) followed by a perfect verb:

[fōna / damkə tīs] lahinna manak mans brayk fīsēʔ ‘I almost hit it f., but I put the brake on quickly’ M.NS

cp. damkə tīs ‘I hit it f.’

fōn / dämrǟn ‘we were almost destroyed [killed]’ Sima34:7

Modifying ḏa-ḳīs (cf. 2.5.1.5), fōna implies unfulfilled intention:

ḏa-ḳyisk [fōna] lankā l-ād wīḳa haynī lā nakam tēn śīfōn ‘I was going to come, but I wasn’t able to [because] guests came to us’ M.NS

ḏa-ḳyīs [fōna] yāmōl abith hīs abayt ḏīmah aḏ-ḳabātan ‘he meant to make his house like that house opposite us’ M.NS

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The sense of ‘to be about to/on the verge of’ is expressed by bar-PRONOUN followed by the future participle or a verb in the subjunctive;14 yḥōm followed by a verb in the subjunctive; or ḳrīb (ḳrayb)15 followed, or as in the final example below preceded, by the future particle or a true verb (usually in the subjunctive):

barham / manyēʔam tay fōna ‘they m. were about to catch me’ M.NS

barh / baśkōna ‘it m. is about to snap’ M.NS

k�v�~� Â�� Á¢Ã³s ي~� barī / mhaxṣab layš bi-ArisālahA ‘I was about to send you f.s. a text’ M.txt

barī / lxōlaṣ ‘I’m about to finish’ M.NS

[ḳrayb / nxāṣan ṣarōmah] ādh līn arbayt ḏa-sɛt ‘we are about to finish now, we just have a quarter of an hour’ M.PES.MA

hōh haflī [ḳrayb / ḏa-mlūt] tuwak mēkin ‘my stomach is almost full; I’ve eaten a lot’ M.NS

mxūṣawtan / ḳrayb ‘they/we/you m.pl are about to finish’ M.NS

A combination of two of these means of expressing ‘on the verge of’ is often encountered, as in the following examples:

wut bǟr HyxōmH / ḳrīb / yänśōḳ ‘when it m. has almost soaked all the water up’ Sima57:27

barh / yḥōm yiṯbōr ‘it m. is about to break’ M.NS

ḳrayb / barī lxōlaṣ ‘I’m about to finish’ M.NS

Other downtoners include approximators, expressed by the adverb of manner wṭōmah, by wḳōn(a), śī, Mahriyōt maḥy ḏa-, Mehreyyet hān and hanna, and PPs. Downtoners principally modify other adverbials or numerals, although ḳrīb (ḳrayb) and hān and hanna also modify verbs, and PPs headed by la-hāl or twēl (twōlī) modify colour adjectives. wṭōmah most commonly occurs to the right of the modified term, while śī and wḳōn(a) occur to the left:

wa-mġōrän trōjäm līsän [hīs / maḥy ḏ-sǟʕat] ‘then you cover them f. for around an hour’ Sima57:60

w-wiṣläk ḥlōk / wḳōn Aas-sǟʕah tisʕahA ‘we arrived there at around 9 o’clock’ Sima90:1

mnǟn AšäbǟbA / wḳōn ṯämnīt ‘there were around eight of us lads’ Sima60:2

14 In Śḥerɛt, ‘to be about to’ is expressed by ber ~ bɪr or fonə followed by future prefix and

subjunctive (Hofstede 1998: 155–156). 15 In its grammaticalised sense of ‘nearly’ (‘near, close’ > ‘nearly, almost’).

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śxawalūlan ḥlakmah / wḳōn rība yōm ‘we stayed there around four days’ M.N

Mehreyyet hān and hanna pre-modify adjectives or VPs:

aḥmēd [hanna / aʔḳāyar man sārah] ‘Ahmad is a bit bigger than Sarah’ M.PES.MA

wīḳa abaḳś ḏ-īmōh wa-ḏa-nūka ḥāwalay [hān / grūh bi-ḏīk as-sarīh16] ‘the running of today took place; the one who came first only just passed the one behind him’ M.PES.MA

Colour adjectives are pre-modified by PPs headed by la-hāl or twēl (twōlī):

āfarūt / twōlī haśarīt ‘red.ADJ.FS towards green.N’ M.NS

haśarīt / twōlī ḥūrēt ‘green.ADJ.FS towards black.N’ M.NS

wa-ḏīmah / ūbanīt la-hāl āfarīt ‘and that f. is white.ADJ.F.S. towards red.N’ M.NS

PPs headed by bak ~ brak (bark), and APs headed by ḳrīb (ḳrayb) approximate quantity:

hīs wīṣal bayn dubay wa-l-ʕayn / bark faḳḥ ‘when he arrived between Dubai and al-Ayn, around half-way’ M.N.01.17

bark abayt / bark xamsayn ġyūg ‘in the house, there are around 50 men’ M.PES.MA

bark abayt / ḳrayb al-xamsayn ġyūg ‘in the house, there are nearly 50 men’ M.PES.MA

Approximators often co-occur as in śī and wṭōmah and wḳōna and śī in the following example:

yṭarḥah [śī] sǟʕat [wṭōmäh] aw mäddēt [wṭōmäh] ‘one leaves it m. around an hour or that sort of time’ Sima12:15

aṭarḥah [wḳōna / śī / sɛʔat] ‘I leave it m. around an hour’ M.PES.MA

wḳōn may further modify an approximative PP headed by bak ~ brak (bark), or the downtoner hān:

w-bärn [wḳōn / bäk hōbaʕ AsnīnA] nṣarōmäh ‘we are now in around our seventh year’ Sima50:8

śxawalāk hnīham [wḳōna / bark warxī ṯrōh] ‘I stayed with them m. around two months’ M.NS

16 < *ḏa-sarīh.

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ḥabraytī wa-ḥabrīt ḏ-aġāy ābartan sārah [hān / grūt bi-ḏayk / wḳōna faḳḥ ḏa-warx] ‘my daughter and my brother’s daughter are the same age; Sarah came just before that f. one by around half a month’ M.PES.MA

9.1.5.2 Quantifiers

Quantifiers answer the question ‘how much’ or ‘how many’. They express quantity with no implication of diminution or approximation. They are generally realised by numerical NPs or PPs. The interrogative adverb kam questions quantity. Quantifiers with a time dimension are examined under duration adverbs above (9.1.1.4):

w-źabṭan tōs / Ab-sabʕīn, b-ṯämǟnīn alf A ‘we took it f. [bought it] for seventy, for eighty thousand’ Sima4:32

[tūṣōl / ba-xayma dḳōyaḳ] la-famsa al-hēh rēḥaḳ lā ‘she arrives by foot in five minutes, it m. isn’t far’ M.PES.MA

9.1.6 Adverbs of reason and purpose

Adverbs of reason and purpose answer the question ‘why’ or ‘for what purpose’. They are realised most commonly by PPs introduced by man and la- for reason, lagrē, la- and ha- for purpose, and tend to modify clauses or VPs. Purpose is questioned by la-hāh, la-hāśan, and wkōh. Reason is questioned by la-hāh, la-hāśan, man hāśan, hībōh, wkōh.

9.1.6.1 Purpose

syurki at-tǟ Jōdäb / h-mäftāḥ ‘we DUAL went to Jōdab for the key’ Sima90:12

mädy laġyībäs / hūk w-la-ḥbunyäk w-la-ḥbūn ḏa-ḥbunyäk ‘I am going to leave it for you m.s. and your children and your children’s children’ Sima78:3

ā ġiggīn sēr hīn / h-amalḥāt ‘Boy! Go and fetch us salt!’ M.NS

hīs taww wašhafaḳ17 ṭād min baʔlī bɛr / lagrē aśxōf ‘I should marry a camel herder for the milk’ M.PES.Ndēt

9.1.6.2 Reason

śänyimäs ḥläkmäh sēh w-ḥabrēs ḏi-ybōḳaź srīs / män käṯrät ḏä-śśāʕar w-män käṯrät ḏä-rġōd ‘they m. saw her there, her and her calf running behind her; [that was possible] because of the amount of straw and grass’ Sima78:42

hēt ṣaṭṭaš ḥruhš / man hāśan ‘Why does your f.s. head hurt?’ M.NS

17 Vocalisation of /l/ of 1s subjunctive in Ndēt and Mazyūnah. Mehreyyet of Nagd and mountains

= lašhafaḳ.

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imših tšinḥawr / man āḏamits ‘yesterday she was complaining about her back’ M.NS

l-ād šay zōyad lā / man giwē ‘I have nothing left because of hunger’ M.NS

la-hāh / tḥaym ḏa-ḥārawn ‘Why do you f.s. want goat [milk]?’ M.PES.MA

śafh aġayg yiḥōm yiftik minh / lagrē ḏa-ḥābū ḏa-nakam ‘it turned out the man wanted to get rid of him, because of the people who had come’ M.PES.MA

9.1.7 Adverbs of focus

Adverbs of focus can be subcategorised into limiter adverbs, which restrict the scope of the proposition to the focussed element, and additive adverbs, where the focussed element is an addition (cf. Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 211). Limiter adverbs can themselves be subcategorised into exclusives, which restrict what is being communicated exclusively to the focussed element, and particularisers, which restrict what is being communicated mainly or particularly to the focussed element. Exclusive limiter adverbs are realised by the restrictive adverbial particle ār and the Arabic loan bass which limit nouns, adjectives, other adverbs and adverbial phrases. ār occurs almost invariably to the left of the focussed term, but may occur to the right, as in: yḥōm yäšḳāśär / ǟr ‘he only wanted to provoke’ (Sima33:33); bass usually occurs to the right of the focussed term, but may occur to the left. Particulariser adverbs are realised by adverbials such as ḏa-xxiyōr (ḏa-xyūr) ‘mainly’, which may occur to the left or right of, and does not necessarily lie adjacent to, the focussed term. Additive adverbs are realised by the adverb kīnaḥ ‘also’ in Mahriyōt and ṭawran in Mehreyyet.

9.1.7.1 Limiter adverbs: Exclusives Predicands

The predication can be limited to a particular post-posed predicand through ār:

w-yäbtirmäs / ǟr bʕōl bwāxar ‘and only people in the big steamers catch it f.’ Sima44:50

aḥād yiḥōm ātarīt / ār hēt [lit. someone wants fermented milk only you s.] ‘Do only you s. want fermented milk?’ M.NS

azēmam aġiggīn yišhōl / ār hēh ‘Give m.pl. to the boy, only he deserves!’ M.PES.MA

kp� wuṣulūt / ār ḏīmah ‘this f. is the only one that arrived’ M.txt و·�lت ار ذ

Predicates

The entire predicate can be focussed in all types of clauses, with ār before verbal predicates in particular serving not only to focus but also to intensify the predicate.

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Verbal predicate

ʕādi / ǟr akäysäk waḥśūk ‘Just let me find you m.s. on your own!’ Sima33:49

ġayj bǟr / ǟr mōt ‘the man is already dead’ Sima46:8

[ġajjǟn / ǟr ḥṣīṣ] [w-ġajjǟn / ǟr yšūhōl] ‘the boy is really brave, the boy just deserves [respect]’ Sima41:19

ār / xlusk ‘I just got lost’ M.NS

Nominal predicate

w-tǟm / ǟr ġwūtän ‘and you m.pl. are just brothers’ Sima33:62

ʕamōr hēt šūk / ār ḥaṭṭōt ḏīm ṭīt ‘they f. said, ‘You’ve m.s. only got that one bean’’ Mo.N.01.07

snōbäḳ b-ḥāwēl [sǟn / ǟr ḏ-älwāḥ] ‘the boats at first used to be just made of wood’ Sima51:5

wa-hēt hām amaḥnatk / ār AagawāzA ‘and if your m.s. problem is only the passport’ M.N.03.24

śxawwalī [hēt / ār ġaganōt ḳannitt] ād al-hēh ḥalliš tišgēsī18 ḥābū lā ‘Sit down f.s.! You are just a young girl, it’s not yet time for you to sit with [other] people.’ M.NS.Rabkūt

šīham ġaganōt / ār sēh [lit. with them m. girl just she] ‘she is the only girl they m. have’ M.N.Rabkūt

Locational predicate

hōh / ǟr hnūk yällīläh ‘I am just with you m.s. tonight’ Sima41:16

kallah / ār man AfxārA ‘everything was just [made] of clay’ Mo.N.01.15

arḥūmat / ār b-anxarīr ‘good conformation is just in the nose’ M.N.Šlaym01.12

w-hōh / ār šīkam ‘and I’m just with you m.pl.’ M.N.03.06

Complements

Verbs can be limited to taking a particular complement by ār.

Objects

w-ḥābū ykäbyimäs axah ḳǟd / ǟr jzīrät ‘and the people thought it f. was just an island’ Sima37:7

18 Or: tišgēlas.

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bäss täṭʕamh ḳǟd axah / ǟr ṭʕām ḏ-maḥḥ ‘you m.s. just taste it m. like it is just the taste of clarified butter’ Sima58:32

ʕamōr [aġōrab / ār ḥaṭṭōtī] ‘he said, ‘I’ll only recognise my bean’’ Mo.N.01.20

Subjective/objective complements

wi-ylōbäd / ǟr ṣaʕrēr ‘and it m. just becomes brown’ Sima45:3

śinkə tīs / ār xaṭfīt ‘I saw she was thin [i.e. had no stomach]’ M.NS

tēṯ ḏīmah śaḳḳat tkūn / ār txōdam xadamēt mēkin ‘that woman is clever, she does a lot of work’ M.NS

Attributes

A noun can be restricted to taking one or more attributional adjectives:

ḳaṣṣāt ḏ-īmōh sēh / ǟr ḳṣīrät ‘today’s story is only short’ Sima32:1

ammä źayjaʕ yḥōmäl ṯīrōb / ǟr ḳāṭan ‘źayjaʕ-huts bear only thin branches’ Sima77:6

lōb abśāt hinīkam / ār ġalyat ‘your m.pl. merchandise is really expensive’ M.PES.MA

Adverbs

Propositions can be modified exclusively through ār followed by focussed adverbs or adverbials, including PPs that function adverbially:

ǟr ʕaynät xawr ‘only very little’ Sima77:9

wa-nšūkōf käll / ǟr faxrä ‘and we sleep just all together’ Sima77:14

wa-nsōkän [ǟr būwäh] b-Rēhän ‘and we just live here in Rēhan’ Sima110:1

dḳīḳ nūkaʕ / ǟr ḳrīb ‘flour only came recently’ Sima57:42

ḥiskə19 bih / ār mġōran ‘I only noticed it m. later’ M.NS

wuṣlūt / ār ṣarōmah ‘it f. arrived only now’ ~ ‘it f. has only just arrived’ M.NS

b-ḥāwēl ḥābū ysäḳfäm / ǟr b-mīśäṭ ‘earlier, people only used to make the roof with mīśäṭ20 wood’ Sima2:15

19 < *ḥissak bih. 20 Anogeissus dhofarica (Miller & Morris 1988: 102–103, 345).

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w-käll ḥād yaʕzūz / ǟr ba-ġyūjiyäh ‘everyone receives honour only through his men’ Sima40:32

wa-yḥɛbam tīs / ār man ḥall la-ḥall ‘they m. milk her just at one [particular] time’ M.NS

Adverbial clauses

Similarly propositions can be modified exclusively by focussed adverbial clauses:

tśaynas / ār bār ḳabṣatk ‘you m.s. only see it f. once it’s bitten you’ M.NS

wa-hōh aḥōm lasēr min bawmah / ār barī ḏ-aġtūrī mahrayyat kallas l-hīs aḥōm ‘and I want to go from here only when I can speak Mehreyyet as [well as] I want’ M.NS

9.1.7.2 Limiter adverbs: Particularisers

Particularisers particularise the scope of the predication to the focussed element:

ḏa-xxiyōr / tkūn ab-bōti Źfōr, b-Rās Ṣōjär ‘usually it is in the region of Dhofar, by Rās Ṣōjar’ Sima2:78

ḏōmäh źaynäṭ [ḏa-xxiyōr / ḥābū yźanṭam bär ḏ-ʕayd] ‘for this źaynäṭ [dish] people mainly use [the shark type] bar ḏ-ʕayd’ Sima16 :7

9.1.7.3 Additive adverbs

The additive adverbs Mahriyōt kīnaḥ and Mehreyyet ṭawran modify VPs, APs, adverbials and clauses to indicate that the focussed element is an addition. Thus in xdämk hōh kīnaḥ b-Ḥawf ‘I also worked in Ḥawf’ (Sima4:26), kīnaḥ modifies the VP xdämk ‘I worked’ indicating that the following element b-Ḥawf ‘in Ḥawf’ is an addition to the assumed place of work. In general, kīnaḥ follows and ṭawran precedes the added term, but this is not a fixed rule.

yässäbōṭ / kīnaḥ ‘they m. will also be threshed’ Sima56:120

[wa-snǟt ḏ-jōʕ / kīnaḥ] baʕź ḥābū [kīnaḥ / yhärḳam mōl ḏ-ḥābū ġahrūtän] ‘also in the years of hunger, some people also used to steal other people’s livestock’ Sima12:6

ḥaybīt aḏarwats āds [ṭawran / bīs arḥūmat] ‘the camel, her hump also has a [part in] conformation’ M.N.Šlaym.01.16

ḏ-īxōdam bark ḥkōmat wa-[ṭawran / ših xadamēt ḏa-ḥnafh] ‘he is working for the government and also has his own work’ M.PES.MA

hōh [ṭawran / ḏ-akarbūl] wīḳa haynī lsēr lā ‘I am also crawling, I’m not able to walk’ M.NS

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9.1.8 Epistemic adverbs

Epistemology, which indicates the degree to which the speaker is committed to the truth of the proposition (cf. Payne 1997: 70), is expressed principally adverbially in Mehri. Epistemic adverbs in Mehri include lōb ~ waylōb and ḳaṭ (for which, cf. 9.1.5.1.1 above), bār in some functions, mxaṭṭar, śaf, madanī–PRONOUN, xāf, adamm-PRONOUN and walā.

9.1.8.1 bār

bār followed by a verb in the indicative functions epistemically to express possibility. It occurs most commonly at the head of contrasting clauses. The second clause may be elliptical and lack bār–INDICATIVE, as in the final example below:21

w-bǟr tġōnäṯ b-maḥḥ xōzär / w-bǟr tġōnäṯ b-maḥḥ maxxamī ‘you m.s. could either pour small lumps of butter or you could pour clarified butter [over it]’ Sima58:45

bǟr ykäys xawr / w-bǟr ykäys mǟkän ‘he might find a little or he might find a lot’ Sima20:7

bār tʔōmar ṯrōh / wa-bār tʔōmar ṯrannēhī ‘you m.s. could say ṯrōh [two] or you could say ṯrannēhī [two.DIM]’ M.PES.MA

bār tkays xawr / wa-bār tkays mēkan ‘you m.s. might find a little or you might find a lot’ M.PES.MA

bār yisyūr gihma walā bād gihma ‘he may go tomorrow or the day after tomorrow’ M.PES.MA

9.1.8.2 mxaṭṭar

mxaṭṭar expressing possibility attested in Mehreyyet but not found in the Mahriyōt texts takes a following verb in the subjunctive, optionally preceded by the preposition man.

ār habṭāʔ [mxaṭṭar / yaḳāʔ bark warx warx ū-faḳḥ] ‘he probably took around a month or a month and a half’ M.N.02.08

mxaṭṭar / man yinkāʔam ḥambarawtan īmōh man arḥabēt ‘the boys may come today from the town’ M.PES.MA

wat riddakam man aśyaft [mxaṭṭar / man taksēyam tēham la-ḥōram] ‘when you m.pl. return from the wedding you’ll probably find them on the way’ M.PES.MA

[mxaṭṭar / īmōh man alsēr] ād al-wadak ḥnōfī hībōh lā ‘I may go today, I don’t yet know’ M.PES.MA

21 Similar to Arabic qad–INDICATIVE (Badawi, Hinds & Gully 2004: 367).

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9.1.8.3 śaf

śaf emphasises the speaker’s commitment to the proposition, and simultaneously acts as a ‘mirative’ particle (Scott DeLancey, p.c. in Payne 1997: 255) conveying a sense of surprise or a turn in events.22 It can modify a following verbal or locational, less commonly a nominal, clause. Modified verbal clauses are usually, but not always, predicand initial:

Modified verbal clause

śäff / ḳōźi, hänhūh ḥalbädyäh ‘it turned out the judge had forgotten his sandles’ Sima38:5

yḥōl at-tǟ [śäff / yäḳrōb lä-bʕīr ḏäkmäh] ‘yes, until he [suddenly] got close to that camel’ Sima31:24

śaf / yḥōm yaḥḥān yaślēl ḳaḥf ‘it turned out he wanted to do such-and-such, to take the pot’ Mo.N.01.26

[śafī / šūkafk] al-ḥissak bi-ḥnōfī lā ‘I must have fallen asleep and didn’t realise’ M.PES.MA

śafh / aġayg śxawalūl wḳōn warx ḥlakmah ‘it turned out the man stayed around a month there’ M.PES.MA

śafs / anhūras at-taġawlaḳ23 man ḥabrēs wa-ḥābū yikības ġaṣabūt ‘it turned out she [i.e. the camel] was looking for her calf all day, and people thought she had gone off’ M.PES.MA

Modified locational clause

śaf / hāxar bar xamāsīyah mṣā brak xann ‘the old man bar Xamāsīyah turned out to be down in the hold’ Mo.N

śaf / al-śī xaybat lā maḥmīd arḥamōn ‘Certainly there isn’t a little, thanks be to God!’ M.NS

akabk waḥśūk [śaf / hnūk bū] ‘I thought you m.s. were on your own; it turned out there were people with you’ M.NS

uÀ Ü¤ Ç �·ر śaf / šay AraṣīdA lā ‘it turned out I had no credit’ M.txt

Modified nominal clause

śäfs / śōḥawṭat ‘it f. turned out to be a whale’ Sima37:12

22 Also attested in this sense in Śḥerɛt (Hofstede 1998: 110–111). 23 < *ḏa-tġawlaḳ.

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9.1.8.4 madanī

madanī acts as a presentative particle. It takes a following independent pronoun and introduces a clause or a PP headed by bi-24 that contrasts with, and is surprising, in view of the preceding clause. In some contexts, it can be replaced by an adversative conjunct. Examples include (for further examples, cf. 7.2.10.4):

hīs barī ḥōm larkēb amawtar / madanī hōh bi-Agayš sistarāt wa-dakātirahA ‘when I was about to get in the car, there was suddenly an army of sisters and doctors’ M.NS

ḏa-hgūs ḥanafh yiksē aḏīrōb ḳrayb / madanī hēh kūsa ḳāʔ gadab min aḳall ḏa-ḏīrōb ‘he thought he would find wood close by, but [unexpectedly] he found the ground empty from a dirth of wood’ M.NS

9.1.8.5 xāf

xāf,25 which is almost certainly etymologically related to Arabic xāf ‘to fear’, conveys the speaker’s hesitation in committing to the truth of a proposition. In the data, xāf occurs more frequently in Mehreyyet than in Mahriyōt, which occasionally uses the exceptive particle ʕsē in this sense, or the Arabic loan yimkin ‘possibly’. One token of xāf with an unambiguous sense of possibility is attested in the Jōdab texts, and none in the Rēhan texts. xāf is followed by a verb in the subjunctive where the event/state has not yet obtained.

wa-t-tǟ wut bǟr jätmaʕam käll faxrän, [xāf / lēh ġayj yästōmaḥ] ‘and when they m. all gather together perhaps the man [can] die [in peace]’ Sima74:21

xāf / lūk tāmēr ‘you m.s. could say’ M.N.MA

sīrōna abadyat ḏa-l-yaman wa-[xāf / lhabṭā] ‘I am going to Yemen and I may spend a long time [there]’ M.NS

xadamēt ḏīmah [xāf / tiḳā bīs xayrat haynī lā] ‘this work may not benefit me’ M.NS

o� v¹ xāf / lawtaxūr wīyan ‘I’ll probably be very late’ M.txtف ��Ãر و

xāf may also be followed by an adverbial or NP:

xāf / ḏ-īmoh ‘[it] may be from today’ M.NS.Rabkūt

Ç اs~ك v¹ف ��mlن وردش wa-riddaš lā amark [xāf / tilifūn] ‘you f.s. didn’t reply; I thought [it was] possibly [due to] the telephone’ M.txt

24 Similar to the Arabic presentative particle ʔiḏā bi-. 25 Not mentioned by Rubin (2010).

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9.1.8.6 adamm-PRONOUN

Mehreyyet adamm-PRONOUN expresses the speaker’s belief that the action probably took place, but allows for the possibility that it may not have. The pronoun suffix agrees with the subject of the proposition.

adammī / tuwak mēkan ‘I probably ate too much’ M.NS

[adammas / šūkfūt] wa-l-ād ḥissūt lā ‘she probably fell asleep and didn’t realise’ M.NS

amūr ālay [adammah / mḥammad ḏa-haftakah] śinkə tah ba-ʔaynī lā ‘Ali said, ‘It was probably Muhammad who took it m. off, [though] I didn’t actually see him [do it]’’ M.NS

[adammiš / ār ḏa-hānayš] la-hāśan hinayš hēh wa-t-taġēlaḳ bih ‘I think it was deliberate [on your part] because it’s m. there with you f.s. and you’re looking [at it]’ M.NS

9.1.8.7 walā

This particle is analysed by Rubin (2010: 256–258) as an interrogative particle or having the sense of ‘perhaps’. There are few examples in the narrative texts, and no examples attested in the Mahriyōt data; it does, however, occur regularly in natural speech in Mehreyyet. Yes–no questions can be formed through intonation alone or introduced by walā. According to my Mehreyyet informants, walā occurs where the expected answer is positive, and for this reason is included here under epistemic adverbs:

walā śink aḥād ‘Have you m.s. seen anyone?’ M.NS

walā tkays ḳawt ‘Can you m.s. find any food?’ M.NS

This sense of probability is found in the second function of the particle, where it either heads an independent clause or, more commonly, links two clauses. In this case, it is followed by a verb in the indicative.

walā nkays hnīham ʕīśē ‘maybe we will find supper at their m. house’ M.NS

Where walā links two clauses, the second clause provides the expected and wished-for purpose behind the proposition in the initial clause (cf. 9.2.5.1):

tḥaym nsēr hāl bayt flān / walā yisḥayṭ hīn ‘Do you m.pl. want us to go to so-and-so’s house, [because/so that] they m. may slaughter for us?’ M.NS

sēr bi-hbɛr / wala ttīyan śī man harmēt lyōmah ‘take m.s. the camels, so that they f. might eat something from those trees’ M.N.01.11

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9.1.9 Disjuncts

A disjunct is a type of adverbial that expresses information not essential to the sentence or clause in which it appears, which expresses the speaker’s attitude to the propositional content of the sentence or clause, and which, in contrast to adjuncts, is peripheral syntactically and prosodically (cf. Quirk & Greenbaum 1973: 208). Certain disjuncts, such as comment clauses and filler disjuncts, are typical in face-to-face conversation and as such are rare in the sets of published Mehri monologues and narratives. Most examples here have been collected from transcribing or recording in natural non-rehearsed speech environments. Individuals differ significantly in their use of particular disjuncts, and therefore, when looking at a database from one or two speakers, it is difficult to conclude the frequency of occurrence in the language of particular disjuncts. Among my Mehreyyet speakers, some had a predilection for hawba-PRONOUN as a filler or style disjunct, while others used axah or the Arabic loan yaʕnī (yānī ~ yaʔnī) ‘that is to say’. Disjuncts are often not fully integrated prosodically within the clause or sentence, as in hīs taww in hīs taww / haṣbaḥī l-xayr ‘good, sleep well f.s.’ (M), which contrasts with the non-disjunctive use of the same phrase in agaww hinīn hīs taww ‘the weather with us is good’ (M). As in this example, some elements which function as adjuncts in other contexts may function in certain contexts as disjuncts: the adverb of time, nṣarōmah (ṣarōmah), for example, may function as a disjunct to capture the listener’s attention in a similar way to English ‘now’:

näṣrōmäh / ḏōmäh ḏ-yämṣūṣ ṣamm ḏ-rēśīt, yäźtärūr lǟ mänh ‘Now, the one who sucks the snake poison out, isn’t he harmed by it?’ Sima1:44

Disjuncts may also occur independently, as in wḳōna in the following exchange:

shēl ankōna ‘Is Shēl coming?’

wḳōna ‘Maybe.’ M.NS

Disjuncts take a number of different syntactic forms in Mehri, including clauses that could stand independently, as in Mehreyyet: wa-hēt ḏa-ġribš ‘and you f.s. know’ (M), kallah ṭād ‘it’s all the same; that’s fine’; adverbial clauses, as in: hīs ḏa-ġribk ‘as you m.s. know’, hām abɛlī yḥōm ‘if God wishes; hopefully’, hām abɛlī akōtab ‘if God has written [it]/hopefully’; grammaticalised PPs, as in: hīs taww ‘good/like good’, bark aḳābī [lit. in my heart] ‘I think’ (M), man ḥruh [lit. from the head] ‘really?!’ (M); phrases, as in: l-ād āḏar lā [lit. no longer an excuse] ‘must’ (M); and adverbial particles, as in: lōb ~ lawb ‘indeed’, axah ‘like; that is to say’, xayban ‘well; good’, taḥḳayḳ ‘certainly; definitely’, ḥatm ‘certainly’.26

Modal disjuncts express the speaker’s judgement of the truth of the utterance, and include:

26 Exclamations which most commonly occur independently, and which also arguably function as

disjuncts, are considered in chapter 2 (2.9.5.6).

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l-ād āḏar lā ‘there is no excuse/must’ (M)

wḳōna ‘maybe’

xayban ‘well; good’

l-ād āḏar lā ‘there is no excuse/must’ may be followed by a PP headed by man, as in: l-ād āḏar lā / man amsēr ‘X must go’, or by a verb in the subjunctive, as in: l-ād āḏar lā / tsēr ‘you m.s. must go’. As for non-disjunctive modal particles (2.8.5), modal disjuncts when not used independently require a verb in the subjunctive mood in reference to an event or state that should or should not occur. In a non-modal context, the same element may take a following or preceding perfect verb when the event or state has already taken place, and a future participle when the event will take place. Where a subjunctive verb follows there is greater cohesion of the disjunct with the rest of the statement: wḳōna takes a following subjunctive verb in the first example below, but a following perfect verb in the others:

wḳōna / yinkā ‘he may come’ M.NS

wḳōna / ḥiss bayš hēh ‘he probably did think of you f.s.’ M.NS

wḳōna / bars šukfūt ‘she may have gone to sleep’ M.NS

9.1.9.1 Content disjuncts

Content disjuncts that express the speaker’s attitude towards a proposition often stand alone or are prosodically separate from a following or preceding clause. Content disjuncts include both fact-evaluating disjuncts that express the speaker’s attitude to a statement, event or state, and comment disjuncts that express the speaker’s attitude to the subject–referent.

9.1.9.1.1 xarāna

xarāna usually expresses the speaker’s agreement with the addressee, but as with English ‘fine’, may also be used ironically, as in the first example below:

amūr [xarāna / wadak tīn la-ḥō syēra] ‘he said, ‘Okay, did you m.s. know where we were going?’’ M.N.03.06

amūr [xarāna / hōh ār šīkam] ‘he said, ‘Fine, I’m staying with you m.pl.’’ M.N.03.07

amūr [xarāna / śawrkam gīd] ‘he said, ‘Fine! That’s a good idea [of yours m.s.]’’ M.N.03.10

gārī swānōt ‘Lie f.s. down a while!’ xarāna / gārīta ‘Okay, I’ll lie down.’ M.NS

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9.1.9.1.2 xayban

xayban may occur independently or within a clause to convey the speaker’s agreement with the addressee or the speaker’s attempt to gain the agreement of the addressee.

ġlä, / xaybän ‘Well, look!’ Sima2:15

ayyäh, kä-zbōn / xaybän ‘yes, in spring okay’ Sima57:10

āmūr taww [xayban / ilīlah hɛtam hnīn] ‘he said, ‘Good! Okay, tonight spend the night with us’’ M.PES.MA

amurt / xayban ‘she said, ‘Fine!’’ M.N

xayban / hēt sērī šēh ‘Okay, you f.s. go with him!’ M.N

xayban may also be followed or preceded by a clause to convey the speaker’s tentative belief in the proposition or, occasionally, to convey purpose. In the latter case, xayban functions as a modal disjunct taking a following verb in the subjunctive or, when addressing a second person, in the imperative, as in the final example below.

w-tärḥänh bäk ṭust, tärḥänh śī sǟʕat w-lī sǟʕati ṯrīt, [xaybän / tärġōź] ‘you m.s. parboil it m. in a pan, you parboil it for one or two hours so that it f. becomes properly soft’27 Sima7:4

xayban / yišanfaʔ ‘he should get better’ M.NS

wa-ʔaymal hīs gfōn hammah [xayban / ḥābū yaḥlēbam tēs ḏār agfōn ḏakmah] ‘and [he] made her what they call a gfōn [tulchan], so that people could milk her with that tulchan’ M.N.Rabkūt02.25

uÝظ� o��¹ه �os kÃ�z ا�~ xayban / śayṭī Anasxah man agarīdahA ‘you f.s should take a copy of the paper’ M.txt

9.1.9.1.3 yaḥōl ~ yāḥōl ~ yaḥawl

yaḥōl functions as a response particle that expresses agreement with the addressee and frequently stands independently. Examples include:

ḏ-ʕamk tōham yiḳāʕam man hind aw baʕti afrīgya wṭōmah / yaḥōl ‘I think they m. came from India or Africa, yes!’ Mo.N

hām tḳaydar ‘If you f.s. can.’ […] yaḥōl / laḳawdar ‘Of course I can!’ M.N.04.13–14

hēt tḥōm ḥaybitk ‘You m.s. want your camel.’ āmūr / yāḥōl ‘He said, ‘Yes!’’ M.N.04.14


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haytam ṣafiyūt aw lā ‘Is the sky clear or not?’ yaḥawl / ahaytam ṣafyat ‘Yes, the sky is clear.’ M.PES.MA

9.1.9.1.4 hīs taww

hīs taww resulting from grammaticalisation of the preposition of comparison hīs and the adverb taww (cf. Lonnet 2003: 423) generally occurs in the same discourse contexts as yaḥōl, but is more frequently attested. As with yaḥōl, it frequently occurs independently.

āmūr / hīs taww ‘he said, ‘Fine!’’ M.N.04.17

~�Ã� u¦�¢ھ �� Èھ hīs taww / haṣbaḥī l-xayr ‘Good, sleep well f.s.!’ M.txt

9.1.9.1.5 man ḥruh, bi-ʔaynha and wa-l-ḳayrab

Content disjuncts also include grammaticalised phrases mainly restricted to responses. man ḥruh [lit. from the head] ‘Not at all?/!’ expresses surprise at and requests confirmation of whether a negative declarative statement is fully inclusive:

aġaygī yikhōl bi-kambyūtar lā ‘My husband can’t deal with computers.’ man ḥruh ‘Really?!’ M.NS

man hīs nakak bawmah bār ġatrik ka-ḥāmēk ‘Since you m.s. came here, have you spoken with your mother?’ lā ‘No.’ man ḥruh ‘Not at all?’ M.NS

bi-ʔaynha ~ bi-ʕaynha [lit. with his eye] ‘Really?/!’ requests or provides confirmation of a positive declarative statement:

ḏa-śatūḳak līkam ‘I miss you m.pl.’ bi-ʔaynha ‘Really?’ bi-ʔaynha ‘Really!’ M.NS

ḥāmēk ḳadrīta lā tsēr la-fāmsa man bawmah tā ḥaft ‘Your m.s. mother can’t go by foot from here to Ḥaft.’ lōb bi-ʕaynha ḳadrīta lā ‘Of course she can’t!’ M.NS

The VP wa-l-ḳayrab ~ wa-l-ḳarabōt [lit. and it didn’t come close] ‘Not at all!’ provides an emphatic negative response to a yes–no question:

ḥāmēk ḏa-ġatīḏōt lay ‘Is your m.s. mother angry with me?’ wa-l-ḳarabōt ‘Not at all!’ M.NS

xṭark abʕayr ḏa-ḥdaydī sēlam axayr man abʕayrkam ‘Do you m.s. think my Uncle Sēlam’s male camel is better than your male camel m.pl?’ wa-l-ḳayrab ‘Not at all!’ M.NS

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9.1.9.2 Filler disjuncts

In face-to-face conversation and non-rehearsed narratives, filler disjuncts and comment clauses are common. Filler disjuncts include: axah ‘like; that is to say’, hīs-wōt (hīs-wat) ‘that is to say; like’, hawba-PRONOUN ‘I think; that is to say’, and the tag questions lā, ahā and ahā lā (discussed above in 8.7).

9.1.9.2.1 axah

axah has a discourse function as a filler or tag in examples such as:

bak ḳalbaham [axah] nankaʕ fīsāʕ wa-nṣōl fīsāʕ ‘they m. thought we’d come quickly and arrive quickly’ Mo.N

w-hōh mhawḳaʕsan [axah] man Aaš-šhūr al-mīlādīyahA ‘and I’m going to place them f., that is to say, in terms of the Christian months’ Mo.NS

wa-hēt [axah] la-hāśan ḏa-ḥjark ḥlakmah ‘So why did you m.s. wait there so long?’ Mo.NS

yhanḳawṣ līs man AadaragātA ḏ-arḥūmat [yaxah] man awṣawf ḏ-arḥūmat ‘they m. will take off points for beauty for her, that is to say from the description of beauty’ M.N.Šlaym01.15

o¤vھ k¹ا kاد� adabah [axah] hāśan ‘What is honey then?’ M.txt

9.1.9.2.2 hawba

Mehreyyet hawba takes a following noun or, more commonly, an object pronoun which agrees with the subject of the proposition, and has a similar function to axah ~ yaxah as a filler. The Mahriyōt invariable form hawbat ~ hōbat apparently has the same function as hawba, but with only three tokens in the Sima texts, all of which follow hīs, it is difficult to draw any definite conclusions.

hīs hawbät / taʕmǟr ‘as you m.s. could say’ Sima1:4

ḏīmah [hawbis] Alā bās A ‘this f. is not bad’ M.N.Šlaym01.20

wḳōna [hawba] hōba saʕawtan man bawmah tā hāl abitš ‘it’ll be around seven hours from here to your f.s. house’ M.NS

hawba / ḥall ṭād taḥlōb k-aṣōbaḥ walā kalaynī ‘once you m.s. milk, either in the morning or in the evening’ M.NS

ḳhawr ḏīmah ykūn [hawbas] l-ād sēh ḥōfī lā ‘that f. one is called ḳhawr, that is to say when she has not recently given birth’ M.N

hawbis / ḳaṭ sēh tḥōm wṭakmah ‘she just wants like that’ M.PES.MA

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hawba can split an attribute from the head noun in an attribution phrase:

madanay ḏīmah [hawba] ḥaybīt wat bars ṯḳaylat ‘pregnant [described as madanay] the camel is when she is heavy’ M.NS

9.2 Adverbial clauses

As for object clauses (5.1.7), adverbial clauses are introduced hypotactically, that is to say by means of an explicit adjunction, or paratactically, where the adverbial clause is juxtaposed to the main clause without an adjunction. The full set of adjunctions is provided in chapter 2, table 85.

9.2.1 Clauses of time

Clauses of time are introduced by wat, at-tā (tā), hīs, hīn (Mo), miḏ, mayt and some grammaticalised nouns of time; thus, nhōr (nhūr) ‘day’ like yōm and yawm in many Arabic dialects, can occasionally introduce a clause of time, as in:

nhūr ḏa-ḥamsan ‘when I want them f.’ M.NS

In relation to the main clause, clauses of time can describe a state or event that occurred previously, simultaneously or subsequently. A clause introduced by wat,28 miḏ (Mo), hīs ‘when’ generally indicates the previous or simultaneous occurrence of a state or event in relation to the proposition in the main clause. Irrespective of the relative time frame, a verb other than yḥōm ‘to want’ in a clause of time introduced by wat, miḏ or hīs is in the perfect aspect. A clause introduced by ḥbōr in Mehreyyet indicates the moment immediately preceding the event mentioned in the main clause. Clauses introduced by at-tā (tā) indicate the subsequent occurrence of a state or event in relation to the proposition in the main clause. A clause introduced by man hīs ‘from when; since’ indicates a boundary in time after which the proposition in the main clause obtained; a clause introduced by at-tā (tā) man hīs indicates a boundary in time upon which an event or state ceases to obtain. In these cases, the subordinate clause most commonly occurs to the left of the main clause. In conditional clauses, wat can occur in place of the conditional particle hām ~ hān ‘if’,29 as in:

wat ḥālūt / tġarbas man ḥbōr tḥawras ‘if/when she takes [and is in foal], you m.s. know she is from the moment she moves’ M.NS

’wat nakaš / naġtūrī ‘if/when you f.s. come, we’ll talk وت vyzش ��ÄzريM.txt

28 wat is considerably more common in Mehreyyet and in the Mahriyōt of Jōdab than it is in

Rēhan: 129 tokens of wat in the Jōdab texts; 13 tokens in the Rēhan texts. 29 Śḥerɛt may also use the time adjunctions mit and miḏ in a conditional clause (Hofstede 1998:

116).


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9.2.1.1 miḏ

miḏ is attested in Mahriyōt and is relatively more common in the dialect of Rēhan than Jōdab.30 It occurs in the same contexts as wat and hīs. The examples in Sima (2009) almost invariably indicate a state or event that obtains prior to the state or event described in the main clause:

w-mīśäṭ ḏīmäh [ḥaynǟṯ [miḏ bīru, / taʕmōlän bīs näjw]] ‘and this mīśäṭ,31 the women when they f. give birth make a douche out of it f.’ Sima82:9

miḏ bǟr fḥask teh, / taʕabyinäh ‘when you m.s. have mixed it m. through [a second time], you make dough balls out of it’ Sima84:6

män ḥläkm [miḏ bǟr axxarujk lyäkm w-bǟr aḥḥān ṭōmäh / tḥōmäl ʕaynät ḥmūh b-ḥaydäk] ‘then when you m.s. have taken those out and such and such is done [i.e. the temperature is right], you take a little water in your hand’ Sima84:16

Examples of miḏ introducing a clause that coincides in time with that of the main clause include:

miḏ bärh ṣāfī, / yṭarḥamäh bäk jwōnī ‘when it m. is pure [sorghum], they m. put it in sacks’ Sima81:38

[miḏ bärh śōx, / yaʕmōl ḏäkmäh], ḥābū ytīmäh ‘when it m. is big, it produces that [thing], [and] people eat it m.’ Sima82:28

w-AgablA lyōmäh käll, [miḏ bǟr ʕād nhōri ṯrīt w-lī śīläṯ yōm män HźyuftH, / tnōkaʕ bä-mjōzär] ‘and before all that, when there are still two or three days until the wedding, you m.s. bring the slaughter animals’ Sima85:23

9.2.1.2 wat and hīs

A clause introduced by wat or hīs may occur to the left or the right of the main clause; in my database it occurs more commonly to the left. The adverbial clause may indicate an event or state that preceded the event, action or state indicated in the main clause.

hīs śxafk śxōf ḏa-hbɛr / astiyark lā ‘when I drank camel milk, I didn’t have the runs’ M.NS

wat nakaš / haṭfī layt ‘when you f.s. come, turn the light off’ M.NS

akṣībūb abdānī / hīs śīnak rēśīt ‘my body shivered, when I saw a snake’ M.NS

30 24 tokens of miḏ in the Rēhan texts; 10 tokens of miḏ in the Jōdab texts. 31 Anogeissus dhofarica (Miller & Morris 1988: 102–103, 345).

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wa-firḥam bih ḥābū / hīs ridd līham ‘people were really happy when he came back to them’ M.N.03.27

It may also introduce an event or state that coincides with that mentioned in the main clause, as in:

l-innä maxṭār, [hīs ʕādäh ḳannūn, / ḳfōd raḥbēt män Qāṭan] ‘because once, when he was still young, he went down to the village [i.e. Jōdab] from the dry uplands’32 Sima41:3

fnōhan [hīs wiṣlak maskūt w-ād al-nakak ṣlōlat lā / śatūḳak līkam axayr man fnōhan barī ḏ-aḥōsab mayt lankākam] ‘before, when I arrived in Muscat and hadn’t yet come to Salalah, I missed you m.pl. more than before and was looking forward to coming to you’ M.NS

Unless the verb is the verb of volition yḥōm, hīs takes a following verb in the perfect or a nominal or prepositional clause. wat when referring to a recurring event can take an imperfect verb in the clause, as in ḏ-ībayk in the example above. The verb in the main clause is in the perfect when a momentary event is mentioned, as in the examples above, and in the indicative when the event or state takes or took place over a length of time, as in the examples below.

wat ḏa-ḥatūgak / tʔōmar lā lā ‘when you m.s. are in need, you don’t say no’ M.NS

wat aḳannawn ḏa-gīlū wa-ḏ-ībayk wīyan / yk ūn mḥayḳ yahnāḥ b-aḳābiš ‘when the child is ill and cries a lot, it is difficult and burns your heart’ M.NS

hīs ādham ḥabinya ḳanyawn / yinakāy ṣṭayṭ ḏa-ḥruh ‘when my children were small, I used to have headaches’ M.NS

9.2.1.3 ḥbōr

Mehreyyet ḥbōr may be linked to a following verb syndetically, as in the first example below, or asyndetically to express the moment immediately preceding the event mentioned in the main clause:

ḥbōr wa-nišš / liḳfam tah ġyūj ‘the moment he fell, men caught him’ M.N.MA

ḥbōr niššak man haytam / fatḥak AamḏallahA ‘the moment I fell from the sky, I opened my parachute’ M.NS

ḥbōr niššak man aḳaṣṣāt / manam tay harbātya ‘the moment I fell from the cliff/top of the cave, my friends grabbed me’ M.PES.MA



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A subordinate clause introduced by ḥbōr may occur within a PP headed by hīs or man:

hīs ḥbōr riddan / kūsan aḳāʔ axtalūf līn ‘the moment we returned, we found the land had changed [for us]’ M.N.MA

šūgūśan tā nakan sēkin [hīs ḥbōr nakan sēkin / ḥābū farḥam bīn] ‘we went [in the afternoon] until we reached the homestead; the moment we reached the homestead, people were delighted [to see] us’ M.N.Rabkūt02.51

min ḥbōr tślēl aḏnōbas / tkūn ātabarūt w-ūḳaḥawt ‘the moment she lifts her tail, she has taken and become impregnated’ M.NS

9.2.1.4 at-tā (tā)

A clause introduced by at-tā (tā) most frequently indicates a state or event that occurs subsequently to that mentioned in the main clause. The verb following at-tā (tā) may be in the subjunctive, particularly where the event or state described in the adverbial clause has not yet taken place, or the perfect where the event or state indicated in the adverbial clause has taken place. at-tā (tā) may be followed by a second time adjunction, such as wuḏ in Mahriyōt, hīs or wat with no difference in function or semantics. Clauses introduced by at-tā (tā) where the time reference in the subordinate clause is posterior to that in the main clause generally occur to the right of the main clause:

wi-ysämräm lēh ḥābū m-bōh m-bōh m-bōh, / at-tǟ wut ʕuśś ‘the people stay up with him from here and there, until he gets up’ Sima67:14

[habṭāk arbaʔ snay wa-warx man bād abīrawtī ḏ-aġiggēn / tā tinkā ġaganōt] wa-manwayhī arbaʔ snay wa-warx ‘I waited four years and one month after my giving birth to the boy before the girl came, and there are four years and one month between them’ M.NS

tabah ḥaybī / ta lḥaḳah ‘my father went after him, until he caught up with him’ M.N.01.18

ṭhask / tā šūḳāk la-ḥrūhī ‘I slipped, falling on my head’ M.ES

ṭalan / tā wuṣlan aġawf ‘we went up, until we reached the top’ M.N

wkabk wa-śxawalāk / tā nūkaʔ aġayg ‘I went in and waited, until the man came’ M.N

śīnī aġrayb [wu-tbayh / tā śxawalūl] ‘he saw the crow and followed it m., until it came to rest’ M.N.04.17

The verb whether in the subjunctive or the perfect may be separated from the adjunction at-tā (tā) by an explicit predicand (cf. 6.7.3.3):

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yäjhizmäsän / at-tǟ [hīs-wōt mawsäm ḏēk ḏ-ṣayräb] yänkāʕ ‘they m. prepare them f. until that post-monsoon season comes [again]’ Sima20:14

tā [ḥaybī] wīṣal ʕayn / šxabūr ‘when my father reached al-Ayn, he asked’ M.N.01.16

at-tā (tā) can also introduce a locational or nominal clause:

jhǟmäm / at-tǟ hīs bärhäm b-Ajuzūr al-ḥallǟnīyǟtA ‘they m. travelled, until they reached the al-Ḥallānīyāt islands’ Sima75:3

śxawalūl / tā bār hēh ašrayn snay ‘he waited, until [he had waited] for twenty years’ M.N

nakam tīn aḥād man śḥayr w-aḥād man abadyat w-aḥād man arhabēt / atā barham bark śalāṯayn ‘some came to us from the mountains, some from the desert and some from the town, until they m. were around thirty’ M.N

Where the clause introduced by at-tā (tā) indicates an event or state that takes place prior to that described in the main clause, the verb is invariably in the perfect and the subordinate clause occurs to the left of the main clause:

wa-t-tǟ wut bǟr saḥṭīs, / yawhäbs mōyät ḏäkm ‘when he has slaughtered it f., he dedicates it to that one who died’ Sima68:5

at-tǟ wut bǟr xtōmäm ḥābūn / yxarjäm bärr w-yaʕtäśyäm ‘when the people have recited the [relevant] Qur’anic verses, they m. go outside and have supper’ Sima68:21

bḳaśk twāsa [tā kisk ġayg / šxabarkə tah] ‘I ran towards it f.; when I found a man, I asked him’ M.N

amark alīlah mhɛtam hnīham [tā wuṣlak abayt / ṭaḳḳak abōb kisk aḥād lā] ‘I said, ‘Tonight I will spend the night with them.’ When I reached the house I knocked on the door, but I didn’t find anyone’ M.N

tā wuṣlan xōṭar ba-ḥawōdī bark ḥawōdī w-amūsē bār śtallūt / ġlūḳan man ḏīrōb ‘when we reached the bottom in the valley and the rain had moved on, we looked for sticks’ M.N

9.2.1.5 hān and hām

hān occasionally introduces a clause of time in Mehreyyet:

ḏōm aḳannawn / hān nūka ‘that is the young [camel calf], when it m. comes [= is born]’ M.N.Rabkūt

wat hān nūka man hōfal ḏa-ḥāmah / yiḥankan bih ‘when it m. comes out of its mother’s stomach, they m. give it its first taste of milk’ M.N.Rabkūt


387

Conditional hām may convey the sense of future ‘when’, and is commutable with hīs or wat:

ḥabraytī xasēh mkandēt lākan [hām āḳarūt / wḳayta ṭwaylat] ‘my daughter is as small as a thumb, but when she gets older she’ll be tall’ M.NS

hām śinkə tah bār ḏa-nathī / arayd bih ‘when I see it m. has already expired, I throw it away’ M.NS

9.2.1.6 man hīs

As for man hīs–PRONOUN above (9.1.1.3), man hīs indicates the point in time from which the proposition in the main clause obtains:

män hīs fiṭnäk wa-l-bōh / bärh śaxṭ ḏōmäh ‘for as long as I can remember [i.e. since I first began to remember] to now, there have been those matches’ Sima10:3

bār šay ʔōśar wa-ṭayt yōm / man hīs nakak ‘it is nineteen days since I came’ M.NS

man hīs nakak / ād al-aśaynham ār ṣarōmah [lit. since I came I don’t see them m. except now] ‘this is the first time I have seen them m., since I came’ M.NS

at-tā (tā) man hīs indicates the point in time at which the proposition in the main clause ceases to obtain:

ḏǟ mäskǟnän män hīs nḥah bä-śḥayr w-ḏōmäh fäślän, / at-tǟ män hīs ḳfōdän raḥbēt būmäh ‘that was our living quarters from when we were in the mountains, and that m. was our work until we came down to the village here’ Sima72:22

9.2.2 Clauses of place

Clauses of place are generally introduced by man hāl in both dialects, hān in Mehreyyet, man tāl ~ m-tāl in Mahriyōt.33 Clauses of place may occur to the right or, less commonly, to the left of the main clause.

rbōṭ ḏakm darhīs ba-ḥḥān / m-tāl at-tarʕāyan lhaytan lyakmah ‘he tethered that kid by a thing where those cattle were grazing’ Mo.N.01.34

wi-ytäyw mäns / män tǟl ḥād ydāʕ lǟ ‘and he eats it f. [in a place] no one knows [about]’ Sima12:7

hǟs hēm ruddäm l-hǟl arźahäm / män hǟl zmōläm ‘when they m. returned to their land, from where they had moved’ Sima8:11

33 In Sima (2009), there are 16 instances of män tǟl and 9 instances of män hǟl in the Jōdab texts,

12 instances of män tǟl and no instances of män hǟl in the Rēhan texts.

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man hāl śxawalūl / śxawwal ḥlakmah ‘Where it m. sits, stay m.s. there!’ M.N.04.16

attā hīs34 kūsa farsēt yakēb barkih / man hāl ḥād yaśaynah lā ‘until he found the chance to get into it m. from where no one would see him’ M.N.03.03

syawr ḥābū man ḥlakmah […] tā wiṣlan hāl amkōn / man hāl śīnak tēs ‘the people went from there, until we reached the place where I had seen it f.’ M.N.Rabkūt05.05

Clauses of place may function as object clauses (5.1.7) as well as adverbial clauses.

tafṭōn / man hāl wḳōt aśyaftī ‘Do you m.s. remember where my wedding took place?’ M.NS

śīnaš / man hāl wḳōt adāmīt ‘Did you f.s. see where the accident happened?’ M.NS

As for other adverbial clauses, the clause of place may interrupt the main clause:

aḳanyawn [man hāl hēm] yikawn ār ḏa-yintawḥan ‘wherever they m. are, children will always fight’ M.NS

9.2.3 Clauses of degree and quantity

Clauses of degree and quantity are introduced by la-hīs in both dialects, or la-hān in Mehreyyet. They are not always clearly distinguishable from clauses of manner and comparison which are similarly introduced by la-hīs, and the distinction may rely on the identity of the verb in the subordinate clause and the wider context. Although they may occur to the left of the main clause, clauses of degree and quantity tend to occur to the right:

ḏēh ḏ-šēh wa-xtōm ynōkaʕ b-lē aw lēʔi ṯrīt aw ḥaybīt aw ḥaybīti ṯrīt – / l-hīs ḳdōr ‘he who has [money] and has a funeral brings a cow or two cows or a camel or two camels – as much as he can [afford]’ Sima68:4

ḥād yaxxaṣōb lōb ǟr b-kuryät w-ḥād b-kuryiti ṯrīt w-ḥād b-śählīṯ kwōri w-ḥād b-Aʕišrīn kuryäh – ḥasabA / l-hīs ʕād ḥābū ḳdōräm ‘one would send one load of dates, another two, another three, and another twenty – as much as the people could [afford]’ Sima70:53

wa-hōh masādītēk35 / la-hān ḳdark ‘I will help you m.s. as much as I can’ M.N

Clauses of degree may function as NPs. In the following examples, l-hīs hēt tḥōm manh functions as the object of the verbs tḳōläb and śōṭ / tē respectively:

34 Better: attā hām kūsa farsēt, according to MA. 35 < *masādīta tēk.


389

wa-tḳōläb [l-hīs hēt tḥōm mänh] bäk ḥmūh wa-txalṭah bä-ḳlīfōt ‘and put in as much as you m.s. want of it m. into the water and mix it with a slice of bark used as a stirrer’ Sima7:13

wa-l-hīs tḥōm manh / śōṭ AyaʕnīA tē ‘and whatever you m.s. want of it m., take and eat’ Mo.N.01.07

In the following example, l-hīs akhōl bēh aw ḏa-ġräbk tōh functions as the annex of the preposition bä-:

kälṯōn hūk bä-/l-hīs akhōl bēh aw ḏa-ġräbk tōh ‘I will tell you m.s. as much as I can or as much as I know’ Sima17:7

9.2.4 Clauses of manner and comparison

Clauses of manner are typically introduced by la-hīs in both dialect groups. They may occur to the left or the right of the main clause, or occur independently:

l-hīs Hʕmork hōkH ‘as I told you m.s.’ Sima93:27

w-hōh śäḳḳōn tīs [wa-l-hīs HyxōmH yaʕmōl, / yaʕmōl] ‘I will cut it f. and he can do as he wants [to do]’ Sima87:18

nḥah [l-hīs ġrōbän] [wa-l-hīs śīnän] axah ḥābū yxadmäm hnǟn śäyrax ǟr wṭōmäh ‘we, as far as we know and as far as we can see, people have only ever caught rock lobsters in this way’ Sima6:18

amark hīs [l-hīs śīnaš ḥātī / hō ġayg ḏa-l-aġōrab aḥād lā] ‘I said to her, ‘As you f.s. can see [from] my state, I am a man who doesn’t know anyone’’ M.N

l-hīs tḥōm ‘as you m.s. wish’ M.NS

Clauses of manner often function parenthetically, particularly where verbs of utterance are involved. In the Jōdab texts, eight instances of l-hīs ʕmark and two of wa-l-hīs ʕmark function parenthetically:

wa-mġōrän – l-hīs ʕmärk ḥāwēlän – yaxxalōṭ bärkēh ḏäkm xōzär ‘and then – as I said earlier – he mixes those pieces of fresh butter in with it m.’ Sima13:22

Clauses of comparison where comparison is made between an object in the main clause and the adverbial clause are mainly introduced by axah36 in both dialects.37 axah is followed by a pronoun which itself may be suffixed to an adverbial particle such as ʕād (ād) or bār:

36 axah ~ xā is tentatively categorised by Rubin as a preposition, probably on account of its

English translational equivalence (Rubin 2010: 202). 37 Said to occur occasionally in western Yemeni Mehri, written as yeḫâ (Wagner 1953: 132).

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ṯīdīyaš ḏa-ḳōzaḥ / axah ʕādš ġajjanōt ‘your f.s. breasts are firm [i.e. standing], as if you were still a girl’ Mo.NS

ṯīdīyas ḏa-nṭalṭūl / axah bars ʕajūz ‘her breasts are hanging, as if she were already an old woman’ Mo.NS

hām aṣalyak artyī śan / axahōh śillak ṯēḳal wa-rōdak bih man ḥnōfī ‘when I pray I relax, as if I have taken a weight and thrown it m. away from myself’ M.NS

hankark ḥnōfī al-hōh bi-ġayr bayt lā / xahōh b-aḳāʔī w-abaytī ‘I feel that I’m not without a home, as if I am in my [own] country, in my [own] home’ M.NS

aśī ḏakmah ḥōwar / xahēh ġrayb [lit. that m. thing [is] black, as if it is a crow] ‘that thing is as black as a crow’ M.NS

In a clause of comparison, axah may be preceded by hīs-wōt (hīs-wat):

w-tärdūdän / hīs-wōt axah ḥaydäntän ‘and they f. return as good as new’ Sima20:15

hīs-wat yaxahēt aḏ-ṭamēk āyantka ‘it looks like you’ve m.s. closed your eyes’ M.PES.MA

hīs-wat yaxasēn ġawtan ‘they f. are like sisters’ M.PES.MA

9.2.5 Clauses of purpose and reason

Clauses of purpose provide the purpose of the proposition in the main clause. Clauses of reason provide the reason behind the proposition in the main clause. In many languages, clauses of reason and purpose are realised identically. In Mehri, certain adjunctions may introduce either a clause of purpose or of reason, but generally clauses of purpose are distinguished from clauses of reason. The clause of reason or purpose may occur to the right, or far less commonly, to the left of the main clause.

9.2.5.1 Clauses of purpose

Clauses of purpose are introduced by lajrē (ḏa-) (lagrē (ḏa-)), occasionally by at-tā (tā), with a following verb in the subjunctive, or paratactically.38

mädy laġyībäs hūk w-la-ḥbunyäk w-la-ḥbūn ḏa-ḥbunyäk tḳōʕam / at-tǟ taġrēbäm tǟn ḏä-nḥah bǟr wiḳʕan būmäh ‘I will leave it for you m.s. and your children and your children’s children, so that you m.pl. know that we belong here’ Sima78:3

38 For walā where it introduces a clause of purpose or reason with an added sense of expectation,

cf. 9.1.8.7.


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wa-mġōran ḥaybīt al-sēh ṣalḥayt lā / ta tharūḳ ‘and in addition, the camel wasn’t fat enough to be stolen’ M.N.04.05

wuzawmī drēham / lagrē tiḳā šay farsēt laktēb aktōb ‘they m. gave me money so that I have the opportunity to write the book’ M.NS

l-ād takfūf lā tšlaṭfan tah / lagrē thibdah ‘she didn’t stop being nice to him in order to deceive him’ M.N

lajrē both in purpose and reason clauses is often split from the subjunctive verb by the subject (cf. 6.7.3.3):

wa-mġōrän läjrē ḏ-[ḥābū axah l-ʕād ḥād] yaʕmǟr ‘and then, so that no one says’ Sima11:26

läjrē ḏ-[ḥābū mġōh] yaʕjībäm yäḳfīdäm käll ‘because people then all wanted to go down’ Sima56:104

In the case of sentences introduced by the modal adjuncts hīs taww or taww-PRONOUN ‘should’ (cf. 2.8.5.2), the purpose clause occurs to the right of the main clause in all examples from the database:

hīs taww fōna waśxawwal39 bi-ʕamān warxī ṯrōh / lagrē lātalōm taww ‘I should have stayed in Oman for two months in order to learn properly’ M.N.Ndēt

hīs taww wāśīś40 min affēgar / lagrē larōtab aḳarmaśya ‘I should get up at dawn in order to pack my things’ M.N.Ndēt AamtiḥānātA ḳarbam [tawwak / ād trōgaʕ] bassak man amśxawalīl ‘the exams are [coming up] soon, you m.s. should study; you’ve done enough sitting around’ M.NS

tawwan / ād naśxawwal īmōh ‘we should stay [i.e. not go] today’ M.NS

tawwak īmōh / tāmōl hīn fśē ‘you m.s. should make lunch for us today’ M.NS

9.2.5.2 Clauses of reason

Clauses of reason may be introduced by lajrē (ḏa-) (lagrē (ḏa-)), as in:

wa-mġōh tkūn rēhi, / läjrē ḏ-naʕmuls ǟr xfift ‘and then it f. is cool, because we just make it light’ Sima77:9

39 Vocalisation of /l/ of 1s subjunctive in Ndēt and Mazyūnah. Mehreyyet of Nagd and mountains

= laśxawwal (cf. 1.3.1.1), but cp. lātalōm. 40 Vocalisation of /l/ of 1s subjunctive in Ndēt and Mazyūnah. Mehreyyet of Nagd and mountains

= lāśīś (cf. 1.3.1.1), but cp. larōtab.

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More commonly, however, clauses of reason are introduced by hīs, by la-hāśan, by the prepositional compound man ḏār, by the Arabic loan l-inna ~ l-anna, or paratactically.

yḥaym yidām [hīs yḥaym yizīm tah AgawāzA lā / yiḥaym yṯabtam ḏa-hēh aġayg man aḳāʔ bawmah] ‘They m. wanted to know as they were about to give him a passport, didn’t they? They wanted to make sure that he was the man from the country here.’ M.N.03.25

hōh īmōh matwiyak lā landah bi-ḥārawn / la-hāśan ḥawzī ṭayt bīs agarb ‘today, I won’t be able to take the goats to pasture, because one of my goats has mange’ M.NS

axayr hūk tabdē lā / la-hāśan wat bōdak šūk ḥagēt lā ‘it’s better for you m.s. not to lie, because if you lie you won’t get anything from it’ M.NS

In Mahriyōt in particular, clauses of reason are often introduced by the Arabic loan l-inna: 41

nḳōdär lǟ naxrēj, / l-innä ṭawr {ḏäkmäh} śē fäḳyūtän lǟ ‘we couldn’t go out, because at that time there weren’t any blankets/covers’ Sima7:13

wḳōn aḳaṣab w-aḳayśar bark abayt / l-ann aḳaṣab aḳayśar yitāyw aḳaṣab lā ‘the straw and the leopard can be in the house, because straw, leopards don’t eat straw’ M.N

tiʕīšan lā hnīn abḳār taḳadran lā tiskīnan hnīn / l-ann abḳār tāgōban bi-ḳawt mēkan ‘they f. can’t live with us, cows can’t live with us, because cows like lots of food’ M.N.Ndēt

ḏa-hraxṣah wkōh ḏa-hraxṣah / l-anna ḥāgūr yišamanha lā ‘Why did he make him cheap? He made him cheap because he didn’t trust the slave.’ M.N.01.09

l-inna usually takes a following noun or pronoun suffix, but may be followed by a verb where the verb functions parenthetically:

w-taʕmōl ḥnäfs ḥbūn / l-innä [ʕmōräm] tnōkaʕ ba-ḥbūn lǟ ‘she makes her own children, because [they m. say] she can’t have children’ Sima80:19

Clauses of reason may also be introduced by the prepositional compound man ḏār in Mehreyyet:

wkōh hēt ūtaġš aġaygaš ‘Why did you f.s. kill your husband?’ man ḏār faślah ḳōmaḥ ‘Because his deed was bad.’ M.N

After verbs and phrases expressing joy, gratitude, or sadness, including fīraḥ ‘to be glad’, matḥan ‘to be sad, upset’, and phrases such as tašhōl slōmat ‘You m.s.

41 66 tokens of l-innä are attested in the Jōdab texts, 19 in the Rēhan texts.


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deserve safe passage!’, tašhōl agmēlat ‘Congratulations!’, aḥtamīdan arḥamōn ‘I thank God’, maḥmīd arḥamōn ‘Praised be God!’,42 clauses providing the reason for the speaker’s attitude are typically introduced by hīs or the clitic ḏa-. Clauses may also be asyndetically coordinated in such cases (cf. 7.4.7).

³rذ�~ھ ا�¹~�و� vr�nذ �s�l� { wa-tašhīl slōmat / ḏa-ḥibša ḏa-barham axayr ‘and you f.s. deserve safe passage that your f.s. parents are better’ M.txt

~�Ã� Âl·ن ذو�pnن ار �p�nا aḥtamīdan arḥamōn / ḏa-wuṣlaš bi-xayr ‘I thank God that you f.s. have arrived safely’ M.txt

Âl·و Èن ھ�pnن ار �p�nا aḥtamīdan arḥamōn / hīs wuṣlaš ‘I thank God that you f.s. have arrived’ M.txt

9.2.5.3 Paratactic linkage of clauses of purpose

Clauses of purpose are often introduced paratactically, particularly after verbs of movement where paratactic linkage is mandatory. The verb in the adverbial clause is in the subjunctive.

wa-nḥōm ǟr näjhōm / naġlēḳ män śī xadmǟt mkōn ‘we want to go in order to look for work somewhere’ Sima8:17

hōh sīrōna / laġlēḳ man ḥaybaytī ‘I m. am going to look for my camel mare’ M.N.04.10

śī gīwēʔ lā / tāmēr hwūt bark agīwēʔ ‘there weren’t any holes so that you m.s. could say she’d fallen into the holes’ M.N.04.03

slōb / mahdī yinkāʔak ‘wait m.s. for Mahdi to come to you’ M.NS

u¸��n Áو�~� ��l· vzوردو wa-riddōna ṣlōlat / larōtab ḥanōfī ‘and I’m going back to Salalah to get myself ready’ M.txt.MA

Ç Â� ³� £�Ý¸ faṭnak / lhaddalš lā ‘I didn’t remember to remind you f.s.’ M.txt

42 Such phrases occur very infrequently in narrative texts. They are, however, common in natural

speech and in text messages, which reflect natural speech.

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9.2.6 Clauses of negative purpose

Clauses of negative purpose may supplement a declarative or imperative clause. They are headed by the preposition man, optionally followed by ʕād (ād), as in man ʕād in Mahriyōt, man ād ~ m-ād43 in Mehreyyet, with a following verbal clause annex and the verb in the subjunctive:44

man–SUBJ

taḳfēdī lā / man taḳbasš rēśīt ‘Don’t f.s. get out, so the snake doesn’t bite you f.s.!’ M.NS

ḥadēdī ʔarṣāt / man tkēban līn ḥārawn ‘Put up f.s. the barrier to the hut, so the goats don’t come in to us!’ M.NS

ḥawzī ṭayt bīs agarb wa-ḏ-hazāk tīs waḥśīs / man thēhil ḥārawn ‘one of my goats has mange and I kept it on its own, so that it doesn’t infect the [other] goats’ M.NS

man ʕād (man ād ~ m-ād)

As in the first two examples below, the predicand may intervene between man ʕād (man ād ~ m-ād) and the verb:

wi-yxatmäm lēh / män ʕād ḥād śī axah yälḥaḳmäh nūmōl w-lī järśīyōn ‘and they m. close it m. [well], so that small and large ants do not reach it’45 Sima12:36

w-käll ḥād ykūn axah näbh lä-slēbäh, / män ʕād axah lyēk yäsbǟḳam lä-slēbähäm ‘and everyone kept watch over his weapons, so that the others didn’t get to their m. weapons first’ Sima33:46

w-mänhǟm yjärḥamäs fīsāʕ, / män ʕād tänḥā bīs ‘and some take it out quickly, so that it f. [i.e. the fire] doesn’t burn it f.’ Sima57:102

šharbak laġtayr šēh / m-ād yaxtalūf ‘I am worried about talking to him in case [lest] he disagrees’ M.NS

šharbak tah / m-ād yišēḏar ‘I am worried about him in case he makes excuses’ M.NS

The clause of negative purpose may stand independently (cf. 4.2), often preceded by a-mɛd-PRONOUN [DEF-mind-PRONOUN], to convey the sense of ‘pay attention that you don’t do X’:

43 Transcribed by Johnstone in Stroomer (1999) and elsewhere as m-ād or m-ʔād (Rubin 2010:

271–271). Derived from *man ʕād. 44 men + subjunctive noted for ‘daß nicht’ clauses in western Yemeni Mehri (Bittner 1914: 36;

Wagner 1953: 130–131). 45 Translation corrected from Sima (2009).


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(amɛdak) man tigār ‘Mind you m.s. don’t fall!’ M.PES

(amɛdak) man tšaġfaḳ ‘Mind you m.s. don’t make a loss!’ M.PES

9.2.7 Clauses of concession

Concessive clauses are introduced in both dialects by tawlū ~ tālū compounded from tā ‘up to’ (wa- ‘and’) and the counterfactual conditional adjunction lū. They convey that the proposition in the main clause occurred or may occur in spite of the proposition in the adverbial clause. The concessive clause may occur to the right, or, less commonly, to the left of the main clause. Examples include:

āmūr gihmōna laġlēḳ mans / tawlū amūt ‘he said, ‘I’m going to look for her, even if I die’’ M.N.04.10

wōḏam lūk tanśūz śahay ḏōmah / tawlū al-tḥōm ‘you m.s. have to drink that tea, even if you don’t want to’ M.NS

w-aśāhar [tawlū aśāhar ḳṣayr / yiśrūr lā] ‘and the back part, even if the back part is short it doesn’t matter’ M.N.Šlaym01.04

īmōh sīrawtī hō w-hēt bark ḥawōdī / tawlū ḥārīt kamlat lā ‘today you f.s. and I f. will go to the valley, even if the moon is not full’ M.PES.Ndēt

nḳawdar nūṣōl / tawlū hiddam līn ḥōram ‘we’ll be able to arrive, even if they m. have blocked the road off from us’ M.PES.MA

The concessive clause may be elliptical, particularly in rhymes as in the first example below. Ellipsis is shown by 0 and the translation of the supposed elided element provided in the gloss in square brackets:

[aḥōm šūk / tālū 0 bi-ġarbēt / tālū 0 bi-ġayr mōl wa-šūk sarbēt] ‘I long to be with you m.s., even if we are in a distant land, even if we have with no livestock and you have a swarm of children’ M.R

wa-nḳawdar anśnē ṭādīdāyan / tawlū 0 bark āmḳ ḏa-ḥābū ‘and we will be able to see each other, even [if we are] in the midst of [other] people’ M.N.04.23

9.2.8 Clauses of condition and conditional sentences

Conditional sentences contain two clauses – the protasis or the conditional clause, and the apodasis or the main clause. Conditional clauses are of two main types: factual or real conditionals where the hypothetical condition may attain and has not yet been verified; and counterfactual or irreal conditionals where the conditional clause expresses a condition that is known to be false or highly unlikely. In Mehri, the syntax of counterfactual conditional sentences differs from that of factual conditional sentences.

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9.2.8.1 Factual conditions

Factual conditional clauses may be introduced by a specific conditional adjunction – hān or hīn in Mahriyōt, hām in Mehreyyet – by a time adjunction such as wat, hīs, or paratactically. There are also occasional tokens of factual conditional clauses introduced by lū. The protasis is either a verbal clause with the verb in the perfect, in the indicative preceded by ḏa-,46 and occasionally a future participle, or a nominal or prepositional clause. The apodosis may be either non-verbal or verbal. In a verbal apodasis, the verb will be either the future participle or in the indicative:

9.2.8.1.1 Verbal protasis, future participle apodasis

In reference to an event or state that may result from a future condition, the apodosis generally takes a future participle.

hīn hēt at-thaʕrōs b-ġajnōt ḏīmäh, hēt män ḳbīlät, w-ġajnōt ḏīmäh män ḳbīlät, / nḥah mhäfḳāyä tōk ḥabritn lǟ ‘if you m.s. [want to] marry this girl, [when] you are from [one] tribe and this girl is from [another] tribe, we won’t marry you to our daughter’ Sima74:11

hām śīnam tēk / ḥabyēsa tēk ‘if they m. see you m.s., they will arrest you’ M.N.MA

hām ahandak wa-šūkafk ṣarōmah / mšukfēta lā bi-ḥallay ‘if I’m tired and go to sleep now, I f. won’t sleep at night’ M.NS

In reference to a future condition, the protasis may take a future participle:

hām al-hēt sīrōna lā / hōh sīrīta b-ḥanōfī adakkōn ‘if you m.s. won’t go, I will go to the shop myself’ M.PES

hām hēt maśxawwalēta / hōh nkayta ‘if you f.s. are going to stay, I’ll come’ M.NS

9.2.8.1.2 Verbal protasis, imperfect apodasis

The verb in the apodosis is in the indicative most commonly where an event or state may result from a regular or habitual condition:

w-hǟn bǟr źīyätk – w-źīyūt mänk ṣayd – / attäbʕak ‘and when it f. smells you m.s. – when the fish smells you – it will follow you’ Sima2:37

nṣarōmäh ʕAskäri hēt [hǟn lbädk mīśäṭ w-sēh zbänyōt […] / taxšūš aw taxšūš lǟ] ‘Now Askari, you m.s., if you chop a mīśäṭ tree when it f. is an old [tree], will it rot or not?’ Sima2:10

hǟn jätfiyōt sänbūḳ, / tḳōdar līs waḥśūk lǟ täjfäys ‘if the boat capsizes, you m.s. won’t be able to refloat it f. on your own’ Sima46:14

46 Indicative without the continuous aspect prefix ḏa- is rejected by MA (cp. Rubin 2010: 280).


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hām tḥōm tahmā lā / (t)šṣanyan ‘if she doesn’t want to hear, she pretends to be deaf’ M.NS

hām at-taġawlaḳ47 ār la-hāl amōl ḏa-ḥābū / txawlas manh ‘if you m.s. are just looking at other people’s livestock, you’ll lose out [i.e. they are not yours]’ M.PES.MA

amnādam lih ṯroh yikēbah la-ḥallah [hām amaywit awxarah / ād aʔḳar yiśġalah] ‘man has two [choices], either he enters it m. at his [appointed] time, [or] if death comes to him late, old age will occupy him’ M.R

hām śīnī tēṯ ḏa-haḳbalūt / yʔōmar ḏīmah sēh ḥāmay ‘if he sees a woman approach, he says that is her, my mother’ M.R

Where the verb in the protasis or the apodasis is yḥōm ‘to want’ or its Mahriyōt variant under Hobyōt influence, xōm, the verb is invariably in the indicative:

Ayaḷḷah, sǟʕah xamsahA, / hǟm tḥīm tsēr ‘Come on, it’s five o’clock if you m.pl. want to go!’ Sima61:70

wa-hōh [hām hēt ḏa-matwiyaš / aḥamš šay] ‘and I, if you f.s. can, I would like you with me’ M.NS

hām ḏa-nkōtab ṣarōmah / nḥōm aḥād yirbāšan lā ‘if we write now, we don’t want anyone to disturb us’ M.PES.MA

hām ḳaśyēya tay bi-ḥaybaytī lā / aḥōm ladāʔ ‘if you/they m. are going to compensate me for my camel, I want to know’ M.PES.MA

Where the conditional sentence is tied in with an imperative, cohortative or prohibitive, the verb in the apodasis will be an imperative or subjunctive:

Subjunctive

hām tḥōm śī / trūwī lā ‘If you m.s. want something, don’t hesitate!’ M.N

hām wīḳa śī / yaġtayram ka-ʔādam ‘if anything happens, they m. should talk to Adam’ M.NS

Imperative

hām ṣaṭṭaš / hafsiḥ ‘If you f.s. feel pain, give up/stop!’ M.NS

hēt sīrī šēh / hām tḥaym ‘You f.s. go with him, if you want!’ M.N

Either the protasis or the apodasis may be a non-verbal clause.

47 < *ḏa-taġawlaḳ.

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9.2.8.1.3 Verbal protasis, non-verbal apodasis

Frequently a nominal or locational clause in the apodasis is realised with a copula verb (cf. 6.4.1); however, the apodasis in both dialects may be non-verbal:

wat bōdak / šūk ār xawsēt ‘if you m.s. lie, you’ll lose out’ M.PES.MA

The protasis may be a nominal or locational clause with a verbal apodasis.

9.2.8.1.4 Non-verbal protasis, future participle apodasis

wa-hēt hām amaḥnatk ār AagawāzA wa-lyōmah / siddōn tīsan hōh ‘and if your m.s. problem is only the passport and those [things], I’ll deal with them f.’ M.N.03.24

hām l-ād šīn batrūl lā / ardyēda mḥamlūtan la-hbaryan ‘if we no longer have petrol, we’ll go back to loading up our camels’ M.NS.MA

9.2.8.1.5 Non-verbal protasis, imperfect apodasis

hīn sēh […] ʕayd ḥnōb lǟ / ǟr yäḳaśʕam bäss ‘when they are not fat sardines, they m. just dry [them]’ Sima51:16

lǟkän lū bēh jrāḥ, / yäźrurh ṣamm ḏ-rēśīt hēh ǟr b-śärr ‘but if he has open wounds, the poison of the snake will harm him badly’ Sima1:45

hām šūk ḥayrīt / ykūn ktīw lā [lit. if with you m.s. the moon, it will not be dark] ‘if there’s a moon, it won’t be dark’ M.NS

hām šūk ībīt / tṭarḥas lā bi-ġayr maḥṯaym ‘if you m.s. have a camel, you won’t leave it f. without a halter’ M.PES.MA

9.2.8.1.6 Non-verbal protasis, non-verbal apodasis

hām ālay bār šēh sīyaryat wa-saʕīd šēh sīyaryath / l-ād līs ḥōgat lā ‘if Ali has a car and Saeed has his car, there’s no need for it f. anymore’ M.NS

9.2.8.1.7 Word order

The subject or a topicalised object may precede the verb in the protasis (cf. 6.7.3.3). This is invariably the case where the predicand is a personal or indefinite pronoun, or the name of God:

hǟm [sēh] ḳbīṣōt ḥarmǟt, / yärʕayb līs ġyūj ‘if she has been bitten, a woman, men carry out raʕbūt on her’ Sima1:49

hīn [ṭād] yxōm yaġtīr bīs mǟkän, / yḳāʕ ṭwīlät ʕaynät ‘and if someone wants to talk about it f. a lot, it can be a bit long’ Sima26:1

hǟn [ḥābū] ḳuṭʕam ṣalḥ ‘if people end the period of ṣalḥ’ Sima48:29


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hǟn [ḥīdäk] waḳʕōt bräk xuhh, / yäḳṣuṣs ‘if your m.s. hand lands in its m. mouth, it will bite it f. off’ Sima2:42

hām [abɛlī] yḥōm ‘if God wishes’ M.NS

A personal pronoun may be suffixed to bār to assert that the state indicated in the predicate continues to obtain (cf. 2.8.3.1), or, when followed by a future participle or verb in the subjunctive, where the predicand is on the verge of doing something (cf. 2.8.3.1, 9.1.5.1.2):

hām [barī] ḏa-ṯbatk amahrayyat / mfakrēta lātalōm baʔli śḥayr ‘when I have a good grasp of Mehri, I’ll think about learning Śḥerɛt’ M.NS

hām [barī] ḏa-khāk b-amahrayyat axayr man ūṭōmah / ādī katbīta mēkan ‘when/if I know Mehri better than this, I’ll write more’ M.PES.MA

hām [barš] amlīta ‘if you f.s. are going to do [it]’ M.NS

9.2.8.2 Counterfactual conditions

Counterfactual conditional clauses are usually introduced by (w)lū ~ (w)lī in Mahriyōt and l ū in Mehreyyet. The verb in the protasis is almost invariably in the perfect. The verb in the apodosis is in the conditional mood in Mehreyyet after lū; in Mahriyōt, the frozen form yḳāʕan which occurs in the apodosis of counterfactual conditional clauses appears to be a remnant of the conditional mood.

wlū widʕak būk ġabrōna / yḳāʕan ḏa-ġbark šūk ḏikm śyaft ‘if I had known you m.s. were going, I would have gone to that wedding with you’ Mo.NS

hēt wlī drask lā / yḳāʕan hēt wṭōmah lā ‘if you m.s. hadn’t studied, you wouldn’t have turned out like that’ Mo.NS

lū wadaš / taḳāʔan faxra lā ‘if you f.s. knew, you m.pl. wouldn’t be together’ M.N

w-lū amnādam yiwōda l-hān wḳōna lih / taksāyan tah l-ād yitāyw wa-l-ād yiśḥōk ‘if man knew what was coming to him, you m.s. would find him no longer eating and no longer laughing’ M.R

Counterfactual conditional clauses may occasionally be introduced by a conditional particle other than lū, in which case the verb in the apodasis is not in the conditional mood:

mašgēlas tēš / hām wīda bayš ‘he would have told you f.s. off, if he had known about you’ M.NS

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9.2.8.3 Paratactic conditional clauses

Conditional clauses may be introduced paratactically. This appears to be mandatory in the case of parallelism, where two or more parallel conditional clauses are involved, and is common in the case of verbs of volition and ability. Examples include:

Parallel conditional clauses

[fīḳǟś ʕaynäh, / tfōḳaś ʕaynäh], [lībēd fäṭx, / tlōbäd fäṭx], [līṭǟġ, / tlōṭaġ bēh] ‘if he has had his eye shattered, you m.s. shatter his eye; if he has been wounded on the head, you wound him; if he is killed, you kill him’ Sima48:38

šēh xaṣṣōr / w-šēh śī xaṣṣōr lǟ ‘if he has a relish, or if he does not have a relish’ Sima57:12

[kisš āṭar / taww] wa-[l-kisš āṭar lā / šukalāṭa] ‘if you f.s. find perfume, [that’s] okay; if you don’t find perfume, [then give] chocolate’ M.NS

[kiskam ḥaybīt tġāḳam mans / haḳṣamam] wa-[l-kiskam tēs lā / ardēdam] ‘if you m.pl. find the camel you are looking for, rest in the hot part of the day, and if you don’t find her, come back’ M.PES.MA

Verbs of volition or ability

[tḥōm ttäyyä, / hōh bäry būm;] [tähjǟm lī, / hōh bäry hnūk] ‘if you m.s. want to eat me, I’m here; if you attack me, I’m here with you’ Sima41:15

tiḳaydar tkays AalkanzA lā / klēṯī haynī ‘if you f.s. can’t find the treasure, let me know’’ M.N

��yن ا�¹~ ��s ¹ ك~�s vp³� �¦و� ��·~¸ u�À ksو~· �¦� Â�-Ab �~اarāyišA [tḥaym ṣarōmah / šay farsēt] wa-[tḥaym gihma m-bark xadamēt / yikūn axayr] ‘as you f.s. like: if you want [to call] now, I’ve got the chance, [but] if you want [to call] tomorrow from work, it will be better’ M.txt

Where a positive conditional clause is conjoined to its negative counterpart, the negative conditional clause may elliptical. Thus, nakaš aw lā hēt arībātan [lit. you f.s. come or not you are our friend] ‘whether you come or not you are our friend’ is elliptical for [nakaš / hēt arībātan] wa-[nakaš lā / hēt arībātan] ‘if you come you are our friend, and if you don’t come you are our friend’.

9.2.9 Clauses of universal condition-concession

Clauses of universal condition-concession introduce a free choice from any of a number of possibilities, relating to time (whenever), place (wherever), identity (whatever, whoever). They are typically introduced by interrogatives and by adjunctions otherwise used to indicate place. In some cases, the interrogative


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follows the preposition man; the interrogative adverb mayt may take following ḏa-. Clauses of universal condition-concession are rare in narratives: of the total of eight instances of mäyt(än) in the Sima (2009) texts, for example, only one occurs in a universal condition-concession clause.

9.2.9.1 Time

Time-related clauses of universal condition-concession may be introduced by mayt (ḏa-), man hāl, which usually introduces a clause of place, or hān:

mayt yḥōm yingardaś / yingardūś ‘whenever he wants to lie down, he lies down’ M.NS.Rabkūt

wa-mayt ḏa-šayš waḳt wa-nakaš / yā ḥayya bayš ‘And whenever you f.s. have time and come, welcome!’ M.NS

sīrōna / man hāl lḥōm ‘I will go whenever I want’ M.NS

aḥamš [hān ādš ḥlakmah] txāsī aktabtiš ‘and I want you f.s., as long as you are there, to finish your writing’ M.NS.MA

9.2.9.2 Place

Place-related clauses of universal condition-concession may be introduced by man tāl ~ m-tāl in Mahriyōt, man hāl in either dialect or hān in Mehreyyet:

män tǟl aśśunyäh / ttabʕah ‘wherever it f. sees him, it f. follows him’ Sima80:12

ʕamōr [ḥwīyan hīnī man ḥaṭṭōtī / man hāl tḳāʕ] ‘he said, ‘Look for my bean wherever it is!’’ Mo.N.01.22

aḳanyawn [man hāl hēm / yikawn ār ḏ-intawḥan] ‘wherever they m. are, children will just fight’ M.NS

wa-man hāl nūkā / yiḳabḥam tah ḥābū ‘wherever he went, people called him names’ M.N

min hāl wuṣlam / yišxabīr ‘wherever they m. arrived, they asked’ M.N.01.28

hān ġaśū bih / bḳawś srih wa-lḥaḳah ‘wherever he went, the man ran after him and caught him’ M.N

9.2.9.3 Identity

hān and la-hān may also introduce clauses of universal condition-concession relating to object identity. Universal condition-concession clauses relating to identity differ from those relating to time and place in that they function as NPs – either as the topic in a topicalised clause, as in the first example below, as the predicand, as verbal object or prepositional annex:

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l-hǟn bēh män śäyrax ḳannättän w-śīyaxtän, / yaxxarijsän ‘whatever he has in the way of small or large rock lobsters, he takes them f. out’ Sima6:15

aḥōm lhaḥwalsan / hān taġtariyan tah ‘I want to understand them f., whatever they talk about’ M.NS

{��s Âھ�� os v|�z oھ hān nūka min hnayš / maḳbīl ‘whatever comes from you f.s. is acceptable’ M.txt

mōn48 and, more commonly, kall introduce clauses of universal condition-concession relating to human identity:

mōn yṣōl fīn ġāh, / yäślīl b-ṣawt ḏīmäh ‘whoever arrives before his brother, should sing this song’ Sima65:51

käll ḏ-šīs dējär, / tsōbäṭ dējär ‘anyone f. who has beans, threshes beans’ Sima63:36

yäšwaʕdäm baʕl baʕyōr, / käll ḏi-yxōm yäḳfäd ʕayś ‘they m. make an appointment with the camel herders, anyone who wants to bring down millet’ Sima56:176

kall ḏa-nūka / yā ḥayya bih ‘whoever comes is welcome’ M.PES.MA

9.2.10 Clauses of circumstance

Clauses of circumstance describe the circumstances under which the main clause occurs and answer the question ‘how?’ or ‘under what circumstances?’ (Bernards 2007: 7). The event or state indicated in the clause of circumstance either coincides with, or precedes, the timing of that in the main clause. Where it precedes the timing of the event or state in the main clause, the effects continue to affect the event or state mentioned in the main clause. As in Arabic, verb-initial clauses of circumstance, including those introduced by a verbal particle such as bār or ḏa-, are introduced paratactically; in all other cases, clauses of circumstance are introduced hypotactically by wa-. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish a hypotactically linked clause of circumstance, where the clause is subordinate, from a conjoined clause, where the clause is coordinate. In some cases, intonation may distinguish a coordinate complex from a main clause–circumstantial clause utterance.

9.2.10.1 Circumstantial event or state is simultaneous with main clause

Where the event or state in the circumstantial clause is simultaneous with that in the main clause, the clause may be nominal, locational or verbal. Examples of hypotactically linked circumstantial clauses include:

48 This type of clause occurs very rarely in the data: only one token of mōn in a universal

condition-concession clause in the Jōdab texts and none in the Rēhan texts.


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jhǟm ḥaybi män būmäh, / w-hōh ḳannūn tǟl ḥāmutyä ‘my father went from here, while I, young, [stayed] with my mothers’ Sima78:13

amarūt hībōh bayš tā thaḥmī / wa-hēt tēṯ wa-hōh tēṯ ‘she said, ‘How can you f.s. protect me, when you are a woman and I am a woman?’’ M.N

šāmanīs / wa-l-ād yiṣṣ mins lā ‘he trusted her, no longer being afraid of her’ M.N

A hypotactically linked circumstantial clause generally occurs to the right of the main clause, as in the above examples, but occasionally occurs to the left, as below:

w-ʕādi ḳannūn, / afṭanh ynōkaʕ ‘when I was young, I remember it m. used to come’ Sima2:43

w-ādī ḳannawn / āmōl wṭōmah man aṣṭayṭ ‘when I was young, I used to do that from the pain’ M.NS

wa-l-ād habṭāʔan lā bi-šnēt / fizzūt wdīn ḥyōm ‘before we had been asleep for long, the sun rose on us’ M.N

In both dialects, adverbs, adverbials and adverbial clauses may take a following hypotactically linked pronoun-initial circumstantial clause. I analyse this as a circumstantial clause from the fact that the event or state is simultaneous with, or proceeds from, the time reference of the adverb, and from the syntactic structure of the clause: wa-PRONOUN–PREDICATE[IND ~ PP ~ AP]:

sōbar sōbar / wa-hīt at-takītab ‘You f.s. are always writing!’ Mo.NS

min k-aśētū / wa-hōh ḏ-ātalīman amahrayyat ‘I have been learning Mehreyyet since the winter’ M.NS

sōbar / wa-hēt bark xaṭrī ‘you s. are always on my mind’ M.NS

hīn xaymah snay / wa-nḥah ḏa-nšṣabḥan awgahīham ‘for five years, we have been seeing their m. faces as soon as we got up’ M.NS.MA

tawlū bars nōb / wa-sēh arḥaymat ‘even when she was old, she was beautiful’ M.NS

Verb-initial circumstantial clauses are linked paratactically to the main clause. Where the event or state is simultaneous with that in the main verb, the verb generally takes the continuous aspect prefix ḏa-.

nkaʕōt ḥāmǟs / ḏä-HsmorkiH hōh w-sēh ‘her mother came as we DUAL were spending the evening together, me and her’ Sima98:15

Where the subject of a paratactic circumstantial clause is co-referential with the predicand, verbal object or prepositional annex of the main clause, such clauses

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function simultaneously as subjective, objective or prepositional annex complement clauses (5.2.4).

akäys Šäddǟd / […] ḏ-yäsyūr Ḥawf ‘I found Šäddǟd, […] going to Ḥawf’ Sima61:88

wa-nḥah nukʕan / ḏ-näślūl AšʕārātA lyäkm ‘we came, singing those songs’ Sima31:23

wa-śxawalūl / ḏ-īġōlaḳ alang ḏakmah ‘and he kept looking at that ship’ M.N.03.03

ġbūran ībīt ṭayt / at-tanḥībūb ‘we came across a camel bellowing’ M.N.Rabkūt02.23

The verb of volition yḥōm or a verb of perception in the circumstantial clause is not prefixed by ḏa-:

wa-sīrūt sēh / tkōb šīs attamras ‘and she went, thinking she had her dates with her’ M.N.Rabkūt01.05

wa-šūkūf / yihōgas ḥnafh mōt ār hēh mōt lā ‘and he fell asleep, thinking he had died, but he hadn’t died’ M.N

Elsewhere, ḏa- may be optionally absent from the verb in the circumstantial clause:

nūka bawmah / yišxabūr man bāś ḥābū harbātha ‘he came here, asking about some friends of his’ M.N

wa-ḏīmah sēh karmaym lā / taghūm ‘and that f. isn’t a mountain moving’ M.N.Rabkūt05.06

The circumstantial clause generally occurs to the right of the main clause, but may, as in the example below, occur to the left:

ādsan hibɛr ḏa-brūk / xtawūlan tah ‘while the camels were still kneeling, we crept up on him’ M.N.Rabkūt02.35

Clauses introduced by ʕād (ād) indicate a state or event that is continuing at the time reference in the main clause. Clauses introduced by ʕād (ād) la- indicate a state or event that has not yet happened at the time reference of the main clause (cf. also 8.1.6.1). Thus the circumstance is that while the event in the subordinate clause has not yet taken place, the event/state indicated in the main clause occurs. The circumstantial clause is most commonly verbal, in which case the verb following la- is in the perfect; the circumstantial clause may be introduced hypotactically or paratactically and occur to the right or left of the main clause. Paratactic linkage is preferred when the circumstantial clause occurs to the left of the main clause, and hypotactic linkage when the circumstantial clause occurs to the right.


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šēh snǟti ṯrīt, / w-ʕād l-śīnän tōh lǟ ‘he was [away] for two years without us seeing him’ Sima78:18

w-ʕād l-šūk lǟ, / tʕōmär ‘when you m.s. don’t yet have [the money], you say […]’ Sima85:12

nḥah ād al-wiṣlan amandīr lā / mhaḳfadūtan tēk al-ḥayḳ wa-hēt adawnak ba-ḥnafk ‘before we reach the port, we’ll put you m.s. down on the shore and you can do what you want’ M.N.03.10

hamak tah / w-ād al-śinkə tah lā ‘I heard him before I saw him’ M.NS

nḥōm nśōfaḳ / ādan nhabṣawr ‘we want to go [before sunset], while we can still see’ M.NS

9.2.10.2 Circumstance results from event or state anterior to main clause

The anteriority of the event or state in the clause of circumstance is expressed by the verb in the perfect, commonly preceded by bār. Again, where the subject of a paratactic circumstantial clause is co-referential with the predicand, verbal object or prepositional annex of the main clause, such clauses function simultaneously as subjective, objective or prepositional annex complement clauses (5.2.4):

wat bǟr rḥāźam hēh, [nkufnämäh, / w-ḥābū ykūn bǟr ḥfōräm ḳōbär] ‘when they m. have washed him, we put him in a shroud, after the people have dug the grave’ Sima108:4

hīs wuṣlam adubay kūsam ḥaybīt / bars śamēt ‘when they m. reached Dubai, they found the camel had been sold’ M.N.01.30

nkōt man abarr [ksith / bār šūkūf] ‘she came in from outside and found he had fallen asleep’ M.N

A verb in the perfect prefixed by the continuous aspect marker ḏa- expresses entry into a state or entry into a state of being in an activity by the time of the event or state referred to in the main clause (cf. 2.5.1.5).

nukʕan / bǟr ḏ-jīʕan ‘we came already hungry’ Sima13:28

kūsam aġayg / ḏa-maddad ‘they m. found the man stretched out’ M.N

-�Äs mġōran nkayta s-saʕūdīyah / wa-hēt ḏaرن v��yz ا��د�k وھ�� ذھ�¨~شhanśarš ‘then you f.s. will go to Saudi, having become refreshed’ M.txt

ḥaybī ṭmūl ʔayantha [šūkūf / ḏa-hawḳaʔ amandawḳ anxalya ḥruhha] ‘my father closed his eyes and went to sleep, having laid the gun under his head’ M.N.01.12

nūka / ḏa-rīkab ḏār ḥayr ‘he came, mounted on a donkey’ M.N.Rabkūt

10 Oral texts

10.1 Mahriyōt texts

10.1.1 Text 01. Bā Nuwās and the bean

Male speaker, age c. 50 years at time of recording. Born in Jōdab, Ḥawf, in Yemen. Recorded in February 2008, al-Ghaydhah, Yemen. Recorded directly onto Adobe Audition 1.5 through USB microphone. Saved in WAV format.

1. ʕamōram maxṭār bā nwās / baʕś yʕamram šēh dajarīt w-nḥah nʕōmar šēh ḥaṭṭōt / ḥaṭṭōt ḏa-dējar / aw ḥaṭṭōt ḏa-ʕayś / Aallāhu aʕlamA /

2. ʕamōr syōr ba-ḏikm šēh ḏikm ḥaṭṭōt wa-syōr syōr syōr syōr l-hīs yʕamram kall snīnan /

3. ʕamōram syō:r1 at-tā ksuh ġajjūtan baʕltī ḥārawn at-tarʕāyan / wa-t-taʕmōlan2 / jalʕaym / yā ḏa-dījar / yā ḏa-ʕayś / at-tajalʕōman /

4. w-šēh ḏikm ḥaṭṭōt / tā nūkaʕ hnīsan / ḳlōb līsan ḥōl w-kalśīyan /

5. ʕamōr wkōh hēt ā bā nwās /

6. ʕamōr hōh šī ḏīmah ḥaṭṭōt / ḥamkan taxlāṭan hīnī ḏīmah ḥaṭṭōt / bak dījar ḏōmah aw ʕayś ḏōmah / aš-šīkan3 / at-tabhalnah4 aṯ-ṯār śīwōṭ /

7. ʕamōr hēt šūk ār ḥaṭṭōt ḏīm ṭīt / ṭraḥs šūk / wa-nḥah / ma5 nhabhal swē bass ḏōm dījar aw ʕayś / wa-l-hīs tḥōm manh śōṭ AyaʕnīA tē tā aśśabāʕ6 manh /

8. ʕamōr abdan / ykūn lā / ār xlāṭan hīnī ḏīmah ḥaṭṭōtī

9. ā bā nwās hībōh naxlāṭ hūk ḥaṭṭōt / wa-hēt šūk ār ḥaṭṭōt ṭīt / wa-nḥah šān ḳaḥf m-tāl hēh ġlaḳh ḏa-mīlī yā ʕāyś yā dījar /

10. škiddah škiddah škiddah at-tā / xzuh /

1 Here and elsewhere, extra non-phonemic length is indicated by a following colon. 2 < *ḏa-tarʕāyan and *ḏa-taʕmōlan. 3 < *ḏa-šīkan. 4 < *ḏa-tabhalnah. 5 < *madn. 6 < *taśbāʕ.

Text 01. Bā Nuwās and the bean

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11. ʕamōr abdan aṭʕamh lā / ḳaṭ / wa-l-ḥamh lā wa-yhūdar ḳardī lā ḏōm ḳutkan ār wa-xlaṭkan hīnī ḥnītī / ḥaṭṭōtī /

12. yā šadd yā ʕalaj yā šadd yā ʕalaj yā bā nwās wṭōmah lā /

13. ʕamōr abdan /

14. xlōṭ hēh ḳlōb hēh ḥaṭṭōt ḏikm / bak / ḥān ḏakm ḳadḥ ḏakm aw jaḥlēt ḏikm / at-thabhōlan bīs /

15. AzamānA ḥābū śī ṣfūrī lā / śī mʕawdan lā / kallah ār ṭʕōr / yaʕmīlam ār ṭʕōr / sān ḏa-ḥmūh / wa-sān ḏa-jalʕaym / wa-ḏ-fēśal kallah / wa-ḏa-śxōf / ṣḥayl ḏa-śxōf wa-ḳḥayf ḏa-maḥḥ wa-ḏa-śxōf / kallah ār man AfxārA /

16. ḥābū kall snīnan yġarbam śī lyōmah ḏa-nṣrōmah lā / yġarbam śī AmustawradA man barr lā / kall xayrāt AmawjūdahA bār śūṭan ṭawr ḏakm /

17. bass tā habhūl / hīs barh bhūl jūraḥ lēh / bak ṣāḥan / ʕamōr hēh tē /

18. ʕamōr abdan / ḥōm nṣarōmah ḥōm ār ḥaṭṭōtī /

19. ḥaṭṭutk hō / hō naġlāḳ man ḥaṭṭutk bak ḏōm hāh / ʕayś kallah wa-dījar ḏōm kallah /

20. ʕamōr aġōrab ār ḥaṭṭōtī /

21. bā nwās ʕaṭark tān ā bā nwās nḥah ḏa-jīʕan / nḥōm nafśē /

22. ʕamōr ḥwīyan hīnī man ḥaṭṭōtī man hāl tḳāʕ /

23. hīboh nġarbas / nḥah widʕan tīs hō7 /

24. ʕamōr abdan azāman tī ār ḥaṭṭōtī / atāywh lā / wa-tajrāḥan lī śī lā / ḥōm ār ḥaṭṭōtī /

25. man hō ḥābū yaġrēbam ḥaṭṭōt ḏa-bā nwās / sān w-hēh sān w-hēh sān w-hēh /

26. ʕamōr abdan / wa-ġayj yallāh / la-ḥkalēt / śaf yḥōm yaḥḥān8 yaślēl ḳaḥf / yḥōm yaślēl ḳaḥf kallah /

7 Used for sarcasm – cf. hōh widʕak ‘How am I to know!’ 8 ‘To do such-and-such’.

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27. l-ʕad ḳdōr hēh b-salkēt lā / ʕamōr hēh yallah dūnak w-ḳaḥf aw jaḥlēt wa-l-hīn barkīs / śullīs /

28. śullīs man ḥlakma:h / at-tā: nūkaʕ bīs tāl baʕltī / tāl baʕltī ḥārawn / hōh ḥāwēlan hīs ʕamark ḥārawn lākin ḥāwēlan ksūh ġajjūtan at-taʕmōlan ḥān / at-taʕmōlan / dījar aw ʕayś / tā nūkaʕ hāl baʕltī ḥārawn / ṭarḥīs ba-ṭrēf ūṭōmah / ḳaḥf ḏakmah ṭarḥīh ba-ṭrēf ūṭōmah / bass / wa-śxawalūl ʕaynat /

29. ankʕōt / ḥōz / wa-rkaśōt ḏakm ḥān / ḳaḥf ḏakmah aw jaḥlēt ḏikmah / sēh man AṭīnA / ṯabarats / hīs ṯabarats / šanhū:t bā nwās / yā ḳaḥfī yā ḳaḥfī aw yā jaḥlētī yā jaḥlētī / ahā wa-bkūh / wkōh hēt ā bā nwās / ʕamōr ḏīmah ḥanōt ṯabaratlī ḳaḥfī / […] ʕayś ḏa-šīn /

30. w-hīs bkuh / ʕamōr hēh ġajjūtan lyakmah / yā ā bā nwās wkōh hēt tabkē lā / nḥah wuzmūtan tūk ḳaḥf hīs ḳaḥfk / aw jaḥlēt hīs jaḥlatk /

31. ʕamōr abdan ykūn lā / hībōh hībōh hībōh hībōh / m-bōh wa-m-bōh / la-šaʕjūn wa-l-šaxbūz9 bā nwās /

32. ʕamōr abdan / l-ʕad śī lā:: /

33. ʕamōr yallah azamnah darhīs / fatkan man bā nwās /

34. wa-śull ḏakm darhīs wa-syōr man ḥlakmah / syō:r at-tā: ykays baʕlī lhaytan / rbōṭ ḏakm darhīs ba-ḥḥān / m-tāl at-tarʕāyan lhaytan lyakmah / wa-ṭarḥīh / w-hēh syōr manh / syōr manh /

35. l-ʕad śī lā / at-tā nkʕōt lē / fardōt man / darhīs ḏakmah / hīs fardath rkaśath / rkaśath / mōt darhīs / hīs nūkaʕ ksūh darhīs aw darhish bār mōt /

36. ʕamōr mōn ʕaymal wṭōmah mōn ʕaymal wṭōmah /

37. ʕamōram ḏak lē fardōt / darhisk wa-rkaśath /

38. šanhūt / bkūh / yā ʕays yā ʕays yā ʕays /

39. ā bā nwās wkōh hēt /

40. ʕamōr / AxalāṣA ḥōm ār AšismahA / darhīsī mōt /

41. ʕamōram hēh man10 naḥwē hūk man darhīs hīs darhisk /

9 Proverb – you can neither make dough or bread: i.e. it is impossible to do anything with the

person. 10 < *madn.


409

42. ʕamōr abdan / aḳbōl lā /

43. hām w-hēh hām w-hēh hām w-hēh hām w-hēh at-ta: / l-hīn nukʕam hēh man ḥall yxayz manh / at-tā dufʕam hēh lē /

44. ʕamōram azammah lēh wa-ktīf / wuzammah lē / wa-syōr man hnīham / ʕamōram hēh yallah nawwak / wa-l-ʕād / l-ʕād aśśanhan11 wa-l-ʕād anśanhak /

45. syōr ba-ḏakm / b-lē ḏikmah man ḥlakm / at-tā tāl baʕlī hbār / ḥābū hbār / AyaʕnīA bak ambrīk bak ḳalbī / aw sān ḳaṭ axah at-taḳtabōśan lā /

46. wa- / hīs nūkaʕ tāl baʕli hbār lā / rṣanīs / rṣōn lē ḥlakmah ba-ṭrēf ḏa-hbār / hīs bār rṣanīs syōr mans / nukʕōt ḥaybīt / axah sēh fardōt ḏikm lē / tarakśas / hīs rkaśats mtōt lē /

47. hīs ʕād rudd hēh / AmidrīA ʕād l-hō syōr hēh / hīs ʕād rudd / hēh Aba-l-ʕamadA yaʕmōl wṭōmah / xbōyaḳ ba-ḥābū / hīs ʕād rudd / ksūh lēh bār mtōt / wṭōm kīnaḥ / wa-bkuh hīs ʕīmal ba-lyēk ḥāwlētan kall /

48. wkōh hēt wkōh hēt wkōh hēt wkōh hēt /

49. ʕamōr lēy mtōt wa-ḥaybīt rkaśats wa-lēy bār mtōt /

50. ʕamōram mġō nḥah ġalḳāya hūk man lē hīs lēyak / himʕak / wa-hūk ār lē hīs lēyak / wa-wtkūl la-bālī /

51. ʕamōr mōn ʕamōr / ḥōm lā / aḳbalh lā ḏōmah / aḳbalh lā /

52. ār tḥōm hā /

53. ʕamōr AxlāṣA / tām ḏa-ġrabkam / l-ʕad śī lā l-ʕad śī lā at-tā dufʕam hēh ḥaybīt / AmḳābalA ḏa-lēh ḏikm ḏa-mtōt / w-fattakam man bā nwās wa-syōr manhām / wa-tammōt kalṯēt ḏīmah ḏa-bā nwās /

10.1.1.1 Text 01. Bā Nuwās and the bean. Translation

1. They say once Bā Nuwās – some say he had a bean [using the word dajarīt lit. cowpea] but we say he had a bean [using the word ḥaṭṭōt], a bean or a grain of sorghum. God knows best.

2. They say he took that, he had that bean, and walked and walked and walked, as they say a long time ago.

11 < *tśanhan.

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3. They say he went until he met goat girls grazing goats and making [a bean dish called] jalʕaym. Either with beans or with sorghum. They were making jalʕaym.

4. He had that bean. When he reached them, he greeted them and everything.

5. They said, ‘What’s up, Bā Nuwās?’

6. He said, ‘I have this bean. I want you to mix this bean for me with those beans or that sorghum that you have, that you are cooking on the fire.’

7. They said, ‘You’ve only got that one bean. Keep it with you and we will cook these beans or sorghum, and whatever you want of it, take and eat until you are full.’

8. He said, ‘No way! No. Just mix in this bean of mine!’

9. ‘Oh Bā Nuwās, how can we mix this bean in for you, when you’ve [only] got that one bean, and we have a large pot, look at it, full of beans or sorghum?’

10. They tried and tried with him, until […] He refused.

11. He said, ‘No way! I won’t taste it and I don’t want it! That food of yours will only go down my throat if you mix in my thing, my bean!’

12. They argued back and forth. ‘Oh Bā Nuwās, that won’t do!’

13. He said, ‘No way!’

14. They mixed [it in] for him. They put that bean of his into that thing, that pot or pot [jaḥlēt] that they were cooking in.

15. For people in the past, there were no metal pots or containers. Everything was just [made of] clay. They worked with clay only. Some [were] for water, and some for bean stew, and for all types of things, and for milk [they called them] ṣaḥlīt, for milk, and pots for butter oil and milk. All were [made] of clay.

16. People in the past didn’t know these [things] of now. They didn’t know about [things] imported from abroad. Everything was there, they took it then [i.e. they didn’t need to rely on outside things].

17. Anyway, when they had cooked, when it was ready, they gave him [some] on a plate. They said to him, ‘Eat!’


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18. He said, ‘No way! I want, now I only want my bean.’

19. ‘Where is your bean? Where should we look for your bean in all that sorghum and all that bean stew?’

20. He said, ‘I’ll only recognise my bean.’

21. ‘Bā Nuwās, you’ve made trouble for us. Oh Bā Nuwās, we’re hungry. We want to have lunch.’

22. He said, ‘Look for my bean wherever it is!’

23. ‘How would we recognise it? Where would we know it is?’

24. He said, ‘No way! Give me my bean. I’ll eat nothing and you will give me nothing, I just want my bean.’

25. How would people be able to recognise Bā Nuwās’s bean? They remained at loggerheads.

26. He said, ‘No way!’ The man was up to his tricks certainly. It turned out he wanted to do such-and-such, to take the pot. He wanted to take the whole pot.

27. They weren’t able to do anything with him. [In the end] they said to him, ‘Just go, with the pot or jaḥlēt and everything in it!’ He took it.

28. He took it from there, until he took it to girl goat herders, to goat herders. Before as I said goats, but before he found girls making such-and-such, making beans or sorghum. When he got to the goat herders he left it f. at the side like that, that pot he left by the side like that. That’s it. And he waited a bit.

29. A goat came and kicked that thing, that pot or that jaḥlēt pot – it was [made] of clay – and broke it. When it broke it, Bā Nuwās wailed, ‘My pot, my pot or my jaḥlēt my jaḥlēt!’ Yes and he cried. ‘What’s up, Bā Nuwās?’ He said, ‘That thing broke my pot and all that sorghum we had [has been spilt]!’

30. When he cried, those girls said to him, ‘Oh Bā Nuwās, what’s wrong, don’t cry. We’ll give you a pot like your pot or a jaḥlēt pot like your jaḥlēt pot!’

31. He said, ‘No!’ He said, ‘No way, no!’ ‘What, what, what, what?’ This way and that. They could do nothing with Bā Nuwās.

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32. He said, ‘No way, there is no way!’

33. They said, ‘Go on then. Give him the kid! We’ve got rid of Bā Nuwās!’

34. He took that kid and went from there. He went until he found cattle herders. He tethered that kid by a thing where those cattle were grazing. He left it and went away from it. He went away from it.

35. Nothing happened […] until a cow came. It was startled by that kid. When it was startled by it, it kicked it. It kicked it. The kid died. When he came [back], he found the kid or his kid had died.

36. He said, ‘Who did that, who did that?’

37. They said, ‘The cow was startled by your kid and kicked it.’

38. He wailed and cried, ‘Oh woe, oh woe, oh woe!’

39. ‘Oh Bā Nuwās, what’s wrong?’

40. He said, ‘That’s it. All I want is my […] what’s it called. My kid is dead.’

41. They said to him, ‘We’ll look for a kid like your kid.’

42. He said, ‘No way! I won’t accept!’

43. They remained at loggerheads until they came up with an offer he refused, until they gave him the cow.

44. They said, ‘Give him the cow and [let him] go away.’ They gave him the cow and he went from them. They said to him, ‘Good riddance! You won’t see us again and we won’t see you again!’

45. He took that cow from there until he came to camel herders. People with camels. I’m not sure whether they were at the camel-kneeling place or still grazing.

46. And when he reached the camel herders, he tied it up. He tied that cow beside the camels. When he had tied it up, he went away from it. A camel came and was startled by that cow. It kicked it. When it kicked it, the cow died.

47. When he came back – I don’t know where he had been – when he came back (he played tricks on other people on purpose), when he came back he found his cow had died too. He cried as he had done with all those others.


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48. ‘What’s up with you? What’s up with you? What’s up with you? What’s up with you?’

49. He said, ‘My cow is dead. The camel kicked it and my cow has died.’

50. They said, ‘Then we’ll go and find you12 a cow like your cow, do you hear? And you’ll get a cow like your cow. Put trust in God!’

51. He said, ‘Who says? I don’t want it. I won’t accept that. I won’t accept it.’

52. ‘Just what do you want?’

53. He said, ‘That’s it. You know.’ There was nothing doing, there was nothing doing until they gave him a camel in place of that cow that had died. They got rid of Bā Nuwās and he left them. That’s the end of the story of Bā Nuwās.

12 Lit. look out for you.

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10.1.2 Text 02. Sea story

Male speaker, age c. 45 years at time of recording. From Jōdab in Ḥawf. Recorded in February 2008 in house in al-Ghaydhah directly onto Adobe Audition 1.5 through USB microphone. Saved in WAV format.

1. Abism illāh ar-raḥmān ar-raḥīmA / hōh ḏāwī bar naṣīb bar blēl / man […] raḥbētī man ḥawf / jōdab / xīlaḳk ba-jōdab wa-šaḳnayk ba-ġadwūd / ba-śḥayr ḏa-jōdab /

2. wa:-ṣudḳ nḥah ḳanyūn / wa-lākan nhōmaʕ ḥāwlāyan / wa-ḳaṣṣāt ḏa-mbrūk / ḳaṣṣāt ḏa-mbrūk bar xamāsīyah / hīs jhēmam bak fatḥ al-maʕīn1 / man afrīgya /

3. wa-lākan / l-ʕād hōh nṣarōmah šī ḥāzar wīya lā / hām ḏ-ijhīm twalyis aw hām yxarjam mans lāʔ / Awa-l-muhimmA / hām barkīs / wa-bḥarēt barkīs /

4. wa-hīs barham / ba-rōram / wa-man ṭabʕātham / wa-AmawjūdahA ḏīmah / bak xadamāt yaʕmīlam / yślīl ṣawt / yiślīl ṣawt / wa-yṭablam līs / wa-ḥmōlam jamāʕat ba-ṣawt / wa-mbrūk hīs-wōt axah wkōb barkīham lā / AaywahA /

5. nōkaʕ ḥmād bar ḥarmiš / bar ʕarmiš / ʕamōr ambrūk wkōh hēt / wkōh wkabk ka-jmāʕat lā / ʕamōr ḏa-hōh fatḥ al-maʕīn / tḥamlī lā / ʕamōr fatḥ al-maʕīn tiḥamlak hēt wa-tḥamlak hēt wa-ḥaybak wa-ḥāmāk ʕādak /

6. ʕamōr wa-lākan hēt axayr hūk aṭṭarḥī2 la-waydī wa-ṭṭarḥī wṭōmah / bary aśxawlalk / wa-l-ʕād hōh / ʕamōr lā / ʕamōr lā hēt / ār aḥḥān bak fatḥ al-maʕīn / ḥmāl ba-ṣawtak bōh bak fatḥ al-maʕīn /

7. Askari: wa-hām ḏa-yʕmīlam hāh ṭawr ḏakm /

8. Dāwi: hām ḏa-nukʕam ʕamark hūk hōh l-ʕād šī ḥāzir lā / hām yā ḏ-ijhīm afrīgya yā ḏa-nakʕam man afrīgyā / hām barkīs sēh bak fatḥ al-maʕīn /

9. Askari: AḳaṣdīA hōh l-hīs hām wṭakmah / ḏi-yrazḥam wa-ḏi-yṭablam wa-mbrūk hēh šīham lāʔ / wkōb šīham lāʔ / hām axah ḏi-ynazġam śīraʕ aw hībōh /

10. Dāwi: ahāh / swē / hām / ṭawr ḏakm hīs ʕād hām barham bak ba-rōram wa-ḏi-yjhīm / wa-t-tā ʕād ambrūk śxawlūl manhām la-ḥlawk / nakʕēham

1 The ship, Fatḥ al-Maʕīn, is mentioned in al-Qumairi (2003: 25). 2 < *taṭarḥī.

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riyāḥ wa-ka-ḥḥān ḏa-riyāḥ ḏakmah / HyxīmamH yanṣābam śīraʕ / anṣyūb aś-śīraʕ3 hnīham / ār ba-ṣawt / ba-ṣawt /

11. aywah / ḥmōlam ḥābū b-ṣawt wa-AhākaḏāA / wa-mbrūk ār ḥmōl aḥḥān šīham lā / w-hīs ʕamōr hēh bar ʕarmiš wkōh hēt wa-AhākaḏāA ʕamōr hēh fatḥ al-maʕīn tḥamlī lā / wa-ʕamōr lāʔ / tḥamlak hēt /

12. Askari: wa-ḥaybak wa-ḥāmāk /

13. Dāwi: wa-ḥaybak wa-ḥāmāk / wa-ʕuśś mbrūk / wa- / lāʔ / ʕuśś mbrūk wa-ḥābū ḏ-īḥamlam ba-ṣawt // hēh lēh yā mālēh hēh lēh yā mālēh hēh lēh yā mālēh hēh // ahāh / ʕuśś ʕaynat ṭawr at-tā ṣōr / ḥān arwīj ḥnafh ṭawr ṭawrī ṯrōh wṭōmah wa-ṭuḳḳ ba-ffaʕmah / ṭuḳḳ ba-ffaʕmah aṯ-ṯār / aṯ-ṯār / skēt / AyaʕnīA saṭḥāt / saṭḥāt ḏa-xann man ḥaḳḳ /

14. AaywahA / haršōt faʕmah / man satḥāt at-tā […] at-tā ka-barkah / taḥwēl xann la-mṣāʔ / nafġīs ba-mabṯaʕ ṭād śōx ṯbōr bīs mad yḳaʕ Amidrī kam lawḥ al-ḥāṣalA ʕād ḏikm sēh […] / AaywahA ʕamōr śīnak nṣarōmah / ʕamōr śīnak /

15. Askari: wa-sēh naššōt faʕmah man ṯār skēt at-tā wiṣlōt xann /

16. Dāwi: lā lā / ār man ṯār saṭḥāt / ayyah / man ṯār saṭḥāt twēl xann man mṣā / xann ykūn ār ġāzir4 ykūn ār bhīt / xann / lākan saṭḥāt tkūn aṯ-ṯīrah saṭḥāt lāʔ / ḏikm saṭḥāt ykūn aṯ-ṯīras śwaġyat AmaṯalanA ykūn aṯ-ṯīras bḥarēt yišūkīfam / ykūn aṯ-ṯīras saṭḥāt /

17. Askari: wa-ḥāmal /

18. Dāwi: wa-ḥāmal ykūn ār bak xann / ʕsē Aḥājāt basīṭahA / lyōmah ʕād hīs ḳuthum Ahākaḏā w-amūrhamA lyōm lāʔ / aywah ammā Abagīyat al-ḥamūlA w-ṯāḳal wa-kall śī kallah ykūn ār bak xann / bak baṭnat ḏa-ssaʕyat / aywah / bass wa-nfaġays ba-mabṯaʕ ḏakmah wa-ṯbōr bīs Amidrī kam man alwāḥA / ʕamōr śīnak nṣarōmah hībōh / ʕamōr l-ḥāṣal l-hīn bār wīḳaʕ wīḳaʕ / hōh l-hīn ʕād šī man ḳaṣṣāt wa-l-hīn ḥfaḏk toh mans /

10.1.2.1 Text 02. Sea story. Translation

1. In the name of God, the merciful the compassionate, I am Dāwi bar Naṣīb bar Blēl, from […] my village is in Ḥawf, Jōdab. I was born in Jōdab and brought up in Ghadwūd, in the mountains by Jōdab.

3 < *ḏa-śīraʕ. 4 Deep – used to describe the sea. Speaker corrects himself.

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2. And, true, we were young, but we heard from older people the story of Ambrūk, the story of Ambrūk bar Xamāsīyah, when they went on the Fatḥ al-Maʕīn from Africa.

3. But I’m no longer very certain whether they were going towards it or leaving it. Anyway, they were on it and the sailors were on it.

4. And when they were at sea, one of their customs when they were working was to sing shanties, to sing shanties, and to play the drum and the crew would sing. Ambrūk then didn’t enter in with them. Yes.

5. Ḥmād bar Ḥarmiš came, bar ʕArmiš. He said, ‘Ambrūk what’s up with you? Why aren’t you with the men?’ He said, ‘I, Fatḥ al-Maʕīn can’t carry me.’ He said, ‘Fatḥ al-Maʕīn can carry you and your father and mother.’

6. He said, ‘But it would be better for you to leave me alone and leave me be. I have sat down and I’m no longer [going to] […]’ He said, ‘No!’ He said, ‘No, just do such-and-such on Fatḥ al-Maʕīn. Sing here on Fatḥ al-Maʕīn!’

7. Askari: And what were they doing then?

8. Dāwi: They had come […], I told you I’m no longer sure. Either they were going to Africa or had come from Africa. They were on it, on Fatḥ al-Maʕīn.

9. Askari: I mean while they were like that, singing and dancing [doing the shanty] and drumming while Ambrūk wasn’t with them, didn’t join in with them, were they raising the sail or what?

10. Dāwi: Yes! That’s right! At the time, as they were on the sea and going and while Ambrūk was still sitting away from them, a wind came upon them and with the thing5 of the wind they wanted to raise the sails, and raising the sails was only done by them with the shanty, with the shanty.

11. Yes, people sang and the like, and Ambrūk simply didn’t take part with them. And when bar ʕArmiš said to him, ‘What’s up with you?’ and such-like, he said, ‘Fatḥ al-Maʕīn won’t bear me!’ And he said, ‘No! It will bear you […]’

12. Askari: And your father and mother!

5 i.e. strength.

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13. Dāwi: And your father and mother! Ambrūk got up and no, Ambrūk got up while the men were singing, ‘Hēh lēh yā mālēh hēh lēh yā mālēh hēh lēh yā mālēh hēh.’ Yes. He got to his feet and thought it over to himself once or twice like that, and stamped his foot. He stamped his foot on, on the deck, on the boards, the boards above the hold.

14. Yes. His foot went through the deck up to […] up to his knee into the hold below. He made a big hole in it, breaking it may be I don’t know how many boards. This is what happened. Yes, he said, ‘Do you see, now?’ He said, ‘Do you see?’

15. Askari: And his foot came heavily down on the boards and through into the hold?

16. Dāwi: No, no! Only from the boards, yes, from the boards towards the hold below. The hold is deep, deep, the hold. But the boards, the boards are above it, aren’t they? On the boards [i.e. the deck] is a net, for example, where the sailors sleep. There are boards above it.

17. Askari: And the ship’s load?

18. Dāwi: The ship’s load is in the hold, except for these light things such as their food and their things, isn’t that so? Yes, but the rest of the load and heavy things and everything else – that would be in the hold. In the body of the vessel, yes. He made this hole in it and broke in it I don’t know how many planks. He said, ‘Do you see now?’ He said, ‘What’s happened has happened.’ This is what I still have of the story and what I can remember of it.

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10.2 Mehreyyet texts from mountain region around Dhofar

10.2.1 Text 01. Father story

Speaker male, age 36 years at time of recording. Born in Gabgabt, came to Salalah in mid-1980s. Recorded on Olympus LS-10 in house in Salalah, January 2010. Saved in WAV format. The name of the tribe has been anonymised.

1. ḥaybī AzamānA yikūn ār ḏ-īsafran / xalīg / wa-yisyūr ḥābū AzamānA ykawn ār ḏ-īsafran /

2. wa-ṭawr hīs barah ḏi-yirdūd / ḏār ḥōram yiḥōm yirdēd ūboh / ših ībītī ṯrayt / rīkōb / ṭayt ḏ-irkūb ḏayris / wa-ṭayt ḏ-iślūl ḏayris aḳarmaśha1 /

3. hīs wīṣal hāl mā ladāʔ ḥō Abi-ḏabṭ tagrībanA bi-l-ʕayn / hāl ḥābū badū / nūka wa-haḳṣawm hāl ḥābū / ʔamlam / wa-sḥāṭam hēh /

4. hīs barham haḳṣawm / aġayg ḏ-iḳṣawm hnēh amūr aḥ-ḥaybī hōh šay gūr / šay gūr śō:x śōx / amūr ā ʔaḥmēd tḥōm tśtōm minay ḥāgūr ḏōmah / amūr lōb al-ḥamah lāʔ / wa-sīrōn ār ṭoh rēḥaḳ wa-l-ḥamah lā /

5. amūr hōh śamūlūk2 tah AraxīṣA / amūr ḥaybī al-ḥamah lā / imtalēh aġayg amūr hēh śamū(n) lūk tah Abi-ḥāga basīṭahA /

6. śafh aġayg yiḥōm yiftik minh / ligrē ḏa-[…] aġayg ḥāgūr yišāmūn lā / wa-yiḥōm yiftik’3 minh / Ab-ayy ṭarīġah / txallaṣA / amū:r / ḥaybī / imtalēh […] śīnī ḥaybī ṯamēn AraxīṣA / wīyan wīyan wīyan / AistaġrabA /

7. āmūr ḥāgū r tḥōm šay / wa-hām śitmak tēk sīrōn rēḥaḳ wa-sīrōn śafūr / ḳāʔ rēḥaḳ /

8. āmūr ḥāgūr yallah aḥōm šūk / āmūr xayrat Ain šāʔ allāhA iśtimih / ādah bi-AḥāgahA yallah mā ladāʔ bi-kam Abi-ḏabṭA lākan iśtamih ār AraxīṣA / wa-ḥāgūr āmūr lḥōm šūk / śtimih wa-sīrōh /

9. aġayg yiśōm ḥāgūr / śafh ḥāgūr rxayṣ / ḏa-hraxṣah wkōh / ḏa-hraxṣah l-anna / ḥāgūr yišāmanha lā / wa-yiḥōm yiftik minh ḳaṭ yiśamah ḥayalha / ḳaymat /

10. śallih / sīrōh ḥaybī wa-ḥāgūr hīs wiṣalōh / barhī rēḥaḳ / msēr ḏ-anhūr ḳrayb wāsaʔ / hīs anhūran haḳṣamōh nhūran ḥarḳ wa-l-īḳadram lā yisēram /

1 /ḳ/ realised as aspirated non-ejective [k]. 2 < *śamōna lūk. 3 /k/ realised as ejective [k’].

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11. ʔamlam afśēham wa-hīs bār fōśam / haḳṣaym / āmūr ḥaybī ḥōm lšikf swānōt / wa-hēt hām alaṣr ʕiśśak / sēr bi-hbɛr wala ttīyan śī man harmēt lyōmah / ṯōbar līsan śī man harmēt lagrē ttīyan /

12. āmūr ḥāgūr AtamāmA / ḥaybī ṭmūl ʔayantha / šūkūf / ḏa-hawḳaʔ amandawḳ anxalya ḥruhha / hīs alaṣr ʕiśś / yiśayn ḥaybīt ṭayt b-amkōnas / wa-ṭayt l-ād śinīs lā / āmūr bark xaṭrah ḥaybī ḏ-īġōlaḳ amūr wḳōna ḥāgūr ḏ-ihtaywas min / harmayt lyōmah / ġlūḳ ġlūḳ ġlūḳ ġlūḳ tā swānōt / l-ād śinīha lā /

13. āmūr ḏōmah hībōh / axah / wḳōn lā / ḥaśś śaff ḏa-ḥaybīt / syūr yiḥśāś śaff ḏa-ḥaybīt / hīs ḥaśś śaff / hankūr śaff / al-hēh śaff ḏa-msēr ʕādī lā / ḏa-msēr bi-ḥḥays /

14. wa-ḥaśś la-ṭawr amšēġar śaff ḏa-ḥāgūr ka-ḥaybīt / ḏa-ḥāgūr wa-ḥaybīt u-mġōran / habarkīs / wa-l-ād ḥaśś śaff ḏ-aġayg lā AabārahA rīkab ḏār ḥaybīt / wa-ksūh ḥaybīt as-sayūr4 bi-ḥḥays /

15. hankūr sēh ḥaybīt ḥāgūr barh ḏa-rīkab ḏayris wa-barh flūt bīs ḏa-srēh5 / ridd ḥāgūr śafh flūt / tabah / ridd srēh ḥaybī tabah / aflūt w-aflūt wa-ḥaybī bādih / ḏār śaffah /

16. tā: ḥaybī wīṣal ʕayn šxabūr āmūr walā śinkam gūr ḏār ḥaybīt wṭōh AwaṣfahA / āmawr ḥābū śīnan tah bār ghēm twaly arēmal / Aabāra ttigāh mantaḳaA dubay / barh ḏār arēmal /

17. tabaḥ6 ḥaybī / hīs wīṣal bayn dubay wa-l-ʕayn bark faḳḥ / ġbūr AġāfilahA / ġaflat / AġāfilahA b-arabayyat / b-amahrayyat ġafalt / ġbūr ġaflat ḏa-bū / bū mēkan ḏār […] baʔlī hibɛr /

18. āmūr ahhīm7 wa-lā śinkam gūr / ḏār ībīt šxabarīham / āmawr yallah ṣarō:mah ġaśūh bi-ḏakmah / hān ġaśū bih / ġayg laḥaḳah / tabah ḥaybī ta lḥaḳah /

19. āmūr hēh rkōb šay / wa-śillih riddih / āmūr wkōh hēt flatk / āmūr bass laḥōm lahafalt / l-ād wīda hībōh yaʔmōl bih lā / bār tawraṭ iśtimih / wa-hēh āmūr laḥōm šūk fōna / lākan AistaġrabA bih /

4 < *ḏa-tsyūr. 5 He escaped with it to back where he came from. Cp. barh flūt bīs man srēh ‘he escaped with it

from him’. 6 < *tabah through anticipatory assimilation to following /ḥ/. 7 < *hīham.

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20. AalmahammA riddih / riddōh wa-riddōh ubōh / yiḥaym śafōr / gōram bi-ʕabrī wa-nazwa / w-ādam hīs wuslam ādamhaḳṣawm hāl […]8 ḥaybī / ḳabaltham hammīs […] / haḳṣawm hnīham / sḥāṭam hēh /

21. hīs hēm ḏār fśē āmawr ā Aʔaḥmad ba-tbīʕ al-ʕabdA / hēm yaġtariyam ār ārabayyat / āmūr hēh ḥaybī śamuntah9 lā / ḏōmah yinakay bi-ḳaymat bi-śafōr w-aśamah yinūka bi-ḳaymat mēkin /

22. āmūr lih hō śtamuntah10 aššēx aḥōm laśtamah / wzūm aššēx wzūm mīt / mīyat ḳarawš / mēkin / wuzmih ībīt / wa-mandawḳ / wa-maḥzēm / amaḥzēm ḏ-amandawḳ /

23. āmūr wazmuntēk11 alyō bi-ḥāgūr / āmūr ḥaybī AtamāmA / hōh śamōna / āmūr aḥ-ḥāgūr12 tḥōm šīham / āmūr yallah ḥāgūr / ʔādī ḥōm šīham / ḥāgūr man hāl śamtah yʔōmar AtamāmA ḏikmah AġarībA / śamih / wa-syūr ḥaybī /

24. Aamahā:mA aḳassēt mġōran ūḳōt wa-hīs bār ḥaybī ghēm min barr u-ridd ūbōh / wuḳōt ḳassēt ār ḏa-[…] / śafh ḥāgūr śxawalūl / wḳōn warx / ḥlakmah / yʔōmar ār Ain šā llāh in šā llāhA wa-yaʔmōl kāśī kallah /

25. wa-xdūm hāl šayx ḏa-[…] wa-syūr yiśxawwal hāl hibɛr wa-yiḳanmasan / wa-ġrūb kāśīyan ḥaybīt gidat / hīs m-ḏār warx / yardūd ḥāgūr / yaślūl amandūḳ ḏ-aššayx / amandūḳah b-amaḥzēmah / wa-śill ḥaybīt xyūr ḏa-hibɛr kall wa-flūt ḏayris /

26. la-ḥō flūt / wu-ḥābū fnōhan faṭnam tah lā tā / amawr ḥāgūr ḏār ḥaybīt bār flūt yibagdam tah itīt ġyūg / wallāh ma ladāʔ hēm xmōh aw itīt Amagmūʕat šabābA /

27. tabam tah śabūb / tabam tah wa-hēh ḏ-īflūt iflūt u-flūt u-flūt wa-hēm srēh / tā nazwaʔ / wa-ttā ʕabrī / ū-min ḥlakmah / atā::: al-ʕayn / wa-hēm bādih /

28. min hāl wuṣlam yišxabīr / yʔamram ḥāgūr bār gruh wṭoh / wa-yitabam / wa-yitabam / bār grūh / wa-ḥāgūr šxabūr lih aḥād lā / grūh sūḳ ḏa-ʕabrī / sūḳ ḏa-ʕibrī AmaʕrūfA13 ḥād yišānūs yinkā lā ʔār ġayg ḳbēlī / ʔār ġayg ḳbēlī / hām ših mandūḳ / wa-hām ših / AašyāA lyōmah /

8 Tribe name erased for anonymity. 9 < *śamōna tah. 10 < *śatmōna tah. 11 < *wazmōna tēk. 12 < *ha-ḥāgūr. 13 Better: maġrēb.


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29. lākan hēh ḥāgūr gruh / sūḳ ḏa-ʕibrī nhūran / hēh b-amandūḳah / šxbūr la-ḥād lā14 wa-ḥād šānūs yaḳrabah lā / bgawdah ta l-ʕayn / hīs al-ʕayn amūr ġayg / waṣfah barah AittigāhA adubay / bgawdah ramlēt / tā wuṣlam adubay /

30. hīs wuṣlam adubay / kūsam ḥaybīt bars śamēt / ḏ-aššayx / śamīs ḥāgūr / w-amandawḳ bār śamēˀt / manam aġayg ḏa-śītam ḥaybīt amūr ḥō aġayg ḏa-śum lūk ḥaybīt / amūr aġayg ḏa-śum lay tīs ġayg gūr wa-bār rīkab bark AabāxirahA / sɛtin / wḳōn bār hīs Anuṣṣ sāʕahA bark AabaḥrA / bark arōram / AmattagahahA tḥōm wṭōh afrīgya /

31. Ayānī subḥān allāhA / ḥāgū r ḏōmah śxawalūl bark Aagazīrah ʕarabīyahA śamam tah ḥābū / lākin hēh amūr hōh / mašśaʔaf lā / lḥōm / wa-śōm ḥaybīt harūḳ ḥaybīt ḏ-aššayx / w-amandawḳah / lagrē ḏa-yardēd aḳāʔah / wa-ridd afrīgya / wa-hīs ḥaybī bād snēt aw snēti ṯrayt ridd / klawṯ hēh […] amawr ḥāgūr aymal bīn wṭōh / wa-flūt min ḏayran / wa-hā ḏīmah tammōt /

10.2.1.1 Text 01. Father story. Translation

1. A long time ago my father was travelling, to the Gulf. People used to travel a long time ago.

2. And once, when he was about to return, on the road he wanted to return to here. He had two camels, riding camels – one to ride on and one to carry his luggage.

3. When he arrived I don’t know where exactly, around al-Ayn, by some Bedouin. He came and spent the hot part of the day with the people. They did, they slaughtered for him.

4. While they spent the hot part of the day, the man he was sitting with said to my father, ‘I’ve got a slave. I have a very big slave.’ He said, ‘Ahmad, do you want to buy this slave from me?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t want him. I’m going a long way and I don’t want him.’

5. He [the man] said, ‘I’ll sell him to you cheaply.’ My father said, ‘I don’t want him.’ Then the man said, ‘I’ll sell him to you for next to nothing.’

6. It turned out the man wanted to get rid of him, because the man didn’t trust the slave and wanted to get rid of him by any means. In the end, my father said […] my father saw the price was very, very cheap. He was amazed.

14 šxbūr aḥād lā ‘he didn’t ask anyone’. The addition of la- changes the sense to ‘didn’t care a

fig for anyone’.

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7. He said, ‘Slave, do you want to come with me? If I buy you you’ll go very far, you’ll go to Dhofar, a land far away.’

8. The slave said, ‘Yes, I want to go with you.’ He said, ‘Everything will be well, God willing.’ and bought him. It was for something I can’t remember how much exactly, but he certainly bought him cheaply. And the slave had said, ‘I want to go with you.’ He bought him and they went on.

9. The man sold the slave. Certainly the slave was cheap. Why did he make him cheap? He made him cheap because he didn’t trust the slave, and absolutely wanted to get rid of him, selling him at any price.

10. He took him. My father and the slave went till they reached, [until] they had gone a long way, one and a half day’s journey. Around midday, they rested from the heat. At midday, it was very hot and they couldn’t move on.

11. They made their lunch and when they had had lunch they rested. My father said, ‘I want to sleep a little, and you, when you wake up in the mid-afternoon, take the camels, so that they might eat something from those trees. Break off something from the trees so they can eat.’

12. The slave said, ‘Okay.’ My father closed his eyes and went to sleep, having laid the gun under his head. At mid-afternoon when he got up he saw one camel in its place, but he couldn’t see the other anymore. My father said to himself as he looked around, he said perhaps the slave is feeding it from the trees over there. He looked and looked and looked, after a little while [he realised] he couldn’t see him.

13. He said what’s [he done]? He tracked the camel’s prints, he went and tracked the camel’s prints. When he tracked the prints, he realised the prints weren’t prints made at a normal pace but at speed.

14. He tracked at one stage the tracks of the slave with the camel, the slave and the camel and then he’d got it15 to kneel. He could no longer see the man’s tracks. That’s to say, he’d mounted the camel and he found the camel had set off at speed.

15. He realised the slave had got onto the camel and escaped back where he’d come from. He went back. It turned out the slave had escaped. He went back where he’d come from and my father followed him. He fled and fled with my father after him on his tracks.

15 The camel.


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16. When my father reached al-Ayn, he asked and said, ‘Have you seen a slave on a camel? He looks like this.’ The people said, ‘We saw him. He went towards the sands, that’s to say, in the direction of Dubai. He’ll be at the sands.’

17. My father went after him. When he got half-way between Dubai and al-Ayn he met a caravan, ġāfilah [= qāfilah] in Arabic, in Mehri ġaflat. He met a caravan of people. There were lots of people in the caravan, camel herders.

18. He said to them, ‘Have you seen a slave on a camel?’ He asked them. They said, ‘Yes, just now he passed by that [dune].’ Wherever he went, the man chased after him. My father went after him, until he caught up with him.

19. He said to him, ‘Ride with me!’ and took him back. He said, ‘Why did you run away?’ He said, ‘I just wanted to escape.’ He no longer knew what to do with him. He had got into problems buying him, and he had said, ‘I want to go with you.’ But he was surprised by him.

20. Anyway he took him back. The two of them went back and came back towards here, heading for Dhofar. They passed by Abri and Nizwa and Adam. When they reached Adam my father spent the hot part of the day with the […]. Their tribe is called […]. He spent the hot part of the day with them. They slaughtered for him.

21. As they were having lunch, they said, ‘Ahmad will you sell the slave?’ They only speak Arabic. My father said to them, ‘I won’t sell him. He’ll bring me a good price in Dhofar, selling him will bring a high price.’

22. The sheikh said to him, ‘I will buy him. I want to buy him.’ He gave, the sheikh gave a hundred, a hundred Maria Theresa dollars, a lot. He gave him a camel, a rifle and a belt, an ammunition belt.

23. He said, ‘I’ll give you these for the slave.’ My father said, ‘Fine, I’ll sell.’ He said to the slave, ‘Do you want to go with them?’ The slave said, ‘Yes, I want to go with them.’ The slave from the moment he sold him said, ‘Okay.’ That was strange. My father sold him and went on.

24. Anyway the story continued, and when my father left and came back here it became the story of the […] tribe. It turned out the slave stayed there around a month saying, ‘If God wills, if God wills!’ and doing everything.

25. He worked for the sheikh of the […] and went to stay with the camels and give them fodder. He knew everything – [which was] the good she-camel.

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Then after a month the slave went back [to his old ways] and took the sheikh’s rifle, his rifle with its belt, and took the best of all the camels and escaped on it.

26. Where he escaped to, and at first the people didn’t think about him until they said, ‘The slave has escaped on a camel.’ Then six men chased him. By God I’m not sure whether it was five or six, [in any case it was] a group of young men.

27. The young men chased after him. They chased after him and he ran and ran and ran with them after him to Nizwa, and then to Abri and from there to al-Ayn with them after him.

28. Wherever they arrived, they asked and [people] said, ‘The slave went that way.’ And they followed and followed. He kept going and no one asked questions about the slave. He went to the Abri market. The market at Abri, it is well known no one dares go there apart from a tribesman, apart from a tribesman with a rifle and those sort of things.

29. But the slave went to the market at midday with his rifle and wasn’t afraid of anyone and no one dared approach him. They chased him to al-Ayn and at al-Ayn a man said, he described him going in the direction of Dubai. They chased him to the sands, to Dubai.

30. When they reached Dubai, they found the sheikh’s camel had been sold. The slave had sold it. And the rifle had been sold. They stopped the man who had bought the camel. They said, ‘Where’s the man who sold the camel to you?’ He said, ‘The man who sold it to me was a black man, and he just got on the ship. It’ll have set off to sea around half an hour ago, heading for Africa.’

31. God be praised! That slave stayed on the Arabian Peninsula and people sold him on, but he said, ‘I’m not going to allow myself to be treated as a weak person. I want […] He sold the sheikh’s camel. He stole the sheikh’s camel and his rifle so that he could return to his country and got back to Africa. And when my father went back a year or two later, the […] told him [the story] and said, ‘The slave did such-and-such to us and escaped from us!’ And that’s the end.

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10.2.2 Text 02. The hajj by foot

Male speaker, age 46 years at time of recording. Born in Gabgabt, moved to Salalah mid-1980s. Recorded March 2011 in house in Salalah onto Marantz PMD661 with PG58 microphone. Saved in WAV format.

1. kūṯōna bi-ḳassēt ḏa-xaṭarāt ġayg / AzamānA / ād awaḳt ḥāwalay /

2. amwāṣalāt al-śī / w-AaṭayyārātA al-śī / AassayyārātA al-śī / ḏik awaḳtan ār rīkōb /

3. w-aġayg / daʕīh ḥagg1 / wa-l-ād ṣbūr lā yiśxawwal lā / āmūr sīrūn ḥagg bark xaṭrah /

4. hiss bi-ḥagg bār hēh waḳt āmūr ḏ-ihsūs bih / wa-l-šānūs lā yaklēṯ al-ḥibha / ḏa-hēh sīrōna / la-hāśan ḥibha xazyēytah / wa-l-hawayśah lā /

5. wa-ḥābū ḏik awaḳtan / amsēr / w-hēt am-bawmah amsēr AṣābA2 / tsēr man bawmah tā baʔtī makkah /

6. amtalēh āmūr hīham ḳafdōn arḥabēt / wa-ḏa-ḥatūgak wa-nkōna / hīs wīṣal arḥabēt / śītam kiswēt / śītam ḳawt aḥ-ḥibha3 wa-xṣawb bīham wadīham / w-āmūr xṣawb ka-ġayg / ḏa-baʔlī ḳarmōś āmūr amēr aḥ-ḥibya mrīḏ ūdīham / hōh ḥijjōna / wa-l-yiḳtalīb bay lā wa-l-yiṣayṣ lay lā /

7. aġayg syūr la-faʔmha ma bawmah / mnays4 m-bawmah atta ḏ-ḳamīr / man aḏ-ḳamīr tā baʔtī jōdab wa-ḥawf / wa-ḥlakmah tā baʔtī ġayśat / wa-simm tā hāl ḥōram ḏa-mkallah / amtalēh ād ātraś bi-ḥād tā::: / wīṣal makkah /

8. ār habṭāʔ mxaṭṭar yaḳāʔ bark warx warx ū-faḳḥ / hām ḏa-l-axayr / wīṣal ḥlakmah w-abɛlī wafḳah / aġayg anīyatah gidat wa-kāśīyan astōmaḥ hēh /

9. wa-hēh ġayg ḳaṭ aḳrawš ḏ-aḥḥagg al-šēh ḳrawš lā / hīs syūr ma-bawmah / aḳrawš xawr / hān šēh hān yasdūd aḳath / lākan hām hēt anyatk la-hāl xayr kāśīyan AyatyassarA5 hūk / yinakak ār taww abɛlī yḳadran kāśīyan ār taww /

10. man ḏār ḥajj ridd ḥlakmah / ridd attā baʔtī šārigah / wa-xdūm / wa-habṭāʔ / wḳōna bark itīt ībayt wūrax /

1 Idiom used to express feeling of need to go on the hajj. /g/ often pronounced as affricate with

this speaker. Cf. line 6 hōh ḥijjōna. 2 Better: tʕīb or klayf. 3 < *ha-ḥibha. 4 He took it f. [the road]. 5 Mehreyyet: yawtafīḳan hūk.

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11. hīs ḥabōr ḳaṭ wīṣal hēh wa-6xadamēt ḥāwalyēt / axṣawb maxṣayb la-hāl ḥibha / w-axṣawb bi-ḳrawš yaśtīm aḥ-ḥanfāyham ḳawt / w-axṣawb līham bi-kanābal / slamdat / barānīs / slamdat / ḥād yʔōmar hīham slamdat wa-ḥād yʔōmar barānīs / abarnaws ār b-ārabayyat ḳrayb lākan slamdat axayr / śīniš /

12. wa-ḏik awaḳtan / hām šūk / AkanbalA / salmōd ḏakmah / xahēt šūk adanyā wa-l-ād mtōn lā l-hāśan – ḥbūr lā7 / śētū yaśyēʔan ḥābū / w-axxarf AkaḏālikA ṭawran ḥābū kiswēt al-śī / tkūs amnādēm8 šēh mḳāṭāb9 / darg / walā śiḳḳāt yišafkə bīs / akswēt aġahrīt śī lā /

13. wa-jād ḏik awaḳtan anīśāf takūs ār rēkū10 / anīśāf yhanśayf ār arēkū / arēkū agīlēd ḏ-abḳār / yidabġam tēham / wa:-yaṯbītham yāmīlam gīlēd wa-yhanśayfham / tkūsa ḥābū ār kall aḥād ḏa-šēh arēkū ʔār bass xahēh ār / abith AʕāmarahA amkōn ār gīd /

14. hīs nakam tēham slamdat lyakmah / [xahēm]11 āmawr flān / xṣawb / wa-nūka maxṣayb mn asfīr / wa-ḏ-yabśīran ḥābū kall ḏa-hēh aġayg ādah ṣaḥḥ / wa-firḥam ḥ ābū /

15. ġayg amtalēh mġōran akōmal snētī ṯrayt / yā śahlīṯ / wa-ridd / ridd ū-nūka b-xayr / wa-nūka l-hāl harbātha / wa-ḥābū ḏa-yisḥayṭ wa-ḏ-yabśīran kall bih /

16. ḏōmah ḳaṭ ār l-amnādam / ham āzūm al-śī / wa-hēh fnōhan al-hēh šīh śī lā / abɛlī ywafḳan tah wa-yasthīlan hēh kāśīyan / tā AtyassarihA ḥajjah / asthūl hēh ḥajjah /

17. w-amtalēh xdūm / amtalēh nūka bi-xayr w-axṣawb la-ḥibha / wa-hēh ībōl baysah lā yallāh yallāh ār ḳaršāyēn ād / ḏ-amṣaraf / ḏ-aḳath / man fnōhan ma-bawmah / wa-AslamtīA /

6 Better: man. 7 Better: ḥabūr ḏa-śētū. 8 Diminutive of mnādam. 9 Diminutive of maḳṭab. 10 Cattle hide used as a floor mat. 11 xahēm better omitted.

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10.2.2.1 Text 02. The hajj by foot. Translation

1. I’m going to tell a story about a man once, a long time ago, in the old days.

2. There were no means of transport, no planes and no cars. At that time, it was just camels.

3. The man was called by the hajj. He couldn’t wait any longer. He said to himself, ‘I’m going on the hajj.’

4. He kept thinking about the hajj. He’d been thinking about it for a while, he said. And he didn’t dare tell his parents that he was going because his parents would refuse him and wouldn’t trust him on his own.

5. People at that time, travelling, if you travelled from here it was difficult for you to go from here to Mecca.

6. Then he told them, ‘I’m going down to the town. I need [something], then I’ll come [back].’ When he got to the town, he bought clothes; he bought food for his parents and sent it to them. He said, he sent [it] with a man, someone [to deliver] the things. He said, ‘Tell my parents, send them the message that I am going on the hajj and they shouldn’t worry about me or be afraid for me.’

7. The man went from here by foot. He took [the road] from here to the region of Jabal Qamar, and from Jabal Qamar to Jōdab and Ḥawf, and [from] there to al-Ghaydhah. He continued on the road to Mukallah. He met up with someone [and they went together] until he arrived in Mecca.

8. He probably took around a month or a month and a half, if not longer. He arrived there and God granted him success. The man had good intentions and everything worked out for him.

9. He was a man certainly in terms of money for the hajj he had no money when he left from here. Very little money. What he had was enough for his food, but if you have good intentions then everything is facilitated for you, things turn out well, God can make everything turn out well.

10. After the hajj, he returned there. He returned to the region of Shargah and worked. He spent around six or seven months there.

11. The moment he arrived, from his first work he sent parcels to his parents. He sent money so they could buy food for themselves, and he sent them

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blankets. Some call them slamdat and some call them barānīs, [but] barnaws is just close to Arabic, but slamdat is better. Do you see?

12. At that time, if you had a blanket, that blanket, it’s as if you have the [whole] world and you won’t die, why – the cold of winter used to make people sick, and in the monsoon period too. People didn’t have [many] clothes. You would find someone had a short waistcloth of unbleached, coarse cotton or unbleached calico or a loose body wrap they would sleep in. There weren’t any other clothes.

13. And leather at that time the only mat you could find was from cow hide. They would just put down a cattle hide as a mat. rēkū is the hide of cattle. They would tan it and prepare it well and make leather to put down. You would find anyone who had this rēkū it was as if his house was a good house, the place was [considered] good.

14. When these blankets came, they would say, ‘So-and-so sent [something] and a parcel came from abroad.’ And the people would tell each other that the man was still alive and they would be really happy.

15. The man then spent two or three years [there] and [then] returned. He came back and brought good things. He came [back] to his tribe. People slaughtered and told everyone that he was well.

16. That is just [what happens] to someone when he is determined to do something, and before he has nothing. God grants him success and makes everything easy for him, makes it easy for him to do the hajj.

17. Then he worked. Then he brought good things [back] and sent [parcels] to his parents. [Before] he didn’t have a penny, just a very little money for his food earlier from here. [God] bless you f.s.

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10.2.3 Text 03. Ship story

Speaker male, age 22 years at time of recording. Born in Gabgabt, but has spent most of his life in Salalah. Recorded September 2010 in house in Salalah with headphone microphone directly onto Adobe Audition 1.5 on Sony laptop. Saved in WAV format.

1. šay ḳassēt ḏ-ūḳōt al-ġayg ṭād m-bawmah / man śafōr / man aśḥayr / syūr ta l-baḥrayn / syūr tā xalīg / ta l-baḥrayn / w-ayūś ḥlakmah wḳōn snētī ṯrayt / ṭōm Asanah sanatīA ṯrayt /

2. hīs ʕāṣar ṭād / yasyūr tā mandīr mandīr ḏa-bi-l-baḥrayn / wa-śxawlūl ḥlakmah / attā nūka lang ṭād / nhūr nhūrī ṯrayt wa-sḥabōn alang ḏakmah / wa-śxawalūl bū sēlim ḏakmah hēh hammah bū sēlim /

3. wa-śxawalūl ḏ-īġōlaḳ alang ḏakmah / attā hīs kūsa farsēt / yakēb barkih / man hāl ḥād yaśaynah lā / śabb bark alang ḏakmah hah / wkūb barkih wa-šḳarōh / barkih / attā sḥāb alang ḏakmah /

4. hīs anhūr amšaġarēt hīs ḥābū barham la-ḥaḳ bark arōram la-ḥaḳ / hīs ḏa-ġrūb ād aḥād wa-hām kūsam tah ġrūb mharradūtan tah lā / śhayr līham / syūr tā hāl arabbūn / wa-śhayr līham /

5. āmūr hēh man ḥō nakak hēt / amūr hōh ġayg ḏ-ūkabk bawmah wa-ḏa-šḳarayk bawmah / w-aḥōm šīkam /

6. amūr xarāna wadak tīn la-ḥō syēra / hīs ḏ-ūkabk šīn wuṭōmah / amūr hōh wadak bīkam la-ḥō syēra lā / w-hōh ār šīkam /

7. amūr xarāna nḥa syēra brīṭānya / nḥah ṣarōmah bār ḏa-nsḥūb bār hīn kam man āṣawr w-ād mharradūtan tēk lā / amūr xarāna hōh ār šīkam / amūr xarāna / wa-sḥābam

8. hīs hēm wiṣlam ḳrayb la-brīṭānya / amūr hēh ndōh AagawāzātA nḥa wṣyēla ṣarōmah mandīr ḏa-brīṭānya wa-ḳafyēda / amūr hōh al-šay AgawāzA wa-l-šay Aayya ḥāgahA / šay AiṯbātA śī lā Aʕalā ṭūlA /

9. amūr hīboh wṭōmah / amūr hām ḳfūdan bark amandīr ḏa-brīṭānya ḥabyēsa tēk ḥābū wa-l-šūk AgawāzA lā /

10. amūr arabbūn ḏakmah xarāna / nḥah ād al-wiṣlan amandīr lā / mhaḳfadūtan tēk al-ḥayḳ wa-hēt adawnak ba-ḥnafk Amā rāyakA / amūr xarāna / śawrkam gīˀd /

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11. hīs wiṣlam hāl ḥayḳ haḳfīdah ḥābū / bū sēlam / syūr bi-ḥnafh tā / wīṣal arḥabēt ma ldā hāśan hammas sēh Newcastle yā London yā hāśan /

12. wa-śxawalūl ḥlakmah / w-āyūś bark ḥābū / wa-khēl bīham mġōran / wa-khēl bīham u-barha / ḳaṭ axahēh ār manhēm /

13. wa-ḥābū ḥibha ḏa-bawm bi-śfūr / šāśīyah šāśiyam tah / ġayg al-xṣawb līham bi-xaṭṭ wa-l-xṣawb līham bi-śī / wa-šxabīr lih ḥibha ma-boh m-boh m-boh m-boh / ḥābū wadam bih ḥō lā / wadak m-bū sēlim ḥō wadan m-bū sēlim ḥō lā /

14. ġayˀg / AfiṭrahA1 bawmah bār hēh wḳōn warxī ṯroh […] yišxabīr ṭād man harbātha ḥlakmah amūr / wḳōna warx hībōh ād al-śinkə tah lā bār hēh bark warx warxī ṯrōh / wa-hīh fōna bawmah hinay /

15. šxabīr lih ḥābū ġawf wa-xōṭar / wadam bih ḥō man aḳā lā / nḥāram lih / sḥāṭam ḥābū / amawr ḥābū bū sēlim ḏōmah l-ād hēh ṣaḥḥ lā / bār ġdūh / nḥāram lih wa-sḥāṭam ḥābū / wa-barh mōyit aġayg / ād ḥābu ḏa-ḥṣawbah ṣaḥḥ lā /

16. mġōran Ayawm man al-ayyāmA bū sēlim ḏikmah hah / barha Aminhum wa-fīhumA ḥābū lyakmah brīṭānīyīn / barh aġrōy […] ār ḏa-khēl bīham / wa-ḏ-išxāśar ḥōlat šīham /

17. mġōran ḏ-isyūr ṭād ma-bawmah mahray bīt kaddah / maḥallah ḏa-ḳaṭar ykūn bi-ḳaṭar / syūr / tā brīṭānya yḥōm AʕalāgA / hīs wīṣal ḥlakmah / ġbūr bū sēlim / ġabrih ma ldāʔ hēh bark amṭām hēh hāśan / śinyih / śīnī abśarath axahēh arabay man śafūr wṭōm walā śī man xalīg / syūr tā hnēh /

18. amūr hēt hammak mōn / amūr fulān / amūr maḥallatk ḥō hēt / amūr hōh akūn ba-śafūr / amūr tkūn ba-śfūr / ġarbih ḏa-hēh yikhōl bi-śḥerɛt baʔlī śḥayr / maḥallah aśḥayr /

19. xabrih amūr hēh xbōrak / śḥāk manh bū sēlim / amūr hēh ḏikmah mahray bar kaddah wkoh hēt (t)śḥūk / amūr xbōr ḏīm ād al-hamak tah man maddēt ḏa-ʕašrayn snay /

20. wa-bār klūṯ bū sēlim bār klūṯ hēh b-aḳassēt ḏikmah hān wīḳa lih / yasyūr ḏakmah bar kaddah hah / bark AamstašfāʔA / wa-ḏ-išdawyan šēh ṭād man harbāt ḏa-bū sēlim / klūṯ hēh amūr hēh / walā tġōrab flān bar flān bar flān / āmūr ḏakmah / Aallāh yarḥamahA / bār ġduh bār hīh sɛt bār ġduh / tšxabūr manh wkōh /

1 Better: bār hēh waḳt.

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21. amūr ḏōmah ād al-ġduh lā ḏōmah bawmah hēh / ḏa-ḥall bawmah / amūr ykūn lā ḏa-ḥtawāk hāśan man ġrōy ḏōmah / āmūr Aal-ḥāṣalA wṭōmah / ḏōmah hēh ġrōy / amūr xarāna haddalī ba-ḥō ykūn /

22. syūr tā hnēh / hīs ġabrih / anṭawḳ ha-ṭādīdayham / wa-firḥam bi-ṭādīdayham wīyan / mġōran klūṯ hēh bū sēlim hān wīḳa lih / hān wīḳa lih man Aaḥdāṯ man al-baḥraynA yisyūr man axalīg man al-baḥrayn / wa-hān wīḳa lih bark alang /

23. wīṣal / āmūr hēh xarān hēt ṣarōmah riddōn šay hām abɛlī yḥōm / śḥāk manh bū sēlim amūr hībōh lardēd / ġayg ḏa-l-šay AgawāzA wa-l-šay AiṯbātA / wa-bār ḏa-ḥallak ḥābū lyōmah bār ḏa-khāk bīhim /

24. amūr xarāna yikūn lā AlāzimA / wa-hēt hām amaḥnatk ār AagawāzA wa-lyōmah siddōn tīsan hōh / ḏ-isyūr ḏikmah tā hāl asfārah wa-klūṯ hīham / amūr ṭād man harbātyan hammah Akaḏa kaḏa kaḏa kaḏaA wīḳa lih wṭōma wṭōma wṭōmah / amūr hēh xarāna /

25. tā Aal-ḥāṣal tṣarrafA aġayg ḏakmah / wa-nūka bih tā maskūt wṭōma / wa-ḥūṣal hēh AgawāzA / wa-hīs mġōran ḥābū lā / baʔlī AšurṭahA ḏ-išxabīrah / yḥaym yidām hīs yḥaym yizīm tah AgawāzA lā / yiḥaym yiṯabtam ḏa-hēh aġayg man aḳāʔ bawmah /

26. syawr hinēh wa-ḏ-išxabīrah hah / mōn hinīkam man gīrān āśamkam / wa-mōn hāśan man mōl šīham / wa-hāśan man / wa-mōn maḥallatk ḥō / wa-klūṯ hīham / agīrān bar flān Akida kidaA wṭōmah / amūrath taḳrēb līn / wa-Afulān bin fulānA šēh mōl hibɛr walā ḏīk šēh abḳār walā ḏīk šēh ḥārawn / hadlūl līham kāśī kall w-aġayg yaṯōbat ḥnafah ḏa-hēh / man aḳā bawmah bi-śfūr /

27. wzawmah AgawāzA ḥābū / wa-nūka bū sēlim bawmah hāl ḥibha / wa-ḥābū wīḳa saḥṭ wa-waḳam AḏabāyaḥA / wa-firḥam bih ḥābū hīs ridd līham /

28. mġōran aġayg barh śī man inglīzī barh ḏ-ikhōl man inglīzī bawmah / ḥābū ḏik awaḳtan aḥād yikhōl bi-l-inglīzī lā bawmah / yiśayn AšarikahA bawmah ṭayt / AšarikahA śaxt2 tixōdam AṭarīgA ṭād bawmah b-aśḥayr / wa-syūr tā hnīham / wa-ġatrī šīham inglīzī wa-firḥam bih ḥābū wīyan / xdūm šīham AarātibA śōx / wa-ḏīmah sēh aḳassēt ḏa-bū sēlim /

2 Better: nōb.

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10.2.3.1 Text 03. Ship story. Translation

1. I have a story that happened to a man from here, from Dhofar, from the mountains. He went to Bahrain. He went to the Gulf, to Bahrain, and lived there around two years, around one or two years.

2. One evening he went to the port, the port of Bahrain, and stayed there until a large ship came. After one or two days, that ship was going to leave. Bū Sēlim stayed. His name was Bū Sēlim.

3. And he kept looking at that ship, until he found the chance to get into it from where no one would see him. He climbed into that ship; he went into it and hid in it. Then the ship set sail.

4. The next day, when the people were already far out to sea and he knew that if anyone found him they wouldn’t send him back, he showed himself to them. He went up to the captain and showed himself to them.

5. He [the captain] said to him, ‘Where have you come from?’ He [Bū Sēlim] said, ‘I am a man who came in here and hid here, and I want to stay with you.’

6. He said, ‘Okay, did you know where we were going when you came in to be with us like that?’ He said, ‘I don’t know where you are going, but I’m with you.’

7. He said, ‘Okay, we’re going to Britain. Now we’ve been gone so many nights, we’re not going to take you back.’ He said, ‘Fine, I’m staying with you.’ He said, ‘Fine.’ And they went.

8. When they approached Britain, he told him, ‘Hand over the passports! We’re now coming into the port of Britain and disembarking.’ He said, ‘I haven’t got a passport or anything. I haven’t got any identification at all.’

9. He said, ‘How is that?’ He said, ‘If we disembark in the port of Britain, the people will arrest you when you don’t have any passport.’

10. That captain said, ‘Okay. Before we reach the port, we’ll put you down on the shore and you can do what you want. What do you think?’ He said, ‘Fine! That’s a good idea [of yours].’

11. When they reached the shore, the people set him down, Bū Sēlim. He took himself until he reached a town, I don’t know what its name was, either Newcastle or London or whatever.

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12. And he settled there and lived among the people. He got to know them, then. He got on with them so well that it was as if he was one of them.

13. And the people, his parents here in Dhofar had lost him. The man hadn’t sent them a letter or sent them anything. His parents asked about him here, there and everywhere. People didn’t know where he was. ‘Do you know where Bū Sēlim is?’ ‘We don’t know where Bū Sēlim is?’

14. The man was here for a while, it’d be around two months. They asked one of his friends from over there and he said, ‘It’ll be around a month I haven’t seen him. It’ll be a month or two months, but he used to be here with me.’

15. People asked about him left, right and centre. They didn’t know where on earth he was. [So] they slaughtered for him. The people slaughtered. The people said, ‘That Bū Sēlim, he’s no longer alive. He has died.’ They slaughtered for him. The people slaughtered. The man is already dead. People no longer thought he was alive.

16. Then one day, Bū Sēlim was now one of those British people. The language he could speak with them. He got used to them.

17. Then someone from here, a Mahri, from the Kaddah tribe, was travelling. He was from Qatar. He went to Britain needing treatment. When he got there, he met Bū Sēlim. He met him I don’t know, either in a restaurant or whatever? He saw him. He saw from his appearance that he was an Arab from Dhofar or perhaps from the Gulf. He went up to him.

18. He said, ‘What’s your name?’ He said, ‘So-and-so.’ He said, ‘Where are you from?’ He said, ‘I am from Dhofar.’ He said, ‘You’re from Dhofar.’ He knew he could speak Śḥerɛt, that he was from the mountains.

19. He asked how he was. He said, ‘xbōrak!’ Bū Sēlim laughed at him. The Mehri bar Kaddah said, ‘Why are you laughing?’ He said, ‘I haven’t heard xbōr for twenty years!’

20. Then Bū Sēlim told him the story of what had happened to him. That bar Kaddah went to the hospital and one of Bū Sēlim’s tribe was being treated alongside him. He told him, he said to him, ‘Do you know so-and-so son of so-and-so?’ The other one said, ‘God rest his soul. He died a long while ago. Why are you asking me about him?’

21. He said, ‘He hasn’t died. He is here. He has settled here.’ He said, ‘It can’t be. You must be mad. What sort of talk is this?’ He said, ‘That’s the way it is. That is what I say.’ He said, ‘Okay, show me where he is.’

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22. He went to him. When he met him, they kissed each other on the cheek and were really happy to see each other. Then Bū Sēlim told him what had happened to him. The events that took place from Bahrain when he went from the Gulf from Bahrain. And what happened on the ship.

23. He said, ‘Okay, now you will come back with me, God willing.’ Bū Sēlim laughed at him. He said, ‘How can I go back? A man who has no passport and no identification papers, and I have settled, and I get on with the people here.’

24. He said, ‘Okay, no way! You have to come. And if your problem is only the passport and those [things], I’ll deal with them.’ That man went to the embassy and spoke to them. He said, ‘One of our friends called so-and-so, such-and-such happened to him. They said to him, ‘Okay.’

25. Anyway, that man fixed things and brought him to Muscat. He got him a passport, and then when the people, the police, were asking him, they wanted to know as they were about to give him a passport, didn’t they? They wanted to make sure that he was the man from the country here.

26. They went to him and asked him, ‘Who did you have as neighbours? What livestock did they have? And where did you live?’ And he told them, ‘The neighbours were so-and-so. His camel shelter was near to us, and so-and-so had camels, and that one had cows, and that one had goats.’ He told them everything and proved that he was from the land here, from Dhofar.

27. The people gave him a passport, and Bū Sēlim came here to his parents. There was slaughter and sacrifices. People were really happy when he came back to them.

28. In addition, the man had some English. He could speak English and people at that time couldn’t speak English here. He saw a company here, a large company which was making a road here in the mountains. He went to them and spoke English with them, and people were very happy with him. He worked for them. The salary was large. And that is the story of Bū Sēlim.

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10.2.4 Text 04. Cat story

Speaker male, age c. 60 years at time of recording. Born in Nagd. Spent much of his early adult life in the Gulf. Since then has been based in Salalah. Recorded September 2010 in house in Salalah with headphone microphone directly onto Adobe Audition 1.5 on Sony laptop and saved in WAV format. The story was partially written and then read out, leading to many pauses and errors. Longer pauses are indicated by //. Pre-pausal glottalisation, devoicing and aspiration before longer pauses are indicated in the transcription of this text.

1. xaṭarāt / ġayˀg // ḏ-īḳawbaś / hibɛrha / bi-giddēt / šēh / bɛr mēkin lā / wu-šēh / ībīt maġrabūt / b-aśxōf wa-xfayn //

2. attōlīˀ // ta nhūr ṭayt / śxawlūˀl // ḏ-īġawlaḳ / ba-hbɛrha / bīsan / ḏ-īġawlaḳ bīsan / b-awaḳt ḏakmah / ḥaybīt / fanwih / ḏ-īġawlaḳ bīs / wa-lākan / bark / AlaḥḏahA / axtafūt / ṭhamūt / ṭhamūt / man / anḏār ḏ-aʕayantha /

3. ḥlawk śī lā / harmayt / ḏ-īhaḳamsam tīs // ḥlakmah / śī gīwēʔ lā / tāmēr hwūt bark agīwēʔ / ār giddēt / xalayyat //

4. swānōt / hibɛr / ridd / ġayr / aġār sēh / sēh riddūt lā / hēh ḏ-īfakran / wa-ḏa-hattam / wa-ḏa-ḥyūr / aḳābah / bīs / la-wīda hībōh yāmōl lā / hībōh yiwōṣaf aḳassēt ḏīmah lā / yiwōṣaf aḳassēt ḏa-ḥarmas ḏīmah /

5. hām yiḥōm yaʔmēr / harḳāt / yiʔōmar lā / abdan / ḥaybīt / bark fnōhan ʕayantya / wa-ḥaybīt bark āmḳ ḏa-hbɛr / wa-mġōran / ḥaybīt al-sēh ṣalḥayt lā / ta tharūḳ / ḥaybīt ḥalūˀb’ // w-aśxafs / yisdūd / asēkin /

6. mat ṭawr / yʔōmar / ḥnafh / ataḳāʔ riddūt / twōlī sēkin / hīs wīṣal sēkin / kalaynī / šxabūr ataṯh / amarūt / amarūt / nḥah śīnan tēs lā / wukōh / klūṯ hīs / bi-kalśī kallah / śxawalīˀl // ḥlakmah / śxawalīl śahlīṯ snay / wu-hēh / sōbar / ḏ-īfakran / bi-ḥaybith //

7. tā ʔāṣar ṭād / ḏa-šūkūf / ḥaylam / mnādam / ankayh / w-āmūr / hēh / ḥaybitk ṣaḥḥayt / wa-lākan sēh / k-aḳīyōʔ / hām hēt / hām hēt tḥūm / hām hēt tḥams / aḳōfī // aḳōfī mārīb / hām tḥams aḳōfī mārīˀb // ḥsēb ʔōśar ūˈday / m-bawmah / w-ōśar wa-ṭaytʰ // ḥaybitk / ḥlakmah / wa-lākan / aḳāʔ / šōgaʔ / w-aḳāʔ ḳaˈway / wa-hām tḥōm tsēr / ślēl / bāś / ślēl bāś man tōmar / w-āyś / šūk /

8. mayt ḏa-wuṣlak / ʔōśar wa-ṭayt ḥawday / ḳfēˀd // bark amsyūl / wa-śxawwal / ḥlakmah / ḥaḏḏūr ma (t)sēr mkōn / ḥaḏḏūr man tāṣōṣ / śanyōna / mēkin / laśyā mēkin śī / yiṣṣayt wīyan / mhafgaʔ / yiṣṣayt mhafgaʔ / lākan ḥaḏḏūr man taḥtayīrak / man amkōnak / hawḳaʔ / śīḥaz / ḏār śīwōṭ /

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9. ankaytēk sinnawrat / ḥūrūt / azams / bāś / azams tōmar / ḥaḏḏūr man twaḏyis / w-aḳāʔ / wa-šlaṭfas / śīlaṯ yōm aw rība yōm / assinnawrat / maḳtūbēta / tēˀṯ // w-ankayta tēk / wa-kūṯīta lūk / bi-ḥaybitk / wa-msādēta tēk /

10. k-aṣōbaḥ / āmūr / h-attaṯh / hōh sīrōna / laġlēḳ man ˈḥaybaytī / amarūt ataṯh / bark aḳābī / aḥtawāˀk // ḏ-aḥtawāk / taġlēḳ man ḥaybitk / ḏa-bār hīs / śahlīṯ snay / ḏa-bār hīs śahlīṯ snay / āmūr / gihmōnaˀ / laġlēḳ mans / tawlū amūt /

11. śill / azwōdah / wa-ḥagtah / ḥagtah / tōli ghēm / ḥsūb ʔōśar ūˈday / ʔōśar wa-ṭayt / ḳfūd / bark ḥawōdi / śxawalūl / ḥlakmah / w-aymal / l-hīs ḥām klūṯ hēh /

12. śīnī / mēkin śī / śī mēkan / mhafgaʔ / wa-lākan / yiṣṣ lā / manhēm / arōba ḏ-āṣawr / assinnawrat ḥūrūt inkath / wuzmīs / aʔaynat tōmar / wa-šalṭafīs / wuzamīs muh / haḳayīs / sōbar / axōmas ḏ-āṣawr / śīnī / atēṯ arḥaymat / inkatah /

13. hēh / ġrūb / ḏ-assinnawrat / ḏa-ġrūb assinnawrat ḳatūbūt / tēṯ / w-ankatah tēṯ / śxawallūt / ḳrayb lih / w-āmarūt / mōn hēt / wa-man ḥō nakak / amūr hōh ġayg / ḏ-aġawlaḳ / man aḥād yisādī / man aḥād yilḥōḳ lay / mn aḥād yilḥōḳ lay yinfāyī / […]1 / hām tḳaydar /

14. amarūt wa-yaḥōl laḳawdar / hēt tḥōm ḥaybitk / āmūr yāḥōl / wkō ḏa-ġribš / ḏa-hōh / ḏ-aġawlaḳ man ˈḥaybaytī / āmarūt ḏa-ġribk / āmarūt / hēt ḥɛmak / fnōhan šība yōm / ḥayˈbitk / bawmah / ahā lāʔ / āmūr yāḥōl / […] / ḥɛmak /

15. āmarūt / hōh nakak tēk / wa-kliṯk hūk / bi-ḥaybitk / āmūr aġayˀg // hēt mōn / al-hēt / ansānīyah lāʔ / āmarūt lāʔ // hōh / al-hōh ansānīyah lā / hōh / ḳāʔyūt / hōh / assinnawrat / ḏa-nakak tēk / āṣawr alyōmah / wa-šlaṭfak tay / wa-ʕagbak būk / wa-ḥaybitk / šīn / wa-bār šīs śahlīṯ ḥaˈbantsa /

16. ṣarōmah / śxawwal bawmah / wa-ḥaḏḏūr man tāṣōṣ / hōh b-adifˈfatk / wu-gihma / k-ṣōbaḥ / ghōˀm // ḥawōdī mšaġarēt / śanōn aġrayˀb’ // man hāl śxawalūl / śxawwal / ḥlakmah / ksōna / ḥlakma ksōnaˀ // bāś / ḳawt / wa-muh / amma hōh / ilīlah / śāṯayt2 hibɛr / šay / ḥaybīt wa-ḥbantsa / šay / wa-ḳawbītīsan hīs fnōhan / l-ād īśanyam tēsan lā / aḳīyōʔ / mat barsan hīs fnōhan / l-ād īśanyam tīsan lā / w-ankayta tēk / gihma / man ḏār man ḏār aḏahar /

1 Repetition removed from original. 2 Error.

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17. hēh śxawalūl / hēh āmūr / āmūr hīs taww / hēh āmūr hīs taww / gihmaˀ / k-ṣōbaḥ / syūˀr // ḥawōdī mšaġarēt / wa-śīnī aġrayb / wu-tbayh / tā śxawalūl / aġayˀg // aġayg śxawalūl man hāl aġrayb śxawalūl / wa-kūsaˀ / kāśī kallah / bār ḏ-ūtalūm / hēh / kūsa kāśī kallah ḏ-ūtalūm hēh /

18. śxawalūl / ḥlakmah / tā: / man ḏār aḏahar / śīnī / atēṯ / wa-hbɛr / nakam [sic!] tah / śxawalīl / faxrā // ḥlakmah / wa-lākan / wīḳa śī / manwīham / ʕagbam ṭādīdayham / aġayˀg // yiġawlaḳ b-attēṯ / w-attēṯ / ūṭakmah /

19. atōlī atēṯ šxabarath / āmarūt / wkōh hēt / tġawlaḳ bay / sōbar / āmūr / śī lā / āmarūt / klayṯ haynī / aṣadḳ / āmūr / ʔagbak bayš / wa-lākan / lākan / wa-lākan wḳōna lay mḥanēt / āmarūt hāśan man mḥanēt /

20. āmūr / hōh ḏa-ġribk / hēt šayš aġaygaš / w-ādah3 / w-ādš / hēt ḳaʔyūt / amma hōh / āmarūt / taḳtalūb lāʔ / mašfaḳāta tēk / āmūr aġayg / wkōh tšafḳī / wkōh / atēṯ wkōh atēṯ tšfūḳ ṯrōh / ġayg / wkōh tēṯ tašfūḳ ġaygī ṯrōh /

21. āmarūt / hōh / hōh / hōh / law ansānīyah lā law masūmūt lā / lū tēṯ / msūmēt lāʔ / hōh ḳaʔyūt / yaḥōl / hām […] / atēṯ masūmēt / tḳawdar lā tšēfaḳ ṯrōh / ġaygī ṯrōh / tšēfaḳ ġaygī ṯrōh / āmarūt / aḥōm / alšaxbarak / hīs hē(t) mat ṭawr / maṭ ṭawr / maṭ ṭawr / […] taḥlūm / twōḳa / mayt šūkafk / at-taškūf hnūk tēṯ /

22. āmūr aġayˀg’ / yaḥōl wa-lākan / ḏōm ār ḥām / āmarūt attēṯ / a:badan / ḏōmah / ḏōmah ār aṣadḳ / aḳaʔaytan / tanakan // h-amslōm wa-tškūfan / šīham / wa-hēm / yihagsam / ār ḥām / ṣarōmah / hām šfaḳak tēk / l-hīs ḥām / ḏōmah / bark adīnan nḥah / amslōm līham śī lā /

23. AkēfA lašamukš / wkōh lašamukš / āmarūt / hēt śōṭ manay bāś / ʔaynat ḏōraʔ / wa-śāṭayta mank / ʔaynat / ḏō raʔ / wa-nḳawdar / ʔaynat ḏōraʔ / wa-ḏīmah amūkīt / wa-nḳawdar / anśnē / ṭādīdāyan / tawlū / bark āmḳ ḏa-ḥābū /

24. ʕamlam wṭōmah / wa-haṣbāḥam / ġayˀg // wa-tēṯ / atōlī / aġayˀg // nūka / bi-hbɛrha / hāl saknah / ḏīmah / aḳassēt / tammōt / wa-sēh / ār xyāl / man hāl ālay bar msallam /

3 Error.

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10.2.4.1 Text 04. Cat story. Translation

1. Once a man was herding his camels on the plain. He didn’t have many camels, but he had one that was renowned for its milk and speed.

2. Then one day he sat watching his camels, [watching] them. He was watching them. At that time, the camel was in front of him, he was watching her. But suddenly she disappeared. She disappeared from his sight.

3. There weren’t any trees there to hide her. There weren’t any holes so that you could say she’d fallen into the holes. Just empty plain.

4. After a little while the camels returned, apart from her. She didn’t return. He was surprised and sad and was confused about her. He didn’t know what to do, how he could describe what had happened, describe what had happened to her.

5. If he meant to say she had been stolen, he’d say, ‘No, not at all! The camel was in front of my eyes. The camel was in the middle of the [other] camels. And in addition, the camel wasn’t fat enough to be stolen. The camel was a milk camel4 and her milk was enough for the [whole] homestead.

6. Once he said to himself, ‘Maybe she’s returned to the homestead.’ When he reached the homestead in the evening, he asked his wife. She said, ‘We haven’t seen her, why?’ He told her everything. They stayed there, they stayed three years and the whole time he was thinking about his camel.

7. One evening as he was asleep he dreamt that someone came to him and told him, ‘Your camel is alive, but she is with the spirits. If you, if you want, if you want her, set off west. If you want her, set off west. Count ten wadis from here, and in the eleventh is your camel. But be brave, and be strong. And if you want to go, take some, take some dates and rice with you.

8. ‘When you get to the eleventh wadi, go down to bottom of the wadi and wait there. Make sure you don’t go anywhere! Make sure you aren’t afraid! You will see lots, lots of frightening things. There will be lots of fear, frightening, fear. But take care not to move from your place. Put frankincense on the fire.

9. ‘A black cat will come to you. Give her some, give her dates. Make sure you don’t hurt her, and be, and be kind to her. On the third or fourth day,

4 And therefore isn’t fat.

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the cat will turn into a woman and come to you. And she will tell you about your camel and will help you.’

10. In the morning, he told his wife, ‘I’m going to look for my camel.’ His wife said, ‘I think you’ve gone mad, you’ve gone mad to look for your camel that’s been [away] for three years.’ He said, ‘I’m going to look for her, even if I die.’

11. He took his supplies and his things, his things. Then he set off. He counted ten wadis, [at the] eleventh he went down into the wadi. He waited there and did what the dream had told him [to do].

12. He saw many things, many frightening things, but he wasn’t afraid of them. On the fourth night, the black cat came to him. He gave it some dates and was kind to it. He gave it water. He kept giving it water. On the fifth night, he saw the beautiful woman come to him.

13. He knew that the cat, he knew that the cat had turned into a woman. The woman came to him and sat close to him. She said, ‘Who are you and where have you come from?’ The man said, ‘I am a man who is looking for someone to help me, for someone to help me, for someone to help me, help me, if you can.’

14. She said, ‘Of course I can! You want your camel.’ He said, ‘Yes! How do you know that I was looking for my camel?’ She said, ‘I [just] know.’ She said, ‘You dreamt a week ago that your camel was here, didn’t you?’ He said, ‘Yes, I dreamt’.

15. She said, ‘I came to you and told you about your camel.’ The man said, ‘Who are you? You aren’t human.’ She said, ‘I am not human, I am a spirit. I am the cat that came to you those nights and you were kind to me and I fell in love with you, and your camel is with us. She has three female calves.

16. ‘Now stay here and take care not to be afraid. I am beside you. Tomorrow morning go to the next wadi. You will see the crow. Where it sits, stay there! You will find there some food and water. Tonight I will have the three camels, the camel and her female calves, with me. I will turn them back as [they were] before. The spirits will no longer be able to see them, when they are as [they were] before. They will no longer be able to see them. I will come to you tomorrow after, after midday.’

17. He sat. He said, he said, ‘Okay.’ He said, ‘Okay.’ The next morning he went to the next wadi and saw the crow. He followed it, until it came to

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rest. The man, the man sat where the crow sat, and found everything ready for him. He found everything ready for him.

18. He waited there until after midday. He saw the woman and the camels coming to him. They stayed there together, but something happened between them. They fell in love with each other. The man looked at the woman and the woman likewise.

19. Then the woman asked him. She said, ‘Why are you always looking at me?’ He said, ‘It’s nothing.’ She said, ‘Tell me the truth.’ He said, ‘I have fallen in love with you, but it will be a problem for me.’ She said, ‘What sort of problem?’

20. He said, ‘I know you have a husband, and also you are a spirit, but I am […]’ She said, ‘Don’t worry. I will marry you.’ The man said, ‘How can you marry me? […]5 How can a woman marry two, two men? […]’6

21. She said, ‘I, if [I was] a human, if I was a human woman7 [I could]’nt. I am a spirit. Yes, a human woman can’t marry two, two men.’ She said, ‘I want to ask you, sometimes when you […]8 dreamt, did it happen that a woman slept with you?’

22. The man said, ‘Yes, but that was just a dream.’ The woman said, ‘Not at all! That was reality! The spirits come to humans and sleep with them, and they think [it] is just a dream. Now if I marry you, [it will be] like a dream. That is in our religion. Humans have nothing to fear.’

23. ‘How can I marry you? How can I marry you?’ She said, ‘You take from me some, a little blood, and I will take a little blood from you, then we can, […]9 and that is marriage, and we will be able to see each other even in the midst of [other] people.’

24. They did that and became man and wife. Then the man brought his camels to his family. This story has ended, and it is an imaginary story from Ali bar Musallam.

5 Repetition not translated. 6 Repetition not translated. 7 Lit. muslim woman. 8 Repetition not translated. 9 Repetition not translated.

Text 01. Camel beauty competitions

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10.3 Mehreyyet text from Šlaym

10.3.1 Text 01. Camel beauty competitions

Speaker male, age c. 45 years at time of recording. Recorded September 2010 in house in Salalah with headphone microphone directly onto Adobe Audition 1.5 on Sony laptop and saved in WAV format.

1. w-aḥōm alhawkabas amzāyanah / hām šay ībīt arḥaymat w-aḥōm alhawkabas amzāyanah wa-sēh Aumānīyah / āmānīyah / amānyat aṣalīyahA /

2. Aawwal šīA ḥaybīt taḳāʔ / aqawfas śōx / ḥagmas / āḳaras / taḳāʔ al-sēh lā ḳannitt / AlāzimA ḥagmas yḳāʔ śōx / AyaʕnīA āḳaras / aqawfas / nḥah nʔōmar b-amahrayyat aqawf Ayaʕnī / al-kubr aw al-ḥagm / ḥagmA / nḥah nʔōmar aqawf / AlāzimA aqawfas yḳā śōx /

3. amšaġrēt / taḳā ḥaybīt mdaydat / mdaydat / ṭwaylat hawbis man awarkīt tā kansīd / tā hāl amōtan1 / bālīt amōtan / bālīt amōtan aṭwayl / tḳā lā ḥaybīt ḳṣayrat / maḳtarabīt / Ayaʕnī matġārabah / yaʕnī ḳaṣīrahA lā / tkūn Amdīdah / ṭawīlah / ʕalā guddām / wa-lahāA / wa-hīs AartafāʕA hawbis aġawf aqawfas / yaḳā śōx / Awa-giddāmA / ūfnōhan / yiḳāʔ / taḳā mdaydat / amatnas man hāl amōtan man hāl awarkīt tā hāl kansīd taḳāʔ mdaydat /

4. śī mšēġar yaḳāʔ aġōrab / ṭwayl / w-aśāhar tawlū aśāhar ḳṣayr yiśrūr lā / Aahamm šīA arḥūmat tiḳā xayr yiḳāʔ aśāhar [sic!] aġōrab yiḳā mdayd / w-aṭwāl man aśāhar /

5. amšagarēt / alawnah la-hāl āfarūt / hām sēh āfarūt / āfarūt / āfarūt arḥaymat tkūn arḥām man aṣhawīw man ūbanīt / wa-man haśarīt / āfarūt ḥābū yfarḥam bīs h-amzāyanah axayr hām šūk āfarūt / tkūn axayr āds yḳabīlas w-aśanyas axayr man alwayntan mšaġarūtan ūbanīt wa-haśarīt / aw sēh amānīyah lyōmah waṣf ḏ-āmānīyāt /

6. al-hēh lā waṣf ḏa-ḥazūmī / wa-l-ḏa-yʔamram hīsan wṭōh Aal-ḥizāmī wa-l-mujāhīm wa-š-šaʕlA lā nḥah amānīyāt nʔōmar hīsan / wa-bālī ʔimārāt yʔamram hīsan Aal-maḥallīyātA / wa-sēn nḥah wa-sēn ār amānīyāt AaṣlA /

7. amšaġarēt yḳāʔ aġaṯyas / al-hēh ḳṣayr lā / ḥaybīt AlāzimA tiḳāʔ arḥūmat yiḳāʔ aġaṯyas ṭwayl / wa-mdayd wa-l-hēh ġanīṣ lā / ḥaybīt ṣarōmah hām aġaṯyas ḏa-latwī / wa-ḏa-ratkaz ār aġawf / ḏakmah ġanṣayt tkūn /

8. nāgabs axayr hām ār taḳāʔ mdaydat wa-ʔār ṭwaylat wa-l-hāl ūfnōhan al-hēh rkēz lā / ār la-ḳaṭras AguddāmA / ūfnōhan /

1 Flesh and muscle each side of the backbone (Miranda Morris, p.c.).

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9. amšaġarēt ḥayḏantan / ḥayḏantan AlāzimA taḳāʔ2 arkēzūt / aġawf / hām al-sēh arkēzūt lā ʔār ḏa-waṭṭī ūġayran / walā ḏa-ḥaṭṭī walā nyōb / axass / axayr m-taḳāʔan ḳannattan wa-sēn ḏa-ratkaz aġawf / wa-tḳāʔan yʔamram hūk ḥayḏantan ḏa-ratkaz hīs amxayṭ /

10. AlāzimA tiḳāʔ ḥayḏantan ḏa-rtakazūt3 ḏa-ratkaz ḏār aḳarmā / min aġawf / AlāzimA / wa-hām al-ḏa-ratkaz ḥayḏantsa lā ḏār aḳarmā lā / arḥūmat l-ā(d) tkūn bīs wīya(n) lā /

11. amšaġarēt la-hāl anxarīr / anxarīr AlāzimA yiḳāʔ ṭwayl / wa-AlāzimA yiḳāʔ ʕarayś / ʕarayś /

12. ʕayantan / ṭawran bīsan arḥūmat lākan al-sēn AmahammA lā ʕāyantan / arḥūmat ār b-anxarīr / wa-ḏah4 anxarīr ārayś anxarīr / yiḳāʔ ṭwayl / wa-yiḳāʔ xōṭar / ārayś /

13. aḥḥazūmī / aśibōṯīsan / arḥūmat hal śabōwaṯ / AlāzimA yiḳā śībaṯ yiḳā ḏa-ḳfūd xōṭar / yʔamram hēh ḏa-hdīlūl / ḏakmah ḏa-hdīlūl āmānīyah / wa-ʔamānyat al-sēh lā AmaṭlūbA al-hēh ʔayb lā ḏakmah /

14. Aahamm šīA yaḳā ḥruhs / anxarīr ḏa-yʔamram hēh anxarīr AagḏābA ḏ-anxarīr āśawś ḏ-anxarīr / w-alḥayitsa / yaḳāʔam ṭaywōl w-ārwōś / ṭaywōl ūfnōhan / wa-xōṭar anxarīr al-hēh ṭrayr lā hām ār ṭrayr anxarīr / l-ād tkūn arḥaymat lā ḥaybīt / hām bīs hadīlūl aśabōwaṯ ḏa-ḳfawd / ḏakm āds thazyads arḥūmats akṯēr / lākan āmānīyah / āmānīyah lā / ḏakma l-hēh ʔayb lā /

15. amšēġar aḏnūb / aḏanūb hām bih śiff mēkan / wa-ṭwayl ha-xōṭar tkūn ḥaybīt arḥaymat / lākan ba-ʔamānīyah la-hēh ʔayb lā / aḥḥazmayyat sēh / AlāzimA aḏanūb yiḳāʔ ṭwayl wa-yiḳāʔ bih śiff wa-śōx / aḥḥazmayyat hām aḏanōbas bih śiff lā ykūn ḏōmah ʔayb / AyinaḳḳiṣA līs yhanḳawṣ līs man AadaragātA / ḏ-arḥūmat / yaxah man awṣawf ḏ-arḥūmat / ū-mākanī / āmanyat / aḏanūb al-hēh al-hēh AmahammA lā / hām hawbah yiḳā bih śiff wa-l-hēh śōx lā ʔādī / Amā maškilahA /

16. aḏarwayt ḥaybīt aḏarwats āds ṭawran bīs arḥūmat / aḏarwayt bāś ḏ-arkēzūt / w-aḏarwats ḳannitt / wa-bāś aḏarwayt mat sēh ġlayḏat / wa-ḏ-astawiyūt k-aġōrab wa-k-aśāhar / ḏōmah yhazyūd ḥaybīt arḥūmat akṯēr /

2 Singular agreement. Should be plural. 3 Singular agreement. Following verb correctly feminine plural. 4 Presentative.


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17. amšagarēt ḥādūtan u-fawm / lyōmah sēn wīyan lā b-arḥūmat wīyan man xōṭar ār man aḳfīfūt wa-t-xōṭar / wa-hāl arawḳab wa-hāl ambarkūt u-lyakmah / alyōmah al-hēm rīḥōm wīyan al-hēh k-arḥūmat lā / arḥūmat ār āds mat ḥaybīt aḳafyēt mank / hām man ġayran yʔamram hīs AfagraA nḥah nʔōmar hīs man ġayran lyēh warkīt awraksa / w-awraksa amxāris5 amxāris ġlayś / tkūn arḥūmat axayr /

18. wa-hām sēh amxāris bāś / al-maxārisan al-hēh ḳōmaḥ lā lākan ṭrayr / ḏakmah yhinḳawṣ awṣawf ḏ-arḥūmat / ba-ʔamānīyah u-b-aḥḥazmayyat / AlāzimA tiḳā ḥaybīt awraksa arwaśtan man ġayran wat aḳafyēt mank / sēn awraksa / wa-fʔamsā nyōb / arwaśtan / al-sēn lā ṭīrartan hām ṭrayrat ḥaybīt / arḥamtas tkūn wīyan lā […] /

19. u-mat aḏarwayt al-sēh mḥanēt lā aḏarwayt / hām aḏarwayt / Aahamm šīA ār aġōrab yiḳā mdayd w-aśāhar al-hēh AmahammA lā Amā maškilahA / amma hām ḥaybīt / aġarbas ḳannawn / w-aśahras ṭwayl l-ād tikūn arḥaymat lā / arḥūmat Aʕalā ṭūlA l-ād tkūn bīs arḥūmat lā / yihaśayy arḥamtas / wa-hām hēm Amustawyūtan tamāmA aw / yaḳāʔ / aġōrab āḳār man aśāhar /

20. ḏah ḏōm awaṣf ḏ-arḥūmat / wa-ḥaybīt hām sēh bālīt śiff / śiff aṭalāḳūt / al-sēh ḳarṭarāṭ lā mḥaysūt lā bāś śiffīsan mḥaysūt / u-bāś śiffīsan ṭalāḳōt alyōmah / sabṭ anḥah hīs amnādam sabṭ / aw ṭalāḳōt / tkūn ḥaybīt arḥām / bālīt śiff aṭlāḳōt / ū-mākanī bālīt śiff aḳarṭarāṭ aw ḥasist / bāś man hibɛr bīsan śiff lā xaybat / yāmram hīs bālīt aśfīt ḥasist / ḏīmah hawbas Alā bāsA lākan bālīt aśfīt aṭlayḳat tkūn arḥām axayr / wa-ʔār wṭōmah wa-slaym /

10.3.1.1 Text 01. Camel beauty competitions. Translation

1. If I want to enter her into a beauty competition. If I have a beautiful camel and I want to put her in a beauty competition, and she’s an Omani6 camel, a pure Omani.

2. The first thing is the camel must be tall. Her height must not be small. Her height has to be big. Her height, her height. In Mehri we say aqawf, that’s to say the largeness or the height. We call [it] aqawf. Her height has to be big.

3. The next thing is the camel should be long, long, tall I mean from the hip to the shoulder – up to the topside. Camels with topsides, camels with long topsides are not short, they should not be short. They are long in front. She

5 Also tōlī. 6 Used to be known as mahrayyat.

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will be tall and her top will be large and in front. She should be long, her topside from the topside, from the hip to the shoulder should be long.

4. Another thing is the part in front of the hump7 should be tall, and the back part, even if the back part is short it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that the conformation is better when the back, the part in front of the hump is long and higher than the back.

5. The next thing is the colour should be towards red. If she is red, red, a beautiful red will be more beautiful than [the lighter colours between red and white] and white, and than [the darker] haśarīt. Red, people at beauty competitions will like her better if you have a red [camel]. They will accept it better and it looks better than the other colours white and haśarīt. And these are the desired points of the red Omani camel.

6. These are not the [desired] points of the ḥazmayyat or of what they call the ḥizāmī or mujāhīm or šaʕl. We call them amānīyāt and in the Gulf they call them maḥallīyāt, but they are all originally Omani.

7. The next thing is that her neck should not be short. For a camel, good conformation [means that] her neck should be tall and long, and should not be bent. If the camel’s neck bends and goes up [in the air], that will be bent.

8. We like her more if she is long and tall and towards the front it m. shouldn’t go straight up, just straight ahead and in front.

9. The other thing is the ears. The ears must point up, upwards. If it f. doesn’t point up, but they droop back, or if they bend back or are long, that’s bad. It’s better for them to be small and pointing up, and the ears should be, they say, pointing up like a needle.

10. The ears must point up. They should point up above the poll. That is essential. And if her ears don’t point up above the poll, she won’t [be considered to] have much good conformation.

11. The next thing to the nose. The nose must be long and it must be wide, wide.

12. The eyes can sometimes be beautiful, but they aren’t very important, the eyes. Good conformation is just in the nose, and there the nose is wide. It should be long and at the base it should be wide.

7 Equivalent to the equine ‘withers’.


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13. The ḥazmayyat camels, their lips, good conformation is in the lips. The lip should hang down. They say it droops. That hangs down. The Omani camel, for the Omani camel it is not required. That isn’t a fault.

14. The most important thing is that her head, the nose they call it, the nose bone, the nose bone, and her jaw should be long and wide. Long and to the front, and at the base the nose shouldn’t be narrow. If the nose is narrow, the camel won’t be beautiful. If she has hanging lips, the lips hang down, that increases her conformation. But the Omani camel, for the Omani camel, that isn’t a fault.

15. The next thing is the tail. The tail, if it has lots of hair and hangs down long the camel is [considered] beautiful, but it isn’t a fault in the Omani camel. [That’s for] the ḥazmayyat camel – the tail has to be long and have lots of hair. If the ḥazmayyat camel’s tail doesn’t have [much] hair, that is a fault. It reduces, they will take off points for beauty for her, [i.e. points for conformation], that is to say, from the description of beauty, but for the Omani camel the tail isn’t important if it doesn’t have [much] hair and if it isn’t long, it’s no problem.

16. The hump, the camel’s hump also has a [part in] conformation. In some, the hump stands up and her hump is small. Some, when the hump is wide and is in line with the withers and back, that increases the camel’s beauty more.

17. The next thing is the forelegs and backlegs. Those don’t [count] much in [assessment of] conformation just from the knees down, and the hocks and the chest [where she kneels]. These don’t matter much in the [assessment of] good conformation. Good conformation is just when the camel moves away from you, if from behind – they call it the fagra, we call it, from behind – the hip, her hips, her hips and her hindquarters are wide there is more beauty.

18. And if her hindquarters, some have not bad hindquarters but [they are] narrow, that reduces the points for conformation in the Omani camel and the ḥazmayyat camel. The camel’s hips have to be wide behind when she moves away from you, her hips, and her feet have to be large and wide and not narrow. If the camel is narrow, she won’t have much good conformation.

19. And the hump, the hump isn’t a problem if the hump […]. The important thing is that the withers are long, and the back isn’t very important, it’s not a problem, but if the camel has small withers and the back is long she won’t be [considered] beautiful. That will totally spoil her conformation. But if they are level or the withers are higher than the back, [that is good].

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20. That is the description of good conformation [in a camel], and if the camel has smooth fur that isn’t very curly or rough. Some have rough fur and some have smooth fur. Smooth, like a person, smooth [and then] the camel is more beautiful, one with smooth fur, but one with curly fur or not much fur [isn’t so beautiful]. Some camels only have a little fur, they call them [camels] with little fur. That isn’t bad, but the one with smooth fur is [considered] more beautiful. And that’s it, peace [be upon you].

Text 01. Hyena story

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10.4 Mehreyyet texts from Rabkūt

10.4.1 Text 01. Hyena story1

Female speaker, age c. 20 at time of recording. Born and raised in Rabkūt. Educated to university level. Recorded September 2010 in Sultan Qaboos University library, Muscat with headphone microphone directly onto Adobe Audition 1.5 on Sony laptop and saved in WAV format. Headphone microphone used to minimise sound from centrally controlled air conditioning.

1. ḳassēt / AzamānA ḥābū yikāṯam bīs / min āśamīham / ḳassēt ḏīmah amawr / Azamān fīA ṯabarayn / bark raḳab / sēh wa-ḥabinsa / wa-ḥabinsa yiḥaym yimētam min guwā / wa-l-ād šīham matāt lā amawr ā ḥāmay niḥōm mtāt /

2. tinōka sīrūt ḥāmēham / tiġōlaḳ hīham / ṯabarayn / tġōlaḳ hīham min mtāt / ġūḳōt Aāxar šīA ksūt gīrōb2 ḏ-attōmar / śallath twōlī ḥabinsa /

3. hīs bars al-ḥarmas / ksūt ġiggēn w-aġath / yinakam amawr hīs / hāśan šayš bark bark […] ḥanīd / amart ḏōmah ār […] / bark agīrōb / amurt ḏōmah ār ḏa- ḏōmah ār […] ād śī ahawbas ḳarūt / tiḥaym tiḳrē minhēm / ḏa-hēh ḏakma tōmar /

4. hīs mġōran ḥyēl bīs aġiggēn tā: śill min hnīs bakawrah sēh šīs bakawrah / wa-śall mins attamras / ṭarḥays bi-ġayr tōmar wa-hūḳā hīs ṣwayr / ṣwayr bark agīrōb ḏ-attōmar /

5. wa-sīrūt sēh tkōb šīs attamras / sīrūt sīrūt sīrūt tā wuṣulōt ḥabinsa / hīs bars hāl ḥabinsa / yinakam hīs fatḥam agīrōb ḏa- ḏ-attōmar kūsam ār barkih ār ṣwayr /

6. tnōka amurt lyōmah ḥambarawtan ḥīlam bay / riddūt līham / hīs riddūt līham flīt bi-ḥanfayham ḥambarawtan aġiggēn w-aġath / flīt flīt flīt hīs barham ḏi-flīt tinōka (a)ġaganōt rkatūt śkōt ḏa-ḥarūś / harūm hammah ḥarūś / bih śkiyāʔ /

7. hīs mġōran / ḏōmah / mġōran ankōt ḏikmah ṯabarayn u-saraṭats / wa-bayḳī aġiggēn wa-flūt aġiggēn bi-ḥanafh / flūt flūt flūt tā: wīṣal baʔlī baʔlī bātī ḥārawn / īnēṯ bātī ḥārawn /

8. amūr hīsan ād šīkan śī mkōn alšīḳar barkih / amūr ahāh šīḳar sār ḥōz ḏayk / amūr amūr ḏōmah / amūr ḏōmah amūr šḳarōh / sār ḏikmah / sār ḥōz /

1 Many people remember this story being told in its various versions as a children’s story. 2 Rectangular basket woven of date-palm leaflets (Miranda Morris, p.c.).

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9. w-ankōt bih ḏīm ṯabarayn / amurt ād śinkan ġiggēn mašabbaṭ malabbaṭ3 bi-ḥaydih bakawrah / amūr waylōb śīnan śī lā / amurt ār hāśan ḏīk sār ḥōz / amūr ḏakmah ār ḥabrays /

10. flūt bi-ḥanafh hēh / flūt flūt flūt tā wīṣal baʔlī abḳār / hīs mġōran amūr ād šīkam śī mkōn alšīḳar barkih / amawr šīḳar sār abaḳarēt ḏayk / šiḳarōh sār abaḳarēt /

11. hīs mġōran nkōt ṯabarayn / amarūt ād śinkam ġiggēn mašabbaṭ malabbaṭ bi-ḥaydih bakawrah / amawr amawr lā / amawr śīnan śī lā lōb lōb śīnan śō lō4 / baʔlī śḥayr hēm / amurt ār hāśan ḏīk sār abḳarēt amawr ḏakmah ār ḥabrays / amarūt ḏōmah / amurt /

12. wa-flūt aġiggēn bi-ḥanafh / flūt wa-sēh bagdath bagdath / tā wīṣal baʔlī hibɛˀr / amūr ād šīkam śī mkōn alšīḳar barkih / amawr šīḳar sār ḥaybīt ḏayk / šiḳarōh /

13. hīs mġōran amurt / nkōt sēh ṯabarayn amurt ād śinkam ġiggēn mašabbiṭ malabbiṭ bi-ḥaydih bakawrah / amawr śīnan śī lā / amurt ār hāśan ḏīk sār ḥaybīt /

14. flūt bi-ḥanafh aġiggēn / flūt flūt flūt tā: kūsa bā nwās / kūsa bā nwās amūr hēh ḏōmah / klūṯ lih amūr sray baḳarēt [sic = ṯabarayn] / bār tūt lay aġaytī wa-tḥōm ṣarōma ttahī /

15. amūr hēh bass taḳtalōb bīs lā wa-šīḳar hēt / šḳarōh bark daxšīr wa-śhēr līs bā nuwāˀs / amūr hīs ā xalawtī tiḥaym hāh amurt hōh ḏ-aġawlaḳ min ġiggēn mašabbaṭ malabbaṭ bi-ḥaydih bakawrah / amurt ḏōmah /

16. amūr śink śī lā lākan hōh šay hayš tḥaym AkanzA / barkih ḳrawš wa-mtāt ḥanīt amarūt yallah ḥō / amūr hīs bark muh / ḥlakmah / mahaṣāt5 ḏa-muh / mahaṣāt axah AbirkahA / mahaṣāt ḏa-muh amūr ḥlakmah barkīs yiḳāʔ AkanzA /

17. amūr hīs lākan fnōhan AlāzimA nitiḳḳah titiḳḳah kallah / hō ḳdark latiḳḳah waḥśī lā / amurt hīh tiḳiyēta / hēh aymal ḥanafh ḏ-ītiḳan wa-sēh tiḳyēt / min ḥōgat / tiḥōm AkanzA / tiḳiyēt tiḳiyēt / tiḳiyēt tā: garatha kallah / hīs bār garath amūr tiḳaydar tiḥayṣal AalkanzA lā ār w-āfidš / w-āfidš w-āfidš ḏīmah / amahaṣāt ḏīmah /

3 Used in Mehri, but the expression isn’t Mehri. Appears in stories. 4 Śḥerɛt. 5 Waterscrape, dug in flowbed (Miranda Morris, p.c.).


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18. amurt ayyah āfdīta / āfadūt / hīs āfdūt twōḳa bark ʔamḳ ḏ-amhaṣāt / faḳaśōt haflis / wa-ftakūt aġaganōˀ(t) / w-aġiggēn śill aġath wa-nḳasīs ūḳōt bi-xayˀr / wa-Aʕāšū murtāḥīnA /

10.4.1.1 Text 01. Hyena story. Translation

1. [This is] a story people used to tell a long time ago, a long time ago. In this story, they said there was once a hyena in a cave, with her children. Her children were dying of hunger. They didn’t have any food left and said, ‘Mother, we need food!’

2. Their mother, the hyena came and went to look for them, to look for food for them. She looked and in the end she found a large, oblong basket of dates. She took it to her children.

3. As she was on her way, she found a boy and his sister. They came and said to her, ‘What have you got in the waterskin, the date basket?’ She said, ‘That is just […] in the date basket.’ She said, ‘That is something.’ That’s to say, she hid, she wanted to hide from them that it was dates.

4. Then the boy played a trick on her and took her camel stick – she had a camel stick – and he took her dates from her. He left her without dates and put stones in for her, stones into that date basket.

5. And she went, thinking she had her dates with her. She went and went and went until she reached her children. When she got to her children, they came and when they opened the date basket, they only found stones in it.

6. She said, ‘Those children have played a trick on me!’ She went back to them. When she got to them they fled, the children – the boy and his sister. They fled and fled and while they were fleeing the girl stood on a ḥarūś 6 thorn – a tree called ḥarūś which has thorns.

7. Then, then that hyena came and swallowed her and the boy was left. The boy fled. He fled and fled and fled until he reached goat herders, women goat herders.

8. He said to them, ‘Do you have a place I could hide in?’ They said, ‘Yes, hide behind that goat.’ They said, that, they said. He hid behind that, behind the goat.

6 Acacia tortilis (Forssk.) (Miller & Morris 1988: 176–177, 344).

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9. The hyena came after him. She said, ‘Have you seen a cunning, naughty boy with a camel stick in his hand?’ They said, ‘No, we haven’t seen anything!’ She said, ‘But what’s that behind the goat?’ They said, ‘That is just her kid.’

10. He fled and fled and fled until he reached cow herders. Then he said, ‘Have you got a place I could hide in?’ They said, ‘Hide behind that cow.’ He hid behind the cow.

11. Then the hyena came. She said, ‘Have you seen a cunning, naughty boy with a camel stick in his hand?’ They said, they said, ‘No.’ They said [in Śḥerɛt], ‘We’ve seen nothing. We’ve seen nothing.’ They were Śḥerɛt speakers. She said, ‘But what’s that behind the cow?’ They said, ‘That’s just her calf.’ She said, ‘That.’ She said.

12. And the boy fled. He fled and she chased him and chased him until he reached camel herders. He said, ‘Do you have a place I could hide in?’ They said, ‘Hide behind that camel.’ He hid.

13. Then she said, the hyena came [and] she said, ‘Have you seen a cunning, naughty boy with a camel stick in his hand?’ They said, ‘We haven’t seen anything.’ She said, ‘So what is that behind the camel?’

14. The boy fled and fled and fled until he found Bā Nuwās. He found Bā Nuwās and told him that, he said, ‘I’ve got a cow [sic = hyena] after me. She’s eaten my sister and now she wants to eat me.’

15. He said to him, ‘Don’t worry about her and you hide.’ He hid in a lair and Bā Nuwās appeared to her. He said, ‘Auntie, what do you want?’ She said, ‘I’m looking for a boy, a cunning, naughty boy with a camel stick in his hand.’ She said that.

16. He said, ‘I haven’t seen anything, but I do have some treasure for you, with money and food.’ She said, ‘Okay, where?’ He said, ‘In water over there, a waterscrape.’ A mahaṣāt is like birkah [a pond], a pond with water. He said, ‘There in it is treasure.’

17. He said, ‘But first you have to drink it all up. I can’t drink it all myself.’ She told him she would drink. He pretended to drink and she drank because she wanted the treasure. She drank and drank until she’d drunk it all. When she had drunk it, he said, ‘You can’t get the treasure unless you jump, jump across that, that waterscrape!’


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18. She said, ‘Yes, I’ll jump.’ She jumped, and when she jumped and landed in the middle of that waterscrape, her stomach split and the girl came out. The boy took his sister and removed the thorn. She was well again and they lived happily ever after.

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10.4.2 Text 02. Wadi story

Male speaker, age c. 55 years old at time of recording. Recorded March 2011 in house in Salalah with headphone microphone directly onto Adobe Audition 1.5 on Sony laptop and saved in WAV format.

1. hōh kūṯōn layš bi-kūṯēt / hām tḥaym tšanfay min aġrōy ḏōmah / bēhal bāś / sēn taḥtawīg līsan hēt / kūṯōn layš1 ba-msēr ḏa-ḥōram ḥābū yiġāḳam min amōl /

2. w-asyūr k-ṣōbaḥ hōh wa-ġayg / šay ġayg arībāy / ġaṣabūt līn ībīt / wa-nḥōm naġlēḳ mans / ībīt bīs aśarb āśamas arġād madanay /

3. wa-syūran / syūran k-aṣōbaḥ ġsūman man sēkin k-ṣōbaḥ / wa:- wa-śillan ḥmuhan / šīn mahtaḳayw / ār anīd / śillan barkīs ḥmuh / wa-haḳbūlan amṣaʔ / bāṭan ḥawōdī /

4. mġōran hīs barn bi-ḥawōdī / śīnan ḥawōdī ṭwaylat līn / amūran nḥam namaḳṣad / nḥam nmaḳṣad niḥśāf / wṭoh twōlī ḥawōdī mšaġarēt /

5. haḳbūlan ūṭoh barkih kūsan anwāḥār / wkūban bark śwāsēʔ / wa-rafan2 barkih / hīs baran l-ḥaḳ / kūsan / ḥlakm ḳafāḳāf / bih madalf ūṭoh / wa-l-hēh ḳaṭ ḳaway lā / dalufkī tah dalufkī tah / habraykī /

6. wa-mġōran hīs baran b-aġawf ankūsa / ḳafḳōf mēkin mšaġarūtan lākin ḥābū bār arśawdaham fanwīn / bār arśawdaham / wa-ṭād akay arśadkī tah / wa-bāś barham marśawd man fnōhan /

7. wa-rafakī tēham tā šarbākī / wa-mġōran / hīs barkī b-aġawf / kiskī ġadwūt / bān karmaymī ṯrayt ġadwūt tḥawśaf man ḥlakmah / ḥaśafkī / ḥaśafkī / atā bi-xōṭar bi-ġārīt / ašanafkī / hāl ḥaydakī ḥaymal /

8. ḥaśśakī śaff ḏa-ḥaybīt ḥlakmah xasēh / wa-tabakī tēs ašanafkī ašnayf ḥāwalay / w-ašnayf amšēġar / śāṯayt šanōf hēm ḥlakmah / šanōf ṭād sār ṭād / šanafkī tēham hīs barkī l-ḥaḳ / l-ād kiskī ḥaybīt haḳbalūt ūṭoh /

9. tabakī tēs tabakī tēs hīs barkī boh / kiskī wōdī ḥlakmah / maḳśērat šadhaḳkī tēs man aġawf / śinkī tēs wōdī mayar / hadwarkī man ḥōram / hadwarkī mṣaʔ / riddakī tabakī ḥōram ḥōram ḥōram tā ḳfidkī amsyūl /

1 Audio unclear. Added by MA. 2 Audio unclear. Added by MA.

Text 02. Wadi story

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10. mġōran haḳbākī l-ḥaḳ / haḳbākī l-ḥaḳ tabakī b-śafs swānōt l-ād kūsan śaff lā kūsan ṣarāf ḥlakmah / wa-ḥaṣḥayṣ masyūl ḏa-bōḏal šaršayr / haḳbākī l-ḥaḳ ūṭōh swānōt / imtalēh ḳatlab lakī šaršayr ḳōmaḥ wa-riddakī mṣaʔ /

11. riddakī mṣa tā bān arīśāḥ / hīs ġatbaram lakī arīśāḥ ḏa-nēḥarī ṯroh / kiskī ḥaśśakī ḥaybīt haḳbalūt amṣaʔ / tabakī tēs / tabakī tēs bark ḥawōdī ḏikm amṣa mṣa swānōt kiskī ṣarḥūb ḳāmaḥayn /

12. lafkī […] markabēt wuṭīyoh ḥaydakī ḥaymal markabēt ḥlakmah wōram bīs / bīs ḥōram laḥbat ḏa-ḥābū wa-ḏ-amōl / syarkī ḏayras / wa-ḥaśśakī ḥaybīt ankōt ḥlakmah /

13. tabakī ḏayras tā mṣā śāmar ḏa-ḥawōdī ḥanōb man bān fanayn ḏa-ḥawday ḥanyōb / fanayn ḏa-ḥawday kiskī farśīt gidat ḥlakmah / kiskī tēs bīs amtwē / wa-farśīt maṯmōm / wa-gidat / lākan ḳaṭ kfaḥt al-sēh nōb wīyan lā / mākanay sēh bīs amtwē /

14. bār wīḳa ḥlakmah mūsē / bār wīḳa mūsē ḏ-adōṯa / fnōhan / fanwī ḏ-adōṯa ḏ-īnōka mūsē fanwī ḏ-aḳayḏ / ḥāwēl ḏ-aḳayḏ / wa-mġōran nkōt śaf ḥamaymat / wa-ṭammūt aḳāʔ ḏakmah kallah /

15. ḳā kallah ḏhīb xatriḳ aḳā kallah / lākan ḥamaymat amūsēyas ḳwayat / tihtawb ḥābū bīs āṣār wa-bīs ḥazawzat / kīlōf / wat ṭawr taġrūḳ ḥābū / bark arawram / wat ṭawr tigḥūf amōl bark ḥawday / ḏīmah ḥamaymat nʔōmar hīs ḥamaymat nḥah / tnōka tōlī ḏ-aḳayḏ / […] wa-fanwē ḏ-axarf ʔaynat /

16. wa-mākanay lḥaymar yinūka [ā]r ṣarbay / wat ṭawr ynōka ṣarbay wat ṭawr snay bāś yinūka ṣarbay wat ṭawr alḥaymar l-hīs l-hīs ḥamaymat / lākan yinōka ṣarbay / mastīhal xarf ma ḏār wḳaytīn bi-ṣarbay ḥāwalay /

17. ḏōm ṭawran ykūn alḥaymar wat ṭawr yilays min ḏār snay / sɛt / bār nūka AzamānA alḥaymar bawm ḳway / wa-bār haślūl amōl wa-bār […] amōl ġayraḳ wa-ḥābū ġirḳam bark arawram w-amōl rīnag / rīnag axōṭar amōl / wa-śī gaḥfēh / lākan mġōran aḳā kallah ʕiśś w-ūbūd bih maray w-ūbūd bih xayr /

18. wa-tabakī ḥōram ḏikm amṣā mṣā mṣā / ḏ-atbōh tā kiskī / sēkin / kiskī sēkin šxabarkī tēham āmūran hīham ād śinkam ībīt girūt līkam śinkam śī ībīt grūt līkam bawmah /

19. āmawr hīn / lā ḳrīw fnōhan minīn / faśśaḥam / ḥaybīt madanay l-ād ḥigyūs lā / šxabūran tēham amūran ād śinkam ḥaybīt gḥādam / gḥādam amūran hīham śinkam [śī] ībīt lā ʔamawr bahaw śīnan śī lā /

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20. amawr hāśan ḥalats klūṯan līham amūran ībīt āfarūt / wa-nōb / wa-ṣalḥayt / w-āḏayḳat / amawr śīnan śī lā / wa-śīnan tēham hankūran tēham axahēm ḏ-īḳaryam / āmūran hīham atēm tagḥayd lā / nḥah ḥaybīt ḥaśśan śafs tā bawmah / atēm tagḥayd man hāśan atēm ḏa-ġribkam ḏa-hūtarkam atēm / hām faśśaḥkam min taḳāʔam hawtarkam hafsaḥkam bi-ḥaybīt /

21. amawr amtalēham šūgīb amawr yaḥōl / nḥah / fōn ḳōran faśśaḥan hawtūran nḥah / l-ād ḥōgan ḥaybīt lā walā ḥaybīt śīnan bīs xasēh bars bīs aśarb / bār ḏa-ḳarabōt / l-ād aḥōgan tēs lā w-ād ḏa-haḳbalūt bāṭan ḏōmah mṣā / hām tḥaym taġlēḳam /

22. taban tēs / taban tēs hīs baran amṣā: l-ād kūsan […] / habṭāʔan wa-ḏayman / wa-šīn ḥmuh xaybat / w-amtalēyan tā hīs baran ūboh kūsan maḥlōḳ / āzūman fōna nsēr bark ḥawōdī ṭayt al-ḥaḳ / bīs ḥamuh awd / bīs ḥamuh awd fōna / bark ankarūt al-ḥaḳ al-ḥaḳ /

23. amtalēkī ʔād al-waṣalkī lā kiskī ṣarāf / śaf man amūsē ḏikm ḏa-kanhūr / kiskī ḥlakm maḥlōḳ bīham ḥmuh / tiḳḳakī min amaḥlōḳ lyakmah hīs bār tiḳḳakī / riddakī mṣā mṣā tabakī śaff ḏa-ḥaybitkī hīs barkī boh / ġbūran ībīt ṭayt at-tanḥībūb /

24. āmurn ḏīmah ḥaybaytan at-twūt ūḳōna / wḳōna bār twūt haman anḥabaybas manṣāwan / hīs ġbūran tēs śaf al-sēh ḥaybaytan lā śaf ār ṭayt mšaġarēt / hamak hafsēḥan bīs wa-sēh tabatan amṣā / taban śaff la-hāl amkōn ḏa-ḥabrēs amāṯīm / hāl amāṯīm ḏa-ḥabrays /

25. tā nakan kūsan amāṯīm ḏa-ḥabrays bār tuwyih kawb / hamak ādan kūsan ḥruhs3 / ḥruh ḏa-ḥabrays / mākan aġayg ḏakm arībāy ṭād / ḥagūr ḥaybīt / wa-ʔaymal hīs gfōˀn / āḏūf ḥruh ḏakmah / w-āḏfēh aftūk manh attaywī ftūk manh āśawś / wa-ʔaymal hīs gfōn hammah / xayban ḥābū yaḥlēbam tēs ḏār agfōn ḏakmah /

26. wa-śill hīs agfōn la-ḥaḳ la-hāl sēkan hāl harbātyan ḏa-nakan tēham fnē mših hawban imših / mākan hōh haḳbāk mṣā tabak tabak ḥaybīt tā kisk tēs / kisk tēs āds maśam / ād al-haḳṭawt lā / hawrāk / hawrāk ḥfiśk tēs bars tamxōś /

27. tā riddan tā kūsan sēkan ṭād bark ḥawōdī bark ṯabgēt / ṯabgēt nōb wa:-wōdī / maṯmōm wa-flēt / bars ḥawōdi mṣā tāmōl śīsēʔ / boh wa-boh ḏah wa-ḏah kallah ḏhīb twōlī ḥawōdī /

3 Mistake in telling. Then corrects.

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28. wa-ḥābū bark ʔamḳ ḏa-ḥawōdī bark ṯabgēt bū baʔlī bɛr wa-šīham xayr šīham rawn šīham bɛr / wa-bū rīḥōm / nakan tēham hīs ḳarban līham ḥaybīt āzamūt thahḳaṭ / āzamūt thahḳaṭ līn /

29. nḥōm nhabarks ḥaybīt rɛf / šāmanūt tabrēk lā / amtalēh aġayg šēh ḳayd śkūl hīs / wuhfīs haṭġayḳ bīs īhēf hīs bār bīs īhēf barkūt / barkūt whayfan ḥayds amšaġarēt /

30. wa-ṭarḥan tēs tā haḳṭawt / hīs haḳṭawt ḥiddan bi-ḥabrays gḏūban hīs / ṭād mōna ḥruh wa-ṭād mōna ḥādūtan / tā ftūkan tah / ankōtan frayś / hīs ankōtan frayś / arḳawd arībāy min farḥāt / ḥaybith nkōt bi-frayś /

31. hīs arḳawd afarġak4 min ḏayrah hōh / hīs afarġak min ḏayrah / hawḥayw ḥābū / hawḥayw / hawḥayw ḥābū baʔlī hbɛr lyakmah tā nakam tīn amawr hāśan wīḳa haman lībēd / xayr hāśan wīḳaʔ / amūran ār āfyat ār āfyat ḥaybaytan ankōt bi-frayś / wa-baʔlas aftaxawr wa-rḳawd wa-hōh afarġak min ḏayrah /

32. hēm amawr Aḥamd allāh salāmāt salāmātA […] ṣarōmah inkāʔam ūboh / inkām ūboh wa-hātmam hnīn tā k-ṣōbaḥ / amūran hīs taww / nḥōm naślēl [baʕayr]5 ḥabray ḏa-ḥaybīt ḏār baʕayr / ād al-ḳadūran naślalh lā ḥabrays śōx nūka / wa-l-ād ḳdūran naślalh lā nḥah /

33. hīs k-ṣōbaḥ amawr hīn nḥah šīn bawm bʕayrī ṯroh / hām tḥaym ślēlam ḥabrays ḏār abʕayr / mākanī ṭād bʕayr śōx lahinna ġlēm / yištēw la-ḥābū / hām hammakam tamnēʔam tah / ḳadirkam lih / wa-hēh yištēw xāf lih yinṯakkam aw yifōl bīkam / wa-mākan ṭād ʕaylīg / ʕaylīg lākan ʕaylīg rɛf /

34. amūran ād al-ḥād manayh lā amawr lā rɛf wa- / fawrī / śrawd śrawd / fawrī / amawr hām tḥaym tabgēdam tah wa-tamnāʔam tah /

35. hīs k-ṣōbaḥ / ādsan hibɛr ḏa-brūk xtawūlan tah / xtawūlan xtawūlan / xtawūlan tah tā / kattaran tah ḥād mōna ḥruh wa-ḥād mōna aġōṯī / wa-ḥād mōna / fɛm /

36. wa-śkūl hēh aġayg / wa-haṭġawḳ bih īhēf u-mōna ḥruh / mōna šaġbalha lyōmah / haṭġawḳ bih aḳayd bawmah nḥōm naġrahah / haṭġawḳ bih aḳayd / wa-mġōran yiḳōḏal hēh ḳaḏalih / aymal hēh ḳīḏēl / man bawmah / wa-mōna / wa-mōna nḥōm naġrahah šaġrūh lā /

4 Usually afōraġ ‘to shoot’ denotes shooting out of happiness. 5 Mistake.

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37. arṣawnan tah amūran ṣarōmah xayr narṣanh swānōt amtalēh šḥamūr / haṭġawḳan bih rīṣān6 / amlan ḥlakmah bark […] ḥlakmah hrūm śōx / arṣawnan tah l-hāl hrūm ḏakmah /

38. arṣawnan tah man nhūr atā ġasrawwan / hīs ġasrawwan / šḥamūr / šaġrūh / fnōhan šaġrūh lā / šaġrūh hīs barh ḏ-išġayr / āman tah yabrēk wa-yāśēś wa-yabrēk wa-yāśēś wa-yabrēk hīs bār āman tah ūṭoh nḥam naślēl aḏayrah / frayś ūṭoh l-hāl ḥaskanyan nḥah /

39. hīs barah ḏa-brūk / amūr aġayg hōh rakbōna / hamak amūr hōh arkabōna aḥōm larkōb / amūran AtamāmA / rīkab aġayg hīs bār rīkab / āmūr hawḳā lay frayś / hawḳāʔan lih frayś /

40. hīs bār hawḳāʔan lih frayś wṭoh mahśah aʔaylīg / mhēś / mahśah mhēś aʔaylīg farr šatxaś aġayg w-afrayś waḳam ba-xōṭar / aywah /

41. amūran ḏōmah xayrat šīn ār ūṭōmah ʔaylīg ḏōmah al-hēh ankōn tīn taww lā / wa-ʔamk tīn naṭraḥah bawmah / ṣarōmah walā ḥād yinōka šēh s īyaryat / naślūl šēh frayś ḏōmah / tā mtalēh yinōka ġayg šēh sīyaryat nūka mn mṣāwan m-bōh šēh sīyaryat / ġayg min harbātyan / wa-ḥawōdī sēh mayar wīyan lā mṣā bīs ḥōram ḏa-sīyaryōt bīs wōram lā lākan / bark āmḳ ḏa- / m-bayn ḥawday / ḥlakm ṭaḥḥ7 / ṭaḥḥ ḏakm wayṭaʔ / tiḳadran tarfāʔan tah sīyaryōt l-ād al-bih wōram lā ād al-aḥād xadmīs lā / lākan ṭaḥḥ wayṭā /

42. frūran frayś bark sīyaryat / bark tōlī s-sīyaryat / wa-ḥaybīt tabath / w-akay rakabkī ṭād rīkab hāl frayś swānōt / wa-rafan aṭaḥḥ ḏakmah tā habrāyan / wa-kūsan tah wayṭā wa-mrūḳan /

43. wa-mġōran nakan ḥadḥayd ḏakm amḳay / man bayn ḥawōdī ṯrayt / nakan ḥadḥayd ḏakm l-ḥa:ḳ l-ḥaḳ tā bark hūtīt ṭayt / kūsan bīs harmayt u-bīs sa yḥ uṭōm hūtīt gidat /

44. ṭarḥan ḥaybaytan thaḳṣam ta ttah / thaḳṣam / swānōt wa-bār ḏa-gāyan šīn mtāt lā / hīs mġōran nġawbar maxṭār / maxṭār ġyūg ḏa-nakam m-arḥabēt /

45. fnōhan ġbūran ṭād / nūka m-arḥabēt wa-šēh bʕayr wa-šēh ḳawt ḏār ḥaybīt / abʕayrah / šanzāʔan tah fōna / amūran nzāʔ līn ḳawt […] / ġayg nōḳaṣ ġayg al-hēh kraym lā / amūr hōh šay šay ḳawt lā šay ār xawr wa-ḥabinya rēḥaḳ wuzmōn tēkam śī lā /

6 Tether rope usually for legs. rīsāġ is tether rope from head. 7 Cf. Hobyōt, Baṭḥari, Soqoṭri ṭaḥḥ ‘soft sand, ground; slope’ (Miranda Morris, p.c.).

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46. ghēm / u-mġōran8 ār ḳaṭ nḥah ḏa-hāḏūran hēh / ġayg hēh šēh maḥṣawl wīyan lā / wa-šēh sarbīt ḏa-ḥabinha / ḏa-hāḏūran hēh axah hīs al-wazmīn śī lā / mġōran nakam9 ġaygī ṯrōh šīham rīkōb / mšaġarūtan / amūran hīham nḥah maḳṭaʔawtan bār hīn waḳt man ġār mtāt / wa-šīkam śī mtāt tanzām līn /

47. amawr yallah taḳtalīb lā nḥah šīn xayr nazyē līkam / šanzāʔan tēham / wa-nazam līn / wzawman ʕaynat ʔāyś / wzawman skēr / wa-ghēman /

48. wa-ghēman tā ḳf ūdan mġōran ḥawōdī ṭayt amšaġarēt / wa-kūsan ḥlakmah maḥlōḳ / ḏa-ḥmuh / wa-šīn ṣafrāyūt bark śīsab / aġayg śallīs ḏa-hūḳays bark śīsab / haftūkan aṣafrāyūt ḏikmah / hawḳāʔan barkīs muh man amaḥlōḳ lyakmah / wa-haglūlan / ġayg ṭād ḥṭawb / wa-nūka bi-ḏīrōb wa-hūḳa ḏār śīwōṭ / ḳadḥan śīwōṭ wa-hālūḳan w-arakban /

49. nakan b-amḳōdar / wa-hawḳāʔan ḏayrasan aṣafrāyat wa-haglūlan / haglūlan hīs habhūlan šīn ṣaynayyat lā / ḥlakm ṣarfayt / ṣarfayt ṭhaḳayt / ṭhaḳayt ḏikm arḥāśan tēs / wa-hīs barn anaḏfan tēs arḥāśan tēs angūfan āyś ḏayris / wa-tūwan /

50. tūwan ūḳamaytī ṯrayt aw śahlīṯ āyś al-hēh mēkin lā / kall ṭād ūḳamaytī ṯrayt yā śahlīṯ nḥah śāṯayt ḥlakmah nḥah akay ṯroh / baʔlī ḥaybīt u-ġayg baʔl sīyaryat / fōśan hīs bār fōśan / tūwan ayāśēn ḏakmah / wa-tiḳan ḥmuh / man ḥlakmah /

51. wa-mġōran ghēman / šūgūśan / šūgūśan tā nakan sēkin / hīs ḥbōr nakan sēkin ḥābū farḥam bīn / wa-sḥāṭam hīn / wa-ḥaynēṯ talbalūban / w-aġyūg ḏ-īśtāran /

52. amawr ḥābū bār ḏa-nḳatlīban bīkam wa-tšhīl slōmat / wa-ʔamlam hīn šarḥ / šarḥ aġyūg irḳawd wa-ḥaynēṯ anḥāg wa- / šarḥ hamak tī aw lā ġfawl ḥābū sḥāṭam hīn masḥaṭōt wa-ḥābū ġasarawm / wa-hātīm wa-nḥah bār firḥan / bār nakan Amā šallāhA bi-ḥaybaytan / ḥaybīt āḏayḳat / ḥaybīt tamūla gīrū wat ḥābū ḥlawbas / wa-bār šīs ḥabrays frayś Amā šallāhA wa-nakan wa-hātūman /

53. wa-ḏīm aḳassēt tammōt wa-hām tḥaym tšaxbar man śī hōh kūṯōn layš mġōran /

8 Mistake. 9 Plural agreement with dual predicand.

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10.4.2.1 Text 02. Wadi story. Translation

1. I’m going to tell you a story, if you want to benefit from this tale. Some of the words you’ll need. I’ll tell you of a journey, people are looking for livestock.

2. I go in the morning with a man, a friend of mine is with me. A camel had gone off, and we wanted to look for her. A camel that was about to give birth. She’d been in the earlier stages of pregnancy.

3. So we went. We went in the morning. We left the homestead early in the morning. We took our water. We had nothing for carrying water in but a leather waterskin. We took water in it, and we set off downstream through the wadi.

4. Then when we were in the wadi, we saw the wadi was very long. We said, ‘Let’s take a short cut. Let’s take a short cut and go down towards the other wadi.’

5. We headed down it and found a narrow branch of the wadi, we went into a gully. We went into it. When we were there we found a small ledge there. It was a jump. It wasn’t very difficult. We both jumped over it, we jumped over it, then we got up.

6. Then when we were up we found lots of other ledges, but people had levelled them out before [we came]. They had levelled them out. One we levelled, and some had been levelled before.

7. We went up them until we reached the top. Then when we were up we found a path between two hills that you had to go down, we went down and down until [we got] down [to] flat land. Then we turned right.

8. We tracked the camel’s tracks to there, and we followed her. We went round the first bend [round a hill] and then the second bend. There were three bends there, bends, one [bend] after the other. We went round them and when we were upstream, we didn’t find the camel – she had headed off.

9. We followed her and followed her. When we got there we found a difficult wadi there. We looked at it from above. We saw it was a steep wadi.10 We moved off the path and moved downstream. We continued to follow the road on and on until we got down into the bottom of the wadi.

10 i.e. the sides of the wadi were steep.

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10. Then we headed upstream. We went upstream following her track. After a little while, we didn’t find any tracks. We found large slabs of rock, and stones. The wadi bottom was poor and narrow. We went that way for a little while, then it turned into a difficult, narrow path for us, so we headed back downstream.

11. We went back downstream to where the branches of the wadi meet. When we got to the meeting place of two narrow wadis we found, we tracked the camel having headed downstream. We followed her. We followed her along that wadi further and further downstream. After a little while, we found [difficult] poor paths with lots of stones.

12. We turned [onto] a higher path [where the flood waters don’t go]. On our right there was a path. There was a clear way for people and animals. We went along it and tracked the camel [seeing it] had come there.

13. We followed it downstream to the end of the big wadi where the big wadis open out. Where the wadis open out we found a good flat area. We found grazing there and the area was fertile and good, but it was narrow, it wasn’t very big, but it had grazing.

14. There had been rain there, the dōṯa-type rain had fallen earlier. The beginning of the [dōṯa] rain comes before the hot period, the beginning of the hot period. Then it turns out ḥamaymat-type rain had come and flooded the whole area.

15. The whole area had been eroded by the flood waters, but ḥamaymat, its rain is very strong. It wears people out; it comes with storms and strong winds. Sometimes it drowns people in the sea and sometimes sweeps livestock down the wadis. That is ḥamaymat. We call it ḥamaymat. It comes at the end of the hot period and a little before the monsoon period.

16. The alḥaymar rain season comes just in the post-monsoon period. Sometimes it comes in the post-monsoon period and sometimes, some years, it comes in the post-monsoon period, and sometimes the alḥaymar is like ḥamaymat, but it is post-monsoonal. Straight after the monsoon period, a short time into the post-monsoon period.

17. The alḥaymar also may come after years, sometimes after a long time. A long time ago, the alḥaymar was very strong here. It swept away livestock and livestock drowned and people drowned in the sea and livestock got stuck in mud. Livestock were stuck below and it swept some away. But after that the whole land woke up and had grazing and goodness.

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18. We both followed that path further downstream, following it until we came upon a homestead. We came across the homestead and asked them. We said to them, ‘Have you seen a camel passing by you? Have you seen a camel passing by you here?’

19. They told us, ‘No.’ At first they hid [the truth] from us. They were embarrassed, the camel was pregnant, they couldn’t catch it. We asked them and said, ‘Have you seen the camel?’ They denied it, they denied it. We said to them, ‘Haven’t you seen a camel?’ They said, ‘No! We haven’t seen anything!’

20. They said, ‘What does it look like?’ We told them. We said, ‘[It’s] a large, fat, red camel with large udders.’ They said, ‘We haven’t seen anything!’ We saw them, we realised they were probably hiding something. We said to them, ‘Don’t you deny it! We’ve tracked our camel’s tracks to here. Why are you denying it. You know you weren’t able to [catch her]. If you’re embarrassed about having been unable [to catch her and] letting the camel go.’

21. They said, then they confessed. They said, ‘Yes, we were hiding something. We are embarrassed and weren’t able [to catch her]. We weren’t able to catch her, but we saw the camel was about to give birth, she’s nearly [there]. We didn’t catch her, and she continued through that, downstream, if you want to look.’

22. We went after her. We went after her downstream, but we didn’t find […] We’d taken a long time and were thirsty. We only had a little water. Then when we were there we found pools in the rock. We had meant to go upstream in one of the wadis which had permanent water. It had permanent water in a depression further upstream.

23. Then before we had arrived we found large flat rocks, and it turned out that because of that rain from earlier, we were able to find dips in the rock with water in. We drank from those pools. When we had drunk, we followed our camel’s tracks downstream once more. When we were there, we came across a camel bellowing.

24. We said, ‘That is our camel. It may have had [its calf] eaten. It may have had [its calf] eaten.’ We heard her bellowing coming from downstream. When we caught up with her, it turned out she wasn’t our camel. It turned out to be another one. Do you m.s. hear? We left her and she followed us downstream. We followed the tracks to the remains of her calf, to the remains of her calf.

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25. When we arrived, we found the remains of her calf. A wolf had eaten it. Do you hear? We found her head, the head of her calf, but that man, my companion, stayed with the camel and made a tulchan for her. He cut the head off. He cut it off. He removed the flesh from it and removed the bones from it and made her what is called a gfōn [tulchan], so that people could milk her with that tulchan.

26. He took the tulchan for her to the homestead, to members of our tribe who we’d been to see two days before, I mean the day before. I, though, headed downstream and followed the camel until I found her. I found her still in calf. She hadn’t yet given birth. I rounded her up and made her turn back.11 She was in labour.

27. We went back until we came across an encampment on a low-lying area with soil, an expansive low-lying area and a wadi with lots of vegetation and wide. The wadi downstream branches off from here and there. It’s all flood water towards the wadi.

28. The people in the middle of the wadi in the middle area were camel herders. They had good stuff with them. They had goats. They had camels. They were good people. We went to them. As we approached them, the camel was about to give birth. She was about to give birth.

29. We wanted to get her to kneel. The camel was unruly. She couldn’t be persuaded to kneel. Then the man had a rope. He tied up her front leg. He tied up her front leg. When he had tied up her forelegs, when she had the rope on firmly, she kneeled. She kneeled. We tied up the other front leg.

30. And we left her until she gave birth. As she gave birth, we pulled her calf. One grabbed the head and the other grabbed the forelegs, until we pulled it out. She gave birth to a female calf. When she gave birth to a female camel calf, my friend danced for joy: his camel had given birth to a female calf.

31. When he danced, I shot above him. When I shot above him [i.e. in the air], people ran up. People ran up. People, those camel herders, ran up. When they got to us, they said, ‘What’s happened? We heard shooting, [is all] well, what happened?’ We said, ‘All is well, all is well! Our camel has had a female calf. Her owner is happy and danced and I shot into the air.’

32. They said, ‘Thanks be to God! Congratulations, congratulations! Now come here, come here and spend the night with us!’ We said, ‘Fine. We

11 By standing in front of her.

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want to take the camel’s calf on a male camel. We can’t carry it. Her calf was born big, and we can’t carry it.’

33. In the morning, they said, ‘We have two male camels here. If you want, take her calf on a male camel. One camel is fully grown, but aggressive.12 He’s ready to bite and attack people. If you are able to catch him. If you can manage him, when he[’s ready to attack], he may bite you or attack you. The other is a young male camel,13 but an untrained male camel.

34. We said, ‘Has no one taken hold of him?’ They said, ‘No, [he’s] untrained, wild, hard to catch.’ They said, ‘If you want to chase him and catch him.’

35. In the morning, while the camels were still kneeling, we crept up on him. We crept up on him and crept up on him, until we caught him by surprise. One [of us] grabbed his head, the other grabbed the neck, and one grabbed the back leg.

36. The man tied a foreleg up and tied the rope on the forelegs, and grabbed hold of the head. He caught hold of his lips. He tied the rope on here [i.e. from his head and neck], we wanted to lead him. He tied the rope on him and then made a halter for him. He made a halter for him from here and took hold. We wanted to lead him, but he wouldn’t be led.

37. We tethered him. We said, ‘Now we’d better tether him for a little while.’ Then he became biddable. We put a tether rope on him. We did it there on a large tree. We tethered him to that tree.

38. We kept him tethered from midday until late afternoon. In the late afternoon, he became biddable and could be led. Before he wouldn’t be led. He would [now] be led. As he was about to be led, we trained him to kneel and get up and kneel and get up and kneel. When we had trained him like that, we wanted to carry the calf on him back to our families.

39. When he had kneeled, the man said, ‘I’m going to mount.’ Do you hear? He said, ‘I’m going to get on, I want to get on.’ We said, ‘Okay!’ The man got on. When he was mounted, he said, ‘Pass me the calf!’ We passed him the calf.

40. When we had passed him the calf, the young camel threw him. It threw him. The camel jumped up. The man and the calf fell off and they ended up down [i.e. on the ground]. Yes!

12 Sexually active and as a result likely to jump on a female camel or attack people. 13 That hasn’t yet served a female camel.

Text 02. Wadi story

463

41. We said, ‘[If] that’s all we have, that camel won’t do us any good. I think we’ll leave him here now. Now if there is anyone coming with a car, we’ll take that calf with him. Then a man came from downstream with a car, one of our tribe. The wadi wasn’t very steep downstream. There was no road for cars, there was no road, but in the middle, between the wadis there was a slope.14 That slope was low-lying. Cars could get up, [though] there was no road yet. No one had yet made it, but [it was] a gentle slope.

42. We lifted the calf into the car, into the back of the car, and the camel followed it. We two got in. One rode with the calf for a bit, and we went up that slope until we got to the top. We found it flat and moved on quickly.

43. Then we came on to a narrow rocky ridge between two wadis. We went upstream on that hill to a flat, level area. There we found trees and gravel. It was a good level area.

44. We let our camel rest in the hot part of the day to eat, rest for a little while. We were hungry. We had no food. Then we met a caravan, a caravan, men who had come from the town.

45. First we met someone who had come from the town. He had a male camel and had food on the camel, his male camel. We asked him to share food. We said, ‘Give us some food!’ […] He was a mean man, the man wasn’t generous. He said, ‘I haven’t any food. I’ve only got a little and my children are far away. I’m not going to give you anything!’

46. He went on. We forgave him. The man didn’t have very much and had a lot of children. We forgave him for not giving us anything. Then two other men came with camels. We said to them, ‘We are very hungry and very thirsty from lack of food. We’ve not had any food for a while. [If] you have any food, share [it] with us!’

47. They said, ‘By God, don’t worry! We’ve got [food], we’ll give you [some].’ We asked them for food and they gave us some. They gave us a little rice. They gave us sugar, then we went on.

48. We went on until we came down then into the next wadi. There we found rock pools. We had a small pan in a leather bag. The man took it having put it in a leather bag. We took that small pot out and put water from those pools into it and we boiled [the rice]. One man fetched wood. He brought wood and put [it] on the fire. We lit a fire and set up […]

14 Slope going up.

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49. We brought stones to support the pot on the fire and put the pot on them and boiled [the rice]. We boiled [it] and when we had prepared [it], we didn’t have a plate. There was a flat rock there. A smooth rock. We washed that smooth rock. When we had cleaned it, we washed it [and] scooped rice onto it and ate.

50. We ate two or three small mouthfuls. There wasn’t much rice. Everyone had two or three small mouthfuls. There were three of us. We two, the men with the camel, and the driver of the car. We had lunch. When we had had lunch, we ate that small amount of rice and drank the water from there.

51. Then we went. We went in the afternoon. We went until we reached the homestead. The moment we reached the homestead, people were delighted [to see] us. They slaughtered for us, the women ululated and the men shouted wayu wayu.

52. The people said said, ‘We have been concerned about you. You deserve safe passage!’ They made a celebration for us. The men danced and the women danced. Do you hear or not? People were happy and relaxed. They slaughtered an animal for us and people sat together in the evening and spent the night. We were happy. Goodness we’d brought our camel, the camel had lots of milk. The camel would fill a large milk container when people milked her. She had her female calf, and we had come and spent the night.

53. This story has ended and if you want to ask [me] about anything, I’ll tell you later.

Text 03. Hajj story

465

10.4.3 Text 03. Hajj story

Speaker male, age c. 25 at time of recording. Born and raised in Rabkūt. Educated to secondary level. Recorded March 2011 in yard in Rabkūt onto Marantz PMD661 with PG58 microphone. Saved in WAV format.

1. āmawr hayš / ā tamīmah / āmawr āśamīham ḥābū / yisyawr ār ḏār hibɛr tā ḥagg / wa-tōlī ġayg ṭād āmūr sīrōn ḥagg / wa-ḥigg ḏār ḥaybith /

2. wa-syūr ḏār ḥarmah ḏār ḥaybith tā / wa-habṭā ḏār ḥōram / attā wīṣal / tā wīṣal makkah / amkōn ḏ-aḥḥagg / kūsa ḥābū bār xāṣam ḥagg / w-aḥḥagg ʕarafah / wa-ʕarafah sēh ḥagg /

3. w-ād kūsa śī lā kūsa ḥābū bār ḥaggam / wa-ttōlī ḳaṭ amūr maśxawwal / wa-śxawalūl ḥalakma:h / tā:: / tā ḥawl /

4. wa-ḥābū harbātha bōh šāśaywah / wa-ykībah bār mōt / wa-nḥāram lih / wa-hēh ġayg ūṭoh wa-tōlī śxawalūl ḥlakmah tā ḥagg hīs ḥawl nūka wa-ḥigg ka-ḥābū /

5. w-aḥḥagg yikūn bi-snēt ār ṭawr / hamaš / wa-man ḥlakmah syūr ḥagg […] ridd / ridd tōlī harbātha wa-ridd tōlī ḥabinha /

6. attā wīṣal amkōnah mn hāl yaḥlōl / āmūr / kūsa ġaganāʔōt ḳannitt / ksīs bars nōb bars nōb / wa-l-ād ġarbatha lā hēh ḥaybis /

7. āmūr hēt mōn / amurt hōh bart flān āmūr hīs ār ḥaybiš ḥō / amurt ḥaybī bār mōt / āmūr xayban ḏōm hōh ḥaybiš / wa-bikyōh ād ḥlakm hay / anhūrhī / wa-tā riddam hēh ād w-aḏānah wa-kall barham faxra /

8. wa-ḏīmah sēh ūḳōt aḳassēt / aḳassēt ḏ-aḥḥagg / ḏa-tmīmah tḥams /

10.4.3.1 Text 03. Hajj story. Translation

1. They told you, Tamīmah. They said, people used to go on the hajj by camel. And then one man said, ‘I’m going on the hajj.’ And he went on the hajj on his camel.

2. He went on his way on his camel until, and he took a long time on the way, until he arrived. When he reached Mecca, the place of the hajj, he found people had already finished the hajj, and the hajj is during Arafah, and Arafah is the hajj.

3. He found nothing left, he found people had already done the hajj. And then he said, ‘I’ll stay.’ And he stayed there for a year.

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4. And people, his tribe here, missed him and thought he had died. They slaughtered for him, but he, the man, was there and then he stayed there until the hajj. After a year, he did the hajj with other people.

5. The hajj is only once a year, do you f.s. hear? And from there he went on the hajj […], he returned. He returned back to his tribe and returned to his children.

6. When he arrived at his place where he lived he said, he found a young girl. He found her and she was already grown up, she was grown up. She no longer knew that he was her father.

7. He said, ‘Who are you?’ She said, ‘I am so-and-so’s daughter.’ He said, ‘Where is your father?’ She said, ‘My father is dead.’ He said, ‘Okay, I am your father.’ And they cried there all day until they returned, and he and his family were all together.

8. And this is the story, the story of the hajj that Tamīmah wanted.

Text 04. Goats

467

10.4.4 Text 04. Goats

Speaker female, age c. 21 at time of recording. Born and raised in Rabkūt. Educated to university level. Recorded March 2011 in house in Rabkūt onto Marantz PMD661 with PG58 microphone. Saved in WAV format.

1. īmoh syūran bark ḥārawn wa-kūsan ḥīṭār wa-ʔārōḏ / wa-tayyah wa-rawn / wa-ḥīṭār yūġaym min ḥārawn /

2. ḥāmay thaġawm ḥīṭār / w-īmōh aġaygūt wōz wa-šīs śkōl / ḥōṭar w-arīḏ / wa-ttawyan śɛr wa-ʔalaf / wa-sēn bark ḥawš / wa-kalaynī taškūfan bark aśaygaʔ / ḥāmay tḳōfal līsan bark aśaygaʔ /

3. tatawyan śɛr k-aṣōbaḥ / wa-kalaynī / mākanī ʔalaf tatawyan ār k-aṣōbaḥ ṭawr / ḥāmay tḥōlab ṭawr k-aṣōbaḥ wa-ṭawr bi-ḥallay /

4. šīn wḳōn bark āšrayn u-xaymah / aw śalāṯayn / yā śalāṯayn wṭōmah /

5. ṣarrayt / hām sēh ṣarrayt yaxah tnōka ba-śxōf ār mat ḥlabš tēs tnōka bi-śxōf ʔaynat al-ʔaynat / mākan hām sēh rafxayt tnōka bi-śxōf mēkin ṭawr ṭād /

6. wa-hām bīs ḳrūn lā tkūn ḳarḥayt / bīs ḳrawn tk ūn baʔlīt aḳrū n / bāś min ḥārawn bīsan ḳrūn lā tkūn ḳarwaḥtan / wa-bāś bīsan ḳrawn tkūn bātī ḳrūn /

7. wa-titiḳḳan ḥmuh ḥārawn / wa-ḥāmay taġśōn minsēn / hōh aġśōn minsēn āśamī ṣarōmah lā / ṣarōmah aśxāsan /

10.4.4.1 Text 04. Goats. Translation

1. Today we went among the goats and found female and male kids, a billy goat and female goats, and the kids were suckling from the goats.

2. My mother was helping the kids suckle. Today a goat gave birth and had twins – a male and a female kid. They eat hay and pellets. They are in the yard and in the evening they sleep in the shed. My mother locks them in the shed.

3. They eat hay in the morning and evening, but pellets they just eat once in the morning. My mother milks once in the morning and once at night.

4. We have around twenty-five, or thirty, or around thirty.

5. ṣarrayt, if she is ṣarrayt that means she gives milk, when you milk her, she gives milk only drop by drop. But if she is rafxayt she gives a lot of milk in one go.

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6. If she hasn’t any horns, she is [called] ḳarḥayt. [If] she has horns, she is [said to be] with horns [baʔlīt ḳrūn]. Some goats don’t have horns and are [described as] ḳarwaḥtan. Some have horns and are said to have horns [bātī ḳrūn].

7. Goats drink water. My mother likes them. I used to be fond of them, but not now. Now I find them dirty.

Text 05. The car

469

10.4.5 Text 05. The car

Male speaker, age c. 70 years at time of recording. Lived all his life in and around Rabkūt. Recorded February 2011 by the fire in evening shelter in Rabkūt onto Marantz PMD661 with PG58 microphone. Saved in WAV format.

1. Aawwal marrah fī ḥayātīA śīnak sīyaryat /

2. lākan b-amahrayyat /1

3. b-amahrayyat / śīnak sīyaryat ūṭōh nḥah bātī ʔawraḥ b-aḳāʔ ḏa-bātī rabkūt / aśōnī tankar / aśōnī tankar tasyūr bi-ṣayḥ / aśaynas man aġawf w-aʔōmar aḥ-ḥābū bark aḳābī ḏīmah karmaym taghūm / wa-yiṣṣak /

4. wa-bḳaśk la-hāl ḥābū la-ḥlawk / tā nakak hāl ḥaybī / wa-ḥābū / wa-mġōran ʔamūr karmaym tasyūr lā /

5. syawr ḥābū man ḥlakmah ḥō ḥō tā wiṣlan hāl amkōn man hāl śīnak tēs / ḥaybī ḥaśś sīyaryat śaf tankar taghūm ḥaśśan aśaffas / bi-ṣayḥ taghūm /

6. ʔamūr ġayg la-hāl ḥaybī / ʔamūr ḏīmah hammas sīyaryat / wa-ḏīmah sēh karmaym lā taghūm hēt śīnak ār sīyaryat w-assīyaryat bār ghamūt /

10.4.5.1 Text 05. The car. Translation

1. The first time in my life I saw a car.

2. But in Mehreyyet!

3. In Mehreyyet! I saw a car there, we were at Awraḥ in the area of Rabkūt, I saw a tanker. I saw a tanker going in the gravel desert. I saw it from above and said to people, ‘I think that is a mountain moving!’ And I was afraid.

4. I ran to the people over there, until I reached my father and the people. Then he said, ‘A mountain doesn’t move!’

5. The people went from there, until we reached the place where I had seen it. My father tracked the car’s tracks. It turned out it was a lorry moving. We followed its tracks. It was moving in the gravel desert.

6. A man said to my father, he said, ‘That is called a sīyaryat [car]. That isn’t a mountain moving, you just saw a car!’ And the car had gone.

1 Intervention by interviewer.

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Index

adjectives 24, 32, 48–50, 65, 103–109, 111, 137, 138–158, 197, 214–215, 216–219, 223, 225, 230, 233–235, 240–241, 250, 263–264, 278, 299–300, 305, 363–364

colour adjectives 104–107, 283, 361, 366–367

declinable adjectives 105–106 diminutive adjectives 106–107, 139 undeclinable adjectives 107, 140, 264 adjunction 132, 133, 245, 248, 262, 274,

347–348, 390, 396 adjuncts 115–119, 124, 189, 206, 391 adverbial clauses 133, 245–246, 249,

262–263, 382–405 conditional 245, 395–400 exception 324, 330–332 place 243–244, 387–388 purpose/reason 390–393 time 245, 382–387 universal condition-concession 400–

402 adverbs 109, 114, 115–130, 279, 156–

157, 347–382, 183, 199, 214–218, 279, 339, 347–382

adverbial particles 97, 125–128, 323–325

degree/quantity 115, 141, 235, 361–368

epistemic 128, 373–376 frequency 353–355 manner/comparison 115, 120–121,

359–360 place 115–117, 121, 157, 355–359,

360 reason/purpose 368–369 time 115, 117–120, 121–122, 190,

234, 347–355 affix accusative 67–70, 131–132, 201,

202–204, 205, 260

agreement 60, 162, 229, 232–234, 251–255, 277–278

annexion 7, 139, 142–153, 157, 176–196, 234, 266–267, 350, 361

annex 7, 67–77, 111, 161, 166, 170–175, 199, 220–221, 224–226, 228, 235, 238, 240, 244, 253, 255, 266–268, 275–277, 331, 338, 389, 394, 403–405

annexed term 7, 139, 234, 350 apposition 137, 155, 163–175, 184, 299,

301, 327 apposed term 163–170, 173, 174,

175, 186 appositive 67, 152, 166, 170–175,

183–186 aspect 84–92, 133–134 imperfect 23, 31, 39, 51, 53, 67, 84–

92, 96–97, 201, 396, 398 perfect 53, 67–69, 72–73, 84–86, 92–

98, 131, 201–202, 226–227, 245, 247, 382, 386, 396, 399, 405

attribution 133, 138–175, 233–235, 236, 240, 269, 334

attribute 111, 133, 183, 186, 273, 283–284, 371

attributed term 108, 113, 230 Baṭḥari 1 clauses locational 237–245, 280 nominal 230–236, 279–280 possessive 238–243 topical 266–270, 320–323 verbal 251–263, 280–281 complementation 197–228 adverbial noun complements 214–215 complement clauses 89, 97–98, 205–

214, 227, 316–317, 325 objects 224–228

Index

478

conjunctions 131, 274, 275–296 conjuncts 115, 117, 120, 131, 204,

271–309, 314, 317–320, 327–329, 351

coordination 271–309, 334–335 asyndetic 159–160, 298–309, 327 syndetic 159–161, 168, 275–296, 312,

319–320, 327, 334 polysyndetic 297–299 coordinate complex 131, 164, 168, 231,

252, 261–262, 271–274, 277–279, 300, 320

copula 245–247 definiteness 21–22, 63–65, 67, 104, 113,

142, 164, 176, 229–231, 240–243 specificity 230, 272 diminutives 24, 49–50, 52–53, 62–63, 80,

106–107, 111–112, 121–122, 139, 143–144, 233

disjuncts 132, 294–296, 339, 377–382 comment disjuncts 381–382 content disjuncts 136, 378–380 modal disjuncts 377–379 elatives 15, 50, 107–109, 127, 153, 197,

218, 264, 361 emphasis 93, 127, 164, 170–175 negation 314, 338–340 emphatics 14–17, 20, 21, 28–30 future participles 43, 52, 98–100, 102–

103, 131, 197–198, 201, 396, 398 gender 47–48, 52–57, 59–62, 65–67, 78,

81, 84, 99, 103, 105, 109, 143, 161, 170, 200, 223–225, 231–235, 251–256

Ḥarsūsi 1, 3, 311 Hobyōt 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 54, 397 imperative 91, 96, 135–136, 250, 304,

394, 397 interrogatives 80–81, 122–125, 214, 241,

243, 348

Jespersen’s Cycle (JC) 310–311, 325, 340

Jibbāli (see Śḥerɛt) mood 51, 84–92, conditional 86, 91–92, 129, 210–211,

248 indicative 51, 86–89, 96–98, 202,

227, 384, 396 subjunctive 23, 51, 86, 89–92, 123–

130, 189, 210, 220, 245, 263, 329, 390–394, 397

morphology 47–137 concatenative / non-concatenative 48–

53, 99 negation 134–135, 310–346 bipartite 310–323, 329, 333–334,

340–341 monopartite 311–327, 330, 333–335,

340–341 nouns 53–65 abstract nouns 61 common nouns 57–58 count nouns 58–60 proper nouns 54–57 number 48, 50, 52–54, 58–62, 65, 67, 78–

79, 81–84, 90–91, 99, 103, 138–143, 161–164, 170, 223–225, 230–235, 251–256, 277

participles active 104 future 52, 81, 98–103, 131, 197, 201,

204–205, 245, 247, 251–252, 256, 366, 378, 396–399

passive 49, 103–104 particles 125–130, 132–137, 374–376 discourse 132 negative 79, 134–135, 310–311, 325,

336–340, positive 134–135, 336 person 47–48, 53, 65–67, 78, 81, 84–86,

89–91, 100, 129, 161, 200, 230, 232, 251–253, 272

phrases adjective (AP) 138–158, 197, 214–

215, 218, 223–225, 229–230, 233, 278, 360, 362–364

noun (NP) 133, 138–175, 176–188, 197–199, 211, 220, 223–228, 229–

Index

479

236, 271–272, 275–278, 300, 312, 315, 327

prepositional (PP) 146–147, 156–157, 189–196, 205, 300, 349, 351, 353, 356, 358, 360

verb (VP) 176, 189, 197–228, 229, 251–263, 273, 279, 280, 284, 312–314, 317–319, 321

predication 229–270, 320 predicand 207–208, 229–237, 243–

269, 277, 319–320, 327, 330 predicate 221, 229–237, 243–253,

263–269, 277, 312–319, 320–327, 330

prepositions 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 114–115, 146–147, 157, 189–191, 192–196

prohibitive 91, 397 pronouns 53, 63, 65–81, 84–90, 114,

170–172, 182, 200–204, 258–259, 298

demonstrative pronouns 79–80, 258 personal pronouns 65–81, 176–177,

182–183, 189–193, 201–203, 258, 267, 269, 272, 274–275, 277–280, 313, 315–323

quantifiers 109–114, 141, 147, 152, 183–

188, 258, 368 non-numerical quantifiers 60, 109,

183–186, 258, 361 numerical quantifiers 109–114 cardinals 109–112, 186–188 fractions 113–114 ordinals 112–113

questions 122–125, 134–135, 238, 241–243, 249, 250, 260, 333, 339

tag questions 311, 336–337 Soqoṭri 1, 3, 127, 311, 340 Śḥerɛt 1, 3, 6, 21, 45, 54 tense (see also aspect, imperfect; aspect,

perfect; participles, future) 93–98, 127

time (see also aspect, imperfect; aspect, perfect; participles, future; tense) 84, 93–98, 124, 155, 190, 211, 227, 241–242, 247, 284–286, 347–355, 401, 404–405

adverbials 116, 117–122, 190, 234, 247, 347–355, 382–387

clauses 382–387, 401 future 97–98, 128 prepositions 115, 191, 195 valency 100–103 ditransitive 101, 197, 204–205 intransitive 82, 101–103 transitive 82, 100–103, 131, 197, 214 verbs (see also phrases, verb; clauses,

verbal) 25, 39, 49–53, 81–103, 206–213, 251–263

verbal nouns 26, 61, 156, 215, 216 voice 48, 92–93, 103 active (see participles, active) passive (see also participles, passive)

89, 197 word order 138, 199–200, 204, 235–236,

256–263, 325–327, 398–399

The structure of Mehri

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