More I
| More I | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Yemen, Kuwait, Oman | |
| speaker | approx. 135000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
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| ISO 639 -2 |
sem |
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| ISO 639-3 |
gdq |
|
Mehri is a Semitic language . Along with Jibbali and Soqotri, it belongs to the group of the New South Arabic languages , whose development is still very much needed in Semitic studies.
Mehri was already spoken in pre-Islamic southern Arabia. After Islamization, no autochthonous writing tradition could develop. To this day it is a non-written language.
distribution
The Mehri is spoken in Yemen and Oman . It is divided into three dialects:
1. the dialect of the Omani highlands,
2. the Bedouin dialects in Yemen,
3. the dialects of the coastal towns in Yemen.
Mehri is also spoken of by many workers in Kuwait from the south of the Arabian Peninsula.
History of exploration
First language skills came through travelers, u. a. Heinrich von Maltzan (1873) and Wilhelm Hein (1901–1902), to Europe, provided more extensive language samples on a Viennese expedition to South Arabia in 1898/99, the materials of which were published and grammatically evaluated in the years 1900–1920.
A Mehri dictionary emerged from the research of Thomas M. Johnstone . A French mission linguistique, which has been active in Yemen since the early 1980s, has contributed significantly to a better understanding of the New South Arabic languages in many individual studies, but has so far not presented any larger collections of texts.
grammar
The grammatical information relates to the dialect of eastern Yemen (Mahriyōt, according to Watson 2012), which is geographically and linguistically central.
Consonants
The Mehri has a relatively large number of, sometimes unusual, consonants:
| Labials | Dental | Alveolar | Lateral | Palatal | Velare | Pharyngals | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless plosives | t | k | ʔ | |||||
| voiced plosives | b | d | ǧ | (G) | ||||
| glottalized plosives | ṭ | ḳ | ||||||
| voiceless fricatives | f | θ | s | ɬ | š | x | H | H |
| voiced fricatives | ð | z | γ | ʕ | ||||
| glottalized fricatives | θ̣ | ṣ | ɬ̣ | ṣ̌ | ||||
| Nasals | m | n | ||||||
| Sonorants and Glides | w | r | l | y |
The lateral fricatives are reconstructed for the primitive Semitic, but only in Mehri and the other New South Arabic languages are they preserved to this day.
The glottalized lateral spiral (ɬ̣) can also be spoken voiced instead of glottalized.
The Mehri spoken in Oman usually has g, where the Yemeni Mehri has ǧ. In Yemen, g occurs only marginally in foreign words.
Vowels
There are three short vowels to distinguish: a, i, u, whereby contrasts between i and u are rare and in some dialects not present. There are five long vowels: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.
The vowels a and ā tend to have an anterior vocal pronunciation (towards ε and ε̄).
The long vowels are usually only in open syllables, at the end of the word also in single closed syllables. If the syllable structure is changed in the context of inflection, long vowels are therefore often shortened. It is particularly important that ō becomes a when abbreviated. Therefore it says beispielsweiseōx "large (mask.sg.)", but ɬaxt "large (fem.sg.)" (ending -t leads to the vowel shortening).
Word Accent
The word accent is largely predictable. If the last syllable has either a long vowel or a diphthong, or is doubly closed (but not singly closed), it is stressed. Otherwise, the rightmost syllable, which either contains a long vowel or diphthong, or is closed, is stressed. There are, however, some exceptions to this rule.
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns of Mehri make more distinctions than in German: There is a gender difference in the 2nd and 3rd pers. Singular and plural, and special dual forms are used to refer to two people:
| independent | Possessive suffixes | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. sg. "I" | hōh | -ī |
| 2. so. mask. "you" | hēt | - (a) k |
| 2. so. fem. "you" | hit | - (a) š |
| 3rd sg. mask. "he" | hēh | -(Ah |
| 3rd sg. fem. "she" | sēh | - (a) s |
| 1. you. "Both of us" | kīh | -kī |
| 2. you. "Both of you" | tīh | -kī |
| 3. you. "Both of them" | heh | -Hi |
| 1. pl. "we" | near | -(on |
| 2. pl. mask. "her" | tām | -came |
| 2. pl. fem. "her" | tān | -Can |
| 3rd pl. mask. "she" | hām | -ham |
| 3rd pl. fem. "she" | sān | -san |
Noun: gender
The noun has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. Most feminines end in -t. If both a masculine and a feminine derivation are possible from a stem, the word stem is more or less changed when the feminine ending is appended:
- γaǧǧān "boy" - γaǧǧanōt "girl"
- ḥayr "donkey" - ḥīrīt "donkey"
The number of feminines without a t-ending is also not small. The following nouns are used e.g. B. treated as feminine:
- ʕayn "eye"
- tēθ "woman"
- haytam "heaven"
- lē "cow"
- farahayn "horse"
- ḥyōm "sun"
- nhōr "day"
Plural
The plural is typically formed by inner ablaut and is generally very irregular. Some plural forms show a prefix ḥa-, which is an original specific article that is no longer separable today:
- sanbūḳ "boat" - snōbaḳ "boats"
- tēθ "woman" - ḥaynāθ "women"
- bayt "house" - byōt "houses"
- kōb "dog" - ḥaklēb "dogs"
- lē "cow" - lhaytan "cows"
- γayǧ "man" - γyūǧ "men"
- ʕarḳayb "mouse" - ʕarḳōb "mice"
- bnādam "human" - ḥabū "human; people"
- bōb "door" - ḥabwēbat "doors"
Similar to Arabic, there are also some terms in Mehri that have a primarily collective meaning and from which a singulative can be formed using a feminine derivative:
- dīǧar "beans (collective)" - daǧrīt "(single) bean"
dual
The Mehri also forms a dual of nouns using the ending -ī, which, together with the numeral, stands for "two". This is θrōh (mask.) / Θrayt (fem.). It is usually not customary to use the dual ending alone without the numeral:
- γayǧ "man" - γayǧī θrōh "two men"
- tēθ "woman" - tēθī θrayt "two women"
Definite article
The Mehri originally owned a specific item, but it is currently being dismantled. In the eastern dialects (Oman) the article is best preserved. It consists either in a prefix a- (e.g. bayt "house", a-bayt "the house") or in a prefix ḥ- (e.g. brīt "daughter", ḥa-brīt "the daughter") . But even in Oman, many nouns cannot be connected with the article.
In the dial files further to the west, u. a. the Mahriyōt, the article is no longer needed at all (bayt "a house; the house").
adjective
Adjectives are inflected according to gender and number and congruent with their reference word. In the dialects that know a specific article, an adjective that goes with a noun with a specific article must also have a specific article (as in Arabic).
The inflection of the adjectives is quite irregular. The shape of the fem.sg. ends in -t. The plural usually shows ablaut opposite the singular; the fem.pl. usually ends in -tan. However, some adjectives are also immutable (see "cold" and "warm" in the table). Examples:
| mask.sg. | fem.sg. | mask.pl. | fem.pl. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "big" | ɬōx | ax | ɬīyāx | ɬīyaxtan |
| "cold" | ɬ̣ābal | ɬ̣ābal | ɬ̣ābal | ɬ̣ābal |
| "ill" | mrīɬ̣ | mrīɬ̣at | marwōɬ̣ | marwaɬ̣tan |
| "New" | ḥaydān | ḥaydīnat | ḥaydōn | ḥaydantan |
| "warm" | ǧōnī | ǧōnī | ǧōnī | ǧōnī |
| "White" | lbōn | labnīt | lēban | lēban |
Occasionally, comparatives with a prefix are used, which are similar to the comparatives of Arabic and are probably borrowed from it. The most common such form is axayr "better". You can also easily form comparative sentences with the simple form of the adjective:
laftīn ɬōx man nūmīl
black-ant big from red-ant
"the black ant is bigger than (literally:" big from ") the red ant"
Attributive adjectives are behind their reference word:
- bayt ǧōnī "a warm room"
Since adjectives do not form a dual, they are in the plural after dual nouns (order: noun - "two" - adjective).
Verb: personal forms
The verb is conjugated in the perfect tense with suffixes, in the past tense with prefixes and suffixes (similar to other Semitic languages, including Arabic). Due to the presence of dual forms and an extensive gender distinction in the 2nd and 3rd persons, the forms are quite numerous. Here is an example of the conjugation of the verb for "to write":
| Perfect | Past tense | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | katabk | akōtab |
| 2.sg.mask. | katabk | takōtab |
| 2.sg.fem. | katabš | takītab |
| 3.sg.mask. | katōb | yakōtab |
| 3.sg.fem. | katabōt | takōtab |
| 1. you | katabkī | (n) akatbōh |
| 2. you | katabkī | takatbōh |
| 3.du.mask. | katabōh | yakatbōh |
| 3.du.fem. | katabtōh | yakatbōh |
| 1.pl. | katōban | nakōtab |
| 2.pl.mask. | katabkam | takatbam |
| 2.pl.fem. | katabkan | takatban |
| 3.pl.mask. | katobam | yakatbam |
| 3.pl.fem. | katōb | takatban |
The vowel abutment in the 2nd person is remarkable. so called fem. of the past tense. In certain other stem types there is an ending -ī here.
Basic trunk
In the so-called basic stem, the most common vocalization pattern is CaCōC (as in katōb "he wrote"). In addition, there are also other vocalization patterns such as CīCaC (e.g. lības "he dressed himself", especially in intransitive verbs), CCāC (e.g. ɬ̣ ḥāk "he laughed", especially in verbs with guttural as the 2nd consonant) , CūCaC (e.g. nūkaʕ "he came", especially for verbs with a guttural as the 3rd consonant), CuCC (e.g. futḥ "he opened", for some verbs that contain both a guttural and f) or CCūh ~ CCuh (e.g. bkūh ~ bkuh "he wept").
For stems with a long vowel in the first syllable, the personal endings get the 1st / 2nd. Pers. of the perfect perfect a -a-, and the stem vowel is shortened: nūkaʕ "he came" - nukʕak "I came".
Derived Tribes
As in Arabic, derived stems can be formed from many verbs. This is how the h -stem expresses a causative: for the verb ɬīnī "he saw" one forms the h -stem haɬnūh "he showed" (past tense yahaɬnūh).
literature
- Aaron Rubin: The Mehri language of Oman . Leiden 2010
- Janet CE Watson: The Structure of Mehri . Wiesbaden 2012
- Ewald Wagner: Syntax of the Mehri language: taking into account the other New South Arabic languages . German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Institute for Orient Research, publication 13. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1953.
- Thomas M. Johnstone: Mehri lexicon and English-Mehri word-list: with index of the English definitions in the Jibbāli lexicon . School of Oriental and African Studies, London 1987, ISBN 0-7286-0137-0 .
- Aaron Rubin: The Mehri Language of Oman . Brill, Leiden 2010.
- Harry Stroomer: Mehri texts from Oman: based on the field materials of TM Johnstone . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04215-X .
- Alexander Sima: "The position of the Mehri language in the province of Mahra: A situation and travel report". In: Yemen-Report , 33/2, 2002, pp. 25-29, ISSN 0930-1488 .