Ḥarsusi language

Ḥarsūsī (), natively known as Ḥersīyet (pronunciation in Harsusi: ), is a Semitic language of Oman, spoken by the Harasis people. It is classified as a moribund language,Morris, M. 2007. "The pre-literate, non-Arabic languages of Oman and Yemen. " Lecture conducted from Anglo-Omani and British-Yemeni Societies. with an estimated 600-1000 speakers in Jiddat al-Harasis, a stony desert in south-central Oman. It is closely related to Mehri.Peterson, J.E. "Oman's Diverse Society: Southern Oman. " In: Middle East Journal 58.2, 254-269.

General information Harsusi first came to the attention of outside scholars in 1937, when it was mentioned by Bertram Thomas in his book Four Strange Tongues of South Arabia. While certain scholars have claimed that Harsusi is a dialect of the more widely spoken Mehri language,Maisel, S., and Shoup, J. 2009. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Arab States. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. most maintain that they are mutually intelligible but separate languages. Harsusi, like all the Modern South Arabian languages, is unwritten, though there have been recent efforts to create a written form using an Arabic-based script.Eades, D. "The documentation and ethnolinguistic analysis of Modern South Arabian: Harsusi. " Endangered Languages Archive.

Because the Harasis people were for centuries the only human inhabitants of Jiddat al-Harasis, the language developed in relative isolation.Chatty, D. 2013. "Negotiating Authenticity and Translocality in Oman: The 'Desertscapes' of the Harasiis Tribe. " In S. Wippel (ed.). Regionalizing Oman 6, 129-145. Springer Netherlands. However, as most Harasis children now attend Arabic-language schools and are literate in Arabic, Harsusi is spoken less in the home, meaning that it is not being passed down to future generations. Though the discovery of oil in the area and the conservation project for the re-introduced oryx herd have provided many job opportunities for Harsusi men, these factors have also caused many Harasis to speak Arabic and Mehri in addition to or in place of Harsusi. Harry Stroomer wrote that it was "probably extinct" These pressures led one researcher to conclude in 1981 that "within a few generations Harsusi will be replaced by Arabic, more specifically by the Omani Arabic standard dialect"Swiggers, P. 1981. "A Phonological Analysis of the Ḥarsūsi Consonants." In: Arabica 28.2/3, 358-361. though this has not yet materialized.

UNESCO has categorised Harsusi as a language that is "definitely endangered".United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger" pp. 186–7, 2010.

Phonology

Consonants +Harsusi consonantsLabialDentalLateralPost-alveolarVelarUvularPharyngealGlottalmediansibilantNasal Plosivevoiceless voiced emphatic Fricativevoicelessvoiced ()emphatic Rhotic Semivowel The pharyngeal consonant // only exists possibly because of the influence of Omani Arabic.

/ɬˤ/ may frequently be voiced as [ɮˤ] when in intervocalic positions.

The voiceless palato-alveolar emphatic fricative /ʃˤ/ does not occur in many words in Harsusi.

Vowels +Harsusi vowelsFrontCentralBackClose Mid Open In prominent open syllables or after a guttural (such as //, //, // and //), // is realized as []. After a glottalized or lateral fricative consonant, // is realized as [].

Diphthongs may be realized as ay // and aw //.

References

Ḥarsusi language

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