Mehri, an endangered Semitic language spoken in southern Arabia March 8, 2012

Venue/Location: Council Chamber, The Old Fire Station, University of Salford
Event type:
Description:
Professor Janet Watson – Mehri, an endangered Semitic language spoken in southern Arabia

The next lunchtime Professorial Lecture will be given by Janet Watson, Professor of Arabic Linguistics in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science. The lecture will take place on Thursday 8 March in the Council Chamber, the Old Fire Station commencing at 12 noon. Please come along and join us.
About the Lecture

At the time I was appointed to the University of Salford, my main research interest was the documentation, description and linguistic analysis of modern Arabic dialects, with particular focus on dialects of Yemen. In 2006, I began to work on the documentation and analysis of Mehri, a Semitic language closely related to Arabic. Mehri is one of six endangered Modern South Arabian languages spoken in eastern Yemen, southern Oman and parts of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. I have now conducted six periods of fieldwork in Yemen and Oman and produced a number of publications on aspects of the language and culture, several in collaboration with Mehri language consultants. In this lecture, I talk about conducting fieldwork among the Mahrah tribes, the position of Mehri within the Semitic language family and features of linguistic typological interest, factors which endanger Mehri and the other Modern South Arabian languages, and the use of modern technology to develop a script for this hitherto unwritten language.
About Professor Watson

Janet Watson obtained her BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Exeter University, and her PhD from SOAS, London. She has worked at the Universities of Edinburgh, Durham and Salford. She was appointed as Professor of Arabic Linguistics at Salford in 2005. Until 2006, she worked predominantly on the phonology and morphology of Arabic dialects. Since 2006, she has been working with native-speaker language consultants on the documentation of Mehri, one of six Modern South Arabian languages spoken in Yemen and Oman. She has published numerous books and articles on the linguistics of Arabic and Mehri, including: A syntax of San’ani Arabic (1993), The phonology and morphology of Arabic (2002) and The structure of Mehri (in press).

Official Website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/home-page/events/events/mehri,-an-endangered-semitic-language-spoken-in-southern-arabia