Aaron D. Rubin

The Mehri Participle: Form, Function, and Evolution

The verbal form known as the active participle (= AP) is an integral part of the Mehri verbal system, functioning mainly but not exclusively ? as a future tense.1 Yet despite its frequency, recent synopses of the language have given this form very little attention. For example, in the very important sketch of the Modern South Arabian languages by Johnstone (1975), discussion of the AP is limited to less than one sentence (p. 119). In the very useful set of observations by Lonnet (1994a), the AP receives only a little more consideration, about ten lines. In the more recent outline by Simeone-Senelle (1997), the AP also gets about ten lines. All of this is in contrast to the grammar of Jahn (1905), in which the AP (or future, as Jahn calls it) is treated as a basic verbal tense and is included in all paradigm sets.2

Handbook of Jewish languages

Introduction Aaron D. Rubin and Lily Kahn 1 Jewish Amharic Anbessa Teferra 2 Judeo-Arabic Geoffrey Khan 3 Judeo-Aramaic Steven E. Fassberg 4 Jewish Berber Joseph Chetrit 5 Jewish English Sarah Bunin Benor 6 Judeo-French 1 Marc Kiwitt and Stephen Dorr 7 Jewish Georgian Reuven Enoch 8 Judeo-Greek Julia G. Krivoruchko 9 Jewish Hungarian Judith Rosenhouse 10 Judeo-Iranian Languages Habib Borjian 11 Judeo-Italian Aaron D. Rubin 12 Judezmo (Ladino) David M. Bunis 13 Karaim and Krymchak Henryk Jankowski 14 Jewish Latin American Spanish Evelyn Dean-Olmsted and Susana Skura 15 Jewish Malayalam Ophira Gamliel 16 Judeo-Occitan (Judeo-Provencal) Adam Strich with George Jochnowitz 17 Judeo-Portuguese Devon Strolovitch 18 Jewish Russian Anna Verschik 19 Judeo-Slavic Brad Sabin Hill 20 Jewish Swedish Patric Joshua Klagsbrun Lebenswerd 21 Judeo-Syriac Siam Bhayro 22 Judeo-Turkish Laurent Mignon 23 Yiddish Lily Kahn Epilogue: Other Jewish Languages, Past and Present Aaron D. Rubin Index

The reliability of published Mehri texts

The Mehri texts collected by T.M. Johnstone and published by Harry Stroomer (1999) are an extremely valuable source for the study of the Mehri language, and it was on these texts that I based the first edition of my own Mehri grammar (2010). However, the original Arabic-letter manuscripts made by the native speaker, along with the accompanying audio recordings, reveal that the draft manuscripts on which Stroomer’s edition was based are replete with errors. A study of the original texts and audio provide a large number of corrected readings and additions, many of which have an effect on an analysis of Mehri phonology and morphology.

Hulton's Jibbali word-list from 1836

In 1836, a British naval surgeon named J.G. Hulton collected lexical data on the Jibbali language spoken on the Omani island of Al-Ḥallaniya (Khuriya Muriya). This is the earliest Jibbali data known to have been collected by a European, and remains today the only published data on the dialect of that island. Wolf Leslau analysed this data ( BSOAS XII, 1947, pp. 5–19) but Hultons valuable material can now be reconsidered thanks to recent advances in our understanding of Jibbali and the other Modern South Arabian languages.

The Form and Meaning of Hebrew ’ašrê

The poetic Hebrew word ’asre is difficult to parse, and is without a good Semitic etymology. By suggesting that the word is in fact a remnant of the elative pattern, we can explain its shape and syntactic function, and provide a solid Semitic etymology.