Tales of Dhofar Beauty: The Revitalization of Modern South Arabian Languages
Said Baquir and his team of South Arabian language activists are developing mother-tongue cultural resources for the Indigenous languages of Oman.
This post was written by Wikitongues intern Andrew Kline.
Yemen’s northeastern Al Mahrah Governorate and Oman’s southwest Dhofar Governorate are home to unique environments, languages, cultures, and histories. Each year, from June to early September, a southeastern monsoon known colloquially as Khareef (خَريف, lit. autumn) hits the coastal regions of the southern Arabian Peninsula creating a tropical climate and consequently what is known as the “Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert”.
Because of this unique environmental factor, South Arabia served as an oasis amid a sea of desert and was therefore home to many civilizations in early human history such as the Kingdoms of Awsan and Saba. This rich historical tradition led to the development of the Modern South Arabian branch of the South Semitic language family. Related closer to other Ethiopic languages like Amharic, Ge’ez, and Tigrinya than to Central Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the Modern South Arabian languages are spoken by language communities in the border regions between Yemen and Oman, and the Socotra Archipelago. This collection of languages and varieties predates the spread of Arabic following the expansion of the Islamic Caliphate in the 7th-9th centuries CE. Linguists categorize six languages as members of this family: Mehri, Soqotri, Jibbali (also known as Shehri), Bathari, Harsusi, and Hobyót. Each of these languages are intertwined with their own history and culture, and each has a varying number of active speakers. Coexisting with Arabic, the dominant language of the region, for the past one and half millennia, the Modern South Arabian languages have preserved their beauty and the traditions that the languages hold.
The most widely spoken of these, Mehri, is used by about 165,000 people living throughout the regions on either side of the Yemen-Oman border. The estimated 44,000 speakers of Jibbali (meaning ‘of the mountains’ in Arabic), also known as Shehri (similarly meaning ‘of the mountains’ in Jibbali), are generally concentrated in the coastal and mountainous regions of the Dhofar Governorate in Oman (Ethnologue, 2020). In contrast to these, the Hobyót language has an estimated 100 speakers in its community, which spans a small area on either side of the border (1998–2001). To the North, in Jiddat al-Harasis, a desert separating the southern Dhofar region from northern Oman, around 600 of the Harasis people speak the Harsusi language (2011). Even after living in Dhofar your whole life, it’s possible that you might never hear the beauty of Hobyót or Harsusi spoken.
The current state of the Modern South Arabian languages vary significantly from language to language. Foreign researchers support some languages more than others. Importantly, some languages in this family have gained an Arabic-based orthography in recent years, allowing speakers to preserve the spoken word on paper. The existence, or lack thereof, of writing systems for at-risk languages is pivotal in language documentation and language revitalization efforts. Although a language doesn’t necessarily need an orthography, orthographies can open up possibilities for teaching material, transcriptions of oral histories, poetry, literature, and so much more. Additionally, authorities in Oman have not shown support for projects related to the revitalization of Modern South Arabian languages in the past, placing the systemic importance on Arabic as the primary prestige language and English as the primary foreign language. And although it has been almost 50 years since the end of the Dhofar Rebellion — a 12-year long civil war which saw an estimated 10,000 civilians die when Dhofari rebels faced off against Omani, British, and Iranian troops — in which Jibbali was known to be the language of the rebels, some Dhofaris say that there still is a negative association with the use of Modern South Arabian languages.
Activist Said Baquir is working to preserve the Modern South Arabian languages through the dissemination of cultural materials in the languages themselves. Coming from a family where his father’s language is Hobyót and his mother’s is Shehri, Said was raised as bilingual in both languages. Neither parent speaks the language of the other. Even in conversations with each other, says Said, his mother and father use their two ancestral languages, listening to what the other says in one language and responding in the other. Said has been working with his ancestral languages since he was still a teenager. At 16, he began working with academic projects researching the Modern South Arabian languages. He would record the voices and stories of speakers Jibbali and Hobyót and transcribe them into an Arabic-based orthography created by the researchers. He continues this work to this day, tirelessly pushing for the documentation and revitalization of his languages.
Based in Salalah, the capital of Oman’s Dhofar Governorate which encompasses most of southwestern Oman, his language revitalization project draws from the rich culture and history of that region. Said’s project, in coordination with his partner Abdullah al-Mahri (a native speaker of Mehri), centers around two multimodal e-books on beauty in the Dhofar region. The first is a contemporary history of beautification practices of Dhofari women authored and photographed by Said himself. Around the middle of the 20th century in southern Oman, women were going to great lengths to meet the standards of female beauty at the time — many performing cosmetic surgery on themselves and others. This book, written in Jibbali and Hobyót, will detail the practices, tools, and results of this quest for beauty. The original inspiration for this project was a lecture given by Said on the topic. He says that members of his audience were fascinated learning about this portion of their region’s history which they did not know about. Many times, it was their own grandmothers who took part in these practices and have oral histories detailing the time and experience of that moment of their lives.
After beginning his efforts to create the book on the beautification practices of 20th century Dhofari women, his friend and partner began working on the second book in the series. As a native speaker of the Mehri language, Abdullah al-Mahri is working on an accompanying book on the beauty of camels. Camels have a deep cultural tie to Oman, with camel racing being one of the most popular sports and camel milk being a beloved drink. The book will break down the sections of camels, detailing the desirable traits for each area of their bodies. Camels can sell for incredibly high prices, all based on their beauty. “The Beauty of the Camel” will also be translated from Mehri to the Modern South Arabian language Harsusi by another community activist, Hammal al-Balushi.
The process of creating books from the ground up is arduous and multifaceted. It involves everything from researching, gathering information from sources and consultants, photographing models, producing texts using the Arabic-based orthography, and recording a narration of the texts. The books will initially be distributed via various local community WhatsApp groups, allowing wide access to all members of the language communities, whether urban or rural. In conjunction with the potential of publishing down the line, these materials will act as a resource for the younger generation of Modern South Arabian speakers, encouraging linguistic and cultural learning. By connecting the region’s history and tradition to its languages, Said, Abdullah, and Hammal aim to raise awareness of the importance of the Modern South Arabian languages among the younger generations and those yet to come.
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