Razihi language

Razihi
Jabal Razih
Native to Yemen
Language codes
ISO 639-3 rzh
Glottolog jaba1234[1]

Razihi (Rāziḥī) is a South Semitic language spoken on Jabal (Mount) Razih in the far northwestern corner of Yemen[2] and is the only surviving descendent of the Old South Arabian languages.[1]

Speakers

Razihi is spoken on Jabal Razih, a mountain lying west of the town Sa'dah, whose highest summit, Jabal Hurum, is 2,790 m (9,150 ft) high. The population of Jabal Razih was approximately 25,000 in the 1970s and is estimated to be much more now.[3]

Phonology

Razihi exhibits wide-scale coronal assimilation in words. In contrast to Arabic, this is not restricted to obstruents, but includes sonorants – most significantly /n/.[4] This can be seen in words such as ssān 'man' and ssānah 'woman', cognate with Arabic ʾinsān 'person'. Nasal assimilation was a feature of both Ancient North Arabian and Old South Arabian, but is not found in any Arabic dialect. Razihi also has a large number of non-Arabic basic vocabulary items, prepositions and other grammatical forms.[2]

In contrast to Yemeni Arabic dialects, Razihi does not allow word-final consonant clusters (-CC) in any case.[4]

Syncope (cutting off) of the high vowels /i/ and /u/ is a common phenomenon in Razihi. For example:

In Classical Arabic:

References

  1. 1 2 Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Jabal Razih". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. 1 2 3 Watson, Glover-Stalls, Al-razihi, & Weir (2006), "The language of Jabal Rāziḥ: Arabic or something else?", Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 36:35–41
  3. ↑ Edzard, Lutz; Retsö, Jan (2006). Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon II: Oslo-Göteborg Cooperation 4th-5th November 2005. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 40. ISBN 9783447054416.
  4. 1 2 3 Edzard, Lutz; Retsö, Jan (2006). Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon II: Oslo-Göteborg Cooperation 4th-5th November 2005. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 44. ISBN 9783447054416.
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