Remarks on the morphology of non-triliteral adjectives in Mehri and western Modern South Arabian

Authors

  • Giuliano Castagna Beijing Normal University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/12727

Abstract

Non-triliteral adjectives, either reduplicated or true quadriliterals, in the eastern branch of Modern South Arabian (Jibbali/Shehret and Soqotri) mark the distinction between masculine singular and feminine singular by ablaut (Müller 1909): for example, Jibbali/Shehret M.SG. šəṣ́rɔ́r vs. F.SG. šəṣ́rér ‘yellow’ (Johnstone 1981: 265) and Soqotri M.SG. kə́rkam vs. F.SG. kə́rkim ‘jaune’ (Lonnet 2008: 130). Since the publication of Lonnet (2008), this phenomenon has been regarded as an important isogloss for the subgrouping of Modern South Arabian (MSAL), distinguishing Jibbali/Shehret and Soqotri from the rest of the MSAL. However, the morphological characteristics of non-triliteral adjectives in western MSAL (Mehri, Harsusi, Bathari and Hobyot) have not been satisfactorily described to date.

The aim of this short article is to provide some remarks on this topic and foster further reflection based on novel (albeit limited) data from the field.

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Author Biography

Giuliano Castagna, Beijing Normal University

Giuliano Castagna is an associate professor of linguistics at the Research Centre for History and Cultures (RCHC) of Beijing Normal University (BNU) at Zhuhai. After obtaining a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Leeds, he has held a position as an assistant researcher at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nurnberg. His research is focused on the documentation of some aspects of the Modern South Arabian branch of the Semitic languages. In particular, he is interested in the obsolescent morphological categories of the Jibbali/Shehret language such as quadri- and quinqueliteral nominals and verbs, native (i.e., non-Arabic) onomastics, and the seemingly non-Semitic vocabulary shared by all the languages within this sub-group, as well as the role and degree of involvement of pre-documentary Modern South Arabian-speaking people in the old Indian Ocean trade network.

Giuliano can be contacted at: fpick@hotmail.co.uk

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Published

2026-01-10

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2025): Kervan 29

Section

Articles

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