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urn:uuid:0bc390ea-a200-4728-bbec-fc181219416b 03 15 9781805113331 00 EB E107 10 10 02 26326914 01 02 Semitic Languages and Cultures 01 01 Harvesting the Sea in Southeastern Arabia Volume 1: Regional Studies 1 B01 Janet C.E. Watson Janet C. E. Watson is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews and a Visiting Researcher at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat. She was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2013. Her current research areas are on Modern South Arabian, and the language–nature relationship. Her main research interests lie in the documentation of Modern South Arabian languages and modern Arabic dialects, with particular focus on phonetic and theoretical phonological and morphological approaches to language varieties spoken within the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Her publications include The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic (2007), The Structure of Mehri (2012), A Comparative Cultural Glossary across the Modern South Arabian Language Family (with M. Morris, D. Eades et al., 2019) and Language and Ecology in Southern and Eastern Arabia (co-edited with J. C. Lovett and R. Morano, 2023). She is co-director of the Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems (CELCE). 2 B01 Miranda J. Morris Miranda J. Morris is an independent researcher whose interests focus on the Modern South Arabian Languages, Soḳoṭri, Hobyōt, Bǝṭaḥrēt, Śḥerɛ̄t, Mehri and Ḥarsūsi, and the traditional cultures of those who speak them. She has lived and worked with MSAL-speaking communities in Southern Arabia and the Soqotra Archipelago over several decades, and has worked on a variety of projects, with the Darwin Initiative, UK; the Global Environment Facility; the European Union; and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Her publications include Plants of Dhofar, the Southern Region of Oman: Traditional, Economic and Medicinal Uses (with A. G. Miller, 1988); Oman Adorned: A Portrait in Silver (with P. Shelton, 1997); Ethnoflora of the Soqotra Archipelago (with A. G. Miller, 2004); A Comparative Cultural Glossary across the Modern South Arabian Language Family (with J. C. E. Watson, D. Eades et al., 2019); The Oral Art of Soqotra: A Collection of Island Voices (with Ṭ. S. Di-Kišin, 3 volumes, 2021), and Ethnographic Texts in the Baṭḥari Language of Oman (2024). With Fabio Gasparini, she is currently completing A Grammar of the Bəṭaḥrēt Language of Oman for publication by Harrassowitz. 3 B01 Erik Anonby Erik Anonby is Professor of Linguistics and French at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He has spent extensive periods of fieldwork in partnership with language communities in Arabia, north-central Africa, and Iran. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the importance of linguistic diversity in individual human experience and collective heritage. His publications include A Grammar of Mambay (2011), Adaptive Multilinguals: Language on Larak Island (with P. Yousefian, 2011), and Bakhtiari Studies (with A. Asadi, 2 volumes, 2014, 2018). He is co-director of the Endangered Knowledge and Technology (ELK Tech) research group at Carleton University, and an active contributor to Janet C. E. Watson’s research group on Language and Nature in Arabia at Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems (CELCE). 01 eng 00 760 03 23 Arabian Peninsula 23 Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures 10 FOR002000 10 HIS026010 23 History 23 Oman 23 Asian Studies 10 LAN009010 23 Yemen 23 Indian Ocean 23 Literature 23 Modern South Arabian Languages (MSAL) 23 Kumzari 23 Gulf Arabic 23 Fishing communities 23 Marine terminology 23 Oral literature 23 Linguistic and cultural data 23 Regional history 01 06 03 00 Traditional livelihoods and the ecosystems that sustain them are dying out around the world. This book is a collection of research on the relationships between people, their environment, their expertise and their languages along the ecologically fragile coasts of the Arabian Peninsula. These studies are the outcome of many years of collaborative fieldwork with local communities in three main regions of southern and eastern Arabia: the Musandam Peninsula, Dhofar and al-Mahrah, and the island of Soqotra. Bringing together oral literature, traditional scientific knowledge, and marine subsistence at the peripheries of the Arabian seaboard, the volume makes a major contribution to the documentation of the indigenous Modern South Arabian languages (MSAL), regional Arabic, and the Kumzari language, as well as to a greater understanding of their speakers’ mastery in harvesting the seas. Diverse contributions by scholars and language community members explore the songs and stories, experiences and viewpoints of indigenous fishers, and shed light on the cultural significance of the maritime species encountered by each community. This book is a testimony to resilient ways of life, many of which have vanished, but which at the same time may offer unique answers for the future of humanity. 04 00 Abbreviations and Symbols List of Figures List of Tables List of Maps Main Contributors Introduction PART I: HARVESTING THE SEA ON THE MUSANDAM PENINSULA A Typology of Fish Names in Kumzari Mṣaww wa Maḥḥar: The Sea in Kumzari Poetry Three Arabic Fishing Songs from the Musandam Peninsula PART II: HARVESTING THE SEA AMONG THE BAṬĀḤIRA PART III: HARVESTING THE SEA IN CENTRAL MONSOON DHOFAR AND AL-MAHRAH PART IV: HARVESTING THE SEA IN SOQOṬRA Index Open Book Publishers 01 Open Book Publishers 04 01 20250205 02 WORLD 06 15 9781805113317 06 15 9781805113324 06 15 9781805113331 WORLD 09 Open Book Publishers 20 01