Syncretism in the verbal morphology of the Modern South Arabian Languages

Abstract

This paper examines patterns of syncretism in the verbal morphology of the six extant Modern South Arabian Languages (MSAL) spoken in Oman and Yemen. Syncretism is a morphological phenomenon whereby a single form represents two or more contrasting morphosyntactic values, and is a common feature of languages with inflectional morphology (Baerman, Brown & Cooper 2005). In this study, patterns of syncretism in the MSAL are examined in relation to each other, and are compared with patterns in three non-MSAL Semitic varieties of the wider region: Sarqiyya Arabic (northern Oman), Rāziḥīt (north-west Yemen), and Ge'ez (ancient northern Ethiopia). The study shows a wide range of patterns in the MSAL, almost all of which are unique to that family, and that within the MSAL the morphological characteristics of the varieties belonging to the 'Mehri group' (cf. Morris 2007; Simeone-Senelle 2011) differ considerably from those of the other MSAL varieties such as Shaḥri.