The vowels of Soqotri as a phonemic system

Abstract

The article is the first attempt at describing the vowels of the Modern South Arabian language Soqotri (island of Soqotra, Yemen) in strictly phonemic terms, mostly on the basis of morphologically significant vocalic oppositions in the domain of inflectional verbal morphology. Contrary to common opinion, the ensuing system is quite simple and consists of five members only.