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Bathari language

Yaeli Flam

Social Work major/Arabic minor '19

lead section:

Bathari is spoken in Dhofar in Southern Oman on the coast. It is considered one of the Modern South Arabian languages that is closer to Ethiopian languages than it is to Arabic. Bathari is said to be spoken by 12-300 people (each source says something different) and is an endangered language.

The article will talk more about who speaks Bathari and more about the history of the Batahira people in relation to the language. I will also add why and how it is going extinct and it's relation to Omani Arabic, the dominant language. Other additions include the dispute over the number of speakers, whether it is a dialect or a language, and particular things that stand out about Bathari as opposed to the other MSA languages.

1. Two names are most prominent in the modern era of progress in this field. They are Ber- tram Thomas, who in 1929 discovered two new languages spoken in Oman-Harsusi and Bathari

Kaye, A. (2003). Semitic Linguistics in the New Millennium. Journal of the American Oriental Society,123(4), 819-834. doi:10.2307/3589970

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/pdf/3589970.pdf

2)  The Batahira consist of a small tribe of nomads and fishermen occupying the barren territory around al-Shuwaymiyya and Sharbithat (northeast of Dhufar and adjoining the Arabian Sea).

Furthermore, it is believed that at sometime during this process the Batahira adopted the language of their Mahri conquerors (as opposed to the Shahra whose language was adopted by their Qarawi conquerors); the subsequent geographical separation of the Batahira eventually resulted in a distinct language.

s, the tribe seems to be dying out with the language also under threat from modem education solely in Arabic.28

Peterson, J. (2004). Oman's Diverse Society: Southern Oman. Middle East Journal, 58(2), 254-269. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/4330004

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/pdf/4330004.pdf

3) Spoken by a tribal community called Al Batarhah'Batharis', it is scattered over different cities in the provinces ofDhufar and Alwusta, namely in the coastal towns of Al-Shwaimia, Shalim, Alakbi, Sharbathat,Azakhar, Suqrah, and Alhalanyat Islands (TheOmani Encyclopedia, 2013).

Though it has some structural and lexical resemblance with other nearby languages spoken in the vicinity such as Harsusi and Mehri, it is a language of its own for mutual intelligibility among these three languages is impossible.

The actual number of Batharispeakers is unknown; it is estimated, however, to be few hundred speakers which renders it one of the most endangered languages in Oman. Due to its small speakers' base and weak intergenerational transmission, Batahari can be classified as a critically endangered language.

Al Jahdhami, S. (2016). Minority Languages in Oman. ANGLISTICUM. Journal of the Association for Anglo-American Studies, 4(10), 105-112.

http://aassee.eu/anglisticum.mk/index.php/Anglisticum/article/view/1189

4) Bathari is spoken in Oman on the coast facing the al-Hallaniyyat Islands, previously called the Kuria Muria Islands.

The number of tribe members is estimated at about 300

More recently, M. Morris has published an article discussing a Bathari poem (Morris 1983). Some Bathari words are mentioned in Johnstone's Mehri Lexicon and Jibbali Lexicon.

This natural process of the influence of Arabic on the MSA languages is very clear in the vocabulary of children. I have noticed this during my fieldwork on Jibbali, and M. Morris has noticed it for Bathari (Morris 1983:142). There is no doubt that this phenomenon occurs also in the other MSA languages. Most speakers of these languages are aware of this process.

Donohue, M. Foundation for Endangered Languages.

http://www.ogmios.org/ogmios_files/105.htm

5)  In terms of speaker numbers they range from 12 to 20 for Bathari to over 180,000 for Mehri. The precise number of speakers is, however, impossible to determine with any accuracy: there are no census figures relating to MSAL speakers specifically, and many members of the language communities no longer speak the languages fluently or at all.

Watson, J., & al-Mahri, A. (2016, April). Language, culture and the environment: Documenting traditional language and culture in Dhofar. In State of the Art Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences for Qatar and the Arab Gulf. Leeds.

http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/101383/1/CHSS%20paper_JCEW.pdf

6) Some Bathari words were mentioned in Johnstone's Mehri Lexicon and Jibbali Lexicon (1981).

Alfadly, A., & Obeid, H. (2007). A Study On The Morphology Of Mehri Qishn Dialect In Yemen [PJ7114. Z8 F146 2007 f rb] (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti Sains Malaysia).

http://eprints.usm.my/9558/1/THE_MORPHOLOGY_OF_MEHRI_QISHN_DIALECT_IN_YEMEN.pdf

7) Chatty, D. (2013). REJECTING AUTHENTICITY IN THE DESERT LANDSCAPES OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST: DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES IN THE JIDDAT IL-HARASIIS, OMAN. In Hafez S. & Slyomovics S. (Eds.), Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa: Into the New Millennium (pp. 145-164). Indiana University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/j.ctt16gzm97.12

8) Rendsburg, G. (1987). Modern South Arabian as a Source for Ugaritic Etymologies. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 107(4), 623-628. doi:10.2307/603304

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/603304?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=batahari&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Fgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3BQuery%3Dbatahari%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bacc%3Don&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents

9) http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/606691.pdf

Kaye, A. (2001). Journal of the American Oriental Society, 121(3), 506-507. doi:10.2307/606691

ii). Stroomer affirms that it is a dialect of Mehri (p. xii), whereas Simeone-Senelle considers it a separate language (1997, 379), reiterating this view in Antoine Lonnet and Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, "La Phonologie des lan-  gues sudarabiques modernes," in Phonologies of Asia and Africa (Including the Caucasus), ed. Alan S. Kaye (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 1: 337-72, especially the map, 338. She does admit, however, that Bathari, along with Harsfsi, is closely related to Mehri

10) Schwartz, G. (1999). Journal of the American Oriental Society, 119(3), 526-527. doi:10.2307/605970

11) Rendsburg, G. (1987). Modern South Arabian as a Source for Ugaritic Etymologies. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 107(4), 623-628. doi:10.2307/603304

Batahari is our least known MSA dialect. An incomplete word-list was published fifty years ago in Thomas, Four, but none of the words discussed in the present paper are to be found in his lexicon. Accordingly, Batahari is not included in the data presented below, though one would assume that cognates are to be found in this dialect as well. Citation forms for the respective languages are taken only from the lexicons mentioned at the end of the previous paragraph. However, for the sake of bibliographic completeness I note all volumes wherein a certain MSA word may be found.

12) Batahari, Bathara, Bathari, Bautahari, Botahari

http://www.verbix.com/maps/language/Bathari.html

13) http://al-bab.com/albab-orig/albab/bys/articles/morris07.htm

Bat’hari, called bitahreyt by its speakers, was spoken by the Batahira tribe, who live in Dhufar along a strip of coast opposite the al-Hallaniyah islands (where Jibbali is spoken). The Batahira are principally fishermen, though they also raise goats and a few camels. They are believed to be descended from the indigenous or aboriginal inhabitants of the plateau above, who were forced out by more powerful incomers. They were regarded by those who came to dominate them as dha’if, that is weak or subordinate. Given their relative lack of influence, they did not enjoy the same success as the other tribes of the area in obtaining jobs with the oil industry.

I noted, too, that Bat’hari was considerably interpenetrated by the Arabic dialect spoken by their neighbours and co-fishermen from the large Jeneba tribe to the east.

Intermarriage between groups was another factor contributing to intracomprehensibility.

While Harsusi and Mahri men freely married Bat’hari women, Bat’hari men were not usually permitted to marry Harsusi and Mahri women.

The Batahira and the shero would console themselves with their conviction that they were the true, indigenous inhabitants of Dhufar, and that theirs was the original language.

The Batahira at this time even discovered a branch apparently of their tribe living in the Dhufar mountains who called themselves the Bit Bit’ha. Although they were Jibbali speakers and not able to speak or understand Bat’hari, representatives later went to visit the Batahira and relations were established.

13)  First of all, it is not Shahri but Bathari which retains (or perhaps has retaken, from Arabic) the Arabic-like 'ain

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/598276.pdf

Matthews, C. (1969). Modern South Arabian Determination-A Clue Thereto from Shaḥri. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 89(1), 22-27. doi:10.2307/598276