Kumzari language
| Kumzari | |
|---|---|
Shihuh[1] | |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2020)[2] |
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | zum |
| Glottolog | kumz1235 |
| ELP | Kumzari |
Kumzari (
Shihuh in the United Arab Emirates.[5] Kumzari speakers can also be found in the towns of Dibba and Khasab as well as various villages, and on Larak Island
.
Kumzari is the only Iranian language spoken exclusively in the Arabian Peninsula.
Location
The Kumzari name derives from the historically rich mountainous village of Kumzar. The language has two main groups of speakers, one on each side of the
Arabia region before the Muslim conquest of the region in the 7th Century A.D.[6]
Phonology
Consonants
Kumzari has consonants, and all but three (ʔ, ʁ, ɦ) also exist as geminates[7]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar[a] |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | velarized | |||||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t
|
tˠ | tʃ | k | q | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d
|
dˠ | dʒ | g | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sˠ | ʃ | χ | ħ | ɦ | ||
| voiced | zˠ | ʁ | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n
|
||||||||
| Approximant | w | l ɻ
|
lˠ
|
j | ||||||
- IPA symbols for palato-alveolar consonants rather than alveolo-palatal consonants
Vowels
Kumzari has a
hiatus
; rather, they are separated by either a semivowel such as /j/ or /w/, or a glottal stop (/ʔ/).
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
Long high
|
iː | uː | |
| Short near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Short near-open | ɐ | ||
Long low
|
aː |
References
- ^ THOMAS, BERTRAM; Edmonds, BERTRAM THOMAS. The Kumzari Dialect of the Shihuh Tribe, Arabia, and a Vocabulary.
- ^ Kumzari at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ISBN 9783406093975.
- OCLC 1026776205.
- ^ THOMAS, BERTRAM; Edmonds, BERTRAM THOMAS. The Kumzari Dialect of the Shihuh Tribe, Arabia, and a Vocabulary.
- OCLC 1027080608.[page needed]
- ^ van der Wal, Anonby C. A. (2015-04-22). A grammar of Kumzari: a mixed Perso-Arabian language of Oman. Leiden, Netherlands: Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University.
External links
- Rare language also under threat in Straits of Hormuz
- Traditional Marriage in Oman: Kumzari Traditional Marriage
Further reading
- AL-SALIMI, ABDULRAHMAN (2011). "The Transformation of Religious Learning in Oman: Tradition and Modernity". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 21 (2): 147–157. JSTOR 23011490.
- al-Salimi, Abdulrahman (2009). "The Wajīhids of Oman". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 39: 373–381. JSTOR 41223995.
- Bailey, H. W. (1931). "Kumzari Dimestan". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 63 (1): 138–140. JSTOR 25194182.
- B., H. W. (1931). "Review of The Kumzari Dialect of the Shihuh Tribe, Arabia, and a Vocabulary". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1): 229–230. JSTOR 25194234.
- Battenburg, John (13 February 2013). "The status of Kumzari and its speakers: A local language of the Musandam Peninsula of Oman". Language Problems and Language Planning. 37 (1): 18–30. .
- O'Reilly, Marc J. (1998). "Omanibalancing: Oman Confronts an Uncertain Future". Middle East Journal. 52 (1): 70–84. JSTOR 4329154.
- Melamid, Alexander (1986). "Interior Oman". Geographical Review. 76 (3): 317–321. JSTOR 214149.
External links
| Official language | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main foreign language | ||
| Minority languages | ||
| Varieties of Arabic | ||
| Sign languages | ||
