South Arabian

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South Arabian is a technical designation within Semitic linguistics for one of two main branches of South Semitic. (The other branch, Ethiopian, covers all South Semitic languages spoken on the African continent.) Geographically, the term "South Arabian'" covers South Semitic languages spoken on the southern Arabian peninsula in modern Yemen and Oman and the island of Socotra, part of Yemen - i.e. those not found in Africa. All the contemporary South Arabian languages are spoken by tiny populations under constant pressure from the dominant position of Arabic in the surrounding populations. Literacy in these languages among native speakers is practically nil.

[edit] Old South Arabian

Old South Arabian, though little heard of today, was the language of the great civilizations of South Arabia (e.g. Sabaean and Marib) with a written form of the language found on rock inscriptions showing it to be closely related to the modern Ge'ez alphabet still in use in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

[edit] Modern South Arabian

The Modern South Arabian or Eastern South Semitic languages are spoken mainly by tiny minority populations on the Arabian peninsula in Yemen and Oman.

Mehri is the largest with 70,643 speakers in Yemen, 50,763 in Oman, and 14,358 farther afield due to emigration in Kuwait. Population total for all countries is 135,764 (SIL 2000). The Muslim ethnic goup itself is called Mahra.
Soqotri is another relatively numerous example, with speakers on the island of Socotra isolated from the pressures of Arabic on the mainland. According to the 1990 census in Yemen, the number of speakers there was 57,000 (including, perhaps, Soqotris living on the mainland). The population total for all countries (including work emigrants) is estimated at 64,000.
Shehri (Jibbali), with an estimated 25,000 speakers, is best known as the language of the rebels during the rebellion in Oman's Dhofar province along the Yemeni border in the 1970s.
Bathari language- 200 speakers est.
Harsusi language - 1-2,000 speakers est., in Oman
Hobyot language - 100 speakers est., in Oman

Note that these languages are not derived from any of the Old South Arabian languages, and in fact are for the most part more conservative than any of them despite the great time difference.

These languages are known for their extremely archaic nature, especially in their system of phonology -- for example, they preserve the lateral fricatives of Proto-Semitic, which were lost in all other Semitic languages thousands of years ago.