Johnstone T.M. The Modern South Arabian Languages

Undena Publications, 1975. — 36 p. — (Monographic journals of the Near East: Afroasiatic linguistics 1.5).This is a comparative and descriptive survey of the modem South Arabian languages, Mehri, Harsusi, Sheri and Socotri. After a presentation of the speakers, the consonantal system is analysed with special attention to glottalized consonants, the laterals, palatalization, the relation of X and h. The morphology section first describes verbal derivation, tenses, conjugation and some special phenomena. Further sections are devoted to the morphology of the noun, of adjectives, numerals, demonstratives and pronouns. This is followed by a survey of case-marking prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions and verb modifiers. Syntax is represented by a shorter note, containing, among other things, illustrations of unreal conditional constructions.