From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Modern South Arabian or Eastern South Semitic languages are spoken mainly by tiny minority populations on the Arabian peninsula in Yemen and Oman. Not to be confused is Old South Arabian, which together with the Ethiopic languages forms the Western South Semitic branch.

• 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.

• Language family tree for South Arabian Semitic from the Ethnologue