Mehri language

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Mehri or Mahri is a Semitic language spoken by minority populations in the eastern part of Yemen and western Oman and is a remnant of the ancient indigenous language group spoken in the southern Arabian Peninsula before the spread of Arabic along with the Islamic religion in the 7th century CE. It is also spoken today in Kuwait by guest workers originally from these areas. Given the dominance of the Arabic language in the region and bilingualism with Arabic among Mehri speakers, Mehri is at risk of extinction. It is primarily a spoken language with little existing in print and almost no literacy in the written form among native speakers.

Mehri has 70,643 speakers in Yemen, 50,763 in Oman and 14,358 in Kuwait. Population total for all countries is 135,764 (SIL estimate, 2000). Mehri speakers are known in the region as the Mahra tribe.

Some words from Mehri

• Ķáybel : Accept
• Xwef : Afraid
• Hesbeb : Active

External links

• Ethnologue Report for Mehri

• Examples of Mehri poetry from Hadramut forum

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Last updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 06:36:27 PDT (GMT -0700)
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