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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
It has always been said of Mehri that it has no dual forms of the verb. Thus Bittner, in what seems to be the most recent statement on the subject, says, discussing Śḥeri dual forms, that they ‘umso interessanter sind, als das Mehri im Bereiche des Zeitwortes keinen Dual besitzt’. It had, however, been suggested tentatively by Leslau, and later more positively by Wagner, that Ḥarsūsi (Ḥarsi) had dual forms of the verb.
1 Studien zur Šḫauri-Sprache, II (SBAW Wien, Phil.-hist. Kl., CLXXIX, 4), 1916, 14Google Scholar.
2 ‘Four modern South Arabic languages’, Ward, III, 3, 1947, 199Google Scholar.
3 ‘Die erste Person Dualis im Semitischen’, ZDMG, CII, 2, 1952, 231Google Scholar.
4 Journal Asiatique, IIIe Sér., VI, décembre 1838, 566Google Scholar (quoted by Wagner, , art. cit., 230Google Scholar).
5 loc. cit. In passing it may be noted of the ending -en which Bittner claims for 3 f. pl. forms, that my Śḥeri material coincides with that of Fresnel and Thomas in that no such ending was noted, the 3rd person pl. of the perfect tense being of common gender.
6 One bilingual speaker even translated Mehri dual forms into Śḥeri plural forms.
7 On the system of transcription compare BSOAS, XXXIII, 2, 1970, p. 296, n. 6Google Scholar.
8 This is the same example as that given by Fresnel, re-recorded. The subjunctive forms (as in the equivalent M and Ḥ examples) coincide in pattern with those of the imperfect indicative.
9 M əwbúud < əlbuud (which also occurs but is less representative), Ḥ əlbood/albuud ‘to hit, shoot’. In M earlier o(o) is realized as u(u) (perhaps definable as a very close variety of o) in most phonetic contexts.
10 From g
bɔr < k'əbɔr ‘to bury’.
11 From zg(ə)d ‘to take’.
12 In Nejdi Mehri the l- affix is not prefixed to 3 m. subjunctive forms. As correctly surmised by Wagner, (art. cit., p. 231, n. 3)Google Scholar, this prefix does not occur in Ḥ, though there are certain minor exceptions.
13 M θiibər ‘to be broken’ and Ḥ riikəb ‘to ride, mount’. The order in which the examples are given here and hereafter, unless otherwise specified, is: perfect 3 m., 3 f., 2 c./1 c.; imperf. indie, and subjunctive 3 m., 3 f./2 c, 1 c.
14 In M the ə- of the 1 c. dual of the subjunctive is often treated as if it were an anaptyctic vowel, which can occur optionally either before or after the initial consonant of a cluster of two consonants, as e.g. ləbuud. əwbuud ‘he hit’.
15 M ʔaamúur, Ḥ ʔamóor, ʔaamoor ‘to say’ (Ś Ƹõr, S Ƹímɔr). While it is partially true that M and Ḥ have lost the 'ayn phoneme, there is in many cases pharyngalization of the originally contiguous vowel, and 'ayn is in some cases explicit.
16 M ʔayk'ar; ‘to be cowardly’ (cf. ʔak'awr ‘to be big’), Ḥ ʔayk'ar ‘to grow big’.
17 M, Ḥ gaar ‘to fall’.
18 Where the subjunctive is the same as, or easily derivable from, the imperfect indicative, it is not given hereafter.
19 3 f. was given as tgaartó. Comparable doubly marked forms also occur in M and Ś.
20 M nuuka ‘to come’, Ḥ muuna ‘to take, accept’.
21 M, Ḥ wzuum ‘to give’.
22 M, Ḥ wiis'al ‘to arrive’. In most Eastern and Central Arabian dialects also wiʂgil, waʂlat (viz. not wiʂal, wʂalat) After ejectives and gutturals a occurs usually in patterns characterized otherwise by the occurrence of ə, but the process is not entirely regular.
23 M, Ḥ moot ‘to die’.
24 M, Ḥ kiiwər ‘to love’.
25 M siyuur (< səyuur), Ḥ siyoor ‘to go’.
26 M ksu, kuusa, Ḥ kso ‘to find’.
27 M 
iini, Ḥ eeni ‘to see’.
28 M uum, Ḥ oom ‘to sell’.
29 M məlú, Ḥ məió ‘to fill’.
30 The other subj. forms of this verb are causative in type. M miilə, Ḥ mələ? ‘to be full’ have no dual forms.
31 M aróokəb, Ḥ aríikəb, aréekab ‘to put (a pot) on (the fire)’. Verbs of this type which have an initial voiced or ejective radical have the prefix a-. It is of some interest to note that this contrastive distribution is comparable with that of the definite article affix, and that affixation or non-affixation is therefore a phonological, and not a morphological, datum. In the light of later work it seems likely that the prosthetic vowel occurring regularly before teeθ ‘woman’ and skiin ‘knife’ is an anaptyctic, and not the definite article as appeared earlier (cf. BSOAS, XXXIII, 2, 1970, 303Google Scholar).
32 M ʔooləm, Ḥ ʔaalam ‘to teach’.
33 Ḥ awrá ‘to bring home the beasts’. The perfect also has awró, awrətó.
34 M aʔiit' ‘to cry, weep’. An -a ending occurs regularly in verbs with a final ejective radical, and it may be noted in this connexion that the quality of the final -e, in the derived themes generally, is rather open.
35 M as'óoli, Ḥ as'áal ‘to pray’.
36 M xooli, Ḥ xaal ‘to divorce’ ∼ Ar. xálla(a).
37 Viz. pl. forms supply those of the dual, which by analogy should be *yəxáaliən, etc.
38 M hək'afúud, Ḥ ʔak'əfáwd ‘to put, lift down’.
39 cf. M həɣamúud ‘to be (in the early evening)’—həɣamdú, həɣamdtú, həɣamádki, etc.; həbhúul ‘to cook’ (beheel ‘to be cooked’)—həbhəlú, etc.; but Ḥ aɣamdí, etc.; abhəli, etc.
40 M hədəlúul, Ḥ ʔadəlóol ‘to show (the way) to’.
41 Viz. *hədəlέlki.
42 M haamuur. In Ḥ this form would coincide largely with ʔaamuur ‘to say’.
43 M həgáwr, Ḥ ʔagáwr ‘to throw (in wrestling)’.
44 M huwguu‘to bring (beasts) home at early evening’, Ḥ ʔawk'awδ ‘to waken’. With the Ḥ word, cf. Dubai Waggaδ.
45 M həmoot ‘to kill’, Ḥ fawk' ‘to marry’.
46 M həbnú ‘to build’, Ḥ ʔaɣdú ‘to lose’.
47 M, Ḥ əktəluuf ‘to be bothered, given trouble’.
48 From kátələf, though the 3 m. s. perfect was not given in this pattern.
49 And so most sound verbs of this type but compare the following example and bətɣaδí, bətɣaδətí, bətɣáδki ‘they, etc., hated o. a.’.
50 M, Ḥ əftəruur ‘to yawn’.
51 M, Ḥ ʔa(a)təlúum; ‘to learn’.
52 M Ḥttuuma, Ḥ ahtooma ‘to listen’.
53 M, Ḥ wátk'əδ ‘to awake’.
54 M ɣátyəδ, Ḥ ɣátiyəδ ‘to become angry’.
55 But yəɣtiiráyən, təɣtiiráyən, aɣtiiráyən; yəɣtiiré, etc., from ɣatyuur ‘to change’ (intr.).
56 M, Ḥ ɣátəri ‘to speak’.
57 sic.
58 M íitəm, Ḥ óotəm ‘to buy’.
59 M əbtoodi ‘to begin’.
60 M ʃəlbúud ‘to be hit (and killed)’, Ḥ ‘to be stricken, in pain’.
61 M ʃəléeəd ‘to fight’, Ḥ ʃəlabəd; ‘to strike e. o., try to shoot e. o.’.
62 Also yʃəlbdú, etc.
63 M, Ḥ ʃərədd ‘to claim back’.
64 M ʃaaguul, Ḥ ʃaagool ‘to hasten’.
65 M, Ḥ ʃuwaad ‘to make an appointment’.
66 M, Ḥ ʃuguu‘to come home in the early evening’, ʃu- < *ʃəW-.
67 M ʃoos'awb, Ḥ ʃas'wóob ‘to be struck, stricken’.
68 M ʃgéewab ‘to answer’, Ḥ ʃkaawən ‘to wrestle’.
69 M ʃk'arú, Ḥ ʃk'aró ‘to disappear, lie hidden’.
70 M, Ḥ karbəl ‘to crawl’.
71 M ənk'arbuut' ‘to hold up the hands in horror’, Ḥ ənk'arfəd ‘to hug o. s. from the cold’.
72 rékəb ‘to mount’.
73 dé1 ‘to lead’.
74 Ƹõr ‘to say’.
75 míǯi ‘to fill, be full’. 1 > ǯ in the contiguity of close front vowels.
76 Or ‘Verb final b’, viz. εr
k(u)b ‘to put (a pot) on the fire’. It is to be noted that 0 + n > un.
77 εƸúl(u)m ‘to teach’.
78 xóǯí ‘to divorce’. Fem. forms do not occur. On the non-occurrence of the prefix, cf. p. 504, n. 31.
79 εk'féd ‘to put down’. The non-occurrence of t in 3 f. and 2 m. forms in causative verbs also characterizes the equivalent Socotri forms. Cf. BSOAS, XXXI, 3, 1968, 515 ffGoogle Scholar. It is hoped to document this point more fully at a later date. Forms with initial t apparently also occur as variants.
80 εbní ‘to build’. b does not occur in intervocalic positions.
81 ktələθ ‘to converse with e. o.’.
82 Ƹatélím ‘to learn’;.
83 ɣt⋯δ ‘to be angry’.
84 ʃəléd ‘to fight e. o.’.
85 ʃaƸgél ‘to hasten’.
86 ʃƸéd ‘to make an appointment’.
87 At a recent stage in the development of M this would seem to have been -ó(o) which occurs regularly in the published texts and as a variant in Ḥ.
88 And in this M dialect the 3 m. pl.
89 Southern həɣdáyəm.
90 cf. Beeston, A. F. L., A descriptive grammar of Epigraphic South Arabian, London, 1962, 23Google Scholar.
91 Beeston, loc. cit.
92 Beeston, loc. cit. Examples of the ending -áyən are given above.
93 There are many other examples of this phenomenon.
94 -əy is a phonetic variant of -i(i).
95 Apart from S, duals occur very rarely in MSA unqualified by the numeral ‘two’;. In Mehri there is no doubt that speakers believe the word division to be ɣáyg iθró rather than ɣáygi θró. Some examples, however, do occur as e.g.: M nás'fi, Ś fúʃ'Ϧi ‘halves’, M (a)ɣáwgi, Ś (ε)ɣóƷi ‘(the) two men’;, and M ɣaggáwti, Ś ɣajəti ‘two girls’;.
96 In Arabic words Ƹ∼ع,ʂ∼ص, etc.
