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The Mehri Participle: Form, Function, and Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2007

Aaron D. Rubin
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Extract

The verbal form known as the active participle (= AP) is an integral part of the Mehri verbal system, functioning mainly – but not exclusively – as a future tense.1 Yet despite its frequency, recent synopses of the language have given this form very little attention. For example, in the very important sketch of the Modern South Arabian languages by Johnstone (1975), discussion of the AP is limited to less than one sentence (p. 119). In the very useful set of observations by Lonnet (1994a), the AP receives only a little more consideration, about ten lines. In the more recent outline by Simeone-Senelle (1997), the AP also gets about ten lines. All of this is in contrast to the grammar of Jahn (1905), in which the AP (or future, as Jahn calls it) is treated as a basic verbal tense and is included in all paradigm sets.2

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 381 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2007

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