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Mehri Text

Johnstone Papers

Thomas Muir Johnstone (1924-1983), Professor of Arabic in the University of London, was a distinguished authority on Arabic dialects and on a group of unwritten languages spoken in the Omani province of Dhufar and in Socotra. He travelled extensively in Eastern Arabia and Oman, most notably as a member of the Middle East Command Expedition to Socotra in 1967 where he concentrated on a group of unwritten languages– Harsusi, Jibbali (or Sheri), Mehri, Socotri, Bathari and Hobyot. Since he did his fieldwork, many of the small communities in which these languages were spoken have suffered considerable dispersal as a result of urbanisation and local conflict. His publications include Eastern Arabian dialect studies (1967), Harsusi lexicon and English- Harsusi word-list (O.U.P., 1977), Jibbali lexicon (O.U.P., 1981) and Mehri lexicon and English-Mehri word-list (London, 1987), as well as numerous articles on Arabian dialects and folklore and modern South Arabian languages.

Mehri texts
Mehri, a Semitic language spoken in Dhufar, the southern province of Oman, is one of the Modern South Arabian languages studied and recorded by Professor Johnstone in the 1960s and 1970s. The Mehri material comprises 103 texts, mostly folk tales and beliefs, customs, accounts of real incidents, and some poetry. They formed the basis for Johnstone’s Mehri Lexicon, published in 1987, and have since been edited and published by Professor Harry Stroomer in Mehri texts from Oman: based on the field materials of T.M. Johnstone (Wiesbaden, 1999). The original texts are available in three formats: handwritten notes, typescript copies and copies in a calligraphic hand, as illustrated here.
JOH/6B

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