Traditional livelihoods and the ecosystems that sustain them are dying out around the world. This book is a collection of research on the relationships between people, their environment, their expertise and their languages along the ecologically fragile coasts of the Arabian Peninsula.
These studies are the outcome of many years of collaborative fieldwork with local communities in three main regions of southern and eastern Arabia: the Musandam Peninsula, Dhofar and al-Mahrah, and the island of Soqotra. Bringing together oral literature, traditional scientific knowledge, and marine subsistence at the peripheries of the Arabian seaboard, the volume makes a major contribution to the documentation of the indigenous Modern South Arabian languages (MSAL), regional Arabic, and the Kumzari language, as well as to a greater understanding of their speakers' mastery in harvesting the seas.
Diverse contributions by scholars and language community members explore the songs and stories, experiences and viewpoints of indigenous fishers, and shed light on the cultural significance of the maritime species encountered by each community. This book is a testimony to resilient ways of life, many of which have vanished, but which at the same time may offer unique answers for the future of humanity.
Anonby, Erik: - Erik Anonby is Professor of Linguistics and French at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He has spent extensive periods of fieldwork in partnership with language communities in Arabia, north-central Africa, and Iran. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the importance of linguistic diversity in individual human experience and collective heritage. His publications include A Grammar of Mambay (2011), Adaptive Multilinguals: Language on Larak Island (with P. Yousefian, 2011), and Bakhtiari Studies I & II (with A. Asadi, 2014, 2018). He is co-director of the Endangered Knowledge and Technology (ELK-Tech) research group at Carleton University, and an active contributor to Watson's research group on Language and Nature in Arabia at CELCE (Leeds).
Morris, Miranda J.: - Miranda J. Morris is an independent researcher whose interests focus on the Modern South Arabian Languages, Soḳoṭri, Hobyōt, Bǝṭaḥrēt, Śḥerɛ̄t, Mehri and Ḥarsūsi, and the traditional cultures of those who speak them. She has lived and worked with MSAL-speaking communities in Southern Arabia and the Soqotra Archipelago over several decades, and has worked on a variety of projects, with the Darwin Initiative, UK; the Global Environment Facility (GEF); the European Union (EU); and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). Her publications include Plants of Dhofar, the Southern Region of Oman: Traditional, Economic and Medicinal Uses (with A.G. Miller, 1988); Oman Adorned: A Portrait in Silver (with P. Shelton, 1997); Ethnoflora of the Soqotra Archipelago (with A.G. Miller, 2004); A Comparative Glossary across the Modern South Arabian Language Family (2019, with J.C.E. Watson, D. Eades et al.); and Oral Art of Soqotra: A Collection of Island Voices (with Ṭ. S. Di-Kisin, 3 volumes, 2021).
Watson, Janet C. E.: - Janet C.E. Watson is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews and a Visiting Researcher at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat. She was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2013. Her current research areas are on Modern South Arabian, and the language-nature relationship. Her main research interests lie in the documentation of Modern South Arabian languages and modern Arabic dialects, with particular focus on phonetic and theoretical phonological and morphological approaches to language varieties spoken within the south-western Arabian Peninsula. Her publications include The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic (2007), The Structure of Mehri (2012), A Comparative Cultural Glossary of Modern South Arabian (with M. Morris, D. Eades & native speakers, 2019) and Language and Ecology in Southern and Eastern Arabia (co-edited with J.C. Lovett and R. Morano, 2023). She is co-director of the Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems (CELCE) at the University of Leeds.
