جامعة السلطان قابوس Sultan Qaboos University مجلة اآلداب والعلوم االجتماعية Journal of Arts & Social Sciences

Description of Number, Person and Tense Features in the Verbal Morphologies of Jibbāli and Lari

Khalsa Al Aghbari Muhammad Ourang Assistant Professor PhD candidate Department of English Language University of New South Wales and Literature, College of Arts and Social Sydney, Australia Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University [email protected] [email protected]

Date received: 6/11/2015 Date of acceptance: : 28/06/2016

5 Description of Number, Person and Tense Features...

Description of Number, Person and Tense Features in the Verbal Morphologies of Jibbāli and Lari

Khalsa Al Aghbari and Muhammad Ourang

Abstract: The study describes a few linguistic features in the verbal morphologies of two understudied languages: Jibbāli and Lari. Jibbāli, a Modern South Arabian language spoken in the southern part of the Sultanate of and Lari, an Indo-Iranian language spoken in , are at risk of being endangered due to the facts that (1) they lack a writing system, (2) they are not taught at schools, (3) they are not the official languages in Oman and Iran and, most importantly, (4) there is no effort recorded to preserve these languages. Therefore, the study aims at exposing the linguistic richness of Jibbāli and Lari through describing the tendencies of their verbal morphologies. This may help revitalize a substantial linguistic aspect of these languages. However, since this study is limited in space, it only focuses on certain morphological features which make these languages stand out. The researchers observe a few undocumented linguistic tendencies in Jibbāli and Lari which may attract attention for further studies. For example, Lari, unlike other Iranian languages, lacks an auxiliary on the progressive tense which is largely expressed via morphemes. Jibbāli also exhibits some linguistic tendencies manifested by having a pronoun that refers to the speaker and another (exclusive) person in the conversation. Jibbāli is also characterized by abundant verbs which exhibit internal change along with a few affixes. Where relevant, features from the verbal morphologies of the two languages are delineated with examples collected through fieldworks and personal communication. Findings revealed that Lari is, by and large, a linear language in which affixes dock on bases to express grammatical contrasts while Jibbāli is highly inflectional with verbal affixes (number, person and tense) and morpho-phonological changes. In addition, affixes were found to play a crucial role in marking tenses and mood in Lari while Jibbāli employed a dual system in marking number.

Keywords: Jibbāli, Lari, verbal morphology, number, person, language documentation

اخلصائص اللغوية الفريدة يف تصريف أفعال اجلبالية والالرية

خالصة األغربي وحممد أورنج

امللخص: تسعىهذهالدراسةإىل تقديم وصف نظري لتصريف األفعال يف اجلبالية والالرية نظرا لقلة األحباث حول هاتني اللغتني املهددتني باالنقراض، وكونهما أيضا لغتني غري مكتوبتني، حيث تهدف الدراسة إىل إبراز الثراء اللغوي هلاتني اللغتني من خالل تقديم وصف لبعض اخلصائص اللغوية اليت تنفرد بها تصاريف األفعال يف اللغتني، وخشية من الرتابة اليت قد تعرتي موضوعا وصفيا حبتا كهذا فإن الدراسة ستقتصر على إظهار بعض اخلصائص املميزة اليت تنفرد بها هاتان اللغتان، على أمل أن تقوم دراسات قادمة بتحليل هذه اخلصائص وإدراجها يف إطار نظري حمدد. ومن اخلصائص املميزة لالرية أنه ال يسبق فعل مساعد الفعل املضارع للداللة على احلدث التدرجي للحدث كماهو احلال يف الفارسية واإلجنليزية، بينما يدلل عليه مبساعدة بادئة لفظية تتصل مباشرة بالفعل. يف حني تتميز اجلبالية بوفرة األفعال وتعدد تصاريفها اليت تتميز بالعديد من التغيريات الصرفية داخل األفعال نفسها، وتتمتع اجلبالية بانفرادها بضمري يعود على شخصال ينتمي للمحادثة. ستقوم الدراسة بوصف هذه اخلصائص وغريها ومقارنة سلوك اللغتني يف كل خاصية متى ما وجدت يف اللغتني معا، وذلك من أجل إحياء هاتني اللغتني عن طريق دارستهما وتوثيق خصائصها املتعلقة بالصرف، وقد خلصت الدراسة إىل تبيان أن اللغة الالرية لغة خطية تعتمد اعتمادا كليا على إلصاق إضافات مورفيمية يف بداية ونهاية األفعال، يف حني أن اجلبالية تقوم على التغيري الداخلي يف شكل الفعل وحركته مع وجود مورفيمات صرفية تلتصق بالفعل ًأيضا.

الكلمات املفتاحية: اللغة اجلبالية، اللغة الالرية، تصريف األفعال، العدد، الضمري، توثيق اللغة.

6 Al Aghbari and Ourang

1. Introduction language (henceforth, MSA) which belongs to the west The paper aims to document and describe a few Semitic branch (Rubin 1997). It is spoken by 30,000 linguistic features in the verbal systems of Lari and to 50,000 Jibbāli speakers (Rubin 2014) who live in Jibbali. Therefore, it is a descriptive account that Dhofar in the southern part of Oman. Jibbāli is also highlights the features that characterize the verb in reported to be spoken in Yemen (Lonnet, 1985:50; these languages. Some of the highlighted features are Hofstede, 1998: 13). It has three dialects known as observed to be rare cross-linguistically. This may help eastern, western and central. Scholars of Jibbāli often attract further linguistic studies on these languages. study the central dialect following Johnstone (1981) To do so, the linguistic features of the verbal systems who considered it to be the mother Jibbāli. of Lari are described first, followed by discussing the Oman is a linguistically rich country. There are plenty parallel features (if present) in Jibbāli, then the dual of languages and dialectal varieties of Omani Arabic features were tabulated for further study. spoken across its lands (Holes 1989, Glover 1988, By describing the linguistic aspects of Lari and Jibbali, Shaaban 1977). For instance, in the North of Oman, this paper will contribute to increaseing the body of Omanis speak Kumzari, an Endo-Iranian language. linguistic data currently available for these endangered In the South of the country, people speak Jabbali, languages. Moreover, it will document aspects of Mehri and Harsusi languages. Swahili, Lawati and the verbal systems of these endangered languages Balushi are minority languages in Oman. Despite this with the goal of making data available for inclusion fact, the official language in Oman is Arabic. It is the in encyclopedias and special dictionaries on Jibbāli language of government, education and worship. It is and Lari. This may potentially aid theoretical linguists also the language of mass media, official ceremonies to develop analyses of these languages. The study and religious and public speeches (Shaaban 1977). will also increase the materials sought for language The second widely accepted language is English. pedagogy. As it brings these endangered languages Therefore, there is little attention given to the into sharper focus, possible aspects can be examined numerous languages in the country. People are and given as a corpus for teachers, researchers and allowed to informally practice these languages but other sources of instruments. In bringing these two jobs always seek knowledge of Arabic and English. unrelated languages in a single study, we aim to Therefore, speakers of these languages view them highlight similarities and differences on the verbal as useless in Oman where more prestige is given to morphologies of Lari and Jibbāli. Arabic and English. This leads to the endangerment of these languages. 2. Introducing Jibbāli and Lari linguistically and One may think that Jibbāli is not an endangered geographically language as parents continue to teach it to their In this section, we first introduce the geographic children as a mother tongue. However, based on an locations of Jibbāli and Lari. Then, we explain the academic reference, Jibbāli is listed as ‘vulnerable’ in linguistic and geographical backgrounds of Oman and the “Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition Iran with the goal of revealing how Jibbāli and Lari are (2009)” where only 25,000 people are reported to at the risk of being endangered. Special emphasis is continue to speak it to date. Moreover, through given to their linguistic status. personal communication with young speakers, we Lari belongs to the southwestern branch of Middle observe that these speakers always claim that their Iranian Languages (Abolghasemi 2010). It is spoken Jibbāli is not as real and representative of true Jibbāli in a large area in Iran including Fars province which as the old generations’. They constantly took our includes Larestan Township, Ahel City and Kal Village. linguistic queries to their parents and grandparents, It also exists in a small area of revealing insufficient knowledge of the language. One which comprises the cities of Bastak, and young speaker of Jibbāli went as far as claiming that Lengah. Lari is the mother tongue of a large number her pronunciation of the language was intangible to of speakers in some Arabic-speaking countries too her parents and grandparents. like the United Arab Emirates, , , , Lari is considered to be a ‘definitely endangered and Oman (Vosoughi 2006). It is estimated that language’ by the ‘UNESCO Atlas of the World’s approximately 600,000 people speak Lari as a mother Languages in Danger’. It is also thought to be one of language. the twenty-one endangered Iranian languages. This Jibbāli, on the other hand, is a Modern South Arabian is due to the fact that the official language of Iran is

7 Description of Number, Person and Tense Features...

Persian. Lari is never listed as official; languages such transcription because it does not employ the IPA. as Azeri, Kurdish and Tati are more commonly used than Lari. 4.2 Scholarship on the Verbal Morphology of Jebbāli 3. Theoretical Framework The verbal morphology1 of Jibbāli has been explored in This research utilizes a combination of descriptive and Johnstone (1980b and 1968), Testen (1992), Hayword contrastive approaches in grammar-writing. Gleason et al (1988) and Rubin (2014). Each of these works (1961) states that the contrastive approach in grammar focus on a different aspect of the verbal system except writing focuses mainly on the construction patterns for Rubin who devoted lengthy pages to describe both of language in comparison. It is useful in developing the verbal stem and verbal conjugations. Below, we and designing materials of second language learning. review these works in detail. The difficulties of statements of the target language In the verbal paradigms of Semitic languages, the will be revealed in such a grammar, and the teacher t-prefix marks the 2nd and certain 3rd person forms. can select the best strategy to meet and eradicate Johnstone (1980b and 1968) observes that there is a these problems. Descriptive methods of writing t-prefix loss in two Modern South Arabian languages: grammar on which contrastive grammar is based Socotri (1968) and Jebbāli (1980b). While Jebbāli and brings adequate description of the two languages Socotri exhibit a t-prefix loss in certain verbal themes contrasted. The description must be proper to the including the indicative, subjunctive and conditional languages being described. It is a system that records forms of causative verbs, intensive-conative verbs, the structural patterns discernible with corpus. It does quadri-literal verbs and passive verbs, Socotri also not evaluate patterns in terms of any non-linguistic elides this prefix in the reflexive and hollow verbs. factors. Moreover, not all patterns or continuations of Johnstone (1980b) presents lengthy paradigms of patterns used have the same social significance (pp. these themes proving that there is a systematic loss 207-8). of the t-prefix. He explains that this loss represents a Therefore, the study considers the tenses including well-marked feature of Jebbāli and Socotri, especially the past, present and future in detail. The grammatical in 3rd feminine singular, 2nd masculine and feminine tenses are defined and the structure dominant on singular and plural. He further shows that Jebbāli them is explained. It should be mentioned that the subjunctive and conditional passive forms extends this table related to each tense is represented for more loss to the non-occurrence of the i-/j- prefix and the elaboration. Finally, the findings are discussed. n-prefix of the first person plural. He finally draws the conclusion that Jebbāli and Socotri are closely related 4. Literature Review and this phenomenon indicates “the possibilities of 4.1 Scholarship on the Verbal Morphology of Lari the Semitic verb extension and change” (Johnstone Although there are some linguistic research on Lari, 1980b: 470). it is incomplete as it only provides an insecure basis Testen (1992) offers a phonological analysis of the for linguistic generalization. It is also inadequate for phenomenon of the loss of the t-prefix in Socotri and the purposes of preservation, both for the community Jebbāli mentioned in Johnstone (1968 and 1980b). of linguists and for the Lari people themselves. For He thoroughly investigates the types of verbs that example, only grammatical descriptions were written exhibit truncation of the t- prefix and divides them about the language (e.g. Koji Kamioka 1979; Vosughui into two classes: verbs preserving t- and verbs lacking 2006; Eghtedari 1990 & 2005; Khonji 2009). Moreover, t-. According to Testen, although these two classes a handful of published articles can be found in the seem to “consist of apparently arbitrarily delineated available linguistic literature. Nevertheless, none set of stem-types” (Testen 1992: 447), this random of this can be safely considered as an adequate, classification becomes justifiable when comparing comprehensive, or general reference on Lari. Khonji’s them with their stem-types cognates of Literary grammar succinctly describes the dialect of Khonj Arabic. He observes that Jebbāli and Socotri truncate and Lari, but it limits the description of the language the person marker t from verbs whose cognates in to morphology; it fails to address the phonological, Literary Arabic have the pre-radical vowel /u/. He then phonetic, syntactic or semantic aspects of Lari. In explains the loss of the t- prefix from phonological addition, it pays little attention to lower levels of and historical perspectives pointing out that the t-less grammar and suffers from severe inadequacies in forms result from a change in the initial sequence tu-

8 Al Aghbari and Ourang to a simple vowel in the course of the morphological recordings and notes received by Lari researchers development of the verb. The loss does not happen on the verbal system of this endangered language when the pre-radical vowel is /a/. Testen also explains as well as available books about the language. It is why j- and n- disappear from the passive paradigm of worth noting that the data gathered were classified Jebbāli. He shows that while Jebbāli consistently loses first, then transcribed in IPA (International Phonetic the t-prefix before /u/ in open syllables, it also loses Alphabet) and next checked with native speakers. j-, n-, and perhaps the glottal stop in closed syllables. Also, the tape recordings were reviewed to ensure According to Testen, this analysis allows us to list the gathered data conform to the language. In some Jebbāli and Socotri alongside Arabic and Akkadian, cases, the writers of Lari books were interviewed for providing evidence that early Semitic distinguishes further information on the subject. between the pre-radical vowels /u/ and /a/ in the As for Jibbāli, the first author relied on two major prefixed tenses of the verbs. sources: fieldwork in 2014 and Rubin (2014) .The Hayword et al’s study (1988) on the vowels contained fieldwork continued for five months (about 3 to 4 hours in the verbal paradigm in Jebbāli was inspired by per day). It involved interviews with native speakers of Johnstone’s introduction in his Jebbāli lexicon (1981). the language. The authors are not speakers of Jibbāli That introduction describes two conjugational classes but one of them teaches Jibbāli students who were (C(A): CəCɔC and C(B): CéCəC) of the simple verbs willing to spare 3 to 4 hours after classes to discuss in Jebbāli. These classes mainly differ in the shape linguistic patterns in the language. the third person masculine singular takes in the Since the study is meant to highlight a few linguistic perfective, imperfective and subjunctive forms. While features that feature in the verbal systems in Lari most verbs can be classified under these two classes, and Jibbāli, readers are referred to Rubin (2014)2 for Johnstone notes that verbs whose consonantal roots substantially informative description of the verbal are characterized by weak radicals, gutturals or /b/ and system in the language. The authors here only selected /m/ have idiosyncrasies and may thus diverge from a handful of linguistic peculiarities and aims to develop the two classes. Hayword et al, focus on the effect of a theoretical analysis of these in subsequent studies. gutturals contained in the roots of some verbs on the After data were collected through the aforementioned vowels. After establishing the underlying canonical methods (fieldwork and interviews), they were forms of the simple verbs in Jebbāli, Hayward et al, described in their respective sections based on the intensively discuss how the vowels contained in verbs categories discussed. Having tabulated the data in the with gutturals differ. They also discuss the effect of two languages, the linguistic features can be described accent placement of the nature of the surface form and the ubiquitous characteristics are analyzed. Doing of the verb. Towards the end of their study, they so, untouched areas of the verbal systems in Lari and manage to linearly derive a small subset of verbs with Jibbāli could be taken into sharper consideration. gutturals. I consider this study to be quite systematic. It also lists a number of phonological processes in the 6. Findings language which have direct bearing into the verbal The verbal system of Lari is very ubiquitous (Khonji, paradigm of the language. 2009) and completely different from Persian; for In his book on Jibbāli, Rubin (2014) elaborated on example, the present continuous tense in Lari is made the linguistic tendencies of verbal stem and verbal without any auxiliary whereas the auxiliary is needed conjugations of the language, with illustrative in Persian and English. The inflectional morpheme of examples. He devoted two lengthy chapters to discuss -âm is added to infinitives like [tʃedæ] ‘to go’ and the verb stems, classes and forms detailing the phonology present continuous of [tʃedâm] ‘I’m going’ is made involved in their conjugations. He also highlights the consequently. So, the tense employs an affix rather morphological features of weak verbs in the language. than a separate auxiliary. Jibbāli has an imperfect tense which indicates the 5. Data Collection progressive tense. According to Rubin (2014: 142), The primary source for Lari data is the material the imperfective “can, in various contexts, indicate gathered by the researcher during a fieldwork in Lari almost any tense or aspect. It can be used as a speaking Districts in Iran during the period from 2011 general, habitual, or immediate present; a habitual to 2014. The second author, who is a native speaker of past; a future; a present or past progressive; or a Lari, also consulted handwritten pages of Lari speakers, circumstantial complement.” Similar to Lari, Jibbāli

9 Description of Number, Person and Tense Features...

Table (1): Number and person for (ondæ) ‘to come’ and Table (2): Number and person for (nk’əʕ) ‘to come’ and (dedæ) ‘to see’ in Lari (ɬen) ‘to see’ in Jibbāli

Num./ Per. Lari Gloss Lari Gloss Num./ Per. Jibbāli Gloss Jibbāli Gloss

1ST /SG ondəm I came omdɪ I saw 1ST /SG nk›əʕk’ I came ɬenak› I saw 2ND/SG/M nk›əʕk’ you came ɬenak› you saw 2ND/SG ondəʃ you came otdɪ you saw 2ND/SG/F nk›əʕiʃ you came ɬeniʃ you saw 3RD/SG omæ he/she came oʃdɪ he/she saw 3RD/SG/M nk›əʕ he came ɬeni he saw 1ST/PL ondəm we came modɪ we saw 3RD/SG/F nk›əʕot she came ɬenot she saw 2ND/PL ondɪ you came todɪ you saw 1ST/PL nk›əʕan we came ɬenan we saw 3RD/PL ondət they came ʃodɪ they saw 2ND/PL/M& F nk›əʕom you came ɬenk’om you saw

2ND/PL/F nk›əʕan you came ɬenk’an you saw attaches affixes (more specifically prefixes d- and ð-) RD on the imperfective to mark the progressive tense as 3 /PL nik›əʕ they came ɬeni they saw in tɔ̄k ‘are crying’. The morphology of verbs in Jibbāli is quite complex as it involves the addition of many Table (3): Jibbāli pronominal features prefixes and suffixes which may be deleted under Person Singular Dual Plural certain phonetic circumstances. 1 heɁ Ih nħan 2m hat Tih tum 6.1 Number and person 2f hit tan In Lari, number is manifested through inflectional morphemes (i.e. suffix). The number in Lari, as 3m ʃah ʃih ʃum other Iranian languages, include singular and plural. 3f sah san For example, ‘ætʃom’ [I go] is a verb made of æ + tʃ by suffixes. But, Jibbāli incurs internal changes into + om; the suffix –om shows that the verb has the the verbs. This can be seen in some verbs where an conjugation for the singular. In addition, the suffix –om inserted vowel plus a suffix mark conjugations. also indicates the first person. Therefore, both person Jibbāli also has dual features which are not listed in and number, in Lari, are inherently represented via the table above. This is because it has some gaps in suffixes. Table (1) shows some examples for person the 2nd and 3rd dual feminine. Table (3) shows the and number in different tenses. pronominal paradigm of Jibbāli. The paradigm is quite As seen in the table, the inflectional suffixes on the full in its contrastive features but lacks the 2nd and 3rd verbs indicate person and number and depend dual feminine which are expressed using the plural. on the transitivity/intransitivity of the verb. This One of the peculiarities of Jibbāli’s pronominal means different tenses show different inflectional paradigm involves the inclusion of a pronoun that morphemes and the grammatical tense is determined references the speaker with another person in the by the person and number. Concerning the conversation. It means “I and another person but transitivity/intransitivity of the verb, it should be said not you”. According to native speakers of Jibbāli, that transitive verbs show the number and person as this pronoun surfaces more often in accusations prefixes [e.g., ʃodɪ] but the intransitive ones represent when an interlocutor accuses an addressee of doing these two features as suffixes [e.g., ondət]. Some something. The addressee then uses the 1st person examples are provided below: pronoun to say that he with another person in the (1) Oniya æma ʃodɪ conversation were out or doing something else. The “they saw us.” 1st person pronoun also surfaces when a speaker (2) Æli xoy æsæn ondət tells the group that he and another person share a “Ali and Hasan came.” secret or were at a certain place lately. The following sentence illustrates this pronoun: Jibbāli, on the other hand, makes a three-ways number ɬih āɣad distinction: singular, plural and dual. Table (2) shows We (dual) – go-past parallel conjugations for the verbs [nk’əʕ] ‘come’ and We went [ɬen] ‘see’. Similar to Lari, Jibbāli also marks verbs 6.2 Mood

10 Al Aghbari and Ourang

6.2.1 Present and past subjunctive mood in Lari Table (4) Present subjunctive mood of [æftezæ] ‘to fall’ & In Lari, the rule for making this tense is different for (dezæ) ‘to see’ in Lari present and past tenses. To illustrate, for making the Present Subjunctive Mood subjunctive mood of the present tense, it is enough PER/ Intransitive verbs Transitive verbs to replace the prefix a- from the present simple with NUM Lari English Lari English the prefix be-. Then, suffixes are added accordingly. In addition, the conjugation of transitive and intransitive 1ST /SG beftom (if) I fall bebenom (if) I watch verbs are different in that the former accepts both 2ND/SG befteʃ (if) You fall bebeneʃ (if) You watch suffixes and prefixes in making the mood, while the (if) He/She 3RD/SG befte Bebene (if) He/She watches latter just takes prefixes (Mirdehghan and Ourang, falls 2013). Table (4 ) shows an example. 1ST/PL beftem (if) We fall bebenem (if) We watch Some examples are provided below: 2ND/PL befti (if) You fall Bebeni (if) You watch (1) Belke bftom enæ næyeʃ 3RD/PL beftet (if) They fall bebenet (if) They watch “if you can’t help me, I would fail.” (2) Enæ ændeʃ, tæ bonom Table (5) Past subjunctive mood of /xæteæ/ (to sleep) & / “if you come, I can see you.” letæ/ [to pour] in Lari

Past Subjunctive Mood To make the subjunctive mood of past tense in Lari, Intransitive verbs Transitive verbs other prefixes are added to the past stems. These PER/NUM affixes are different for transitive and intransitive Lari English Lari English verbs. To illustrate, the intransitive verbs only get 1ST /SG xætezbom (if) I fell omletezbe (if) I poured suffixes whereas the transitive ones take prefixes and 2ND/SG xætezbeʃ (if) You fell otletezbe (if) You poured suffixes simultaneously. (if) He/She (if) He/She 3RD/SG xætezbe oʃletezbe Table (5) presents these verbs in detail. fell poured The story in Jibbāli is quite different and strikingly 1ST/PL xætezbem (if) We fell moletezbe (if) We poured contrary to what is expected. Despite the fact that 2ND/PL xætezbi (if) You fell toletezbe (if) You poured (if) They Jibbāli is a non-concatenative and highly inflectional 3RD/PL xætezbet ʃoletezbe (if) They poured fell when compared to Lari, Jibbāli uses a free standing form (not an affix) to express the subjunctive mood. Table (6) Present and past subjunctive mood of /ɡəʕar/ (to Moreover, it does not make any distinction between fall) & /ʃħal/ (to pour) in Jibbāli the present and past subjunctive moods. Below, I Present and Past Subjunctive Mood show an example in Table (6): PER/ Jibbāli English Jibbāli English An example is provided below: NUM (1) zæng ʃæ mæzo bælke xætezbe 1ST / her her (if) I fall/ fell (if) I pour/ poured “do not call him. Maybe he is slept.” SG ɡəʕarak ʃħalak As seen in Table [7], Jibbāli uses /her/ to refer to ‘if’ 2ND/ her (if) You fall/ her (if) You pour/ which indicates a subjunctive mood. /her/ precedes SG ɡəʕarak fell ʃħalak poured 3RD/ her (if)He/She her (if)He/She pours/ the verb which takes its usual conjugations to indicate SG ɡəʕarot falls/ fell ʃħalot poured the subjunctive mood. 1ST/ her (if) We fall/ her (if) We pour/ PL ɡəʕarat fell ʃħalat poured 2ND/ (if) You fall/ (if) You pour/ 7. Conclusion her ɡəʕar her ʃħal This study was an attempt to document a few of PL fell poured RD linguistic features in the verbal morphologies of Lari 3 / her (if) They fall/ her (if) They pour/ PL ɡəʕarkom fell ʃħalkom poured and Jibbāli, languages believed to be understudied and endangered due the fact that they are unwritten, an affixation language that expresses verbal contrasts they are not considered to be official languages by linearly docking affixes on stems. It is less complex in Oman and Iran, and there is no serious move by than Jibbāli which makes use of both affixation and the governments to preserve these languages. Part internal change. Jibbāli, being a Semitic language, of the description done here is to highlight these always incurs changes into the internal structure of languages to revitalize them and draw attention to the verb to mark differences in grammar. Affixes are their linguistic richness. It has been shown that Lari is attached but are not enough without certain changes

11 Description of Number, Person and Tense Features... happening concomitantly. The paper also revealed inconsistencies on the subjunctive mood in Lari and Hayward, K., Hayward, R. and Al Tabuki, S.(1988). Jibbāli. It showed that Jibbāli, contrary to what is Vowels in Jibbali verbs, Bulletin of the School of expected, uses a free standing form instead of an Oriental and African Studies 51, 240- 250. internal change on the verb stem. Findings showed that Lari and Jibbāli use affixes to Hofstede, A. (1998). Syntax of Jibbali. Unpublished mark tenses. For example, [tʃedâm] in Lari is made doctoral dissertation, University of Manchester. through [âm] which is compared to a free standing form in Jibbāli which employs d (sometimes realized Johnstone, T. (1980a). Gemination in the Jibbali as ð) to mark the progressive tense as in /tɔ̄k/. language of Dhofar, Journal of Arabic Linguistics 4, 61- Regarding the number, it was revealed that Lari marks 71. the various numbers by inflectional morphemes as in [ætʃom] while Jibbāli, which employs a system of Johnstone, T. (1980b). The non-occurrence of a t-prefix dual marking, incurs internal changes into the verbs. in certain Jibbali verbal forms, Bulletin of the School Some verbs take an inserted vowel plus a suffix to of Oriental and African Studies XLIII(3), 466-470. mark conjugations. Furthermore, findings showed that marking the subjunctive mood is done via the Johnstone, T. (1981). Jibbāli lexicon. London: Oxford prefix a- on the present simple with the prefix be-. University Press. Lari, on the other hand, has a different system of the transitive and intransitive verbs in which the former Khonji, L. (2009). Negaresh Tafsili bar zabane Larestani accepts both suffixes and prefixes while the latter just va guyeshe Khonji. Shiraz: Ilaf Press. takes prefixes. However, Jibbāli uses a free standing form (not an affix) to express the subjunctive mood. Lonnet, A. (1985). The Modern South Arabian [xætezbom] meaning, (if) I fell in Lari and [her ʃħalak] languages in the P.D.R. of Yemen, Proceedings of the meaning (if) I pour/ poured are two examples of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 15, 49-55. system in the language. Since the languages are claimed to be endangered, it Mirdehghan, M. and Muhammed, O. (2013). An should be stressed that further research is required to analytic study of the grammatical tenses in Lari examine the specific characteristics of Lari and Jibbāli. language, International Review of Social Sciences and Therefore, the present study can be considered as an Humanities (IRSSH)6(1), 124-134. examination which paves the way for future research. Moseley, C. (2010). Atlas of the world’s languages in Notes danger (3rd Ed.). Retrieved from http://unesco.org/ 1- An anonymous reviewers mentions the authors culture/language-atlas/ neglected to review Al Aghbari’s (2012) work on Jibbāli. In response to this, we would like to state Rubin, A. D.(2008a). The sub-grouping of the Semitic that Al Aghbari’s study is on the noun plurality of the languages, Language and Linguistics Compass 2, 61- language. Her study given an Optimality Theoretic 84. analysis of plural. Our study, on the other hand, reviews works on the verbal morphologies. Rubin, A. (2014). The Jibbali (Shaħari) of Oman, in 2- Unless otherwise indicated, the examples listed are A.D. Rubin and C.H.M. Versteegh (eds.). Studies in from the researchers’ fieldworks on the languages. Semitic Languages and Linguistics, Volume 72. Leiden: Brill: Boston References Abolghasemi, M. (2009). Tarikh-e zaban-e Farsi. Samt Vosoughi, M. B. (2006). Lar shahri be range khak . Publication: Tehran, Iran. Shiraz: Kalameh.

Equtedari, A. (1990). Larestane kohan va farhange Yule, G. (2013). The study of language (third edition). Larestani. Tehran: Jahne Moaser Publication. Cambridge University Press.

Equtedari, A. (2005). Zabane Larestani. Tehran:

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