NOTE ON LANGUAGE, TRANSLITERATION, AND CONFIDENTIALITY

In Soqotra, speakers shift regularly between Soqotri, dialects (South- ern Yemeni Arabic or Gulf Arabic), and standard Arabic, depending on the context. Soqotri, with its six dialects,2 is one of six unwritten Eastern South Semitic languages spoken by minority populations on the southern borders of Yemen and . Each of these Proto-Semitic languages is endangered. (Mehri and Soqotri, with some 100,000–180,000 and 50,000–75,000 speakers, respectively, are the most widely spoken, but even they are threatened by the dominant influence of Arabic.) In my research, I relied primarily on Arabic but was also immersed in a Soqotri-language environment. While many as- sisted me in translating Soqotri poems and phrases as well as certain Arabic terms, unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. Because the major- ity of these come from Arabic, I distinguish the fewer Soqotri terms (which are predominantly from the rural dialect of the eastern region) with the following notation: [Soq.]. Despite recent efforts by linguists and several Soqotrans to develop a writ- ing system for Soqotri using a modified Arabic alphabet, no singular orthog- raphy has been adopted for common use.3 For this reason, and for the sake of readability, I have minimized my inclusion of both Soqotri and Arabic trans- literations in the text. Where possible, I transliterate Soqotri terms following the systems used by Morris (2002) or Naumkin and Kogan (2015). Elsewhere, I transliterate Soqotri terms and names using the same the system recommended by the International Journal of Middle East Studies for the transliteration of Arabic. Although this system does not accommodate all of Soqotri’s ejective consonants and other unique phonemes without the introduction of special characters, I rely on it for simplification. Similarly, in my transliterations of Arabic, I do not use diacritics or long vowel markers, with the exception of the xviii NOTE ON LANGUAGE, TRANSLITERATION, AND CONFIDENTIALITY glottal stop hamza (’) and the pharyngeal ayn (‘): ta marbuta is transliterated as “a” (with the exception of some place-names). Likewise, I use anglicized plurals in place of broken plurals (e.g., fatwas, not fatawa; Soq. mekolis, not mekilhitin), but retain plurals with regular endings (e.g., shamali/shamaliyin). For common names of people and places, I use the conventional English spelling: for ex- ample, Ali Abdullah Saleh (for ‘Alī ‘Abdullāh Ṣāliḥ) and Sanaa (for Ṣan‘ā’). I do, however, preserve the definite article “al” when part of Arabic place-names, as this helps distinguish al-Mahra (the place) and the Mahra (the people). Most scholars prefer the transliteration Soqotra (with a “q”) over the commonly used (with a “c”); I follow this convention but retain the spelling used in project titles or in publications (e.g., the Socotra Conservation and Develop- ment Programme). To maintain my interlocutors’ anonymity, I have used pseudonyms and altered the place-names of smaller villages. I continue to use teknonyms for elders or close acquaintances, as I did when referring to them in person: for example, Bu Yaqub (father of Yaqub) and Umm Yaqub (mother of Yaqub). Pub- lic figures (e.g., politicians, scholars, prominent poets) are identified by their real names. Those whose work or position makes it impossible to obscure their identities are identified by name or nickname, with their permission. IRAQ IRAN

N JORDAN KUWAIT

Ras al-Khaimah EGYPT Dammam Sharjah Doha Dubai Fujairah Abu Dhabi Sohar Riyadh QATAR al-Ain

UNITED ARAB Sur R

SAUDI EMIRATES E OMAN ARABIA T R R A E U D j Q

S Y T E P A DHOFAR E M al-Sadah AL-MAHRA Salalah

al-Ghaydah

HADHRAMAWT

`Amran Marib H Qishn ERITREA i YEMEN g Sanaa Sayhut al-Hudaydah h la SUDAN n al-Mukalla Zabid d s SOQOTRA Taiz Lahij Aden den of A Hadibo DJIBOUTI Gulf See Map Below

ARABIAN SOMALIA ETHIOPIA SEA

0 300 mi

0 500 km

Qalansiyah Di-Lishah Sabuniyah Di-Hamri Hadibo Suq Qadhub HALLAH Riqeleh Mouri HAGGEHER Ras Shu`ub Homhil DIKSAM Skand Go`o MOMI Ka`l Fir`awn SOQOTRA Ras Irisseyl NOGED

Abd al-Kuri Samha Darsa 0 10 20 mi

0 10 20 30 km

Map of the Arabian Peninsula and Yemen with inset of map of the Soqotra Archipelago showing archipelago in relation to the Arabian Peninsula and broader region. This page intentionally left blank ISLANDS OF HERITAGE FIGURE 1. Demonstration against Yemenia airlines, Hadibo, Soqotra, 2011.