On some poorly known or unrecognized verbal categories in Soqotri: 1905–2015

Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics. 2017. Vol. 9. No. 1-2. P. 73–105.

Kogan Leonid, Булах М. С.

The article deals with two hitherto unexplored—to some extent, even unknown—verbal categories of the Modern South Arabian language Soqotri (Island of Soqotra, Gulf of Aden, Yemen), namely the “old imperative” and the n-conditional. Research material is taken from both the early publications of the Austrian expedition and the authors’ own field materials recently collected on the island. It is demonstrated that both categories have survived up to now and can be found—albeit not very frequently—in the living speech of the islanders. In the concluding segments of the article, a few hypotheses about the functional load of the categories under scrutiny are advanced and discussed.

Ключевые слова: imperative constructions, irrealis, ирреалис, повелительное наклонение, Modern South Arabian languages, современные южноаравийские языки