Impact and engagement

Professor Janet Watson has developed Mehri language teaching materials with native speakers and has run winter and summer school courses on Mehri in Oman and Leeds. Professor Watson’s documentation project developed an Arabic-based orthography for the unwritten Modern South Arabian languages, which is being used by native speakers.

WhatsApp groups on Mehri have been created as a result of Watson’s research activities: Mehri language, with members from Northern Oman who participated in one of the language and documentation courses; Mehrisation, with members of the Mehri language community. The aim of this latter group, of which Watson is a member, is to identify and promote Mehri terms for concepts commonly referred to in the language either in Arabic or English.

Watson’s documentation programme stresses that education is not restricted to the classroom. A number of older, illiterate speakers have adopted the role of teachers of local knowledge within the community, and several publications have been co-authored by non-academic Mehri or Shehret native speakers.

Academic team

Diane Nelson
Janet Watson
Sophiko Daraselia
Serge Sharoff