Naming the landscape in the Modern South Arabian languages

• Applicant: Fabio Gasparini, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology ; Islamic Studies, Arabian Studies, Semitic Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512756116

This research project analyses the relationship between the Modern South Arabian cultures of Dhofar and their inhabited landscape, understood as a man-made system functioning according to human needs (Jackson 1986). The Modern South Arabian languages (henceforth MSAL) are a group of endangered Semitic languages spoken by the autochthonous people of the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. The project will provide the first documentation and analysis of the rich system of place names, landform terms and frames of reference involving landscape-naming practices among MSAL-speaking communities. Official toponymy, including street signs and formal maps, exclusively uses Arabic-based toponyms for major settlements only. The urgency of this topic lies in the fact that the complex cultural and natural landscapes of the area are changing rapidly due to Arabisation, rapid urbanisation, and aggressive human activity towards the environment. The topic will be investigated by gathering the lexicon of space and movement and by investigating landscape-naming practices across different MSAL speaker communities. Close work with the local communities and analysis of space and movement through oral narratives will facilitate preservation of the memory of a whole world on the cusp of disappearance, promote land awareness and culture maintenance in the autochthonous population; furthermore, it will investigate important theoretical questions applied to a specific case study. Contemporary trends in culture documentation stress the importance of documenting the landscape in which the community lives (Drude, Ostler & Moser 2018). The project will be approached from an anthropological linguistic and documentary perspective and will lead to the creation of a cross-linguistic database focused on landscape terms. GPS data will be collected collaborating with the communities through a free-ware GPS app for phone (Gaia GPS) and stored according to contemporary methodologies in land documentation studies (Gawne & Ring 2016). This research is of critical importance for the documentation of the cultural heritage of the MSAL-speaking communities. It is fully complementary to research projects led in previous years by other researchers (DEAMSA project, Watson & Morris 2016) because it will exploit openly accessible data, enhancing their scope and impact: the toponyms for which the exact location is not known will be documented and their role within traditional narratives will be investigated, providing an unprecedented analysis. Toponyms and, by extension, landscape terms, can trigger collective memory and storytelling: their preservation promotes the construction of positive identities, interest towards traditional cultural heritage, and lead to revitalisation of traditional languages and cultures.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants