Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T02:54:12.357Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Notes on the dialect and way of life of the Āl Wahība bedouin of Oman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Roger Webster
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Between 1985 and 1987 the present writer took part in a multi-disciplinary study of the Wahiba Sands organized by the Royal Geographical Society. During this time I was able to travel extensively through and around the Sands to visit many bedouin families of the Āl Wahība, who inhabit the greater part of the area, and other tribes including the Āl ،Amr, Āl Bū ،Īsa, Ḣikmān, Hishm and Janaba who are found in certain enclaves, particularly to the east and north of the main sand desert. The purpose of my research was to make a social and ethnographic survey rather than a purely linguistic one, but in the process I was able to record some dialect speech including the text presented below.

Very little was known about the bedouin of this part of Oman prior to the Wahiba Sands Project. Holes has recently published examples of some related dialects and has proposed a classification scheme as the basis for a dialect geography of Northern Oman (Holes, 1989). Bedouin dialects of central and eastern Arabia have been more extensively described and classified (Holes, 1983; Ingham, 1982(a), 1982(b), 1986; Johnstone, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1967). Comparative studies of the distribution of certain features of present-day dialects have been shown to shed light on the population movements of the past, often supporting the written histories and oral traditions of the area.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , October 1991 , pp. 473 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bulliet, R. W. 1975. The camel and the wheel. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Crocker, G. and Heath, C. 1988 ‘Traditional crafts: products and techniques’, Journal of Oman Studies, Special report No. 3: ‘The scientific results of the Royal Geographical Society's Oman Wahiba Sands Project 1985–1987’: 501–22.Google Scholar
Dostal, W. 1967. Die Beduinen in Suedarabien: eine elhnologische Studie zur Entwicklung der Kamelhirtenkultur in Arabien. (Wiener Beitraege zur Kulturgeschichte und Linguistik, B. xvi.) Vienna: Verlag Ferdinand Berger & Soehne.Google Scholar
Holes, C. D. 1983. ‘ Bahraini dialects: sectarian differences and the sedentary/nomadic split’, ZAL, 10: 7–38.Google Scholar
Holes, C. D. 1989. ‘Towards a dialect geography of Oman’, BSOAS, LII, 3, 446–62.Google Scholar
Ingham, B. 1982(a). North East Arabian dialects. (Library of Arabic Linguistics, No. 3.) London: Kegan Paul International.Google Scholar
Ingham, B. 1982(b). ‘Notes on the dialect of the Āl Dhafīr of north-eastern Arabia’, BSOAS, XLV, 2: 246–59.Google Scholar
Ingham, B. 1986. ‘Notes on the dialect of the Āl Murra of eastern and southern Arabia’, BSOAS, XLIX, 2: 271–91.Google Scholar
Johnstone, T. M. 1961. ‘Some characteristics of the Dosiri dialect of Arabic as spoken in Kuwait’, BSOAS, xxiv, 2: 249–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, T. M. 1964. ‘Further studies on the Dosiri dialect of Arabic as spoken in Kuwait’, BSOAS, xxvii, 1: 77–113.Google Scholar
Johnstone, T. M. 1965. ‘The sound change /j/ > /y/ in the Arabic dialects of peninsular Arabic’, BSOAS, xxvii 2: 233–41.Google Scholar
Johnstone, T. M. 1967. Eastern Arabian dialect studies. (London Oriental Series, Vol. 17.) London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Prochazka, Th. 1988. Saudi Arabian Dialects. (Library of Arabic Linguistics, no. 8.) London: Kegan Paul International.Google Scholar
Thomas, B. 1936. Arabia Felix: across the Empty Quarter of Arabia. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Webster, R. M. 1988(a) ‘The bedouin of the Wahiba Sands: pastoral ecology and management’, Journal of Oman Studies, Special report no. 3: ‘ The scientific results of the Royal Geographical Society's Oman Wahiba Sands Project 1985–1987’: 443–51.Google Scholar
Webster, R. M. 1988(b) ‘The bedouin of the Wahiba Sands: pastoral economy and society’, Journal of Oman Studies, Special report No. 3: ‘The scientific results of the Royal Geographical Society's Oman Wahiba Sands Project 1985–1987’: 461–72.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, J. C. 1985. ‘Bahrayn and Uman’, Al-Watheeka, 7: 251–31.Google Scholar