Pronunciation [həbjuːt, hoːbjoːt] ISO 639-3 hoh | Native to Yemen, Oman Glottolog hoby1242 | |
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Native speakers < 100 in Oman (1998)
perhaps 400 in Yemen in 2007 Language family Afro-Asiatic
Semitic
South Semitic
Modern South Arabian
Hobyot | ||
Hobyot (also known as Hewbyót or Hobi) is an endangered Semitic language spoken in a small area of Yemen and neighboring Oman.
Hobyot is a modern South Arabian language, a group of languages that are more closely related to Ethiopic languages than they are to Arabic. It is the least studied language of that group. There are no dialects of Hobyót, which is similar to the closely related languages Mehri and Jibbali.
Linguists first mentioned Hobyot in 1981. A clear linguistic description of Hobyot is difficult, as many speakers mix Mehri into their speech around outsiders. There are about 100 Hobyot speakers in Oman, and speakers guess the population in Yemen is about 400.
References
Hobyót language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA