Remarks on the morphology of non-triliteral adjectives in Mehri and western Modern South Arabian

Non-triliteral adjectives, either reduplicated or true quadriliterals, in the eastern branch of Modern South Arabian (Jibbali/Shehret and Soqotri) mark the distinction between masculine singular and feminine singular by ablaut (Müller 1909): for example, Jibbali/Shehret M.SG. šəṣ́rɔ́r vs. F.SG. šəṣ́rér ‘yellow’ (Johnstone 1981: 265) and Soqotri M.SG. kə́rkam vs. F.SG. kə́rkim ‘jaune’ (Lonnet 2008: 130). Since the publication of Lonnet (2008), this phenomenon has been regarded as an important isogloss for the subgrouping of Modern South Arabian (MSAL), distinguishing Jibbali/Shehret and Soqotri from the rest of the MSAL. However, the morphological characteristics of non-triliteral adjectives in western MSAL (Mehri, Harsusi, Bathari and Hobyot) have not been satisfactorily described to date. The aim of this short article is to provide some remarks on this topic and foster further reflection based on novel (albeit limited) data from the field.