Professor Janet Watson

Professor of Arabic Linguistics

• Maxwell Building 826
• T: 0161-2954462
• E: j.c.e.watson@salford.ac.uk
• SEEK: Research profile

After studying Arabic & Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, I moved to SOAS, London to study Linguistics and then complete a PhD on the phonology and morphology of Yemeni Arabic dialects. I have held academic posts at the Universities of Edinburgh, Durham and Salford and returned to Salford in 2005 to take up the Chair in Arabic Linguistics. I have also held visiting posts at the universities of Heidelberg (2003-4) and Oslo (2004-5).

I am on the committee and editorial board of the Seminar of Arabian Studies and a member of the advisory board of Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes and the Journal of Semitic Studies.

I am on research leave for three years from January 2013. When not on research leave, I teach on both the Arabic translation and interpreting and the Linguistics programmes. My teaching focus in Arabic lies in Arabic>English translation, and in Linguistics Sounds of Language, Phonological Theory and Morphological Theory.

My main research interests are in the documentation of modern Arabic dialects and Modern South Arabian languages, with particular focus on theoretical phonological and morphological approaches to dialects of the south-western Arabian Peninsula. Since 2006, I have been documenting dialects of Mehri, one of six endangered Modern South Arabian languages spoken in the far south of the Arabian Peninsula. My  research on Mehri has been supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2007-8) and a British Academy / Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship (2010-11). From January 2013, I am involved in a community research project to document four other Modern South Arabian languages spoken in Oman, sponsored by a three-year Leverhulme Trust Project Grant. I would welcome enquiries from students interested in conducting linguistic research on any dialect of Arabic, on one of the Modern South Arabian languages, or on the translation of colloquial Arabic.

I am member of BRISMES, the Philological Society, the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, Friends of Soqotra, the British–Yemeni Society, the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia, and Labphon.

Books

2012 The Structure of Mehri, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

2009 edited, annotated & introduced with W. Arnold. A. Sima, Mehri-Texte aus der jemenitischen Sharqiyah, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

2002 The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, Oxford: OUP.

2000 Wasf San'a: Texts in San'ani Arabic, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

1993 A Syntax of San'ani Arabic, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Articles

2011 ‘Word stress in Arabic’. In: M. van Oostendorp, C.J. Ewen, E. Hume & K. Rice (eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology. Malden, MA & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

2011 ‘Arabic dialects (general article)’. In: S. Weninger, G. Khan, M. Streck &  J.C.E. Watson (eds), The Semitic Languages. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 851–896.

2007 ‘Syllabification patterns in Arabic dialects’. Phonology 24: 335–356.

2006 ‘The morphology of Arabic: Diminutive verbs and diminutive nouns in San’ani Arabic’. Morphology 16: 189–204.