Baṭḥari language

Baṭḥari is a nearly extinct language spoken in Oman, a country on the southeast coast near the Khuriya Muriya Islands. It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family, which includes many languages spoken across Africa and parts of Asia.

The language is called Bəṭaḥrēt by its speakers. Only a few people still speak it today, making it very rare.

The first person from outside the region to talk about Baṭḥari was Bertram Thomas, and he did this in 1929. Since then, experts have been interested in learning more about this special language.

Name

The name Baṭḥari has been written in different ways, such as Batahari, Bautahari, Botahari, and Bathara. In this language, the stress or emphasis in saying a word is always on the last long part of the word, unless the word is made only of short parts. Then, the stress is on the first part of the word. Like other languages in the same family, Baṭḥari has words that can be masculine or feminine and can be single, two together, or many. However, using two together is not common anymore.

Some words from Baṭḥari were listed in books about similar languages. Some experts think Baṭḥari is a type of Mehri, while others think it is its own special language. It is very close to another language called Harsusi. Recently, a detailed description of the Baṭḥari language was written and published.

Threat of Extinction

The Baṭḥari language is nearly extinct. Like many small languages, it faces pressure from more widely used languages such as Arabic and Mehri. Modern education, which often uses only Arabic, also makes it harder for the language to survive. Today, there are very few people who still speak Baṭḥari. Some estimates say there are fewer than 100 speakers left. In 2016, one expert thought there might be only 12 to 20 speakers, mostly older people, with a few more middle-aged people who mix Baṭḥari with Arabic.