Contents:
'The legacy of the Austrian traveler and scholar Eduard Glaser (1855-1908) is most often viewed in the light of his role as a pioneer of the epigraphic study of Ancient South Arabian. However, Glaser also took notes on a variety of other subjects during his travels, both of ethnographic (see Dostal 1993) and linguistic content. Regarding the latter material, while his collection of Yemeni Arabic dialect terms has been published previously (Behnstedt 1993), the more extensive documentation of Modern South Arabian (henceforth MSAL) linguistic data – mainly Mehri and Jibbali, but also some Soqoṭri - have remained unpublished, with the exception of two texts (Hommel 1896, Behnstedt 1993), a list of basic numerals (Hommel 1896), as well as one Jibbali text which has been previously published by the author of this thesis. Glaser's diaries are today kept in the archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
In this thesis, Glaser's notes on the MSAL from diary VI are transcribed and edited. In a first step, a transcription of Glaser‘s notes are given in chapter 4, while in chapter 5 this initial transcription is transcribed according to more modern reference works, such as the Mehri grammars by Rubin (2010, 2018) and Watson (2012) as well as the Jibbali grammar by Rubin (2014). Furthermore, questionable forms are commented upon and attempts to explain deviances between Glaser‘s transcription and what one might expect from more modern accounts are undertaken. Chapters 1 and 2 give a general introduction to the MSAL and the archival background of Glaser‘s material, while Chapter 3 presents a summary of notable linguistic features encountered.
This thesis therefore represents the first step in editing a hitherto largely unknown corpus of 19th-century material on the MSAL. Given the lack of traditional writing culture amongst the MSAL-speaking people (in their own languages), it is hoped that the edition of Glaser's material will not just contribute to the conservation of the legacy of Glaser himself, but also contribute to the study of the development of the MSAL across the last century.'
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