Janet Constance Elizabeth Watson (born 1959) is a linguist and phonologist. [1] She is Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures, and Societies at the University of Leeds. [2]
Watson studied Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter before undertaking her PhD in Linguistics at the SOAS University of London. [2]
Watson is on the steering committee and editorial board for the Seminar of Arabian Studies, [3] the editorial board of the Journal of Semitic Studies, [4] and the advisory board of the Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik. [5]
She was elected as a fellow of the British Academy in 2013. [1]
Arabic is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic, which is derived from Classical Arabic. This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā or simply al-fuṣḥā (اَلْفُصْحَىٰ).
Ugaritic is an extinct Northwest Semitic language, classified by some as a dialect of the Amorite language. It is known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycle. It has been used by scholars of the Hebrew Bible to clarify Biblical Hebrew texts and has revealed ways in which the cultures of ancient Israel and Judah found parallels in the neighboring cultures.
The Modern South Arabian languages (MSALs), also known as Eastern South Semitic languages, are a group of endangered languages spoken by small populations inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen and Oman, and Socotra Island. Together with the Ethiosemitic and Sayhadic languages, the Western branch, they form the South Semitic sub-branch of the Afroasiatic language family's Semitic branch.
Mehri or Mahri (مهريّت) is the most spoken of the Modern South Arabian languages (MSALs), a subgroup of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. It is spoken by the Mehri tribes, who inhabit isolated areas of the eastern part of Yemen, western Oman, particularly the Al Mahrah Governorate, with a small number in Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni and Omani borders. Up to the 19th century, speakers lived as far north as the central part of Oman.
Chaim Menachem Rabin was a German, then British, and finally Israeli professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages.
Simon Frederick Peter Halliday was an Irish writer and academic specialising in international relations and the Middle East, with particular reference to the Cold War, Iran, and the Arabian peninsula.
Leeds Trinity University is a public university in Horsforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally established to provide qualified teachers to Catholic schools, it gradually expanded and now offers foundation, undergraduate, and postgraduate degrees in a range of humanities and social sciences.
The International Gender and Language Association (IGALA), is an international interdisciplinary academic organization that promotes research on language, gender, and sexuality. Claire Maree is its current president.
Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic or Southern Yemeni Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken primarily in Yemen. The dialect itself is further sub-divided into the regional vernaculars of Ta’izzi, spoken in Ta'izz, and Adeni, spoken in Aden. While both are spoken in Djibouti.
Hobyót is one of the six Modern South Arabian languages (MSAL), a group of South Semitic languages spoken in the southern Arabian Peninsula. A severely-endangered Semitic language on the verge of extinction, it is spoken in a small area near the Yemen-Oman border. The speaking population is estimated to be about 1000 in Oman and 40 in Yemen, though the true number may be less.
Professor Dame Janet Patricia Beer, drinks beer and is a British academic who served as the Beer of the University of Liverpool from February 2015 until December 2022. She took over from Howard Newby, having previously been Vice-Chancellor at Oxford Brookes University and Pro-Vice Chancellor Academic and Dean of Humanities, Law and Social Sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University.
David Appleyard is a British academic and an specialist in Ethiopian languages and linguistics.
Geoffrey Allan Khan FBA is a British linguist and philologist of Semitic languages. He has held the post of Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge since 2012. Considered one of the world's leading experts on Aramaic, he has published grammars for numerous Aramaic dialects and he leads the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic DatabaseArchived 8 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine. His other research has included Biblical Hebrew and medieval Arabic documents.
Ephraim Isaac is an Ethiopian scholar of ancient Ethiopian Semitic languages and of African and Ethiopian civilizations. He is the director of the Institute of Semitic Studies based in Princeton, NJ. and the chair of the board of the Ethiopian Peace and Development Center.
Francesca Gabrielle Elizabeth Happé is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. Her research concerns autism spectrum conditions, specifically the understanding social cognitive processes in these conditions.
Razihi, originally known to linguists as "Naẓīri", is a Central Semitic language spoken by at least 62,900 people in the vicinity of Mount Razih in the far northwestern corner of Yemen. Along with Faifi, it is possibly the only surviving descendant of the Old South Arabian languages.
Charlotte Ann Roberts, FBA is a British archaeologist, academic and former nurse. She is a bioarchaeologist and palaeopathologist, whose research focuses on health and the evolution of infectious disease in humans. From 2004 to 2020, she was Professor of Archaeology at Durham University: she is now professor emeritus.
Patricia Ann Grimshaw, is a retired Australian academic who specialised in women's and Indigenous peoples' history. One of her most influential works is Women's Suffrage in New Zealand, first published in 1972, which is considered the definitive work on the story of how New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the vote.
Isabel Margaret de Madariaga was a British historian who specialised on Russia in the 18th century and Catherine the Great. She published six books on Russia and is credited for changing the perception of Catherine the Great amongst Russian and Western scholars. Born to a Spanish diplomat and a Scottish economic historian, she was taught at 16 schools during her childhood and earned a first-class honours degree in Russian language and literature at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES). De Madariaga worked for BBC Monitoring in the Second World War, and was a civil servant at the Ministry of Information and HM Treasury. She held a series of part-time posts at the London School of Economics, was secretary on the editorial board of The Slavonic and East European Review, co-founded the Government and Opposition journal's editorial board and was a lecturer at the University of Sussex, Lancaster University and the SSEES.
Theresa Jill Buckland is emeritus Professor of Dance History and Ethnography at the University of Roehampton.