Languages
Native
Arabic (Yemeni)
99%
Language Samples
السلام عليكم، كيف حالك؟
As-salamu alaykum, kayfa halak?
Peace be upon you, how are you?
أنا بخير، شكراً.
Ana bikhair, shukran.
I am fine, thank you.
واحد، اثنان، ثلاثة، أربعة، خمسة، ستة، سبعة، ثمانية، تسعة، عشرة.
Wahid, ithnan, thalatha, arba'a, khamsa, sitta, sab'a, thamaniya, tis'a, ashara.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Yemen occupies the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and was home to the ancient South Arabian civilisations — including the kingdoms of Saba (Sheba), Himyar, and Hadramaut — whose Sabaean script and language predate Arabic. After the Islamic conquests of the 7th century, Arabic gradually displaced these older tongues. Yemeni Arabic today retains archaic features that linguists consider close to early Classical Arabic, and several minor languages of the South Semitic family — including Mehri and Soqotri — survive on the island of Socotra and in remote eastern regions.
Similar Languages
Hebrew
58%
Amharic
22%
Tigrinya
18%
Maltese
30%
Media
The ancient mud-brick skyscrapers of Shibam, Hadramaut — sometimes called the 'Manhattan of the desert'
Photo: Bkar6190 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Did You Know
01
The Soqotri language, spoken on Yemen's Socotra island, belongs to the Modern South Arabian family and has no standard writing system — it is transmitted orally.
02
Ancient Sabaean inscriptions from Yemen date back to the 8th century BCE, representing one of the oldest recorded Semitic languages.
03
Yemeni Arabic preserves some vocabulary from the ancient South Arabian languages that disappeared over a millennium ago.