Janet Watson (linguist)
{{Short description|English linguist and phonologist}}
{{about|the linguist|the geologist|Janet Watson}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Janet Constance Elizabeth Watson (born 1959) is a linguist and phonologist.{{cite web |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/janet-watson-FBA/ |title=Professor Janet Watson FBA |publisher=British Academy |accessdate=26 November 2021}} She is Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures, and Societies at the University of Leeds.{{cite web |url=https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/languages/staff/151/janet-c-e-watson |title=Janet C.E. Watson |publisher=University of Leeds |accessdate=26 November 2021}} Her main research interests are the documentation and analysis of Modern South Arabian languages and modern Arabic dialects spoken within the south-western Arabian Peninsula.{{Cite web |title=Janet Watson |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mLKRGKAAAAAJ&hl=en |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=scholar.google.com}}
Biography
Watson studied Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter before earning her PhD in Linguistics in 1989 at the SOAS University of London
Since 2006, she has been documenting dialects of Mehri, one of six endangered Modern South Arabian languages spoken in the far south of the Arabian Peninsula. Since January 2013, she has been leading an international team to document the five Modern South Arabian languages spoken in mainland Yemen and Oman. This research has been supported by prestigious grants: a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2007-08),{{Cite web |title=Leverhulme Trust Annual Report 2007 |url=https://www.leverhulme-trade.org.uk/sites/default/files/AR2007.pdf }} a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship (2010-11),{{Cite web |title=BA/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship Awards 2010 |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-leverhulme-senior-research-fellowships/past-awards/2010/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=The British Academy |language=en}} and a Leverhulme Trust Project Grant (2013-2016).{{Cite web |title=The documentation and ethnolinguistic analysis of Modern South Arabian: Shehret {{!}} Endangered Languages Archive |url=https://www.elararchive.org/dk0308/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=www.elararchive.org}} Between 2010 and 2012, she collaborated with colleagues on a project investigating the geographical distribution, phonetics, and phonology of lateral emphatics in Saudi Arabian Arabic dialects that was funded by the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-10 |title=Janet Watson |url=https://glocal.soas.ac.uk/directories/janet-watson/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=SOAS GLOCAL |language=en}}
Honors and distinctions
Watson is on the steering committee and editorial board for the Seminar of Arabian Studies,{{cite web |url=https://www.theiasa.com/seminar/ |title=About the Seminar |publisher=International Association for the Study of Arabia |accessdate=26 November 2021}} the editorial board of the Journal of Semitic Studies,{{cite web |url=https://academic.oup.com/jss/pages/Editorial_Board |title=Editorial Board: Editorial Committee |publisher=Journal of Semitic Studies |accessdate=26 November 2021}} and the advisory board of the Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik.{{cite web |url=https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/semiarab/semitistik/zal/ueber-die-zeitschrift/herausgeber/index.html |title=About the Journal: Editors |date=7 July 2020 |publisher=Freie Universität Berlin|accessdate=26 November 2021}}
She was elected as a fellow of the British Academy in 2013.
Selected publications
Books:
Watson, J. C. E., & Mutahhar, A. R. (2002). Social Issues in Popular Yemeni Culture. al-Sabahi.
Dickins, J., & Watson, J. C. E. (1999a). Standard Arabic: An advanced course. Cambridge University Press.
Dickins, J., & Watson, J. C. E. (1999b). Standard Arabic: Teacher's handbook and key to the exercises. Cambridge University Press.
Watson, J. C. E. (2012). The Structure of Mehri. Harrassowitz.
Watson, J. C. E. (2002). Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. Oxford University Press.
Journal Articles:
Watson, J. C. E., Eades, D., & Al-Mahri, M. (in press). Camel culture and camel terminology amongst the Omani Bedouin. Journal of Semitic Studies.
Watson, J. C. E., & Bellem, A. (2011). Glottalisation and neutralisation in Yemeni Arabic and Mehri: An acoustic study. In B. Heselwood & Z. Hassan (Eds.), Arabic Instrumental Phonetics (pp. 235–256). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Watson, J. C. E., & Rowlett, P. (2012). Jespersen’s cycle and negation in Mehri. In D. Eades (Ed.), Grammaticalisation in Semitic (pp. 205–225). Oxford University Press.
References
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External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Ywj3R27Ls Presentation by Janet Watson: Beauty and diversity-Language and Nature in Southern Arabia]
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Category:Fellows of the British Academy
Category:Linguists from the United Kingdom
Category:Phonologists from the United Kingdom
Category:Academics of the University of Leeds
Category:British women linguists