Mehri in Yemen

Mehri is a Semitic language of the modern South Arabian branch. It is spoken by the people within an area between the province of Mahra, in the east of Yemen, and the region of Dhofar, in the west of Oman. An unwritten language, pre-existing the invasion of the Arab tribes of the North, the mehri is threatened as much by the exodus of the rural populations who use it, by the permanent vectors of Arabization that constitute education and the administrative services that by an almost totally generalized bilingualism. Some 70,643 speakers would use mehri in Yemen,

This minority regional language, without writing tradition, without any official status: not taught, not vehicular language. Among speakers in Yemen, the variety spoken in Qishn, the former historic capital of Mahra, is the most popular, less "mixed" than the other urban varieties.