This research takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore the relationship of the indigenous language of Kumzar and the marine ecology of Kumzar’s natural environment – namely, the sea. Taking an ecocentric approach with the acknowledgement that identity is not just social and cultural, but also always ecological, this chapter frames Kumzari identity as ecocultural “in nature” and analyzes how the marine ecosystem and “aqua-culture” of Kumzar are expressed through language. Exploring the ecological dimensions and expressions of Kumzari reveals the interlinkages and impacts of the environment of Kumzar on both language and identity.
Kumzari is mainly spoken in the fishing village of Kumzar on the Musandam Peninsula in northern Oman, as well as nearby Dibba and Khasab and Larak Island in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Kumzari is an endangered language due to the small population of Kumzar, its unwritten status, and the ubiquitous use of Arabic in the education system and other domains of life. As a result, UNESCO has classified Kumzari as “severely endangered.” With only a few thousand speakers of Kumzari left, the language is teetering on the brink of extinction, though there are increasing efforts among the villagers to preserve and pass on their language. Kumzar’s remote location and geography have largely protected the language and culture of Kumzar from outside influences, and within the academia it has gone almost completely ignored in scholarship until relatively recently (E. Anonby 2008, 2010, 2011; Al-Jahdhami, 2013; al Kumzari, 2009; van der Wal Anonby, 2015).
This research is rooted in Linguistics and Semitic Studies; it draws specifically upon ecolinguistics, cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, geography studies, agriculture studies, and environmental / sustainability studies. Special attention is paid to a collection of Kumzari words and phrases related to fishing, boating, date palm cultivation, goat husbandry, ethnozoological knowledge, tides, and coastal watching. It also explores folk taxonomy, habitat, and migration to metaphorically map the marine ecosystem of Kumzar and indigenous understandings and navigations of it.
Finally, this research, in highlighting the ecological dimensions and assemblages of Kumzari identity, language, and relations, suggests that centering these interlinkages and impacts can help cultivate not just a habitable but a thriving future for both the people of Kumzar and the Kumzari language itself.