Editing Soqotri language (section)

== Status ==

=== Endangerment ===
The language is under immense influence of the dominant Arabic language and culture because many Arabic-speaking [[Yemenis]] have settled in the Soqotri region permanently, resulting in Arabic becoming the official language of the island. Soqotri is now replaced with Arabic as a means of education in schools. Students are prohibited from using their mother tongue while at school and job seeking Soqotrans must be able to speak Arabic before getting employed.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} Young Soqotrans even prefer Arabic to Soqotri and now have a difficult time learning it. Oftentimes they mix Arabic in it and cannot recite or understand any piece of Soqotri oral literature.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

Arabic is now the symbolic, or more ideological, articulation of the nation's identity, making it the privileged lingua franca of the nation. The government has also taken up an inclination of neglect toward the Soqotri language. This seems to based on the view that Soqotri is only a dialect rather than a language itself. There is also no cultural policy on what should be done about the remaining oral non-Arabic languages of Yemen, include Soqotri and [[Mehri language|Mehri]]. The language is seen as an impediment to progress because of the new generation's judgement of it as being irrelevant in helping to improve the socio-economic status of the island. Limitations to Soqotri, such as not being able to communicate through writing, are also viewed as obstacles by the youth that makes up 60% of the population. There seems to be cultural sentiments toward the language but yet an indifference due to neglect and the notion of hindrance associated with it.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Elie |first=Serge D. |date=2012-06-01 |title=Cultural Accommodation to State Incorporation in Yemen: Language Replacement on Soqotra Island |journal=[[Journal of Arabian Studies]] |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=39–57 |doi=10.1080/21534764.2012.686235 |issn=2153-4764 |s2cid=144803493}}</ref>

Hence, Soqotri is regarded as a severely endangered language and a main concern toward the lack of research in Soqotri language field is not only related to the semitics, but to the Soqotri folklore heritage conservation. This isolated island has high pressures of modernization and with a rapidly changing cultural environment, there is a possibility of losing valuable strata of the Soqotran folklore heritage.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Elie |first=Serge D. |date=2016-01-01 |title=Communal Identity Transformation in Soqotra: From Status Hierarchy to Ethnic Ranking |journal=[[Northeast African Studies]] |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=23–66 |doi=10.14321/nortafristud.16.2.0023 |jstor=10.14321/nortafristud.16.2.0023 |s2cid=151785552}}</ref>

Poetry and song used to be a normal part of everyday life for people on the island, a way of communicating with others, no matter if they were human, animal, spirits of the dead, jinn sorcerers, or the divine. However, Soqotri poetry has been overlooked and the skill of the island's poets ignored.<ref name="Miranda Morris">{{cite journal |last=Morris |first=Miranda J. |date=2013-01-01 |title=The use of 'veiled language' in Soqoṭri poetry |journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies |volume=43 |pages=239–244 |jstor=43782882}}</ref>

The European Union has also expressed serious concerns on the issue of preserving cultural precepts of the archipelago's population.<ref>{{cite web |date=16 April 2008 |title=EU to protect Socotra archipelago environment |url=http://www.sabanews.net/en/news151852.htm |access-date=4 May 2017 |website=www.sabanews.net}}</ref>