Fabio Gasparini received his PhD in African, Asian and Mediterranean Studies from the University of Naples “L’Orientale.” He is currently a researcher at the Department of Semitic Studies of Freie Universität Berlin, where he is working at his DFG-funded project “Naming the landscape in the Modern South Arabian languages”. His research focuses on the Modern South Arabian languages and Semitic in general from a comparative and typological perspective, fieldwork linguistics and ethnolinguistics, and the relation between language and identity.

"Naming the landscape in the Modern South Arabian languages" research grant funded by DFG (project number (GA 3449/1-1)

The cultures of the endangered Modern South Arabian Language (MSAL)-speaking people of Southern Arabia and the natural environment in which they developed are facing serious threats of extinction due, on the one hand, to fast social changes such as urbanisation and Arabization, and on the other, by ecologically unsustainable human activity (building of roads and infrastructures, increasing tourism) and climate change, which brings desertification and catastrophic events. Within this scenario, the loss of autochthonous knowledge concerning the traditional relationship between man and landscape has strongly negative effects on the local culture. This project aims at documenting and analysing the toponymic and orientation systems applied by native MSAL speakers to describe and refer to the environment in which they live: the main goals of the project are to portray the ontology of the MSAL landscape description system, preserve the memory of this endangered intangible cultural heritage, and foster the maintenance of and interest in traditional knowledge.

1. MONOGRAPHS

• Morris, M. J. & F. Gasparini (Forth.). A Grammar of Bəṭaḥrēt (Baṭḥari).

2. Articles in scientific journals:

• Bettega, S. & F. Gasparini (2022). A Musandam Arabic text from Lima (Oman). Kervan. International Journal of African and Asian Studies 26(1): 202-25.
• Gasparini, F. (2021). Emphasis, glottalization and pharyngealization in Semitic and Afroasiatic. Kervan. International Journal of African and Asian Studies 25(2): 3-30.
• Gasparini, F. (2014). Grammaticalization of Adnominal Demonstratives in Neo-Aramaic. Towards the Creation of a Simple Determiner, in Ricognizioni, rivista di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne, 1 (2), Torino: Università di Torino, 95–107.

3. Book Chapters and Essays in MiscellaneA:

• Gasparini, F. & E. Goria (Forthcoming). Heritage languages and acts of identity: Evidence from Piedmontese migrants in Argentina.
• Gasparini, F. (Forthcoming). When a language dies: the case of Baṭḥari of Oman. In K. Pfadenhauer, S. Rüdiger & V. Serreli (eds.), Global and Local Perspectives on Language Contact. Berlin: Language Science Press.
• Gasparini, F. & S. alMahri (2022). Water and culture among the MSAL-speaking people of Dhofar. In J. C. E. Watson, J. Lovett, R. Morano (eds.). Language and Ecology in Southern Arabia. London: Bloomsbury.
• Gasparini, F. (2022). Semantically unmarked clause linking in Mehri: the use of wǝ-, in G. Castagna, L. Edzard, (eds.), South Arabia: Old Issues, New Perspectives. Proceedings of the Workshop at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg on December 19, 2019. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Gasparini, F. (2021). Nominalizzazione indipendente in Sudarabico Moderno. In: S. Ballarè & G. Inglese (eds.), Tipologia e sociolinguistica: verso un approccio integrato allo studio della variazione. Atti del workshop della Società di Linguistica Italiana, 10 settembre 2020. Milan: Officina ventuno, 177–206.
• Bettega, S., Gasparini, F. (2020), “Modern South Arabian Languages”, in C. Lucas, S. Manfredi (eds.), Arabic and Contact-induced Change. A Handbook, Berlin: Language Science Press, 351–369.
• Gasparini, F. (2017). Phonetics of Emphatics in Baṭḥari, in S. Bettega, F. Gasparini, (eds.), Linguistic Studies in the Arabian Gulf, special issue of QuadRi - Quaderni di Ricognizioni (5), Turin: Università di Torino, 69–85.
• Gasparini, F., Tosco, M. (2012). Building a “New” Semitic Language: Expansion and Enrichment in Modern Assyrian. In Studia Andreae Zaborski Dedicata, Folia Orientalia 49: 191-202.

4. SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS

• Gasparini, F. (2020). Review of Rubin, A. D.: Omani Mehri. A New Grammar with Texts. Leiden/Boston: Brill 2018. Orientalische Literaturzeitung 114 (3): 463–465.

5. EDITED VOLUMES

• Gasparini, F., Russell, K., Watson, J. C.E. (eds.) (in prep.). Language and Nature in Southern Arabia. Cambridge: Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures.
• Bettega, S., Gasparini, F. (eds.) (2017). Linguistic Studies in the Arabian Gulf. Turin: University of Turin, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Modern Cultures. “QuadRi – Quaderni di Ricognizioni” V.

6. DIGITAL ARCHIVES:

• Gasparini, F. (2019). An Ethno-anthropological archive concerning the Baṭāḥira tribe of Oman. Torino: LFSAG. URL: https://www.lfsag.unito.it/ark/bathari/main_en.html.