Language policy and planning decisions arise in response to sociopolitical needs. Language planning decisions may be required, for example, where a number of linguistic groups compete for access to the mechanisms of day-to-day life, or where a particular linguistic minority is denied access to such mechanisms. Two examples of such decisions are the Court Interpreters Act, which provides an interpreter to any victim, witness, or defendant whose native language is not English, and the Voting Rights Act of 1975, which provides for bilingual ballots in areas where over 5% of the population speak a language other than English. Both governmental and social institutions must effectively and equitably meet the needs of the population so that groups varied in linguistic repertoire have an equal opportunity to participate in their government and to receive services from their government. Yemen is a desert country in the Middle East on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, bordered in west by the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, in north by Saudi Arabia and in north east by Oman. Yemen has maritime borders with Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia. With an area of 527,970 sq km (including the islands of Perim and Socotra), the country is about the size of Sweden or about twice the size of Wyoming. 26 million people live in the country. Largest city and the national capital is Sana'a, situated in a mountain valley at an altitude of 2,200 m, the Old City of Sana'a is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yemen's primary seaport and economic center is Aden. Official language is Arabic. Yemeni Dialect is one of the hardest dialect in the Arab world to understand (my opinion, it competes with Libyan and Algerian Dialect; the later is difficult because it is mixed with French). I borrowed from jnvlv247 (thanx jnvlv) her list of words for the Yemeni dialect translation. I'll start with dialect of the northern part especially Sanaa - the capital. People of Aden in the south have totally different accent such as : Who - Men What - Mahu When - Aieheen Where - Faien Why - Leesh How - Kaiff/ Kaiff-ah How are you? - Kaief halak? (m)/ Kaief hallish? (f) Fine/good - Tammam (alhamd-llah) What's up/new - Eesh msoui?/ Eesh men jaddeed? Nothing new - Mabish shee (jaddeed) Thanks - Teslam/ shukran/ ashkurak (m)/ ashkurish (f) Please - Lau sammaht (m)/ Lau sammahti (f) No - Ma3/ La' In 2009, the Yemeni Central Statistical Organization estimated the population in Al-Mahra governorate at 101,701—many of whom speak the region’s traditional Mahri language. Like Arabic and Hebrew, Mahri is a Semitic language. Unlike its two Semitic counterparts, however, it lacks a written tradition. Except for a few short lines and word lists, which have been published in Arabic, the Mahri language has only been written down for scholarly audiences. Considering that Arabic has effectively erased and replaced a great number of spoken languages in the Middle East, the survival of Mahri can be considered impressive. According to Samuel Liebhaber, a professor at Middlebury College in the US who published a collection of Mahri poetry in 2011, Mahri was only formally recognized in the mid-19th century. While classical and medieval Arabic scholarship acknowledged the existence of living pre-Arabic languages like Mahri, contemporary Arabic scholarship is divided on the issue. Some have denied that Mahri is an independent language, instead labelling it as a divergent dialect of Arabic. They often argue that Mahri, like other dialects, is only spoken and not written. Others, who regard Mahri as a language, widely emphasize its ancient character. Yahya Salama, a linguist at Sana'a University, explains that Mahri dates back to 1000 BC. He describes Mahri as a “Himyari” language, thereby associating Mahra with the prestigious, pre-Islamic kingdoms of Saba, Qitban, Ma’in, and Himyar. While that glorious history continues to fill Yemenis with pride, calling Mahri a Himyari language also assigns it to the distant past. For young Yemenis like Sabri Al-Bahr, the language’s ancient character renders it somewhat obsolete. The 22-year-old Sana’a resident and student is originally from Mahra. He considers the Mahri language as a part of Yemen’s cultural heritage that should be admired and kept in historical documents, but he prefers not to use it in his daily life. “My studies are either based on English or Arabic and communication with the people surrounding me never requires anything beyond these two languages. So there is no need for Mahri. It is useless. I prefer to study beneficial languages, like English,” Al-Bahr explained. Mahri language has become endangered, according to the Global Language Association (GLA), with its influence being limited to people in Mahra and the western border of Oman. Of the approximate 6,500 languages spoken around the world, as many as 90 percent may be gone by the end of the 21st century, according to the GLA. While languages have come and gone over the course of human history, the present rate of extinction is unprecedented. On average, one language dies every two weeks, the GLA reported. The globalization of finance, communication, and culture has had a profound effect on the type and rate of language change. At the moment, over 50 percent of the world’s population speaks one, or more, of ten languages, namely Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi-Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, and German. According to Liebhaber, the ultimate test of viability for the Mahri language rests on the current generation of children and teenagers in Al-Mahra. “Do they speak the Mahri language amongst themselves or shift to Arabic and its dialects for informal conversations? If young Mahri men and women shift to Arabic for informal interpersonal communication, then they will pattern this linguistic behavior to their children, who will be the first generation of Mahra to grow up in Arabic-monolingual households,” Liebhaber told the Yemen Times. This, he warns, would break the generational chain of the Mahri language, “resulting in the sudden disappearance of the Mahri language in two generations’ time.” Journalist Anthony C. LoBaido has traveled to Saudi Arabia and other nations in the Middle East. He has explored Arabic and Islamic culture and art, studied Shariah law, Sufism and the Arabic language and calligraphy. In the first installment of his series “Arabiana,” LoBaido investigated Saudi Arabia’s alleged links to terrorism, the Wahhabi branch of Islam, and Saudi Arabia’s treatment of Christians, among other issues. Part II of his series touched upon Saudi Arabia’s quest for nuclear weapons via Pakistan. In Part III, LoBaido examines Saudi Arabia’s multidimensional interests in Yemen, the ongoing war gripping that beleaguered nation, as well as Saudi Arabia’s (and the UAE’s) grand design to connect Arabia and North Africa with a land bridge – the Bridge of Horns – spanning Yemen and Djibouti. This vital and strategic maritime chokepoint, the “Bal Al Mendeb,” means “The Gate of Tears” in Arabic. Development of the energy resources of the vast Empty Quarter nestled between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, as well as the rich oil fields of Ethiopia, is also part of this scenario in a broader context.)