Yemen in other languages: exonyms, Sana’a, governorates in Arabic

al-Yaman, Tēman and the spellings of Sana’a

Arabic اليمن, al-Yaman, is usually read as the land on the right hand: facing east from Mecca, the south lies to the right, and يمين, yamīn, means right. The country is الجمهورية اليمنية, al-Ǧumhūrīyâẗu l-Yamanīyâ, and its people are يمنيون; the adjective is اليمني, al-yamanī.

Most languages borrow the Arabic word. Persian, Urdu and Hindi say Yaman, Indonesian and Malay write Yaman too, Russian Йемен, and Greek Υεμένη. Hebrew stands apart with תימן, Tēman, a biblical name for the south, while Yiddish keeps both תימן and יעמען.

The capital is spelt in several ways in English alone: Sana’a, Sanaa and Sana. The Arabic صنعاء ends in a glottal stop, Ṣanʿāʾ, which European spellings drop or mark with an apostrophe; Czech and Spanish write Saná, German and French Sanaa.

Socotra, Raymah and the renamed capital municipality

The list numbered 20 governorates and the capital. ISO coded Raymah, formed in 2004, only in 2010, and in 2015 it added a 21st governorate, Arkhabīl Suquṭrá. The Socotra archipelago had belonged to Ḥaḍramawt, where its two districts, Ḥidaybū and Qulansīyâ wa-ʿAbdu l-Kūrī, still stand in the district list; it became a governorate of its own in December 2013, with its seat at Ḥidaybū.

The other updates touched only spellings. The capital municipality, once coded as Şan‘ā’ [city], has been Amānat al ‘Āşimah since 2014, the Arabic أمانة العاصمة, the capital secretariat. In 2015 ISO revised the names of Aden, ‘Amrān, Al Bayḑā’, Aḑ Ḑāli‘ and Ma’rib, and in 2016 Abyān became Abyan.