A Grammar Of Haro With Comparative Notes On The Ometo Linguistic Group

The aim of this study is two-folded. The first one is providing a thoroughrndescription of the Haro language, while the second one is offering some comparativernand historical notes on the Ometo linguistic group, which Haro belongs to. The twornaspects complement each other. The data for the comparative analysis is derivedrnfrom the description of Haro. Presenting the Haro data within a comparativernframework, on the other hand, discloses more facts about the Haro language and thernrelationship it has with the others.rnAlthough it particularly emphasizes on the morphological domain, therndescription, however, also covers the phonological and syntactic structures of thernlanguage. Haro is an interesting language from typological and historical perspectives.rnFor instance, the Haro language shows an intricate system of focus marking thatrnaffects the morpho-syntactic properties and categorization of a verb. The languagernhas a three-way number-marking system that distinguishes among the singular, paucalrnand plural number values. The numeral system of Haro is not attested to anywherernelse in the Ometo linguistic group. An elaborated system of mood and modality isrnalso observed in Haro.rnThe second part of the study, dealing with comparative and historical notes onrncertain morphological aspects of the Ometo languages, adds to our understanding ofrnthe Ometo linguistic group. It shows how certain grammatical aspects in the Ometornlanguages operate. It also reconstructs the archaic systems for the Proto-Ometornlanguage. Issues addressed in the second part include the system of terminal vowels ofrnnominals, the system of number marking of nouns and the system of definite markingrnviirnof nouns. In addition, the pronoun systems across the Ometo languages arerninvestigated, in which the short and long pronoun paradigms in the Ometo languagesrnare particularly explored, properties of the two sets of pronouns are characterized, thernrelationship between the two sets is described and an etymological interpretation thatrnrelates the third person singular pronouns with the remote demonstrative is offered.rnFurthermore, an investigation into the numeral system of the Ometo languagesrnis made. A historical quinary numeral system is reconstructed and etymologicalrninterpretations are provided for the quinary base as well as some of the basicrnnumerals. The quinary base, which stands for the value of ‘five’, is etymologicallyrnrelated to the quantifier expression ‘many’.rnFrom the comparative notes, the relationship among the different sub-branchesrnand different members of Ometo is disclosed. Haro, together with a few otherrnmembers, appears to be conservative, preserving two gender-sensitive archaic definiternmarkers, which have been lost totally or partially from most of the other members ofrnOmeto.

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