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Kumzari of Oman: a Grammatical Analysis

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KUMZARI OF OMAN: A GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS By SAID ALJAHDHAMI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Said Aljahdhami 2 To my daughter, Raneem, and my wife, thank you for being always there for me. A special feeling of gratitude goes to my loving mother and siblings whose words of encouragement and support have played a major role in producing this work. I also dedicate this dissertation to the participants in this study and to the Kumzari community in Oman. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is my pleasure to thank all those who have been involved in helping me to complete this research. Most of all, thanks to the Almighty God who gave me strength and good health while working on this research. I owe my advisor Dr. Eric Potsdam a lot of thanks for his helpful guidance, and most of all his patience throughout the entire process. This research could not have reached such stage without his critical, encouraging and enlightening comments. I will always remain grateful to Dr. Eric Potsdam. I would like to extend my thanks to the members of my research committee: Dr. Brent Henderson, Dr. Youssef Haddad, and Dr. Deborah Amberson for their encouraging comments. I would like to express my gratitude and deep appreciation to Aysha Mohammed Al-Kumzari for her distinctive participation in providing data for this study, and for her helpful comments on my data analysis. My thanks are extended to her family and friends for their input and comments on this work. Special thanks go to the other participants who have chosen to remain anonymous in this study, and all those who have contributed to this work. Last but not least, I would like to express my excessive thanks to my wife for her help in making connection with female speakers of Kumzari and for her tolerance while working on this research. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 12 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 15 Genetic Affiliation .................................................................................................... 16 Where Kumzari is Spoken ...................................................................................... 18 The Name of the Language .................................................................................... 19 The Village of Kumzar............................................................................................. 20 The Status of Kumzari in the Future ....................................................................... 23 Rationale behind this Work ..................................................................................... 24 2 DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR .................................................................................... 27 Phonology ............................................................................................................... 27 Consonantal Phonemic Inventory ..................................................................... 27 Plosives...................................................................................................... 27 Nasals ........................................................................................................ 28 Fricatives.................................................................................................... 28 Affricates .................................................................................................... 29 Approximants ............................................................................................. 29 Vowel Phonemic Inventory ............................................................................... 29 Minimal Pairs of Kumzari Consonantal Segments ............................................ 30 Minimal Pairs of Kumzari Vocalic Segments .................................................... 31 Morpho-Phonological Rules ............................................................................. 32 Syllable Structure and Stress ........................................................................... 34 Phonological Changes in Loanwords ............................................................... 35 Morphology ............................................................................................................. 36 Pronouns .......................................................................................................... 36 Subject / Object Pronouns ......................................................................... 36 Possessive Pronouns ................................................................................ 36 Demonstrative Pronouns............................................................................ 38 Reflexive Pronouns .................................................................................... 40 Nominal System ............................................................................................... 41 Definiteness and Number........................................................................... 42 5 Verbs ................................................................................................................ 44 Verbal Inflection ......................................................................................... 44 Verb to Be .................................................................................................. 46 Verb to Have .............................................................................................. 49 Verb Structure ............................................................................................ 50 Aspect ........................................................................................................ 53 Mood .......................................................................................................... 58 Passive Voice ............................................................................................ 62 Verb Form of Indefinite Subjects ...................................................................... 66 Adjectives ......................................................................................................... 66 Comparative Forms ................................................................................... 68 Superlative Forms ...................................................................................... 70 Adverbs ............................................................................................................ 72 Adverbs of Manner ..................................................................................... 72 Adverbs of Location ................................................................................... 73 Adverbs of Frequency ................................................................................ 74 Temporal Adverbs ...................................................................................... 74 Prepositions ...................................................................................................... 75 Quantifiers ........................................................................................................ 77 Numerals .......................................................................................................... 80 Syntax ..................................................................................................................... 81 Phrases ............................................................................................................ 81 Noun Phrase .............................................................................................. 81 Adjective Phrase ........................................................................................ 83 Adverbial Phrase ........................................................................................ 84 Prepositional Phrase .................................................................................. 84 Word Order ....................................................................................................... 85 Negation ........................................................................................................... 89 Interrogatives .................................................................................................... 90 Yes-no Questions ...................................................................................... 90 Information Questions ................................................................................ 91 Relative Clauses .............................................................................................. 95 Conditional Clauses ......................................................................................... 96 Conjunctions ..................................................................................................
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