In this paper we describe the structure and functional categories of the noun phrase in Hawrami, a Kurdish / Northwestern Iranian language spoken in a region between Iran and Iraq, paying special attention to NP-internal agreement or concord. The major description of Hawrami, MacKenzie 1966, concentrates on morphology and describes a version of the language as spoken by previous generations in Nausud (Luhon), whereas the version of the language which we are describing is spoken in Pâwa, 10 miles to the south-east. While the dialect we describe is obviously the same language as that described by MacKenzie, there are important differences especially in the form of agreement affixes.

In this paper we describe the structure and functional categories of the noun phrase in Hawrami, a Kurdish / Northwestern Iranian language spoken in a region between Iran and Iraq, paying special attention to NP-internal agreement or concord. The major description of Hawrami, MacKenzie 1966, concentrates on morphology and describes a version of the language as spoken by previous generations in Nausud (Luhon), whereas the version of the language which we are describing is spoken in Pâwa, 10 miles to the south-east. While the dialect we describe is obviously the same language as that described by MacKenzie, there are important differences especially in the form of agreement affixes. This paper concentrates on the morphosyntax of the Izafe affix, whose pattern of agreement provides crucial evidence for the structure of the noun phrase, particularly the hierarchic relations among the various functional categories of the noun phrase, including the definite article, number, demonstrative and possessive. Given the standard assumption that agreement is always local, and that what matters is structural locality, not linear locality, these agreement facts enable us to draw firm conclusions about structural relations among the categories in the noun phrase.

Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle

David Odden, Ohio State University

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