The Northern Mao language, spoken in and around Bambassi town and the Diddessa valley of western Ethiopia, is a member of the Mao group, the least studied branch within the Omotic language family. This dissertation research will produce a reference grammar of Northern Mao, featuring the first-ever complete description and analysis of the sound system and grammatical structures. The work will also produce a 3,000 entry glossary in Northern Mao, Amharic (one of the national languages of Ethiopia), and English; a collection of folktales and other texts, translated into Amharic and English with accompanying grammatical annotations; and a study of the vitality of Northern Mao, which is considered to be an endangered language and could become extinct within a generation or two. The grammar, other material output and accompanying digital recordings will provide a thorough documentation of the Northern Mao language for the scientific community before the language changes dramatically due to contact with other languages or is lost altogether.
The Northern Mao project will also benefit the Mao people in the following ways: a practical writing system will be developed for the first time; the glossary will assist Mao-speaking students learning Amharic and English; and the collection of texts may be used in the schools for Mao literacy. These results are in keeping with current Ethiopian policy which guarantees ethnolinguistic minorities the right to develop their own languages for media of instruction, and the materials will be disseminated to the local community leaders, schools and government officials.
