Search

Search Results

• The Progressive Tenses with the Verb “To Have” as a Peculiar and Exclusive Feature of Western Iranian Dialects Spoken in Modern Iran

  Youli A. Ioannesyan

  Article Preview

  Abstract

  The article considers the verb forms with the auxiliary verb “to have” used in Persian and other western Iranian dialects of modern Iran to express a continuous action taking place at the moment of speech in the present or at a certain moment in the past. Drawing upon an extensive material collected from a large number of dialects, the author proves that the geographic area within which these forms are found is limited to the territory of modern Iran, which makes them a distinguishing and exclusive feature of western Iranian (Persian and non-Persian alike) dialects spoken in modern Iran. The author supports the idea that these verb forms are completely “native” to the linguistic area they are found in and, therefore, despite the view-point of some scholars, could not have originated under the influence of western or any other foreign languages.   

  References

  Abrahamian, R. (1936), Dialectes des Israélites de Hamadan et d’Ispahan et dialecte de Baba Tahir, Paris: Librarie d’Amerique et d’Orient.

  Ahangar, A. (2010), “A study of the verb system in the Sistani dialect of Persian”, Orientalia Suecana, vol. 59, pp. 5-44.

  Dehghān, I. (1972). “Dāshtan as an auxiliary in contemporary Persian”, Archiv Orientälni (Praha), vol. 40, pp. 198–205.

  Farhâdi, A.-Gh. (1955), Le Persan Parlé en Afghanistan. Grammaire du Kâboli accompagnée d’un recueil de quatrains populaires de la Région de Kâbol, Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

  Ivanow, W. (1935), “The Gabri dialect spoken by the Zoroastrians of Persia”, Rivista Degli Studi Orientalni, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 31-97.

  Ivanow, W. (1925), “Rustic Poetry in the Dialect of Khorasan”, Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 233-313.

  Jeremiás, É. (1993), “On the genesis of the periphrastic progressive in Iranian languages”, in: Medioiranica: Proceedings of the International Colloquium Organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 21st–23rd May 1990, ed. W. Skalmowski, and A. Van Tongerloo, Leuven: Peeters, pp. 99–116.

  Nematollahi, N. (2014), “Development of the progressive construction in Modern Persian. In: Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Central Eurasian Languages and Linguistics (ConCALL), ed. Özçelik, Ö., and Kent A., Bloomington: Center for the Languages of the Central Asian Region, pp. 102–114.

  Nematollahi, N. (2018), “Have-progressive in Persian. A case of pattern replication?”, Diachronica, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 144-156. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.17023.nem

  Pejsikov, L. (1960), Tegeranskij dialekt [The Tehrani dialect]. Moscow: IMO. In Russian.

  Pelevin, M. (1998), “Dialekt bandari Južnogo Irana” [The Bandari dialect from Southern Iran], Strany i narody Vostoka, vyp. XXX: Centralʹnaja Azija. Vostočnyj Gindukuš. Pamjati Aleksandra Leonoviča Grjunberga [Countries and peoples of the East, vol. 30: Central Asia. Eastern Hindukush. In memory of Alexander Gruenberg], ed. I. M. Steblin-Kamensky, V. V. Kuščev, N. L. Lužeckaja, and L. Rzehak, Sankt-Peterburg: St. Petersburg for Oriental Studies, pp. 109-122. In Russian.

  Pistoso, M. (1974), “L'ausiliare Dāštan in Neo-Persiano: Un Costrutto Linguistico Nord-Iranico?”, Oriente Moderno, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 157–162.

  Rastorgueva, V., and Èdelʹman, Dž. (1982), “Giljanskij, mazanderanskij (s dialektami šamerzadi i velatru)” [Gilaki, Mazandrani (including the Shamerzadi and Velatru dialects)], in: Osnovy iranskogo jazykoznanija. Novoiranskie jazyki: Zapadnaja gruppa, prikaspijskie jazyki [Basics of Iranian linguistics. New Iranian languages: the Western group, Caspian languages], ed. V. Abaev, M. Bogoljubov, and V. Rastorgueva, Moscow: Nauka, pp. 447-554. In Russian.

  Rastorgueva, V, and Moškalo, V. (1997), “Dialekty Centralʹnogo Irana” [The Dialects of Central Iran], in: Osnovy iranskogo jazykoznanija. Novoiranskie jazyki: Severo-zapadnaya gruppa. II [Basics of Iranian linguistics. New Iranian languages: the Northwestern group. II], ed. V. Efimov, Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, pp. 195-329. In Russian.

  Reżā’ī, J̌. (1998 / 1377), Barrasī-ye gūyeš-e Bīrǰand. Dastūr va vāžehnāmeh: Bīrǰandī be Fārsī [Study of the dialect of Bīrǰand. Grammar and Bīrǰandī-Persian dictionary], Tehrān: Hīrmand. In Persian.

  Romaskevič, A. (1945), “Lar i еgo dialect” [Lar and its dialect], in: Iranskiye Yaziki [Iranian languages], vol. 1. Iranica 3, ed. V. Abaev, and I. Meščaninov, Moscow - Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, pp. 31-86. In Russian.

  Rosenfeld, A. (1948), “Vspomogatelʹnaja funkcija glagola dāštan v persidskom jazyke” [The auxiliary function of the verb dāštan in the Persian language], in: Sovetskoe Vostokovedenie [Soviet Oriental Studies], vol 5, Moscow-Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, pp. 305-312. In Russian.

  Taheri-Ardali, M., Borjian, H., and Anonby, E. (2025), “The Bavadi and their Bakhtiari Dialect”, Iranian Studies, pp. 1-47. https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2025.2.

  Thackston, W. (2009), “An Introduction to Persian”. Revised fourth edition. Bethesda, Maryland, 2009.

  Žukovskij, V. (1888), “Osobennoe značenie glagola (داشتن) v persidskom razgovornom jazyke” [Special meaning of the verb dāštan in the conversational Persian language], Zapiski Vostočnogo Otdelenija Imperatorskogo Russkogo Arxeologičeskogo Obščestva [Proceedings of the Oriental Department of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society], vol. 3. St. Petersburg: Tipografija Imperatorskoj Akademii Nauk, pp. 376-377. In Russian.

  Žukovskij, V. (1902), Obrazcy narodnogo tvorčestva. Pesni pevcov-muzykantov, pesni svadebnye, pesni kolybelʹnye, zagadki, obrazcy raznogo soderžanija [Samples of [Persian] folklore: songs of singers-musicians, wedding songs, lullabies, riddles, samples of various content], St. Petersburg: Tipografija I. Boraganskogo & Ko. In Russian.

• Who Owns What? Possessive Constructions in Northern Talyshi (Anbarāni and Lankarāni Dialects)

  Hakob Avchyan

  Article Preview

  Abstract

  Talyshi, a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, is traditionally divided into three dialect clusters: Northern, Central, and Southern. This paper investigates possessive constructions in two Northern Talyshi dialects, Anbarāni (Iran) and Lankarāni (Azerbaijan), drawing on original fieldwork and corpus data. In the attributive domain, both dialects share three strategies: oblique marking of the possessor, the optional preposition čə, and possessive pronouns. In the predicative domain, hitherto almost undocumented, they diverge sharply: Anbarāni employs a goal-schema construction, marking the possessor with the postposition ro and an existential predicate, whereas Lankarāni employs a genitive-schema construction, in which the oblique-marked possessor is obligatorily cross-referenced by an enclitic pronoun. This divergence tracks not the traditional tripartite classification of Talyshi but the dominant contact language of each dialect — Persian for Anbarāni, Azerbaijani for Lankarāni. The findings refine the place of Northern Talyshi within the typology of Western Iranian predicative possession and provide the first description of predicative possession for any Northern Talyshi variety spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

  References

  Aboszoda, F., and Sadykhzoda, A. (2019), Toləša zəvon: fonetika, morfologiya, sintaksis [Talyshi Language: Phonetics, Morphology, Syntax], Minsk: Medisont.

  Amiriān-Budālālu, R. (2005), Guyeš-e Tāleši-e Anbarān-e Ardabil [The Talyshi dialect of Anbarān of Ardabil], Tehran: Jāme-e Negar.

  Avchyan, H. (2024), “Comparison Constructions in Two Northern Talyshi Dialects”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 303–324.

  Heine, B. (1997), Possession: Cognitive sources, forces, and grammaticalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Matras, Y., and Sakel, J. (2007), “Investigating the Mechanisms of Pattern Replication in Language Convergence”, Studies in Language, vol 31, no. 4, pp. 829–865.

  Miller, B. (1948), “O suffikse -i imjon suščestvitel'nyx v talyšskom jazyke” [On the Suffix -i of Nouns in the Talyshi Language], Jazyk i myšlenie, vol. 11, pp. 237–246.

  Miller, B. (1953), Talyšskij jazyk [The Talyshi Language], Moscow: Nauka.

  Mohammadirad, M. (2020), “Predicative Possession across Western Iranian Languages”, Folia Linguistica, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 497–526.

  Paul, D. (2011), A Comparative Dialectal Description of Iranian Taleshi, Manchester: University of Manchester dissertation.

  Schulze, W. (2000), Northern Talysh, Munich: Lincom Europa.

  Stassen, L. (2009), Predicative Possession, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Stilo, D. (2008), “Two Sets of Mobile Verbal Person Agreement Markers in the Northern Talyshi Language”, in Aspects of Iranian Linguistics, ed. by S. Karimi, D. Stilo, and V. Samiian, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 363–390.