JARQUYA ii. The Dialect

 

JARQUYA

ii. THE DIALECT

The dialect of Jarquya, together with those of Rudašt and Kuhpāya to its north, belongs to the Isfahani (Provincial) subgroup of the Central Dialects (q.v.; see also ISFAHAN xxi). Only about half of the villages of the district have retained their idioms, namely Ganjābād, Siān, Yangābād, Peykān, Mazraʿa-ʿArab, and Ḥaydarābād in Lower Jarquya (north), and Dastgerd, Kamālābād, Ḥasanābād, Ḵārā, and Yaḵčāl in Upper Jarquya (Šafiʿi, pp. 12-15; see also ISFAHAN xx). Sub-dialectal variation is noticeable, for example, between the dialect of Yangābād in the north and Ḥasanābād in the south: initial /h/ drops in the south, e.g., hezze ~ ezza “yesterday,” holoki ~ oloki “hole,” hošgi ~ ošgi “cough”; /j/ softens to /ž/ or /y/ in the north: žan ~ jan “woman,” žaž ~ jāj “a plant used as fuel,” vāyne ~ va:jona “I say”; note also kāy ~ ka(h)a “game,” yede ~ yele “a bit,” sion ~ soni “such”; and there are lexical variations such as girye ~ barma “weep(ing),” sündi ~ angona “watermelon,” süs ~ pura “chaff” (cf. Ebrāhimi, pp. 8-10; Šafiʿi, p. 512). The following sketch of the dialect of Yangābād is based on the author’s field notes taken in 2005, with occasional use of the material published by Šafiʿi.

Historical phonology. The affinity of Jarquyi to the Northwest group of Iranian languages can be seen in such characteristic developments as OIr. *ts > s: mas “big,” kas “small”; *dz > z: zommā “son-in-law,” hezze “yesterday,” zon- “know” (but bāhü: “arm”); *tsw > sp: sibi “white”; *dzw > zb: zu(v)on “tongue”; *dw- > b: bar “door,” (i)bi “other”; *y-, *vy- > y: i(y)e [ije, ijje] “barley,” vā-vuz-/voss- “find,” “place” (but juš “boil”); *j- > j/ž: žan “woman, wife,” jinji “wife,” žandegi “life,” jin-/jind- “hit,” žang “rust,” žire “cumin,” žārt- (< *jyau-) "chew," mežon (< *maig/j-) "mist," and possibly ješd “ugly.” Later developments: *w- is retained in vāron “rain,” varf “snow,” vid “willow,” vādom “almond,” viss “twenty,” vad “bad,” vešše “hungry,” visgi “so much,” vašd- “pass.” *-č- > ž/j: žer “below,” jer- (in, e.g., jer-negü:ni “cellar”), ruže “fast(ing),” ižir “pretty,” rež- “pour,” -ji “also” (cf. Av. ciṱ), vāž “call,” and, with further softening of the consonant, in (y)- “say” (but peš- “cook” < *paxæa- [*pak-s-]?). *ƒr, *xr, *fr > *hr > r: pore “son,” ār-či “hand mill,” dār “sickle” (but ousan “pregnant” < *ā-puƒra-tanu-); sür “red,” čār “spinning wheel” (but čarx “wheel”); gāre “down” (< Av. gufra-, jafra-; but ferāt- “sell”) and possibly the preverb - (< *fr-).

The changes *xt, *ft > t are found in just a few lexical items: dot(i) “daughter, girl,” sot- “burn,” ret- “*pour” (in der-ham-ret- “mess up”); hā-git- “seize,” dar-kat- “fall,” vāt- “say,” ferāt- “sell” (most potential examples of these developments are lost in favor of regularized past stems in -ā-); otherwise /t/ is normally voiced in the clusters: āmuxde “trained,” deraxd “tree,” taxde “plywood,” saxdi “hardship”; kufd- “pound,” ā-xofd- “sleep,” var-ešnofd- “hear,” čefd “button”; also note vaxdi “when,” ofdöu “sun,” kufdar “pigeon.” The clusters *št and *st have developed either into /ss/, e.g., vessā- “stand,” dar-xoss- “throw,” vass- “run,” hessu “is (there),” or into /šd/, as in pošd “back,” müšd “full,” čāšdone “breakfast,” dašd “washbasin,” pāyešd “weeding,” esbārešd “order,” sargozašd “biography,” Rudašd “Rudašt,” mošderi “customer,” -šd- “go,” hā-nišd- “sit,” dašd- “sew,” vašd- “pass,” kāšd- “sow.” *ṛt is retained (in contrast to the Isfahan dialect Sedehi) in past stems: marte “dead,” xesart- “catch a cold,” kart- “do,” bart- “carry,” gart- “turn,” žārt- “chew,” ošmārt- “count,” and probably dārt- “have” (cf. Parthian dird-). *xw > x: xox “sister,” xou “sleep,” xo(č)- “self,” ā-xus-/xofd- “sleep,” xer-/xārt- “eat,” xon-/xond- “read.” *x(w), *h are lost in üč “nothing,” ižir “pretty,” ibize “melon”; cf. hü:še “bunch,” heš “plowshare,” hürd “small, chopped,” hošk “dry,” hošgi “cough,” hou “with, to” (< *hada?), himir “dough.” Mid. WIr. -d- is lost in, e.g., ke/kie “house, room,” kāy “game,” rui “intestine,” kom(in) “which,” puo/pou “father,” mā: “mother,” jāyü “witchcraft,” biār “awake.” Loss of other medial consonants include -r- in ežon “cheap,” dez- “sew,” nüfü:n “curse,” hā-git- “seize,” katune (but also kartone < *kart-dān-ag) "hen-coop," and -x- in tāl “bitter,” tom “seed.” Loss of the final consonant is common: mü: “hair,” re: “road,” či: “thing,” “smoke,” žü: “early,” “hundred, duru “lie.” Note also the t- in tel “heart,” t- “hit” (“give,” with the preverb -).

Old labials in medial position are absorbed into adjacent vowels, yielding diphthongs: ou “water,” öur “cloud,” löu “lip,” souz “green,” šöu “night,” noudun “gutter,” rou-n- “sweep.” *p- is changed sporadically to other labials: ba’aštā “five,” fand “advice,” fātešā “king,” vesse “pistachio.” Reverse developments include perdous “paradise,” pandoq “hazelnut,” and probably pāxder (Pers. fāḵta) “ringdove”; note also xape “strangulation,” qip “funnel,” lāhāp “quilt.” Vowels: Original back vowels are generally fronted to /ü/, e.g., dü:r “late; far,” düm “on”; face,” müš “mouse,” ālü “plum,” āberü “dignity.” *ā is raised before nasals: jom “cup,” jon “soul,” bon “roof,” kaxdon “straw-rick,” mon-/mond- “stay,” yābün “barren land.”

Phonology. The vowel system consists of /a ā e o i u ü/. The distinction between /ü/ and /u/ or /i/ can be seen in “outside,” ku “mountain; where is,” “smoke; two,” and du “buttermilk,” müš “mouse” ~ miš “ewe”; sometimeṣ however, they are used interchangeably: mü: ~ mi “hair.” Diphthongs include /ou ~ öu/ (also heard as o: ow ~ ö: öw əw; e.g., kārdoune “spider,” garöuj “sieve”), and /ey, ay/ (e.g., dey “maternal uncle,” čey “tea”; ayn “mouth,” ayb “disadvantage”). The consonants correspond to those of Persian, but /v/ is [β] as in other provincial dialects of Isfahan area. As in Isfahani Persian, /k/ and /g/ are markedly palatalized before front vowels: [kjy] “outside,” gü(v)e [gjyβe] “giva (q.v.) footwear.” Note the retention of the glottal /ḥ/ and /ʿ/ in words of Arabic origin, e.g., ḥasüd “jealous,” ḥāl “fat,” taḥne (< ṭaʿna) “sarcasm,” jemʿa “Friday.” Harmonization of vowels is common, especially among verb morphemes: bikirind (< *be-ker-ind) "they do." The suffix -i turns optionally to -y after vowels: čuy (= ču-í) “wooden,” yāy (< yā-i) “a place,” boy (= bó-i) “you were,” befarmāy “treat yourself!” Epentheses or glides include /v/, /h/, and /y/: mā-v-ā “mothers,” čā-v-ā- (secondary past stem) “catch a cold,” qāye-h-ā “talks,” puo-h-on “the father,” vesse-h-ā (past part.) “become,” pušnā-y-e (past part.) “covered,” vāssā-y-on “I stood,” beyšo-y-on “I went,” bešde-y-on “I have gone.” The morphological stress patterns in Jarquyi are similar to those of other Provincial dialects.

Noun phrase. The nouns and pronouns indicate no gender or formal case. The plural ending is a stressed -ā: jinji-ā “women.” The definite article is -(h)on, suffixed to singular nouns when they are qualified by yon or okon (see Demonstratives, below): okon bāqon ~ un bāq “that garden,” yon asmon sibi u “this horse is white,” yon asmon-om bidi “I saw this horse”). The suffix -(h)on appears at the end of noun-phrase (yon pereynon “this shirt,” yon pereyn ižiron “this pretty shirt”) and is supplanted by the plural marker: yon axiā/porehā ki bind? “who are these men/boys?” (cf. yon axion/porehon ki bu? “who is this man/boy?”), yon yo(u)ne čuyyā “the wooden mortars.” As in colloquial Persian, the suffix -e (stressed) is a definite marker, e.g., ibi müše “the other mouse”; the indefinite markers are ye “a, one” and/or an unstressed -i (-y after vowels), e.g., ye ru(v)ā-y “one day.” There is no direct object marker in Jarquyi: yon bebe “take this away!” in ri birie “you know this” (but see Fronting, below).

Modifiers. As in other dialects of the Isfahan area as well as in the Persian variant of Isfahan, the modifiers (possessives and adjectives) follow the noun, with no overt connector, e.g., dot fātešā “king“s daughter,” ax mo “my husband,” angür siā “black grapes.” Occasionally, however, the Persian eżāfa (q.v.) marker is heard, more often in affected speech of younger informants: ādemā-ye duruvāž “false-saying people,” xox-e kas “younger sister.”

Pronouns. There are two basic sets of personal pronouns: (1) independent mo, to, un, hamā, šemā, unā; (2) enclitic -(o/e)m, -(o)d/t, -(o)š, -(e)mon, -(e)ton, -(e)šon, which are used also as person endings in the ergative construction (q.v.) of transitive verbs in the past tenses (see below). When functioning as direct object, the enclitics may be inserted within the verb: un našenāsie ~ na-š-šenāsie “you don’t know him,” vā-š-vuz-im “that we find him,” he-šon-te “give them!” The reflexive xo(č)- takes enclitic pronouns when functioning as a(n): (i) emphatic: mo xoč-em un-om ru saḥrā bidi “I myself saw him in the field,” tā zonon xoč-ed üčgi-d ru kie-d meymoni karte? “have you yourself invited anyone to your house until now?” kom gamböu-š xo-š besāt? “which hut did he himself build?” (ii) possessive: pač yā xo-š berue “he takes (it) back to its place,” (iii) direct object: qādib xo-m der ša:r beresnon “I must get (lit. deliver) myself to the town,” ye gorg o ye lubbā xo-šon-šon ru ār xoss “a wolf and a fox threw themselves in the mill,” or (iv) with prepositions: piš xo-m be-m-vāt “I said to myself,” čand-od pül hou xo-d bārte? “how much money have you brought with you.”

Demonstratives. These are yon/in “this,” okon/un “that,” yonehā/inehā “these,” okon(eh)ā/unehā “those,” which act also as personal pronouns: e.g., sezā-ye yonehā he-šon-te! “give them their retribution!” A three-way distinction in deixis (near, medium, far) exists in demonstrative adverbs: yohon “here,” eče “there (near the addressee),” uhun/vā(če) “there (very distant).” Examples: ibi müše čel-tā sekke nārue eče “the mouse doesn’t bring the forty coins there any more,” ye-čan-tā ḥayvon boomeynd eče döur-oš ja:m vessāynd “a few animals came there [and] gathered around him,” naqādib biši vā(če) “you should not go there,” okon žanon go uhun nišde māxāsu mo u “the woman who is sitting there is my mother-in-law.”

Prepositions. These include der “to,” düm “on, over,” ez “from,” hou “with, to,” jer “under,” löu “at,” ru “in(to),” tel “at, next to.” They normally require no eżāfa: ru xarand “in the yard,” kenār vāre “by the dam,” jer nā “under the throat,” der xiāl-od go ez-od tarsone? “do you think I am afraid of you?” ār vāžāre löu rowre u “the ruined mill is at the alley.” The only attested postposition is “for (someone)”: šā Yaz rā “for the king of Yazd,” yon bardon xoč-em rā, in tiše ji to rā “this spade for myself, this chisel for you.” The only circumposition is attested in he-š-rā “for him.” Prepositions are sometimes omitted: ou mo te “give me water!"

Verb phrase. Stems. Past stems are either derived from the old participles (e.g., pres./past endār-/endārt- “send”) or constructed by adding the formant -ā to the present stem (e.g., kol-/kolā- “cripple”). There are alternate past stems (secondary in -ā vs. the old participial form, e.g., vin-ā- vs. di- “see,” vāšku-ā- vs. vāškufd- “unstitch”), which may distinguish passive vs. active : ba-hamer-ā “it broke” ~ be-š-hamert “he broke (it)”; bu-(v)on-ā “it was cut,” be-š-vond “he cut.” The causative present stem is formed by adding -n to the present stem of intransitive verbs: peš-n- “cook (trans.)”; the stem may change form in the causative: čöus-/čafd- “stick (intr.)” ~ čöun-/čöunā- “stick (trans.),” ā-xus-/xofd- “sleep” ~ ā-xoun-/xounā- “cause to sleep.” Note also that the stems in -r or -rt optionally lose it when not suffixed: be-š-kert “he did,” be-ker “do!” Contraction of the stem occurs in some verbs of high frequency: e.g., vāyne (< *vā-yon-e) "I say," vāme ~ vāt-om-e “I said,” voue (< *vā-u-e) "he says"; binon (< *be-vin-on) "that I see," bine (< *be-vin-e) "see!"

Preverbs. (h)ā-, dar-, -, var- often further specify a stem: t-/- “hit,” -~ “give,” -~ “take back,” var-~ “lay upon”; vez-/vass- “run,” var-~ “jump”; māl-/mālā- “rub,” var-~ “flee”; ker-/kart- “do,” var-~ “build up,” kār-/kāšd- “sow,” var-~ “harvest”; y-/ome- “come,” var-~ “rise (of the sun/a voice)”; š-/šo- “go,” dar-~ “set (of the sun)”; čin-/čind- “shear,” dar-~ “arrange,” band-/bass- “hit,” dar-~ “shut,” (-)gart-/gartā- “(re)turn”; hā-n-/- “put,” -~ “open”; hā-gir-/git- “seize; buy,” ver-~ “lift.” As in the Jewish dialect (see ISFAHAN xix), (h)ā- vanishes optionally in perfective tenses: (ā)xofdeyon “I have slept” (for “sit,” see Table 1).

Modal affixes. (1) The suffixed durative marker -e is used in the present and the imperfect: y-on-e “I (will) come, I am coming,” omey-n-e “I used to/would come,” xer-on-e “I eat,” xārt-om-e “I would eat.” (2) The perfective prefix b(V)- is used in the subjunctive (b-i-on “that I come,” ba-xer-on “that I eat”), imperative (bā-xār “eat!”), preterit (bo-omi(y)-on “I came,” be-m-xārt “I ate”), and perfect (b-onde-yon “I have come,” be-m-xārte “I have eaten”), but is suppressed when the verb has a preverb or is in the negative. (3) The negative marker - comes just before the stem in all present forms and the intransitive past: na-š-u-e “he does not go,” na-šo-y “you did not go,” ā-na-xus-e “sleep not!” ā-na-xofde-y “you have not slept,” ofdöu var-n-onde (past part.) “(when) the sun (has) not risen,” bar dar-na-band-e! “don’t shut the door!” In the transitive past, the subject marker may come between the negative marker and the stem: kart-om-e “I would do,” na-m-kart-e (neg.).

Verbal nouns. (1) The infinitive marker -(e)mon/mun is added to the past stem preceded by the preverb (if any): endārt-emon “to send,” jikā-mon “to dance,” dar-kat-emon “to fall.” (2) The past participle consists of the perfective prefix and/or the preverb (not always), the past stem, and the stressed suffix -e: b-esbārt-e “handed over, entrusted,” (ā-)xofd-e “slept”; the glide -y- appears in the secondary stems in -ā: pušnā-y-e “covered,” har hātāye vātāye dāru “for every giving (lit. given) there is a taking (lit. taken)” . Some secondary past stems have their past participles also in -ā when suffixed (hessā-yon “I have gotten up”) and -ehā/-āhā when not: vessehā/vessāhā bon “I had gotten up,” be-š beresehā boym “we would have reached him,” be-šon-dozehā bo “they had stolen.” (3) A curious present participle in -oni is also noted: benā-šon-ke varvezoni bikirind “they began jumping.”

Person endings. These consist of three sets: (1) -on, -i, -u, -im, -i, -ind are used in the present indicative (xer-i-e “you eat,” vāss-i-e “you stand”) and subjunctive (ba-xer-i “that you eat,” vāss-i “that you stand”). (2) -(o)n, -i/y, -ø, -(y)m, -i/y, -(y)nd are used in the intransitive preterit (vāssā-i “you stood”), imperfect (vāssā-y-e “you would stand”), and perfect (hessā-i/y “you have been standing”). (3) The enclitic personal pronouns (see above) are used as subject (agent) markers in the transitive verbs: after the stem in the imperfect (xārt-ot-e “you would eat”), and before the stem in the preterit (be-d-xārt “you ate”) and perfect (be-d-xārte “you have eaten”); for the movement of this “ending,” see Fronting, below. Imperative endings are sing. -e (e.g., be-š-e “go!”) and pl. -i (e.g., ā-xus-i “sleep!”), with occasional irregular forms such as bure “come!” nöure “don’t come!” bii “come ye!"

Notes on conjugation. (1) The subjunctive and the imperative of certain verbs use “be” as auxiliary: dār bon “I may have,” dār be “have!” dar be “be in!” bezom be (< *be-zon be) "know!" gu-š bu “he may wish” (see also Modal verbs and particle, below). (2) The imperfect forms of intransitive verbs have a -y- inserted before the person endings (in full view only in the 1st pers. sing. and the 2nd sing./pl.): ome-y-n-e, ome-y-y-e “I, you would come,” xofde-y-n-e, xofde-y-y-e “I, you would sleep,” vāssā-y-n-e “I would stand.” (3) Old past stems end either in vowels (ome- “come,” šo- “go,” di- “see,” and possibly a few more) or consonants (limited to Vt, rt, nd, fd, šd, and ss according to the aforementioned diachronic rules). The latter appear in (a) plain forms used in the infinitive (git-emon “to get”) and the transitive preterit and imperfect (hā-mon-git “we got,” git-mon-e “we would get”), or (b) fuller forms in -e, used in the intransitive preterit and imperfect (except 3rd sing.): ā-xofde-yon, āxofde-i, āxofd, āxofde-ym, āxofde-i, āxofde-ynd “I slept,” etc., xofde-y-n-e, xofde-y-y-e, xofd-e, xofde-ym-e, xofde-y-y-e, xofde-ynd-e “I would sleep,” etc. Note that -e is not epenthetic, since conjugations with the plain stem would be *āxofd-on “I slept,” etc. Nor it is likely to be the participial marker -é; in the neighboring Rudašti dialects the same element appears mostly as -ā (e.g., Kamandāni āxofto-yon, āxoftā-ym-e), that is, the secondary stem formant. Nevertheless, one should not rule out the possibility that the intransitive imperfect is constructed on the past participle, as is the case in Sedehi. (4) Regardless of the origins of the -e, it yields preterit forms which are distinguishable from the perfect only by the placement of the stress: āxofdeynd “they slept” vs. āxofdéynd “they have slept.” (5) On the other hand, the intransitive past stems ending in vowels have extra forms, in which an original d resurfaces: béy-šo-yon “I went,” šó-y-n-e “I would go,” be-šdé-yon “I have gone,” šond-emón “to go”; bó-ome-ym “we came,” omé-y-m-e “we would come,” b-ondé-ym “we have come,” ond-emón “to come.” (Cf. Isfahani Jewish, where retention of the original d is surmised to be applicable to monosyllabic stems ending in a vowel; see ISFAHAN xix; cf. also Jarquyi jind-emon “to hit,” der-gind-emon (< *gir-) "to kindle.") (6) Intransitive compounds with transitive auxiliary verbs receive transitive conjugations: tou-š-bexā “it twisted” (cf. trans. be-š-tounā “he twisted”), girye-š-beke “he cried,” benā-šon-ke “they began,” pā-m gir-oš-bke “my foot got stuck.”

Fronting. This term was coined by Donald Stilo (see HAMADĀN ix) to signify the mobility of the person endings, set 3 (see above), throughout the sentence. In Jarquyi transitive past tenses as well, there is a strong tendency for the enclitic agents to move off the verb to a preceding word, often to the direct object. Indeed, fronting is preferred because, in the absence of -, it is the only way to mark direct objects. Examples: un-om nadi “I didn’t see him” (cf. na-m-di “I didn’t see”), nesf-e qezā-m bexārte bo “I had eaten half of the meal,” ki vāž mo-š betā? “who called me?” berā Ahmad-om hou xo-m barte “I took Aḥmad’s brother with me,” to-šon ez kie kü karte “they have kicked you out of the house,” sou(v)ā-šon ez deraxd bičind “they picked the apples off the tree.” However, it is not uncommon for the agent to move to the indirect object: čiči-ton hou mo buāt? ~ hou mo-ton čiči buāt? “what did you tell me?” hou-t-om vāte “I would tell you,” čand pül-od (= čand-od pül) hou xo-d bārte? “how much money have you brought with you?” The agent optionally remains on the verb when no direct object is present (ez visgi be-š-xārte “so much he has eaten . . .”) or when the object is not in the same clause: har či pül o telā bo, ver-oš-git o ru tübre-š-oš nā “he took all the money and gold that was (there) and put (it) into his sack.” Fronting to a word that already has an enclitic possessive marker is also possible: puo-š-om bekošde “I have killed his father,” ba’anje-m-om ji bu(v)ond “I cut my fingers as well,” xāšgā rās-oš-om hou-š buāte bo “I wish I had told him the truth.” Imperfect transitive person endings are optionally fronted: āš- lesāye vo xārt--e “he would lap the soup up and eat (it).”

To be. (1) The copula consists of the stems zero (present), b- (subjunctive), and bo- (past), conjugated regularly with the person-ending sets (1) and (2) listed above; e.g., yon goloyon čan xāš-u “how delicious this pear is,” angür feroumun ni-u “grapes are not plenty,” okon dotion ki b-u? “who is/might be that girl?” The copula may also express location: dezār löu öu bo-ø “the wall was by the water.” The past and subjunctive forms are used as auxiliary in periphrastic tenses: the pluperfect bešde bo-ynd “they had gone,” be-š-on vāte bo “they had said”; the perfect subjunctive bešde b-ind “they may have seen,” be-š-on vāte bu “they may have said.” (2) The copula combines with the preverb der-/dar to form the existential/locative verb for animate nouns: peysin kie der-on “I’ll be home in the afternoon,” bāxsure kāy der-u? “where is the father-in-law?” gusband ru pāgir deru “the sheep is in the pen,” dar be “be in!” mili ru kiri dar bo “the cat was in the oven.” (3) hess-, the existential verb for the inanimate nouns, is attested only in the present 3rd sing.: čerā kāy hessu? “where is the light?” sart tel dezār hessu “the ladder is by the wall.”

Become. This is expressed by two verbs: (1) the copula plus the modal affixes be- or -e; the present tense has the stem b-, also derived from “to be”: pres. zü: xasse b-i-e “you get tired quickly,” past: del-oš rāzi na-bo-ye “he would not be content”; the pres. 3rd sing. in negative nabue (cf. [be]-b-u-e “it becomes”) functions as an impersonal modal: tirmā nabue čiā garm vāpuši “you/one may not wear warm clothes in the summer”; (2) vess-/vessā- (also “stand”), with the past part. vessehā/vessāhā, e.g., vesse “become!” qāy-šon vessā (Pers. harf-ešān šod) “they began arguing (lit. speaking),” qāyem vessā-ynd “they hid from view,” max vessāhā boyon “I had gotten lost,” temom navessehā bo “it had not been finished.” The passive is formed analytically with the past participle and “become”: die vessā “he was seen.”

Have. The verb is irregular in that it does not take the modal affixes be- or -e, and that the transitive endings follow the stem in the past: (na-)dār-u “he has (not),” dārt-oš “he had,” dār b-e “have!” Though not common in Jarquyi, progressive forms can be built on “have,” on the model of colloquial Persian: dār-on čiāhā-m vāpušone “I am putting on my clothes,” dārt-om komze-m vonde “I was cutting a/the melon.”

Modal verbs and particle. (1) gu-/- “want” is conjugated with the enclitic pronouns as the agent in all tenses: pres. gu-m(-e), gu-d/t(-e), gu-š(-e), subj. gu-m bu, etc., past gā-m(-e), etc. Examples: gum/gām bešon “I want/wanted to go,” gum bu bešon “that I want to go,” kue-m-om gu-m-e “I want my dog as well,” gām(e) bion gāre “ I wanted to come down.” The agent maker is optionally fronted (see Fronting, above): har kār-i go del-od gu-šò-e beke ~ har kār-i-šò go del-od gue beke “do whatever you wish.” (2) šā- “can” is conjugated with enclitic pronouns and the 3rd person sing. of “be”: pres. and past be-šā- bo, subj. be-šā- bu. Examples: tā yā-y go bešā-š bo “as far as he could,” ibi našā-š bo ez yā-š yeyyu “he cannot stand up from his place any more,” xāšgā bešā-m bu ye kār-i bekeron “I wish I could do something.” (3) qādib “must” is impersonal: qādib qāy baltarā guš hāti “you must listen to elder’s advice,” hou to-m bu(v)āt go naqādib biši vā(če) “I told you that you should not go there.” See also Become, above.

 

Bibliography:

H. Borjian, “Joḡrāfiā-ye guyešhā-ye welāyati-e Eṣfahān,” Irānšenāsi/Irānshenāsi 17/3, 2005, pp. 466-86.

Ḥamida Ebrāhimi Faḵāri, “Tawṣif-e zabānšenāḵti-e guyeš-e manṭaqa-ye Jarquya,” M.A. thesis, Univ. of Isfahan, 1997.

ʿAli Šafiʿi Nikābādi, Garkuya: sarzamin-i nāšenāḵta bar karān-e kavir, 2nd ed., Isfahan, 1997.

(Habib Borjian)

Originally Published: December 15, 2008

Last Updated: April 13, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. XIV, Fas.c 6, pp. 584-588