DĀNESF(AH)ĀN, locally Donesbon, a village located at 49°45′ E, 35°47′ N in the southern part of the Rāmand district of Qazvīn province, 30 km west and slightly north of Būyīn; it has a population of a little over 3,000 (3,074, according to the census of 1345 Š./1966; Farhang-e ābādīhā-ye kešvar 13, Tehran, 1348 Š./1969, s.v.). The village was badly damaged during the earthquake of 1341 Š./1962 but was later reconstructed.
In Dānesfān, as in the major villages of Rāmand, a subdialect of Southern Tatī is preserved (Yarshater, 1962); according to the author’s limited material, collected in 1960, it is closest to those spoken in the villages south of Rāmand, that is, Ḵīāraj and Ḵoznīn. A common feature is the development of -ev- from u, e.g., pevr “son,” pevl “money.” As a typical Rāmandī dialect has been described (see čāl), only the major differences between Dānesfānī and Čālī are noted here.
In phonology [w] occurs in postvocalic final position as the second element of diphthongs, e.g., bešow “he had gone”; ē and ō do not occur. The plural marker of the direct case has been replaced by the oblique plural ending -on. The agent of the past transitive verbs is in the direct case, for instance, luās gušt-eš be-xᵛa “the fox ate the meat” (cf. luās-e pus vej “peel off the fox’s skin!”). The author’s material contains no instances of the postpositions u “from, in, with” and (e)ndu “in, with,” for which Dānesfānī has da “in” and vari “with.”
In the Dānesfānī subdialect, as in Ḵīārajī and Ḵoznīnī, gender is not distinguished in the third person singular of “to be.” On the other hand, this distinction is observed in the present tense of other verbs, for instance, ā mettaje/āya mettajia “he/she runs.” The initial consonant of the past tenses of “to be” is v-, e.g., vem “I was,” vieyma “I have been,” voy/vii “he/she has been.”
Bibliography
For more details and comparison with the other Rāmandī dialects, see E. Yarshater, A Grammar of Southern Tati Dialects, the Hague and Paris, 1969; and bibliography given in Âčāl.
See also idem, “The Tati Dialects of Rāmand,” in W. B. Henning and E. Yarshater, eds., A Locust’s Leg. Studies in Honour of S. H. Taqizadeh, London, 1962, pp. 240-45.
(Ehsan Yarshater)
Originally Published: December 15, 1993
Last Updated: November 14, 2011
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Vol VI, Fasc. 6, p. 654
