- Gilaki language
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Gilaki گیلهءکی Giləki Spoken in Iran, province of Gilan. Region southwest coast of the Caspian Sea Native speakers 3.3 million, decreasing (1993) Language family Indo-European- Indo-Iranian
- Iranian
- Western Iranian
- Northwestern Iranian
- Caspian
- Gilaki
- Caspian
- Northwestern Iranian
- Western Iranian
- Iranian
Language codes ISO 639-3 glk Linguasphere 58-AAC-eb This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. The Gilaki language is a Caspian language, and a member of the northwestern Iranian language branch, spoken in Iran's Gīlān Province.[1][2]
The language is divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki, and Galeshi (in the mountains of Gilan). Furthermore, the Gilaki language is closely related to Mazanderani, and the two languages have similar vocabularies. The western and eastern dialects are separated by the Sefid River.[3] According to Ethnologue, there were more than 3 million native speakers of Gilaki in 1993.[4]
Gilaki also shares many features and structures with the Talysh language and with Zazaki, the latter mainly spoken in Turkey. There are some grammatical differences between Gilaki and standard Persian, especially in possessive and adjectives. Unlike Persian, most possessives and adjectives precede the head noun, similar to English.[5]
- Example for noun-noun possessives in Western Gilaki: məhin zakan (Mæhin's children) (Bæče-ha-ye Mæhin in Persian), Baγi gulan (garden flowers) (Gol-ha-ye Baγ in Persian). In Eastern Gilaki: Xirsi Kuti (bear cub) (Bæč-e Xers in Persian).
- Example for adjectival modification: Western Gilaki: pilla-yi zakan (big children), Surx gul (red flower). Eastern Gilaki: Sərd aw (cold water) (ɑb-e særd in Persian), kul čaqu (sharp knife) (čaqu-ye Tiz in Persian).
Contents
Some Gilaki words
Gilaki English Persian Persian Romanization dim face روی/چهره ruy/čehreh zäy baby/kid کودک/بچه kudæk/bæčé pilə per grandfather پدربزرگ pedær bozorg zəmat time زمان zaman mərdə per father of the husband پدرشوهر pedær šohar kark hen مرغ خانگی morgh khanegi gäb cow گاو gāv buĵor up بالا bāla roĵä/kiĵi star ستاره setare kor/kiĵä/kilka/läku girl دختر doxtær re/rikä/ri boy پسر pesær putär ant مورچه murčé siftäl=garzak bee زنبور zanbur piča=bamši cat/pussy cat گربه/پیشی gorbe/piši nesä shadow سایه saye vargadån to hang آویزان کردن/آویختن avixtan/avizan kardan pilə=pila great بزرگ bozorg zak child بچه bačče per father پدر pedar kåråš=kereš to draw on the ground کشیدن به دنبال be donbal kešidan fuduštån to suck مکیدن makidan vastån appetite or desire اشتها or میل ešteha or meyl šondån pouring of liquids ریختن مایعات rixtan e mayeāt lisk lubricious ليز / سور liz/sor kərč brittle ترد و شکننده tord o šekanande där tree دار و درخت där o deraxt malĵå, čičini sparrow گنجشک gonješk bušu go برو boro fegir take it in your hand بگیر begir fegir or fengir don't take in your hand نگیر nagir purd bridge پل pol si stone and mountain کوه و سنگ kuh o sang kenes touch تماس tamås morghanə egg تخم مرغ toxm e morgh lanti snake مار mar picha cat گربه gorbeh kəlach crow کلاغ kalagh gərmalət pepper فلفل felfel pamador tomato گوجه فرنگی gojeh vatərkəssən explode ترکیدن terkidan šimi šin for you برای شما baraye šoma mi šin for me برای من baraye man kiškazay chicken جوجه jujeh vərza male cow گاو نر gave nar leše female cow گاو ماده gave maddeh bijir down پائین pa'ein luchan wink چشمک češmak bəjar rice farm مزرعه برنج mazraeye berenj vachukastan climb بالا رفتن bala raftan |-
Comparison of Gilaki and Kurdish
Gilaki English Kurdish zay/zak baby/kid zarok ĵor up jor/jûr kiĵa/kilka girl kîj daar tree dar bošu go biçe purd bridge pird zama groom zawa kaft fell keft/kewt Phonology
Gilaki has the same consonants as Persian, but different vowels. Here is a table of correspondences for the Western Gilaki of Rasht (as will be the variety used in the remainder of the article):
Gilaki Persian Example (Gilaki) i e ki.tab e(ː) iː, eː/ei seb ə æ, e mən a aː zai ɒ (perhaps allophonic) aː lɒ.nə o uː, oː/ɔ d͡ʒoɾ u o/uː ɡul The consonants are:
Gilaki Consonants labial alveolar post-alveolar velar glottal voiceless stops p t t͡ʃ k ʔ voiced stops b d d͡ʒ ɡ voiceless fricatives f s ʃ x h voiced fricatives v z ʒ ɣ nasals m n liquids l, ɾ glides j Verb system
The verb system of Gilaki is very similar to that of Persian. All infinitives end in -tən/-dən, or in -V:n, where V: is a long vowel (from contraction of an original *-Vdən). The present stem is usually related to the infinitive, and the past stem is just the infinitive without -ən or -n (in the case of vowel stems).
Present tenses
From the infinitive dín, "to see", we get present stem din-.
Present indicative
The present indicative is formed by adding the personal endings to this stem:
Singular Plural dinəm diním(i) diní diníd(i) diné diníd(i) Present subjunctive
The present subjunctive is formed with the prefix bí-, bú-, or bə- (depending on the vowel in the stem) added to the indicative forms. Final /e/ neutralizes to /ə/ in the 3rd singular and the plural invariably lacks final /i/.
Singular Plural bídinəm bídinim bídini bídinid bídinə bídinid The negative of both the indicative and the subjunctive is formed in the same way, with n- instead of the b- of the subjunctive.
Past tenses
Preterite
From xurdən, "to eat", we get the perfect stem xurd. To this are added unaccented personal endings and the unaccented b- prefix (or accented n- for the negative):
Singular Plural buxúrdəm buxúrdim(i) buxúrdi buxúrdid(i) buxúrdə buxúrdid(i) Imperfect
The imperfect is formed with what was originally a suffix -i:
xúrdim xúrdim(i) xúrdi xúrdid(i) xúrdi xúrdid(i) Pluperfect
The pluperfect is paraphrastically formed with the verb bon, "to be", and the past participle, which is in turn formed with the perfect stem+ə (which can assimilate to become i or u). The accent can fall on the last syllable of the participle or on the stem itself:
Singular Plural buxurdə bum buxurdə bim buxurdə bi buxurdə bid buxurdə bu buxurdə bid Past subjunctive
A curious innovation of Western Gilaki is the past subjunctive, which is formed with the (artificial) imperfect of bon+past participle:
Singular Plural bidé bim bidé bim bidé bi bidé bid bidé be/bi bidé bid This form is often found in the protasis and apodosis of unreal conditions, e.g., mən agə Əkbəra bidé bim, xušhal bubosti bim, "If I were to see/saw/had seen Akbar, I would be happy".
Progressive
There are two very common paraphrastic constructions for the present and past progressives. From the infinitive šon, "to go", we get:
Present progressive
Singular Plural šón darəm šón darim šón dari šón darid šón darə šón darid Past progressive
Singular Plural šón də/du bum šón də/di bim šón də/di bi šón də/di bid šón də/du bu šón də/di bid Compound verbs
There are many compound verbs in Gilaki, whose forms differ slightly from simple verbs. Most notably, bV- is never prefixed onto the stem, and the negative prefix nV- can act like an infix -n-, coming between the prefix and the stem. So from fagiftən, "to get", we get present indicative fagirəm, but present subjunctive fágirəm, and the negative of both, faángirəm or fanígirəm. The same applies to the negative of the past tenses: fángiftəm or fanígiftəm.
Nouns, cases and postpositions
Gilaki employs a combination of quasi-case endings and postpositions to do the work of many particles and prepositions in English and Persian.
Cases
There are essentially three "cases" in Gilaki, the nominative (or, better, unmarked, as it can serve other grammatical functions), the genitive, and the (definite) accusative. The accusative form is often used to express the simple indirect object in addition to the direct object. A noun in the genitive comes before the word it modifies. These "cases" are in origin actually just particles, similar to Persian ra.
Nouns
For the word "per", father, we have:
Singular Plural Nom per perán Acc pera perána Gen perə peránə The genitive can change to -i, especially before some postpositions.
Pronouns
The 1st and 2nd person pronouns have special forms:
Singular Plural Nom mən amán Acc məra amána Gen mi amí Singular Plural Nom tu šumán Acc təra šumána Gen ti šimí The 3rd person (demonstrative) pronouns are regular: /un/, /u.ˈʃan/, /i.ˈʃan/
Postpositions
With the genitive can be combined many postpositions. Examples:
Gilaki English re for həmra with ĵa from, than (in comparisons) mian in ĵor above ĵir under ru on top of The personal pronouns have special forms with "-re": mere, tere, etc.
Adjectives
Gilaki adjectives come before the noun they modify, and may have the genitive "case ending" -ə/-i. They do not agree with the nouns they modify.
Notes
- ^ Coon, "Iran:Demography and Ethnography" in Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume IV, E.J. Brill, pp. 10,8. Excerpt: "The Lurs speak an aberrant form of Archaic Persian" See maps also on page 10 for distribution of Persian languages and dialect
- ^ Kathryn M. Coughlin, "Muslim cultures today: a reference guide," Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. p. 89: "...Iranians speak Persian or a Persian dialect such as Gilaki or Mazandarani"
- ^ Stilo, Don "A Description of the Northwest Iranian Project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology"
- ^ "Gilaki: A language of Iran" Ethnologue
- ^ "Languages" Encyclopaedia Iranica
See also
- Mazandarani language, another language in the Caspian subgroup of Northwest Iranian.
Further reading
- Christensen, Arthur Emanuel. 1930. Dialect Guiläki de Recht [The Gilaki dialect of Rasht]. In Contributions à la dialectologie iranienne. Series: Kgl. danske videnskabernes selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser; 17, 2. (translated into Persian 1995)
- Purriyahi, Masud. 1971. Barresi-ye dastur-e guyesh-e Gilaki-ye Rasht [A Grammatical Study of the Gilaki dialect of Rasht]. Dissertation, Tehran University.
- Sartippur, Jahangir. 1990/1369 A.P. Vižegihā-ye Dasturi va Farhang-e vāžehā-ye Gilaki [Grammatical Characteristics and Glossary of Gilaki]. Rasht: Nashr-e Gilakan. Dictionary.
- Shokri, Giti. 1998. Māzi-ye Naqli dar Guyeshhā-ye Gilaki va Mazandarāni [Present perfect in Gilani and Mazandarāni Dialects]. Nāme-ye Farhangestān 4(4(16)):59–69. (quarterly journal of Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature) Article abstract in English.
External links
- Scientific Information Database of the Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research
- Ethnologue report on Gilaki
- Sample recording in Gilaki
- Some fish names in Gilaki and Persian
- Dictionary of Gilaki (Dialect of Lahijan) and some of its characteristics
- Gilaki poets and Gilaki poetry
- A Gilaki Weblog containing some Gilaki words
- Gilaki Digital Scripture in Audio, Video and Print form from GilakMedia.com
Iranian languages Old EasternWesternMiddle EasternWesternModern EasternWesternOld Azari · Balochi · Bashkardi · Central Iran dialects · Dari (Zoroastrian) · Taleshi · Gilaki · Mazandarani · Kurdic (Kurmanji · Laki · Sorani · Southern Kurdish · ) · Luri · Bakhtiari Lori · Sangsari · Persian (Dari · Tajik · Hazaragi) · Tat · Tati · Zaza · Dialects of FarsCategories:- Northwestern Iranian languages
- Languages of Iran
- Indo-Iranian
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