Deilai language

language
name=deilami
nativename=ديلمي"diləmi"
states=Iran
region=South Western Caspian Sea (gilan,mazandaran province.)
speakers=1 million
familycolor=Indo-European
fam2=Indo-Iranian
fam3=Iranian
fam4=Western
fam5=Northwestern
iso2=ira
iso3=glk

The deilami language ( _fa. ديلمي) is a northwestern Iranian language and is spoken in Iran's Gīlān Province. Gilaki can be divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki, and deilami (in the mountains of Gilan). 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 (Rud-e Sefid) [ [http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/files/NWIran.html Stilo, Don "A Description of the Northwest Iranian Project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology"] ] . According to Ethnologue, there were more than 3 million native speakers of Gilaki in 1993 [ [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=glk "Gilaki: A language of Iran" Ethnologue] ] .

Gilaki shares many features and structures with Zazaki, now spoken in Turkey. There are some major grammatical differences between Gilaki and Persian, especially in possessive and adjectives. Unlike Persian, most possessives and adjectives precede the head noun, similar to English. [ [http://www.iranica.com/articles/v10f6/v10f633i.html "Languages" "Encyclopaedia Iranica"] ]

*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) ("unicode|ɑb-e særd" in Persian), "kul čaqu" (sharp knife) ("čaqu-ye Tiz" in Persian).

ome Gilaki words

The consonants are:

Gilaki Consonants

	"labial"	"alveolar"	"post-alveolar"	"velar"	"glottal"
" voiceless stops"	IPA|p	IPA|t	IPA|ʧ	IPA|k	IPA|ʔ
" voiced stops"	IPA|b	IPA|d	IPA|ʤ	IPA|ɡ
" voiceless fricatives "	IPA|f	IPA|s	IPA|ʃ	IPA|x	IPA|h
"voiced fricatives"	IPA|v	IPA|z	IPA|ʒ	IPA|ɣ
"nasals"	IPA|m	IPA|n
"liquids"		IPA|l, IPA|ɾ
"glides"			IPA|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:

Imperfect

The imperfect is formed with what was originally a suffix "-i":

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

The genitive can change to "-i", especially before some postpositions.

Pronouns

The 1st and 2nd person pronouns have special forms:

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

ee also

* [http://www.wiktionaryz.org/Portal:glk Gilaki WiktionaryZ]
* [http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gilaki_Wikipedia Wikipedia in Gilaki]
* Mazandarani language, Another Caspian language

External links

* [http://shalizar.net Translation of Bible portions in Gilaki plus songs]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=glk Ethnologue report on Gilaki]
* [http://www.iranica.com/articles/v10f6/v10f633i.html Gilaki language, Encyclopeadia Iranica]
* [http://globalrecordings.net/program/C08110 Sample recording in Gilaki]
* [http://www.briancoad.com/checklists/farsinameslist.htm Some fish names in Gilaki and Persian]
* [http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/Guyish-I_Gilaki-I_Lahijan-Vazhahnamah_Va_Parahi_Vizhagiha-Yi_avayi_Va/4872978552/ Dictionary of Gilaki (Dialect of Lahijan) and some of its characteristics]
* [http://www.varg.ir/archives/2005/10/_3.php A weblog on Gilaki language]
* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9649055614 Gilaki poets and Gilaki poetry]
* [http://www.gilak.com/ An on-line Gilaki-Persian Dictionary]
* [http://caspianous.blogspot.com/2005/10/some-gilaki-words.html A Gilaki Weblog containing some Gilaki words]
* [http://www.varg.ir/archives/cat-12/index.php Audio files in Gilaki] from Varg online collections
* [http://www.giliranvideo.com/ Audio files in Gilaki] from Giliran
* [http://book.varg.ir/ Literatures and Newspapers in Gilaki] from Varg online collections