Achomi ( fa, اچُمی), also known as Larestani and Khodmooni, is a

Southwestern Iranian The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median language, Median. Languages The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, ...

Persian language spoken by

people A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

in southern Fars and western Hormozgan and by significant numbers of immigrant groups in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

, the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

and other

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

Arab countries. It is the predominant language of

Larestan Larestan County ( fa, شهرستان لارستان) is located in Fars province, Iran. The capital of the county is Lar. At the 2006 census, the county's population (including those portions of the county later split off to form Evaz Count ...

Khonj Khonj ( fa, خنج, also known as Khunj and Khunji) is a city and capital of Khonj County, Fars Province, Iran. From the 2006 census, its population was 19,347, in 3,353 families. It is located at an altitude of . Khonj was traditionally part o ...

Gerash Gerash ( fa, گراش, also Romanized as Gerāsh and Girāsh) is a city and capital of Gerash County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 34,469, in 10,207 families. Gerashis speak Achomi, a language shared with many ne ...

, Lamerd, and

Evaz Evaz ( fa, اوز, also Romanized as Awadh, Avaz, Evazeh, and ‘ewaz) is a city and capital of Evaz County, in Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 14,315, in 3,297 families. The people of Evaz are native Persians of ...

counties in Fars and

Bastak County Bastak ( fa, بستک) is a city and capital of Bastak County, Hormozgan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Tur ...

in Hormozgan Province. It is also spoken by some Huwalas in the Gulf countries. The majority of Achomi speakers are Sunni Muslims.

Etymology and name of the language

There are different ways to refer to this language. *Achomi: Native speakers often refer to their language as Achomi. There are different reasons for this name. One of them is the language's frequent usage of the ʃconsonant. The second reason originates from when Arabs began trading with Achomis. This because Arabs called Achomis 'Ajam', which means non-Arab. Therefore, Achomi is a variation of Ajam. Additionally, Achomi can be linked to Achom, which means 'I go' in the language. *Khodmooni: In Arab states surrounding the Persian Gulf, Achomis are referred to as Khodmooni'. This translates to "of our own kind". *Larestani: UNESCO mentions Larestani as a name for Achomi. This name comes from Larestan, where the language's speakers reside. Etymologically, 'Lar' comes from 'Lad' which means "the origin of everything". * Lari: This language is sometimes called Lari. To reiterate, 'Lar' originates from 'Lad' which means "the origin of everything".It is also important to note that Lari can be used to refer to a dialect or a language.

History

The Achomi language can be considered a descendant of the Sassanid Persian language or

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...

. Achomi language and its various local dialects such as Lari, Evazi, Khonji, Gerashi, Bastaki, etc., is the branch of the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) language of the Sassanid Empire. Today, the language is known as an endangered language. In particular, UNESCO refers to it as a "definitely endangered" language with approximately 80,000 speakers. It also does not have official language status in Iran. This is because Iran only recognizes Persian as an official language. However, Iran allows the use of minority languages, such as Achomi, in the media and the education system (alongside Persian). Nevertheless, Achomi remains an endangered language with many dialectal differences gradually disappearing because of the domination of Persian. Many Iranians moved to

Arab States The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...

in order to pursue better economic opportunities. This included Achomis. These Achomis are often multilingual. Achomi migrants still speak this language in their homes, however, this variety has been influenced by the

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

a little but is mutually intelligible with standard Persian.

Classification

The language is a branch of the Pahlavi language. This means that it shares the ergative structure of Pahlavi. It is also an analytical language. This can be linked back to its membership in the southwestern branch of Middle-Iranian languages. With the exception of the regional accent, pronunciation of certain words, and a slight variation in grammar, this old language has been the common language of the Southwestern Pars Province and parts of Hormozgan Province for nearly 1,800 years despite the various conquests of the region since the fall of the Sassanid Empire.

Dialects

Achomi has many dialects. These dialects correspond to Larestan's different towns. Examples of these dialects include Lari, Evazi, Gerashi, Khonji and Bastaki.These dialectical variations may present themselves through pronunciation. There may also be grammatical and word differences between the dialects. Hence, if the speaker is from

, they are referred as speaking Evazi, and if they are from Bastak their dialect is known as Bastaki. An example of a dialectal variation: in some particular regions, Achomi people say ''raftom'' for "I went" (very similar to the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

''raftam''), but in some other regions, just as Lar people, they say (Kurdish: ''dichim'' or ''dechim)'' instead.

Samples

Verbs

To make simple past verbs The ids (om / ot / osh / mo / tosho) + The simple past root of the first type Example: Omgot: I said oshbu: you (You could be referring to one or more) won Tokha: You (has to be more than two people) ate And ... The root of the past simple second type + ids (am / esh / ruleless / em / eh / et) Example: Chedam: a to be shortened! I went Khatesh: Sleep bodem: we got And...

Passive

To create a passive verb in past tense we can use the verb root plus its proper prefix. For example, in Achomi, the root for the verb "to tell" is ''got'' (''gota'' equals "tell"). omgot (om+got), Kurdish (migot or min got) = I told ... (om+got), Kurdish () = You told... (osh+got), Kurdish () = He told... (mo+got), Kurdish () = We told... (to+got), Kurdish pl () = You (pl) told (sho+got), Kurdish () = They told Another example: "deda" means "see," and "dee" Kurdish (Deed or dee) is the root verb. So: omdee = I saw, Kurdish () otdee= you saw, Kurdish (tu-te dee).... To create a simple present or continued present tense of a passive verb, here's another example: agota'em (a+got+aem):I am telling... agota'esh (a+got+aesh): You are telling... agotay (a+got+ay): He is telling... agota'am (a+got+a'am): We are telling... agotay (a+got+ay): You (pl) are telling... agota'en (a+got+a'en): They are telling... For the verb "see" ("deda"): adead'em, adeda'esh, adeaday,...

References

{{authority control Southwestern Iranian languages Languages of Iran