Gilak Language

Gilaki ( ) is an Iranian language belonging to the Caspian subgroup of the Northwestern branch, spoken in south of Caspian Sea by Gilak people. Gilaki is closely related to Mazandarani. The two languages of Gilaki and Mazandarani have similar vocabularies. The Gilaki and Mazandarani languages (but not other Iranian languages) share certain typological features with Caucasian languages (specifically Kartvelian languages),Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated, page 294The Tati language group in the sociolinguistic context of Northwestern Iran and Transcaucasia By D.Stilo, pages 137-185 reflecting the history, ethnic identity, and close relatedness to the Caucasus region and Caucasian peoples of the Gilak people and Mazandarani people.

Classification

The language is divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki and Galeshi/Deylami.«محمود رنجبر» و «رقیه رادمرد»؛ «بررسی وتوصیف گویش گالشی»؛ نشر گیلکان The western and eastern dialects are separated by the Sefid River, while Galeshi is spoken in the mountains of eastern Gilan and western Mazandaran.

There are three main dialects but larger cities in Gilan have slight variations to the way they speak. These "sub-dialects" are Rashti, Rudbari, Some’e Sarai, Lahijani, Langerudi, Rudesari, Bandar Anzali, Fumani, Alamouti and Taleghani.

Progressing to the east, Gilaki gradually blends into Mazandarani. The intermediate dialects of the area between Tonokābon and Kalārdašt serve as a transition between Gilaki and Mazandarani. The differences in forms and vocabulary lead to a low mutual intelligibility with either Gilaki or Mazandarani, and so these dialects should probably be considered a third separate language group of the Caspian area.
In Mazandaran, Gilaki is spoken in the city of Ramsar and Tonekabon. Although the dialect is influenced by Mazandarani, it is still considered a Gilaki dialect.

Furthermore, the eastern Gilaki dialect is spoken throughout the valley of the Chalus river.

In Qazvin province, Gilaki is spoken in northern parts of the province, in Alamut.

Grammar

Gilaki, is an inflected and genderless language. It is considered SVO, although in sentences employing certain tenses the order may be SOV.

Dispersion

Gilaki is the language of the majority of people in Gilan province and also a native and well-known language in Mazandaran, Qazvin and Alborz provinces. Gilaki is spoken in different regions with different dialects and accents. The number of Gilaki speakers is estimated at 3 to 4 million. Ethnologue reports that the use of Gilaki is decreasing as the speaker population is decreasing with language shift to Iranian Persian.

Phonology

Gilaki has the same consonants as Persian, but different vowels. Here is a table of correspondences for the Western Gilaki of Rasht, which will be the variety used in the remainder of the article:

There are nine vowel phonemes in the Gilaki language:

The consonants are:

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:

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/.

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):

Imperfect

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

Past subjunctive

A curious innovation of Western Gilaki is the past subjunctive, which is formed with the (artificial) imperfect of ''bon''+past participle:

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

Past progressive

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:

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

Pronouns

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

The 3rd person (demonstrative) pronouns are regular: /un/, /u.ˈʃan/, /i.ˈʃan/

Postpositions

With the genitive can be combined many postpositions. Examples:

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.

*Example for adjectival modification: Western Gilaki: ''pilla-yi zakan'' ("big children"), ''Surx gul'' ("red flower"). Eastern Gilaki: ''Sərd ow'' ("cold water"'', ɑb-e særd'' in Persian), ''kul čaqu'' ("dull knife"'', čaqu-ye kond'' in Persian).

Possessive constructions

*Examples for possessive constructions of nouns in Western Gilaki: ''Məhine zakan'' ("Mæhin's children"'', Bæčeha-ye Mæhin'' in Persian), ''Baγi gulan'' ("garden flowers"'', Golha-ye baγ'' in Persian). In Eastern Gilaki: ''Xirsi kuti'' ("bear cub"'', Bæč-e xers'' in Persian).

Notes

Further reading

* (translated into Persian 1995)
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External links

Scientific Information Database of the Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture, and ResearchSample recording in GilakiDictionary of Gilaki (Dialect of Lahijan) and some of its characteristics
*Open access recordings of a Gilaki song and basic word list are available through Kaipuleohone

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilaki Language
Northwestern Iranian languages
Languages of Iran
Caspian languages