Abstract

Abstract
Nesāb is a term used to describe the versified glossaries, which were composed mostly during the Qajar era, for the sake of pedagogic purposes. Applying the principles of investigating linguistic nesāb, the present article introduces and describes the semantic features in the newly found nesāb.  The importance of this nesāb lies in the fact that, unlike other major Caspian languages (namely, Māzandarāni and Semnāni) for which extensive nesābs are available, prior to the discovery of the text discussed in this article, the existence of the lexicon for Gilaki in verse had not been convinced. The present qualitative research is included in the category of fundamental studies. The research framework is dialectology, and the geographical scope of the study is limited to Gilān province. Data analysis has been carried out descriptively and interpretively. The meanings of the vocabulary are presented based both on linguistic intuition and by reference to Gialki dictionaries. This short nesāb is composed of 25 verses, including words from various parts of speech and nouns from different semantic domains. The nesāb consists of two sections- an 18-verse-part and a 7-verse-part composed respectively in the Motaqāreb and Mojttas prosody in the Pahlavi I era.
 
Keywords: Gilaki, Nesāb, dialect dictionary, versified glossary, manuscript.
 
IntroductionNesābs are versified dictionaries composed for the purpose of education, and may be considered to be placed among the first oral dictionaries. These versified texts were composed to facilitate the process of memorizing words, and were used to sugarcoat the issues which were hard to learn. In addition to their linguistic value, these texts also bear cultural significance, as they contain traces of words which seem to be removed from the collective memory of the speakers of the language in the process of language extinction, or language transformation. From this perspective, composing Nesābs may be considered as a part of strategies for knowledge transfer, the spread of local languages, and the preservation of oral traditions. In poetic literature, a Nesāb is the description of a word or concept in another expression, and is of three types: inflectional Nesābs, expressive Nesābs, and linguistic Nesābs, the latter of which deals with the translation and provision of lexical equivalents among languages. Dialectal Nesābs are considered as historical documents which not only reflect the linguistic characteristics of a particular period, but also provide information about the environment, attitudes, and lifestyles of the speakers of that dialect. These Nisābs are particularly important for chronological studies and linguistic documentation, especially in the case of endangered languages ​of which few written sources are available. Material and MethodsThe present study, by applying the principles of the study of dialectal Nisābs and in line with the main goal of the research, documenting the Gilaki language, aims to achieve two goals: first, introducing the first available Gilaki Nesāb; and secondly, describing the linguistic information of the work in question. Based on the aforementioned goals, the present qualitative research may be placed among the fundamental studies. In order to do so, a general information of Nesāb s and a brief historical sketch of composing Nesābs is provided, and the major dialectal Nesāb s have also been introduced.The research framework is dialectology, and the scope of the research is limited to Gilan province. The data analysis was conducted descriptively and interpretively, and to achieve this, in addition to the linguistic intuition of one of the authors as an informed native speaker, references were made to the available references, such as A Dictionary of Gilaki (Stoudeh), A Glossary of Gilaki Dialect, including Gilaki Idioms and Proverbs (Mar‘ashi), A Dictionary of Gil and Daylam (Payandeh), and Gila-Gab (Nozad). Discussion and ResultsIn the manuscript section of the Central Library of the University of Tehran, among the manuscripts donated by the late ‘Ali Asghar Hekmat to the Faculty of Literature library, there is a manuscript numbered 326, which contains poems and writings in Gilaki. This text does not bear a specific date or author's signature, but considering the number 311 (1311/ 1932) mentioned at the beginning of another poem on page 50 of the text in this collection, it can be assumed that the text belongs to the Pahlavi I era. On pages 39 to 41 of this manuscript, a text called "Gilaki Nisāb" is written, which is an instructional poem in 25 verses, presented in two parts. The first part of this Nisāb provides 18 verses in the Bahr-e Mutaqāreb (fa‘ulon fa‘ulon fa‘ulon fa‘ul) and presents the meaning of 53 words. The second part consists of 7 verses in Bahr-e Mojattas (mafā‘elon fa‘alāton mafā‘elon fa‘alon) and presents the meaning of 25 words. The text starts with this sentence that since Gilan remained safe during the different wars and battles, and its inhabitants were not forced to migrate to the other parts of the country, it may be claimed that Gilaki has preserved many of its old and original words (referred to as alfāz-e fors-e qadim ‘words of the older Persian’). It is noteworthy that for a long time, local dialects were known as the older forms of Persian, rather than independent dialects per se. The presence of words such as "Eiffel Tower" and "Dun-Echel" (low level) in this verse indicates the poet's familiarity with the French language and culture, and strengthens the possibility that he belonged to the literate and upper class of society of his time.  ConclusionThe study of the present Gilaki Nesāb reveals that the words used in it belong to different categories of speech, namely infinitives, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and nouns, and the majority of the words in this vocabulary are nouns. This category includes words from the human artifacts, animals, names of nature, physical activities, body parts, food, kinship relations, physical states, clothing words and units of measurement. The words in this vocabulary, despite being few in number, have metatextual connotations which provide the audience with valuable ecological and identity information. A noteworthy point about human artifacts is that they can be placed in two categories: straw and wood. The raw materials of human structures in the present Nesāb, terminate with an approach to the ecosystem; that the place of use of the dialect studied in the present text is undoubtedly a fertile and rainy region, and the language reflects its ecosystem and the man-made structures that have created it. The words related to “rice” indicate the cultivation of this agricultural product in the region and its importance in daily life. Also, the indication of a large number of animals in the text indicates the biodiversity of this region, especially in terms of birds and poultry on the one hand, and their importance in the lives of the Gilaki speakers on the other. Referring to cases like this is an arena for the cultural display of the table of its people. Another issue of note is the information provided by this text about the Gilaki foods. A brief look at the cuisine of the people of Gilan province reveals a diverse range of foods which are primarily prepared with rice or various types of chicken and poultry. The present study also shows that how recording and analyzing the local poetic texts contributes to the preservation of endangered languages, as well as paving the way for the recognition of hidden layers of meaning in native culture, and the strengthening of linguistic resilience against social changes.