Language Studies

Abstract Persian is the only official language of our country,Iran,along with several other languages and dialects, each with some speakers. Moreover both English as an international language and Arabic as a religious one have some positions in our linguistic programs. Planning for teaching each of them are among government's political programs and therefore is among the responsibilities of a government. As the language is a cultural element for the people of each community, the policies devised for that are very important as well. In our society, Persian language has been accepted as the national language and it is used in official and social usage and education. It goes without saying that using Persian language as national language does not mean that the other languages and dialects do not deserve to be paid attention. The language policy devised and used by the government about all languages in Iran needs to guarantee the status and usage of all other languages along with Persian. The present article aims to examine the most important official documents for the state of language policy. The results show that in most of the documents some linguistic programs can be referred but in a scattered manner. The present article suggests the compilation of a deliberate and integrated policy making for all the languages and dialects in Iran. Therefore such linguistic framework can precisely reflect the state of national language (Persian), other languages, English and Arabic

Abstract There are a number of infinitive forms in some Iranian dialects and patois of Isfahan Province, belonging to the Central dialects, i.e. Central Plateau Dialect (CPD) group or Median dialects by some western scholars. In this paper, which is mostly based on the author's fieldwork, an attempt is made to describe the structure of the infinitive in these dialects.There are four major types of infinitives that are formed by adding suffixes to the past stem and in one case, to the present stem. However, in most dialects there are two or three complementary types, one as verbal noun, and another as main verb usually used with modals.

Abstract Psalm book is one of the most beautiful Manichaean religious hymns. By considering its themes, we learn about this religion: The two worlds of light and darkness and the released light Aeons from material world. The Coptic psalm was the only available reference till the manuscripts were found in Turfan in three different languages: Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian. One of these manuscripts is M78 written in Manichean script. The text, which is a pray to Father of Greatness, the greatest god of Manichean Pantheon, is in Parthian. In this paper the text is introduced, transliterated, transcribed and translated into Persian.

Abstract Converbs or adverbial verbs are a class of verbs that are used alongside with another verb and describe it like an adverb. In this paper, first we show some examples in Persian then we should show that they can be considered adverbial verbs (Although, the data in Persian are different from the definition by Haspelmath (1995) or Langacre (1985) because of being mono-clausal and finite). Haspelmath seems to have failed in this regard and his definition is based on limited samples. After classifying these Persian converbs, we show their sharing arguments in case of progressive converbs.

Abstract Khadive, one of the east Middle Iranian loan- words in Persian, has two meanings: “king, lord” and “The Lord, The great and the only god”. This word, like its equivalent words in other Iranian Languages, is calqued from the greek aύτokράτωρ /auto-krator/ meaning “self- potent, potent by himself”. This greek word, and its calqued forms in Iranian languages, is related to political domain and means “king, lord”. Later, it is also used as “The Lord, The great and the only god” in Iranian languages. In this paper different usages of “Khadiv” is studied in Firdowsi’s Shahnameh.

Abstract The present paper studies breaking of initial consonant clusters of English loanwordes which results in changing of syllable structure in Persian. The research data were collected from three famous dictionaries -Anvari (1386), Moshiri (1371), Zomorrodian (1384). The theoritical framework of the present research is Optimality Theory, a constraint based approach, which was presented in Generative Grammar in 1993 by Prince and Smolensky . In this research, we are going to answer the question: How can Optimality Theory analyzes the changing of syllable structure of loanwords in Persian? The results show that Persian language follows a series of faithfulness and markedness constraints to obtain optimal outputs and by vowel epenthesis (initial and mediate), breakes the consonant clusters and changes the syllable structure.The main reason of vowel epenthesis in the present paper has been considered assimilation process.

Abstract In comparison with other Iranian languages (e.g. Avestan, Old Persian, Pahlavi, etc.), Khotanese language has received little attention and not many studies have been investigating it. Moreover, in the studies due on Khotanese language, the discussion on pronouns has always been in the margin of the discussion on nouns and adjectives, and has not received much attention. The present study focuses on pronouns in Khotanese language which includes different types of pronouns and the related tables, conjugational features and comparison of Khotanese with other languages, i.e. Old Persian, Avestan, Sanskrit, Sogdian and Ossetian