Gilaki language

Gilaki
گیلکی Giləki
Spoken in	Iran, province of Gilan.
Region	southwest coast of the Caspian Sea
Native speakers	3.3 million, decreasing  (1993)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Iranian Caspian Gilaki
Language codes
ISO 639-3	glk
Linguasphere	58-AAC-eb
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The Gilaki language is a Caspian language, and a member of the northwestern Iranian language branch, spoken in Iran's Gīlān Province.^[1][2]

The language is divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki, and Galeshi (in the mountains of Gilan). Furthermore, 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.^[3] According to Ethnologue, there were more than 3 million native speakers of Gilaki in 1993.^[4]

Gilaki also shares many features and structures with the Talysh language and with Zazaki, the latter mainly spoken in Turkey. There are some grammatical differences between Gilaki and standard Persian, especially in possessive and adjectives. Unlike Persian, most possessives and adjectives precede the head noun, similar to English.^[5]

• 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) (ɑb-e særd in Persian), kul čaqu (sharp knife) (čaqu-ye Tiz in Persian).

Contents 1 Some Gilaki words 2 Comparison of Gilaki and Kurdish 3 Phonology 4 Verb system 4.1 Present tenses 4.1.1 Present indicative 4.1.2 Present subjunctive 4.2 Past tenses 4.2.1 Preterite 4.2.2 Imperfect 4.2.3 Pluperfect 4.2.4 Past subjunctive 4.3 Progressive 4.3.1 Present progressive 4.3.2 Past progressive 4.4 Compound verbs 5 Nouns, cases and postpositions 5.1 Cases 5.1.1 Nouns 5.1.2 Pronouns 5.2 Postpositions 6 Adjectives 7 Notes 8 See also 9 Further reading 10 External links

Some Gilaki words

Gilaki	English	Persian	Persian Romanization
dim	face	روی/چهره	ruy/čehreh
zäy	baby/kid	کودک/بچه	kudæk/bæčé
pilə per	grandfather	پدربزرگ	pedær bozorg
zəmat	time	زمان	zaman
mərdə per	father of the husband	پدرشوهر	pedær šohar
kark	hen	مرغ خانگی	morgh khanegi
gäb	cow	گاو	gāv
buĵor	up	بالا	bāla
roĵä/kiĵi	star	ستاره	setare
kor/kiĵä/kilka/läku	girl	دختر	doxtær
re/rikä/ri	boy	پسر	pesær
putär	ant	مورچه	murčé
siftäl=garzak	bee	زنبور	zanbur
piča=bamši	cat/pussy cat	گربه/پیشی	gorbe/piši
nesä	shadow	سایه	saye
vargadån	to hang	آویزان کردن/آویختن	avixtan/avizan kardan
pilə=pila	great	بزرگ	bozorg
zak	child	بچه	bačče
per	father	پدر	pedar
kåråš=kereš	to draw on the ground	کشیدن به دنبال	be donbal kešidan
fuduštån	to suck	مکیدن	makidan
vastån	appetite or desire	اشتها or میل	ešteha or meyl
šondån	pouring of liquids	ریختن مایعات	rixtan e mayeāt
lisk	lubricious	ليز / سور	liz/sor
kərč	brittle	ترد و شکننده	tord o šekanande
där	tree	دار و درخت	där o deraxt
malĵå, čičini	sparrow	گنجشک	gonješk
bušu	go	برو	boro
fegir	take it in your hand	بگیر	begir
fegir or fengir	don't take in your hand	نگیر	nagir
purd	bridge	پل	pol
si	stone and mountain	کوه و سنگ	kuh o sang
kenes	touch	تماس	tamås
morghanə	egg	تخم مرغ	toxm e morgh
lanti	snake	مار	mar
picha	cat	گربه	gorbeh
kəlach	crow	کلاغ	kalagh
gərmalət	pepper	فلفل	felfel
pamador	tomato	گوجه فرنگی	gojeh
vatərkəssən	explode	ترکیدن	terkidan
šimi šin	for you	برای شما	baraye šoma
mi šin	for me	برای من	baraye man
kiškazay	chicken	جوجه	jujeh
vərza	male cow	گاو نر	gave nar
leše	female cow	گاو ماده	gave maddeh
bijir	down	پائین	pa'ein
luchan	wink	چشمک	češmak
bəjar	rice farm	مزرعه برنج	mazraeye berenj
vachukastan	climb	بالا رفتن	bala raftan

|-

Comparison of Gilaki and Kurdish

Gilaki	English	Kurdish
zay/zak	baby/kid	zarok
ĵor	up	jor/jûr
kiĵa/kilka	girl	kîj
daar	tree	dar
bošu	go	biçe
purd	bridge	pird
zama	groom	zawa
kaft	fell	keft/kewt

Phonology

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

Gilaki	Persian	Example (Gilaki)
i	e	ki.tab
e(ː)	iː, eː/ei	seb
ə	æ, e	mən
a	aː	zai
ɒ (perhaps allophonic)	aː	lɒ.nə
o	uː, oː/ɔ	d͡ʒoɾ
u	o/uː	ɡul

The consonants are:

Gilaki Consonants

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

Singular	Plural
dinəm	diním(i)
diní	diníd(i)
diné	diníd(i)

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/.

Singular	Plural
bídinəm	bídinim
bídini	bídinid
bídinə	bídinid

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):

Singular	Plural
buxúrdəm	buxúrdim(i)
buxúrdi	buxúrdid(i)
buxúrdə	buxúrdid(i)

Imperfect

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

xúrdim	xúrdim(i)
xúrdi	xúrdid(i)
xúrdi	xúrdid(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:

Singular	Plural
buxurdə bum	buxurdə bim
buxurdə bi	buxurdə bid
buxurdə bu	buxurdə bid

Past subjunctive

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

Singular	Plural
bidé bim	bidé bim
bidé bi	bidé bid
bidé be/bi	bidé bid

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

Singular	Plural
šón darəm	šón darim
šón dari	šón darid
šón darə	šón darid

Past progressive

Singular	Plural
šón də/du bum	šón də/di bim
šón də/di bi	šón də/di bid
šón də/du bu	šón də/di bid

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:

	Singular	Plural
Nom	per	perán
Acc	pera	perána
Gen	perə	peránə

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

Pronouns

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

	Singular	Plural
Nom	mən	amán
Acc	məra	amána
Gen	mi	amí

	Singular	Plural
Nom	tu	šumán
Acc	təra	šumána
Gen	ti	šimí

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

Postpositions

With the genitive can be combined many postpositions. Examples:

Gilaki	English
re	for
həmra	with
ĵa	from, than (in comparisons)
mian	in
ĵor	above
ĵir	under
ru	on top of

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

See also

• Mazandarani language, another language in the Caspian subgroup of Northwest Iranian.

Further reading

• Christensen, Arthur Emanuel. 1930. Dialect Guiläki de Recht [The Gilaki dialect of Rasht]. In Contributions à la dialectologie iranienne. Series: Kgl. danske videnskabernes selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser; 17, 2. (translated into Persian 1995)
• Purriyahi, Masud. 1971. Barresi-ye dastur-e guyesh-e Gilaki-ye Rasht [A Grammatical Study of the Gilaki dialect of Rasht]. Dissertation, Tehran University.
• Sartippur, Jahangir. 1990/1369 A.P. Vižegihā-ye Dasturi va Farhang-e vāžehā-ye Gilaki [Grammatical Characteristics and Glossary of Gilaki]. Rasht: Nashr-e Gilakan. Dictionary.
• Shokri, Giti. 1998. Māzi-ye Naqli dar Guyeshhā-ye Gilaki va Mazandarāni [Present perfect in Gilani and Mazandarāni Dialects]. Nāme-ye Farhangestān 4(4(16)):59–69. (quarterly journal of Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature) Article abstract in English.

External links

• Scientific Information Database of the Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research
• Ethnologue report on Gilaki
• Sample recording in Gilaki
• Some fish names in Gilaki and Persian
• Dictionary of Gilaki (Dialect of Lahijan) and some of its characteristics
• Gilaki poets and Gilaki poetry
• A Gilaki Weblog containing some Gilaki words
• Gilaki Digital Scripture in Audio, Video and Print form from GilakMedia.com

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