Aimaq dialect
Aimaq dialect | |
---|---|
گویش ایماقی | |
Native to | Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan |
Native speakers | (650,000 cited 1993)[1] |
Persian alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | aiq |
Glottolog | aima1241 |
Aimaq or Aimaqi (Aimaq: ایماقی) is the dominant eastern Persian ethnolect spoken by the Aimaq people in central northwest Afghanistan (west of the Hazarajat) and eastern Iran. It is close to the Dari varieties of Persian.[2] The Aimaq people are thought to have a 5–15% literacy rate.[3]
Dialects[]
Subdialects of Aimaq dialect include:
- Changezi
- Firozkohi
- Jamshidi or Jamshedi (also known as Djamchidi, Yemchidi, or Dzhemshid)
- Maliki
- Mizmast
- Taimani
- Timuri or Taimuri
- Zainal
- Zohri (also known as Zuri)
Phonology[]
Phonetically, as one of the eastern Persian dialects, the Aimaq dialect resembles a formal or classical form of Persian.
Vowels:
- The "majhul" vowels ē / ī and ō / ū are still kept separate, whereas in western Persian they are merged as ī and ū respectively. For instance, the identically written words شیر 'lion' and 'milk' are in western Persian both pronounced [šīr], but in Aimaq [šēr] for 'lion' and [šīr] for 'milk'. The long vowel in زود 'quick' and زور 'strong' is realized as [ū] in western Persian, in contrast, these words are pronounced as [zūd] and [zōr] respectively by Aimaq speakers.
- The diphthongs of early Classical Persian aw (as ow in Engl. cow) and ay (as i in English ice) have in Aimaq become [ow] (as in Engl. low) and [ej] (as in Engl. day). Dari, on the other hand, is more archaic, e.g. نوروز 'Persian New Year' is realized as [nowrūz] in Iranian, and [nawrōz] in Aimaq, and نخیر 'no' is uttered as [naχejr] in Iranian, and as [naχajr] in Aimaq.
- The high short vowels [i] and [u] tend to be lowered in western Persian to [e] and [o].
- /æ/[clarification needed] and /e/ are in Aimaq kept separate in word-final positions, unlike western Persian, where /æ/ has [e] as a word-final allophone.
Consonants:
- Aimaq still retains the (classical) bilabial pronunciation [w] of the labial consonant و, which is realized as a voiced labiodental fricative [v] in western Persian. [v] is found in Aimaq as an allophone of f before voiced consonants.
- The voiced uvular stop /ɢ/ (ق) and voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ (غ) are still kept separate in Aimaq. They have coincided in western Persian (probably under the influence of Turkic languages like Azeri and Turkmen).[4]
See also[]
References[]
Footnotes[]
- ^ Aimaq dialect at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "Aimaq". World Culture Encyclopedia. everyculture.com. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ "Aimaq". Ethnologue. 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ A. Pisowicz, Origins of the New and Middle Persian phonological systems (Cracow 1985), p. 112-114, 117.
Notations[]
- Clifton, John M. (ed.) (2005) Studies in languages of Tajikistan North Eurasia Group, SIL International, St Petersburg, Russia, OCLC 122939499
Categories:
- Eastern Persian dialects in Afghanistan
- Languages of Iran
- Languages of Tajikistan
- Indo-European language stubs