Participant Reference in Three Balochi Dialects : Male and Female Narrations of Folktales and Biographical Tales

The aim of the present study is to investigate how men and women in three Iranian Balochi dialects, Coastal Balochi, Koroshi Balochi and Sistani Balochi, refer to 3rd person participants in oral narratives of two genres: folktales and biographical tales. The stories that are analysed were recorded during several field trips to Iran and the approach used is that of Levinsohn (1994, 2015). The first part of the dissertation begins with an overview of the Balochi language and its dialects, including a brief presentation of its phonology, and then reviews previous studies of Balochi, before introducing the case system and types of alignment in the three dialects. Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the status of orality in the three dialects, before giving details about the corpus of texts that were analysed. Of particular note is the fact that each story in the corpus was told by both a man and a woman. Chapter 3 examines different approaches to the analysis of participant reference, before comparing those of Gundel et al. and Levinsohn in greater detail. The second part of the dissertation applies Levinsohn’s approach to texts in each of the three dialects in turn. Chapters 4–6 identify and analyse the different ways in which the participants in the stories are referred to when the subject remains the same and in three specific situations when the subject changes. This enables default encoding values to be established for each of the four situations. Motivations for over-encoding and, in some situations, under-encoding, are then identified. Chapters 7–9 investigate whether the gender of the storyteller (male versus female) and/or the genre of the story (folktale versus biographical tale) influence the way that the participants are referred to. This leads in chapter 10 to a gender- and genre-based comparison of participant reference across the present dialects. Conclusions are presented in chapter 11. In general, the participant reference strategy used was the same in all three dialects, regardless of the gender or the genre. The main exception involved reported conversations in Koroshi Balochi, where the additive enclitic ham was attached to the reference to a subject who responded in line with the contents of the speech reported in the previous sentence. Other variations appeared to depend on the degree to which the storyteller was proficient in his or her art. The dissertation concludes with four Appendices. Appendix A presents six texts that were interlinearised using the FLEx programme, while Appendix B consists of participant reference charts of the same texts following Levinsohn’s approach. Appendix C presents details of the case system and alignment for each of the three dialects. Finally, the chart in Appendix D compares the approaches of Levinsohn and of Gundel et al. to participant reference in a specific text. A CD with audio files of the six texts and some photos taken during fieldwork is also available

On orality and the sociolinguistic situation of the Kholosi community

The present paper aims to present a sociolinguistic survey of Kholosi, an Indo-Aryan language that is in the process of being documented. It is spoken mainly in two villages, Gotāv and Kholos, in the Hormozgan province of Iran. It is entirely surrounded by Iranic languages. Data stem from interviews with the Kholosi people and linguistic information obtained by recording spontaneous texts. The results suggest that due to long-term contact with Iranic languages, not only has the Kholosi language been heavily influenced by Iranic features, but also their culture and oral traditions. The paper concludes that the Kholosi speakers have completely forgotten their oral songs and instead have adopted Iranic ones. In this respect they share a common cultural heritage with Iranic. They are narrating the same tales, e.g., Shāh Abbās and, Rostam va Sohrab, and they sing Iranic songs in Persian or Bastaki. The recent tendency toward using Persian and Bastaki with their children at home might accelerate language shift in their communities

Definiteness Marking from Evaluative Morphology in Balochi : Internal Variation and Diachronic Pathway

This paper investigates the usage and frequency of what is referred to as K-suffixes in three Balochi dialects, namely Koroshi, Coastal and Sistani Balochi. It shows that K-suffixes are most likely the reflexes of earlier evaluative morphology, traditionally termed “diminutives,” and are characterized by a high degree of multi-functionality. While in Coastal and Sistani Balochi evaluative functions continue to dominate, they have been largely lost in Koroshi Balochi, and the suffix is now used to indicate definiteness. The development appears to have been spearheaded by female speakers, and its frequency is also dependent on genre and speech situation. Data is taken from an extensive corpus of spoken Balochi narratives and from a questionnaire with thirty-six speakers. The results suggest that evaluative morphology can develop into definiteness marking, with the development passing over a stage of combination with deictic markers. The paper concludes that the development of definiteness marking can proceed down a pathway that is distinct from the one normally assumed for demonstrative-based definite marking, though the endpoint may be similar. This is the first detailed documentation of this process for any Iranian language, and one of the few well-documented cases of a non-demonstrative origin of definiteness marking worldwide

Diachronic development of the K-suffixes : Evidence from Classical New Persian, Contemporary Written Persian and Contemporary Spoken Persian

This paper aims to investigate the usage and frequency of what we refer to as K-suffixes in ClassicalNew Persian of the ninth to thirteenth centuries, Contemporary Written Persian of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and Contemporary Spoken Persian. It shows that K-suffixes are most likely to be the reflexes of earlier evaluative morphemes, traditionally called “diminutives,” and are characterized by a high degree of multifunctionality. While evaluative functions continue to dominate in the Classical New Persian works, they have largely been lost in contemporary spoken Persian, and the suffix is now systematically used to express definiteness. The development of the K-suffix as a definiteness marker in contemporary colloquial Persian appears to be innovative, and is mainly dependent on genre, speaker, and speech situation. Data for Classical New Persian is taken from critical editions of works from the ninth to thirteenth centuries. The data for Contemporary Written Persian comes from comprehensive books of fiction from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and for Contemporary Spoken Persian from an extensive corpus of spoken Persian narratives and a questionnaire answered by fifteen speakers. The results suggest that evaluative morphology can develop into definiteness marking, with the development passing through a stage of combination with a deictic marker. This paper concludes that the development of definiteness marking can proceed down a new pathway that is different from the one normally assumed for demonstrative-based definite marking, though the endpoint may be similar. The study contributes the second detailed documentation of this process for any Iranian language, and one of the few well-documented cases of a non-demonstrative origin of definiteness marking worldwide

On orality and the sociolinguistic situation of the Kholosi community

The present paper aims to present a sociolinguistic survey of Kholosi, an Indo-Aryan language that is in the process of being documented. It is spoken mainly in two villages, Gotāv and Kholos, in the Hormozgan province of Iran. It is entirely surrounded by Iranic languages. Data stem from interviews with the Kholosi people and linguistic information obtained by recording spontaneous texts. The results suggest that due to long-term contact with Iranic languages, not only has the Kholosi language been heavily influenced by Iranic features, but also their culture and oral traditions. The paper concludes that the Kholosi speakers have completely forgotten their oral songs and instead have adopted Iranic ones. In this respect they share a common cultural heritage with Iranic. They are narrating the same tales, e.g., Shāh Abbās and, Rostam va Sohrab, and they sing Iranic songs in Persian or Bastaki. The recent tendency toward using Persian and Bastaki with their children at home might accelerate language shift in their communities

Comparing Fading of Oral Narrative Features in Three Balochi Dialects

This paper discusses discourse features such as tail-head linkage and repetition, development devices, associative strategies and subordination in oral narrative texts in the Koroshi (KoB), Sistani (SiB), and Coastal (CoB) dialects of Balochi, all of which belong to the North-West branch of the Iranian language family. The frequency with which these features vary with the dialect, and the variation can be attributed to different stages of orality. Three stages have been identified, with CoB and SiB at the ends of the cline and KoB located in between. CoB is the most conservative dialect, as different aspects of its grammar also show; it demonstrates a pure orality state by its frequent use of tail-head linkage, repetition and juxtaposition, and by the relative infrequency with which it employs associative and subordination strategies. SiB and its close relation Turkmenistan Balochi [TB])(1) use associative and subordination strategies more frequently, have fully lexicalised development devices and seldom employs tail-head linkage, repetition and juxtaposition. This loss of oral techniques demonstrates that the state of narration in SiB has switched from oral to written style. Finally, KoB represents a language in a state of transition by using more unmarked tail-head linkage, repetition and juxtaposition and by a strong tendency to employ subordination strategies

“Those were the hungry years”: A glimpse of Coastal Afro-Balochi

International audienceThe aim of the present paper is to describe the morphosyntactic properties of Iranian Coastal Balochi as spoken by the Afro-Balochi community. The Afro-Baloch have completely switched to Balochi and there are no traces of African languages in their speech. In comparison with other Balochi dialects of Iran on the one hand and Coastal Balochi dialects of Pakistan on other, Coastal Balochi as spoken in Iran shows archaic characteristics, particularly in its case system, in the demonstrative pronouns and in the alignment features. This particularly applies to the speech of the Afro-Baloch, who due to persisting social segregation have limited access to education and media

The Distribution and Role of the Verb Clitic =a/a=in Different Balochi Dialects

This study investigates the distribution and role of the verb clitic =a/a= in a variety of Balochi dialects.We summarize earlier findings, argue for the interpretation of this morpheme as a clitic, and present new data for four Balochi dialects spoken in Iran. In these four dialects, the verb clitic is variously consistently proclitic (one dialect), restricted proclitic (two dialects), and restricted enclitic (one dialect). We also find that there is a stronger tendency for enclitic attachment of the verb clitic =a/a= the further eastwards a certain Balochi dialect is spoken.The basic semantic component of the verb clitic =a/a= is one of imperfectivity, and it is used with the non-past indicative and the past imperfective indicative verb forms. It can be linked to the homophonous verb clitic found in several other Western Iranian languages

Notes on the speech of the Afro-Baloch of the southern coast of Iran

International audienceThe aim of the present article is to describe the morphosyntactic properties of Iranian Coastal Balochi as spoken by the Afro-Balochi community. The Afro-Baloch have completely switched to Balochi and there are no traces of African languages in their speech. In comparison with other Balochi dialects of Iran on the one hand and Coastal Balochi dialects of Pakistan on the other, Coastal Balochi as spoken in Iran shows archaic characteristics, particularly in its case system, in the demonstrative pronouns and in the alignment features. This particularly applies to the speech of the Afro-Baloch, who due to persisting social segregation have limited access to education and media

The Distribution and Role of the Verb Clitic =a/a=in Different Balochi Dialects

This study investigates the distribution and role of the verb clitic =a/a= in a variety of Balochi dialects.We summarize earlier findings, argue for the interpretation of this morpheme as a clitic, and present new data for four Balochi dialects spoken in Iran. In these four dialects, the verb clitic is variously consistently proclitic (one dialect), restricted proclitic (two dialects), and restricted enclitic (one dialect). We also find that there is a stronger tendency for enclitic attachment of the verb clitic =a/a= the further eastwards a certain Balochi dialect is spoken.The basic semantic component of the verb clitic =a/a= is one of imperfectivity, and it is used with the non-past indicative and the past imperfective indicative verb forms. It can be linked to the homophonous verb clitic found in several other Western Iranian languages