Caspian Languages - persian, modern, iranian and talishi

CASPIAN LANGUAGES, the designation of one division of the Iranian group of Indo-European languages, a division com prising (a) Mazandarani, (b) Gilaki, (c) Talishi, (d) Tat and (e) Samnani. Mazandarani has been a literary tongue since the middle ages and is used in poetry.

General View.

The phonology of the Caspian tongues is, in general, that of the north Iranian group. Maz. as (a bear) may be traced from Avesta arena (cf. modern Persian khirs) ; kana (might, power), Avesta Karan and modern Persian kun-ad.

Morphology.

The grammatical structure of the languages again follows that of the north Iranian group. Sex is indicated by prefixing or affixing, for masc., nar, and for fern. mada. The adjective precedes the noun, e.g., Maz.,—pira mard (an old man), surxa gul (a red rose) ; Talishi, serxe sevi (a red apple) ; droza mu (a long hair). The plural (in modern Persian indicated by the suffix -an) is in Maz. -fin, e.g., birarun, the brothers (modern Persian, biradar, a brother, biradaran, biradan, brothers).

There is an oblique case having many duties. It is marked in the different languages thus: In Mazandarani this case usually marks the accusative, some times the genitive case. In Gilaki and Talishi it usually marks the dative and in the former it is also occasionally used as a locative mark.

The comparison of adjectives is similar to that of modern Persian. The suffix -tar or -ter is used. (Cf. Persian bihtar, better.) Numerals.—These in most of the Caspian languages, follow the Persian forms fairly closely. In Talishi they are (I) i, (2) do, (3) sa, (4) chi, (5) penj, (6) shash, (7) haft, (8) hesht, (9) nav, (10) da.

Pronouns.—The pronouns are very similar to those of modern Persian, as will be seen from the following : The languages also make use of suffixed pronouns.

The interrogative pronouns are

ki (who), in all five languages and cha (what, Maz. Tat and Samnani), chi (Talishi and Gilaki).

Verbs, Adverbs, etc.

The conjugation of verbs follows the Iranian group very closely. The auxiliary, root Us- (to be), cf, , Persian budan, etc., is used as in the cognate languages.

Adverbs, conjugations, prepositions and postpositions are not declined. Many of them are almost identical in form with Iranian and modern Persian forms and betray extensive borrow ings.

See

Geiger and Kuhn, Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie, I Band, 2 Abt. (Strasbourg, 1898-1901). (A. N. J. W.)