Cover not available

In:Historical Linguistics 2017: Selected papers from the 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, San Antonio, Texas, 31 July – 4 August 2017
Edited by Bridget Drinka
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 350] 2020
► pp. 273–292

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

The rise of the analytic Perfect aspect in the West Iranian languages

 | Memorial University of Newfoundland
 | Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran
Published online: 9 July 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.350.13bub
Abstract
This paper focuses on the long-term grammaticalization of tense/aspect systems in the West Iranian languages, beginning with Old Iranian (Section 1). In Middle Persian (Section 2) the Aorist and the reduplicative Perfect of Old Persian were replaced by a new system of analytic constructions. The fundamental mechanism in the rise of the innovative Preterit (perfective) and Perfect categories was the process of grammaticalization, reducing the auxiliary ‘be’ into suffixes of the innovative Preterit. In Early New Persian (Section 3) an unambiguous Perfect was recreated by attaching personal suffixes to the Perfect stem. In the second part of the paper (Section 4) we turn to the elaboration of the evidential (‘non-witnessed’) subsystem in New Persian through grammaticalization and possible Turkic influence. A typological parallel in the southernmost Slavic languages (Section 5) is provided.
Article outline
  • 1.Old Iranian Tense /Aspect/Mood system
    • 2.The rise of analytic aspectual formations during the Middle Persian period
  • 3.New Iranian
    • 3.1Early New Persian
      • 3.1.1Canonical ‘be-Perfect’
      • 3.1.2Dialectal / ‘Nishapuri’ Perfect kard-ast-am ‘I have done’
    • 3.2The analytic Perfect in -Vg in Kurdish, Balochi and ‘conjectural’ mode in Tajik
    • 3.3New Persian
    • 3.4Sequencing of morphemes expressing tense and person/number
  • 4.Evidential (‘non-witnessed’) subsystem
  • 5.Typological parallels
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (34)
References
Ahmadi Givi, H. (2005). Dastur e Zabān e Fārsi: Fe’l. [The grammar of the Persian language] Tehrān: Našr e Qatreh.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andersen, H. (1987). From auxiliary to desinence. In M. Harris & P. Ramat (Eds.), Historical development of auxiliaries, (pp. 21–52). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). From morphologization to demorphologization. In: S. Luraghi & V. Bubenik (Eds.) The Continuum Companion to Historical Linguistics, (pp. 117–146). London/New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bahar, M. (1942/1994) (6th ed.) Sabkšenāsi. Tārix e Tatavvor e Nasr e Fārsi (3 vols) [Stylistics: The history of the evolution of Persian prose texts] Tehrān: Amir Kabir.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gołąb, Z. (1960). The influence of Turkish upon the Macedonian Slavonic dialects. Folia Orentalia 1, 26–45.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haig, G. (2008). Alignment change in Iranian languages: A Construction Grammar approach. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harris, A. & Campbell, L. (1995). Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johanson, L. (2010). Turkic language contacts. In: R. Hickey (Ed.), The handbook of language contact, (pp. 652–672). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jahani, C. & Korn, A. (2009). Balochi. In: G. Windfuhr (Ed.) The Iranian languages, (pp. 634–692). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kalbasi, I. (1995). Tafāvothā ye vojuh e fe’li dar Fārsi ye Tājiki va Fārsi ye Irān [The differences in aspects of verbs in Iranian Persian and Tajiki Persian] Majaleye Dāneškaye adabiyāt o ʔolum e ensāni dānešgāh e Tabriz. No. 153 & 154, 155–170.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Gozašte ye naqli dar lahjehā va guyešhā ye Irān [The Perfect in dialects and languages of Iran] Guyeš šenāsi, No. 2, 66–89.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kent, R. (1953). Old Persian. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Khanlari, P. (1986). Tārix e Zabān e Fārsi. [History of the Persian Language] Tehrān: Našr e No.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kononov, A. N. (1960). Grammatika sovremennogo uzbekskogo literaturnogo jazyka. [The grammar of Contemporary Literary Uzbek]. Moscow/Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuryłowicz, J. (1947). La nature des procès dits analogiques. Acta Linguistica 5, 17–24.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lazard, G. (1963). La langue des plus anciens monuments de la prose persane. Paris: Klincksieck [Etudes linguistiques, 2].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1987). Le judeo-persan ancien entre le pehlevi et le persan. In Transition periods in Iranian history. Paris: Association pour l’Avancement des Etudes Iraniennes Leuven: Peeters, XI, 263 [Studia Iranica, Cahier 6].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1989). Le persan. In R. Schmitt (Ed.) Compendium linguarum orientalium. (pp. 263–293). Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lenepveu-Hotz, A. (2012). Etude diachronique du système verbal person (Xe-XVIe siècles): d’un équilibre à l’autre? Paris: Ecole pratique des hautes études.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCarus, E. (2009). Kurdish. In G. Windfuhr (Ed.) The Iranian languages. (pp. 587–633). London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mokri, M. (2003). Grammaire et lexique comparés des dialects kurdes. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paul, L. 2008. Remarks on the evolution of the New Persian system of past tenses. In: Sh. Shaked & A. Netzer (Eds.) Irano-Judaica VI, studies relating to Jewish contacts with Persian culture throughout the ages, (pp. 185–195). Jérusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). A grammar of Early Judaeo-Persian. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rokhzadi, A. (2000). The phonetics and the grammar of Kurdish. Tehran: Tarfand.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sadeghi, A. & Arjang, Gh. (1979). Dastur e Zabān e Fārsi [The grammar of the Persian language]. Tehran: Sāzmān e āmuzeš va parvareš.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Skjärvø, P. (2009). Middle West Iranian. In: G. Windfuhr (Ed.), The Iranian languages. (pp. 196–278). London / New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soleymani, A. & Haghbin, F. (2015). Tense and aspect in the Bālāgerive dialect of Lori. Journal of Lingual Inquests, 20, 245–262. Tehran: Tarbiat Modarres University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taheri, E. (2006). The verb in Bakhtiari, Nāme ye Farhangestān, 2, 86–108. Tehrān: Farhangestān e Zabān.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Utas, B. (2000). Traces of evidentiality in Classical New Persian. In L. Johanson & B. Utas (Eds.) Evidentials: Turkic, Iranian and neighbouring languages. New York: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Windfuhr, G. (1982). The verbal category of inference in Persian. Acta Iranica 22, 263–287.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Windfuhr, G. & Perry, J. (2009). Persian. In: G. Windfuhr (Ed.) The Iranian languages, (pp. 416–544). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ziamajidi, L. (2019) A diachronic study of grammatical aspect in Persian. Tehran: Alzahra University (unpublished PhD dissertation).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Rasekh-Mahand, Mohammad
2024. Mirativity in Persian. Journal of Iranian Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 142 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue