Classical Persian Literature , Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS) Biannual Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring and Summer 2020, 227-245 DOI: 10.30465/CPL.2020.5273
An Analysis of Common Phonetic and Morphological Attributes of the Quran-e Qods with some Iranian Ancient Texts and Modern Dialects
Yusof Mohammadnezhad Alizamini * Behjat Ghasemzadeh **
Abstract The Quran-e Qods is among remarkable texts of the growth and development period of the Persian language (4th and 5th centuries). Its language is considered to be a mixture of Persian, Arabic and dialectal-varietal elements, involving unique features in terms of phonetics and morphology. Since there are some connections between this text and the Middle Persian language and many experts consider its place of writing to be somewhere near Sistan, the current study aims to compare some phonetic and morphological attributes of this translated version of the Quran with texts from the Middle Persian, Pazand, Persian- Jewish and some common Iranian dialects in the southeastern Iran. The analysis of available data, mainly obtained through the library archives study, show that this text, has similarities to Pazand texts in some phonetic features such as the change of initial and middle /w/, lack of transformation of the intervocalic /d/, and the change of initial /h/. Further, in some cases it is similar to Baluchi, Rudbari, Sistani and Kermani dialects. A variety of its morphological features such as the unwritten monosyllabic relative morpheme “e”, the infinitive suffix “-ešt”, and the semantic distinction of the two prepositions “be/bed” and “bi” can also be found in Persian-Jewish texts. However, some words from the Middle Persian have been retained.
* Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (corresponding author), [email protected]
** PhD in Ancient Culture and Languages, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies. Date received: 03/04/2020, Date of acceptance: 10/07/2020 Copyright © 2010, IHCS (Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies). This is an Open Access article. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. 1399 228
Keywords: Quran-e Qods, Middle Persian, Pazand Texts, Persian-Jewish Texts, Baluchi Language, Rudbari Dialect, Sistani Dialect.