ERIK ANONBY CARLETON UNIVERSITY THE KESHMI (QESHMI) DIALECT OF HORMOZGAN PROVINCE, IRAN : A FIRST ACCOUNT * SUMMARY Keshmi, the dialect of Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, belongs to the Southwestern branch of the Iranian languages. The largest island in the Persian Gulf, Qeshm was described in 1908 by Lorimer who stated that Arabic was spoken there. Relying on the ethnic map of Iran in the Atlas narodov mira (1964), most later scholars have repeatedly described the language on the island as a mixture of Persian and Arabic, but Izady’s (2006) map mentions a “Qishmi” dialect. The present study, which offers a first overview of this Keshmi dialect, brings clarity to the contradictory assertions in the literature. An updated description of the island and its population of over 100,000 is provided, touching on geography, history and demographics as well as questions of language use and identity. The paper then examines the dialect’s classification, its internal dialect situation, and its linguistic structures, with attention to aspects of the phonology, morphology and lexicon. Although Keshmi speakers view themselves as ethnically distinct, and recognize that their dialect exhibits some distinctive structures, the author uses comparative data to situate the Keshmi dialect within Southwestern Iranian and, in keeping with the perceptions of the speakers themselves, most closely connected to the Bandari dialects of the mainland. Keywords: linguistics; Southwestern Iranian languages; Keshmi (Qeshmi) dialect; Qeshm Island; Bandari Persian; Hormozgan Province; language documentation. RÉSUMÉ Le keshmi, dialecte de l’île de Qeshm dans le détroit d’Ormuz, appartient à la branche sud-ouest des langues iraniennes. L’île – la plus grande dans le golfe Persique – a été décrite par Lorimer (1908), qui a déclaré que l’arabe s’y parlait. S’appuyant sur la carte ethnique de l’Iran dans l’Atlas narodov mira (1964), la plupart des chercheurs plus récents * This paper was funded through research-related functions of the author’s position at Carleton University and the Uppsala University research project UFV-PA 2010/ 2580. Special thanks go to Christina van der Wal Anonby, who has made ongoing, valuable contributions to the author’s research, including the present article; Dr. Pakzad Yousefian, who arranged the research trip to Qeshm Island; and Hassan Mohebbi Bahmani, who commented on an earlier draft of the article and contributed data on Minabi. We are also grateful to the interview respondents in Dargahn for their hospitality and for providing data and insights into their language. Abbreviations: K - Keshmi; P - Persian; M - Minabi dialect of Bandari; L - Laraki dialect of Kumzari. 165 STUDIA IRANICA 44, 2015, pp. 165-206 98851_Studia Iranica_2015_2.indd 165 9/03/16 07:57 166 E. A N O N B Y StIr 44, 2015 ont décrit la situation linguistique dans l’île comme un mélange du persan et de l’arabe ; la carte d’Izady (2006) reconnaît toutefois un dialecte non-persan appelé « qishmi ». La présente étude, qui offre un premier aperçu de ce dialecte keshmi, clarifie les assertions contradictoires la littérature. Elle donne une description actuelle de l’île et de sa popu- lation de plus de 100 000 habitants, touchant aux questions de la géographie, de l’histoire et de la démographie ainsi qu’à celles du comportement et de l’identité linguistiques. L’article examine ensuite la classification du dialecte, sa situation dialectale interne et ses structures linguistiques, avec une attention à des aspects de la phonologie, de la morphologie et du lexique. Bien que les locuteurs du keshmi considèrent que leur ethnie soit distincte et que leur dialecte démontre des traits distinctifs, l’auteur de l’article utilise des données comparatives pour situer le dialecte keshmi au sein de l’iranien du sud-ouest et, tout en accord avec les perceptions des locuteurs eux-mêmes, montre que ce dialecte est étroitement lié aux dialectes bandari du continent. Mots clés: linguistique ; dialectes iraniens du sud-ouest ; dialecte keshmi (qishmi) ; île de Qeshm ; persan bandari ; province de Hormozgan ; documentation sur les langues. * * * INTRODUCTION Iran is a land of rich and varied history, and constant movements and contacts of peoples have taken place over past millennia. This is reflected in the abundant linguistic diversity of the country as a whole, which is the primary or even unique record of many cultural movements in the past. The linguistic heritage of Iran has, however, been unevenly documented, and there are many languages and dialects about which little is known. This is the case for Hormozgan Province of southern Iran, where numerous languages and dialects are found. This paper is a first account of the Keshmi dialect, spoken on Qeshm Island in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz in Hormozgan Province, Iran. After presenting a synopsis of language distribution in Hormozgan and research that has been done in the region, I focus on the sociolinguistic profile of Keshmi in particular, touching on geography, history and demo- graphics as well as language use and identity. I then examine the dialect’s classification within Southwestern Iranian, its internal dialect situation, and aspects of its linguistic structures, with attention to phonology, morphology and lexicon. Comparing these data to what is known about other varieties in the region, I show that even though Keshmi has some distinctive linguistic characteristics, and its speakers view themselves as a separate ethnic group, the dialect is closely related to the Bandari Persian varieties of the Hormozgan coast. 98851_Studia Iranica_2015_2.indd 166 9/03/16 07:57 T H E K E S H M I D I A L E C T O F H O R M O Z G A N P R O V I N C E 167 LANGUAGE IN HORMOZGAN PROVINCE Hormozgan Province is a microcosm of the linguistic diversity found throughout Iran, with a number of languages and many constituent dialects found in the province (see Fig. 1). The languages include several South- western Iranian varieties – Persian, Larestani, Bashkardi, and Kumzari; a Northwestern Iranian language, Balochi; the recently “discovered” Indo- Aryan language Kholosi; and the Semitic language Arabic, which has influenced the other languages of the province through various means and to varying degrees. Some of these languages are familiar from studies of their better-known dialects elsewhere in Iran, but their distinctive and diverse dialects in Hormozgan are in large part undescribed. “Inland” !# !"# " Fig. 1: Overview of language distribution in Hormozgan Province, south-west Iran. Persian is the primary language of Hormozgan Province, but its dialects spoken there fall into two very different groups: the Bandari dialects of the coast and nearby areas, and the inland dialects spoken in the northern tongue of land between Fars and Kerman, themselves reported to be similar to the Persian dialects of those provinces.1 While there has been no study of the inland Persian dialects of Hormozgan, several studies have been undertaken on diverse varieties of Bandari. These include notes on the dialects of Minab and Hormoz,2 observations on the “old” dialect of 1 Skjærvø 1975, p. 113; H. Mohebbi Bahmani, personal communication 2012. 2 Skjærvø 1975. 98851_Studia Iranica_2015_2.indd 167 9/03/16 07:57 168 E. A N O N B Y StIr 44, 2015 Bandar Abbas,3 and fuller descriptions of Minabi.4 Because of long- standing contact with and migration from other parts of Iran, a “new” Bandari Persian koinè—heavily influenced by Standard Persian but still identifiably Bandari in character—has emerged in Bandar Abbas, where it is now the mother tongue of many residents. This variety also functions as the main language of wider communication between speakers of the various languages in the province, and is used alongside Standard Persian for television and radio. A second major language of Hormozgan is Larestani (locally known as Achomi), spoken in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in the western reaches of the province. This language is best-known from the Lri dialects of Fars Province,5 a dialect group within Larestani but one which is often considered by speakers to be a language in its own right. For the varieties within Hormozgan Province, documentation has appeared in the form of a dictionary in the Bastaki dialect6 and an MA thesis written on the dialect of Buchir.7 A third language area, generally referred to in the literature as “Bash- kardi” (or Bashkerdi, Bashkardi, Bashgerdi, etc.), is situated in villages of the remote and mountainous south-eastern extension of Hormozgan Province. Although scholars have used this single label for all the dialects in the area, they have indicated that there are two dialect groups.8 More recent work specifies that these are in fact two distinct languages or language groups—Mrzi Gl and Molki Gl—and that the two groups are not closely related, although they are both Southwestern Iranian.9 Another Southwestern language of Hormozgan Province, Kumzari, is spoken within Iran in a single village on Larak Island, about 10 km to the west of Qeshm Island. Laraki is the smaller of two dialects of Kumzari; the larger dialect is spoken across the Strait of Hormuz on the Musandam Peninsula of Oman.10 The grammar of Musandam Kumzari, along with analyzed texts, is described by van der Wal Anonby (2015). Although it has been classified as Southwestern,11 it has a major Semitic component.12 3 Fathi 2001; Syebni 1997; Pelevin 2010. 4 Barbera 2005; Mohebbi Bahmani 2006. 5 Mann 1909; Eqtedri 1955, id. 2005; Kamioka & Yamada 1979. 6 Bastaki 1980. 7 Rashidi 2008. 8 Gershevitch 1985; Skjærvø 1989. 9 Voskanian & Boyajian-Sureniants 2007, p. 122; H. Mohebbi Bahmani, personal communication 2009. 10 Anonby & Yousefian 2011. 11 Skjærvø 1989, p. 364. 12 van der Wal Anonby 2013; Bayshak 2002.