Welcome to the Dialect Forum !
by Farideh Nejat [1] - Saturday, 15 September 2007, 03:57 PM [2] Student: I'd like to start the discussion with the very general question – "What are the dialects [3]?" You couldn’t have asked a better question – What are the dialects [4]? When I put on my sociology hat, I remember in graduate school all professors recommended that we should “operationalize” the working variable before we try to answer any question or look for answers in order to acquire validity and reliability in our search. Although I have many reference books similar to a response below that I got from my Turkish/Iranian colleague whose view you will read about dialects [5] of Iran and the historical evolution of such variety and opinions about dialects [6]. I thought I begin with an operationalization of the word “dialect” based on one view and try to hear other views. So, this is how I addressed my question to my colleague, based on what we discussed in class and our readings and other references that I have. Dear Dr. ______ I have forum discussion at MIIS for my course work about dialects [7] and standard language in a target language country such as ours. I have been gathering some resources but I need to also ask you if you know of any books to recommend that is in English from the Shah’s era which tells us about “dialects” of the Persian language. Since Kurds have such heated discussions about Kurdish, I want to see couple of resources for the Iranian/Kurdish whether our sources say Kurdish is a dialect or a language of its own. I believe is a dialect according to the definition of "what is language? A language has form, lexicon, and phonological system" which based on such working definition Kurdish is a dialect because its form (grammar system) is the same as Persian/Farsi with some phonological/lexical variations. Regards,
Dear Ms. Nejat, glad to hear from you. In Iran after Iranian Constitutional Revolution in 1906 and especially with the Pahlavi regime's coming to power all languages became "dialects [8]" in order to uphold the Persian language, the heresy I do not know how many revolutions will wash away the mess which was created. Iranians still live in Pre-Nazi times and will never wake up to know that in South Africa there are 13 official languages and in India as many as 23 which illiterate can say that Gilaki or Kurdi, with all its dialect, are not languages? Please go to internet, if you do not find enough information to suffice for all your MATFL years, then let us sit down and talk. Kurds have been active and they produce tons of books about their language.
(I think he is so angry that he didn’t hear the question asked)
The following is a quotation from the introduction of the paper I have recently written. Please read it. It helps you to start thinking the misery and ignorance that our country has been pushed during the Pahlavi era and I do not think it will come out of them this soon. "Iranian Constitutional revolution of 1906 and its enormous effects and the downfall of the millennia old imperial system ushered Iran to the modern era. Iranian intellectuals, who supported the revolution and authored the constitution of the modern Iran, were greatly influenced by European thoughts, and they were admirers of Western values. Western Orientalists had begun piecing together and reconstructing the history of ancient Persia through their archeological study and matching their finds with the recorded history left from Greeks and other Western historians. Reconstruction of the ancient Persian history, creation of the Aryan myth and Sir William Jones' theory of Indo-European languages played fundamental roles in molding the modern Iranians' world views and their identity. Aryan myth was created and evolved by late 19th Century anthropologists such as Impolite Taine, Paul Boca, Edward B. Tyler and many others who built their ideas on the theories of linguists beginning mostly with Sir William Jones—the process which Leon Spoliator terms as "the tyranny of linguistics. " Thus Shahriyar's youthful identity was framed and formed during the period when modern Persian identity was being forged and defined. The creation of Aryan myth and fascination of Iranian elite with it shaped the history of the land to be named Iran in later years. As a result, belonging to the "noble" linage of Aryans and speaking in the "sweet" Persian language became the tokens of "noble" Aryan descent. By deposing Ahmad Shah, the last king of Qajar dynasty, and ascendance of Reza Shah to the throne all non-Persian speaking Iranians became the “Other.” Through the glorification of mythical heroes of epic narratives, many Iranians were misled to think of the Persian epic, Shahnameh, as their real history. The literature of the Constitutional Era is rife with Iranian patriotic poetry and references to the newly formed identity. Under such a social and political pressure, non-Persian speaker the “Other” such as Iranian Arabs, Azeri Turks, Balochis, Gilakis, Kurds, Lurs, Mazandaranis, and Turkmans, underwent drastic identity change grappling with conflicting loyalties. Shaken by the revolution and waken up in the dawn of 20th Century, The Iranians were looking for scapegoats to put the blame of their millennia old social, economical and political backwardness. They found Arabs and Turks; the first, ironically, had taught them writing and provided them with their written history, and the latter, had facilitated the dawn of their glorious ages of cultural and scientific advances, the production of their unparalleled literature and powerful rulers. In fact, Arab and Turk bashing became a way to glorify Persianism and an instrument to exorcise the shame and brunt of Iran's backwardness—a trend which continues up to this very day." Best regards, Dear Dr. _____ Thanks for your input. I think you digressed from the question that I asked. I am sure :there are tons of books in Kurdish" as you remember the book that we cited so many times for developing our Persian/Farsi books on the shelf "history of languages" also listed Kurdish as one of the dialects [9] of Persian/Farsi. I must add that sociolinguists are aware of power struggle of governments which has created changes in the cultures and the languages in order to conquer just like the way we don’t speak Farsi in the form of its origin as it was spoken 2500 years ago during the Sasanian era. For, example, Iranian/Turks speak Turkish known to be a language because it has its own form, lexicon, and phonological system.Regards, Hope the exchanges above shed some light on how people (even some scholars) look at the languages and dialects [10] through its changes and the historic evolution.
Recently by unikresq | Comments | Date |
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Greeting in Persian/Farsi | 1 | Sep 15, 2007 |
Speech Acts | - | Sep 01, 2007 |
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[2] http://elearning.miis.edu/user/index.php?id=20&group=36
[3] http://elearning.miis.edu/mod/forum/view.php?id=1544
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