Some Peculiar Traits Common to Certain Persian and Other Western Iranian Dialects as Reflected in the Language of A. Ansari’s Tabaqāt al-Sūfiyyih

Document Type : Original Article

Author

• Youli Ioannesyan

PhD Candidate, Senior Researcher of the Department of Middle Eastern and Near Eastern Studies, IOM RAS.

10.22067/jlkd.2025.93410.1322

Abstract

The study considers certain peculiarities shared by a number of western Iranian dialects, which are not observed in the three modern literary forms of New Persian: literary Iranian Persian (Farsi), Afghan Persian (Dari), and Tajiki. The present author has previously conducted detailed research on the Herati dialect based on field research in Afghanistan and, after comparing the said dialect with other Khorasani dialects (common in Iran), has identified common features of Khorasan Persian dialects. In the course of the present author’s research on these dialects, it became evident that some of these peculiar features go back to Medieval Times and are attested by an 11^th century treatise, Tabaqāt al-Sūfiyyih, consisting of utterances of A. Ansari, the outstanding mystic and commentator of the Qur’an, and its language reflects some traits of the old Herati dialect. The language of the treatise was studied by the famous iranoligist W. A. Ivanow. But until now, no attempt has been made to consider the characteristics of the language of the treatise from the perspective of modern dialectology. Filling the gap, this study analyzes some common features of Khorasani Persian dialects, including Herati and Sistani, Tati dialects in the Caucasus, the dialects of Central Iran spoken by the Zoroastrians, and some other dialects in relation to the language of the Tabakat al-Sufiyyah. The dialectal features examined in this article include the use of the third person/demonstrative pronoun enclitically, the use of the preposition xod/xode (with different phonetic variants) meaning “with”, and the use of the verb suffix -i/-ê, which is considered a “continuous suffix”.

Keywords

• Iranian Studies
• Persian Dialectology
• Iranian Dialectology
• Comparative Dialectology
• Khorasani Dialects

Main Subjects

• Dialectology

---

References

ایوانسیان، ی. (۱۴٠۳). بعضی ویژگی‌های تمایزبخش مهم گویش‌های خراسانی زبان فارسی از گویش‌های گروه افغانی و تاجیکی. مجله زبان‌شناسی و گویش‌های خراسان، ۳۴، ۱-۲۸.

رضایی، ج. (۱۳۷۷). بررسی گویش بیرجند: واجشناسی – دستور. انتشارات هیرمند.

عباسی، ز. (۱۳۹۴). نمود واژگانی افعال مرکب در گویش بیرجندی. مجله زبان‌شناسی و گویش‌های خراسان، ۱۳، ۳۹-۶۰.

ستوده، م. (۱۳۳۵). فرهنگ کرمانی. تهران.

Abrahamian, R. (1936). Dialectes des Israélites de Hamadan et d’Ispahan et dialecte de Baba Tahir. Paris: Librarie d’Amerique et d’Orient.

Farhâdi, A. (1955). Le Persan Parlé en Afghanistan. Grammaire du Kâboli: Accompagnée d’un Recueil de Quatrains Populaire de la Région de Kâbol. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Grünberg, A. (1963a). Seistanskiy Dialect v Serakhse. Kratkiye Soobsheniya Instituta Narodov Azii. Vostochnaya Literatura 67, 76-86.

Grünberg, A. (1963b). Yazyk Severo-Azerbayjanskikh Tatov. Leningrad: Academy of Sciences Publishers.

Ioannesyan, Y. (1999). Geratskii dialect yazyka dari sovremennogo Afganistana. Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura.

Ioannesyan, Y. (2021). On the origin of a peculiar pronominal enclitic in some Iranian dialects. Quarterly Journal of Language and Inscription 4(4), 50-61.

Ivanow, W. (1923). Tabaqat of Ansari in the Old Language of Herat. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 55, 1-34, 337-382.

Ivanow, W. (1928). Persian as Spoken in Birjand. Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal 24, 237-351.

Ivanow, W. (1937). The Gabri Dialect Spoken by the Zoroastrians of Persia. Rivista degli studi orientalni. Roma: Tipografo della R. Accademia d’Italia 17, 1-39.

Lazard, G. (1957). Grammaire du Persan Contemporain. Paris: Klincksieck.

Lazard, G. (1963). La Langue des plus Anciens Monuments de la Prose Persane. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.

Massé, H. (1925). Contes en Persane Populaire Recueilles et Traduits. Journal Asiatique. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner 206, 71-157.

Pelevin, M. (1998). Dialect Bandari Yuzhnogo Irana. Strani i Narodi Vostoka. Sankt-Peterburg: Peterburgskoye vostokovedeniye, 305-310.

Romaskevitch, A. (1945). Lar i Ego Dialect. Iranskiye Yaziki. Moscow-Leningrad: Izdatelstvo Academii Nauk, 31-86.

Zhukovskiy, V. (1922). Materiali dlya Izuchenia Persidskikh Narechiy. Part 2. Dialekty Polosy Goroda Semnana etc. Petrograd: Printing house of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Zomorrodian, R. (1974). Le Système verbal du Persan parlé à Qâyen. Studia Iranica 3, fasc. 1.