JĘZYK W POZNANIU Ogólnopolska Studencka Językoznawcza Konferencja Naukowa
kng-jwp.home.amu.edu.pl

Homeira Moradi (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu)

Persianisation of the Mazandaranian language, a case of an inevitable, gradual language death?

This paper discusses a gradual death of the Mazandarani language as a result of contact with a stronger Persian language in Iran with regard to lexicon and syntax.
The supreme law of the land grants Persian a special status of the only official language and the lingua franca of the nation taught at schools; as far as regional languages are concerned, the constitution permits, but does not support, their usage in the media and teaching their literary works in local schools. This imbalance in terms of usefulness and prestige leads to gradual Persianisation or even death of some minority languages, such as Mazandarani.
Following the methodology proposed by Shahidi 2009, samples of the contemporary Mazandarani language have been analysed in terms of their lexicon and syntax Persianisation as spoken by the young vs. the old and urban vs. rural inhabitants of Mazandaran. It has been discovered that changes in lexicon may automatically trigger changes in syntax, as in the case of e.g. noun postmodification.
The process of Mazandarani dying is like growing two plants side by side, one being neglected by the gardener while the other taken care of. Soon the latter overshadows the former causing its gradual death. The future of Mazandarani is in the hands of such gardeners - its conscious users, as "the speakers do not lose their language but the language loses its speakers". 



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