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The Language of the Kharg Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2019

HABIB BORJIAN
HABIB BORJIAN*
Affiliation:
Columbia Universityhb146@columbia.edu
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Abstract

Khargi is spoken on the island of Kharg in the Persian Gulf. A member of the Southwest branch of the Iranian languages, Khargi is related to the languages spoken in the province of Fārs and along the coastal line down to the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting extensive maritime contact, yet does not lend itself to any of the known subgroups of the family. As Khargi remains largely obscure, this article offers a morphosyntax and lexical analysis based on published texts and those collected by the author. It investigates the linguistic position of Khargi based on comparative-historical phonology as well as areal features, with a look at cross-linguistic influence in the situation of language contact. By contrasting linguistic findings with details of history and economy, an attempt is made to date the original and later human settlements on the island.1

Keywords

Southwest Iranian languagescomparative-historical phonologymorphosyntaxlexicologylanguage typologylanguage isolatemaritime language contact
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 659 - 682
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2019

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Footnotes

1

The author would like to express his thanks to the anonymised reviewer of this article for their insightful comments.

References

2 Xārg; for the toponym, see §1.9, below.

3 See Floor, W. and Potts, D. T., The Persian Gulf: Khark: The Island's Untold Story (Washington, 2017)Google Scholar, passim; Borjian, H., “Kharg Island i. Geography”, Encyclopædia Iranica, xvi/4 (2018), pp. 424–426Google Scholar.

4 Aḥmad, Jalāl Āl-e, Dorr-e yatim-e Xaliǰ, ǰazire-ye Xārg. Goδašte o emruz, ādāb, lahǰe, folklor, monżem be reǰāl-e Xārg o čand gozāreš az farangān (Tehran, 1960), p. 49Google Scholar.

5 Ibid, pp. 80–106.

6 Možde, J., Song-e tiγār: dāstān-e zendegi-e goδašte-ye mardom-e ǰazire-ye Xārg (Shiraz, 2009)Google Scholar.

7 Amāni, ʿA., Az Ārākiā tā Xārg (Tehran, 2015)Google Scholar.

8 Ḥasandust, Moḥammad, Farhang-e rišešenāxti-e zabān-e fārsi, 5 vols. (Tehran, 2014), §235Google Scholar.

9 Idem, Farhang-e taṭbiqi-mowżuʿi-e zabānhā o guyešhā-ye irāni-e now, 2 vols. (Tehran, 2010), p. 76Google Scholar.

10 Ḥasandust, 2014, §4831.

11 Ibid, §1214.

12 Lubotsky, Alexander, “Reflexes of Proto-Indo-European *sk in Indo-Iranian”, Incontri linguistici, 24 (2001), pp. 25–57, §6.2Google Scholar.

13 Ludwig Paul, “Kurdish Language i. History of The Kurdish Language”, Encyclopædia Iranica Online, 2008; at iranicaonline.org/articles/kurdish-language-i.

14 See Morgenstierne, George, “Stray Notes on Persian Dialects II”, Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskab, 19 (1960), pp. 121–129Google Scholar; Ḥ. Reżaʾi-Bāḡbidi, “Širāzi-e bāstān”, Guyeššenāsi, 1/1 (2003), pp. 32–40Google Scholar; H. Borjian, “The Perside Language of Shiraz Jewry”, Journal of Iranian Studies, forthcoming.

15 The adverb ǰow, in ǰow istā “he stood up”, if from *hačā-upairi, follows a Northwest development (cf. Parthian ʾž ʾbr, Kurdish žōr, Pers. zabar “up, above”). Curiously, the northern part of the satellite islet Khārgu is called bon ǰofre (Floor and Potts 2017, p. ix). The phrase bon ǰofre apparently means “the lower end”, in which ǰofr “low” is also a Northwest development.

16 The word can be broken up as kor-bak, with onomatopoeic kor that may also appear in modern Pers. qur-bāqe “frog”; and bak < Middle Pers. wak, cf. Mazandarani dār-vak, New Pers. bak.

17 The data is gleaned from various volumes of Salāmi, ʿA-N., Ganǰina-ye guyeššenāsi-e Fārs, 6 vols. (Tehran, 2004–14)Google Scholar.

18 Borjian, H. “Kerman xvi. Languages”, Encyclopædia Iranica, xvi/3 (2017), pp. 301–315, Tab. 1Google Scholar.

19 Note mixed results in Fārs: Bušehri doxt; Somγāni, Pāpuni, Māsarmi, Gāvkošaki doht; Pāpuni, Somγāni, Nudāni, Banāfi do:t; Kandaʾi duft (Salāmi, 2004–14, i-iii), Judeo-Shirazi duft.

20 A mixed outcome is also found throughout Fārs.

21 <? MPers. mēzd. Cf. Ḥasandust, 2014, §4947.

22 Ibid, §§2921–23.

23 The past stem formant *-īd is anomalously added to original past stem in xat-ir- (see §1.9). Cf. Delvāri xet-id-, classical Pers. xwaft-īd-. For examples in pre-modern Persian, see Ḥasandust, 2014, §2079. This anomaly is common among the Fārs dialects.

24 Borjian, “Kerman”, 2017.

25 Cf. §3.9.1.

26 Likely from ǰamʿ, or, as Āl-e Aḥmad construed, ǰanb.

27 On the role of be- in the modal system of Southwest Iranian languages, see Jügel, Thomas, “Die Verbalpartikel BE im Neuiranischen”, Indogermanische Forschungen 118 (2013), pp. 299–320CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, p. 105.

29 A similar marker exists in Central Plateau e(t)-, etc. See Stilo, Donald, “Isfahan xxi. Provincial Dialects” in Encyclopædia  Iranica, xiv/1 (2007), pp. 93–112Google Scholar; cf. North Kurdish di-, etc.

30 Among West Iranian, Persian, Tati, and Semnani also employ mi-/me-. The source is apparently Persian, via grammaticalisation of the adverb hamē in early New Persian.

31 Cf. Delvāri indeclinable hasey/hey, signifying continuous action, as in æftow hey mi-ze “the sun is rising”, hasey mi-xor-om/mi-xærd=om I am/was eating (Dabir-Moqaddam, Moḥammad, Radešenāsi-e zabānhā-ye irāni [Typology of Iranian languages], 2 vols. (Tehran 2014), ii, pp. 917–918Google Scholar.

32 Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, p. 106.

33 Ibid.

34 Možde, 2009, p. 58.

35 Cf. Windfuhr, Gernot, “Fārs Dialects”, Encyclopædia Iranica, ix/4 (1999), pp. 362–373, Table 5Google Scholar.

36 Ibid, Table 4.

37 Gershevitch, Ilya, “The Crushing of the Third Singular Present”, in W. B. Henning Memorial Volume, (ed.) Boyce, M. and Gershevitch, I. (London, 1970), pp. 161–174Google Scholar.

38 For Delvāri, see Dabir-Moqaddam, 2014, ii, pp. 937–347.

39 Cf. Delvāri, in which the imperfective prefix is not a possible host; see Geoffrey Haig and Fatemeh Nemati, “Clitics at the syntax-pragmatics interface: The case of Delvari pronominal clitics” paper presented at ICIL5, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 23–25 August 2013; at www.researchgate.net/profile/Fatemeh_Nemati, example 33.

40 Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, p. 83.

41 See Ṣādeqi, ʿA.-A., “Guyeš-e qadim-e Kāzerun”, Maǰalle-ye zabānšenāsi, 19/1 (2004), pp. 1–41; especially p. 5Google Scholar.

42 Persian-type “have” is used occasionally, e.g., pil dār-ome “I have money” (Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, p. 107Google Scholar).

43 Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, p. 86. The literal meaning of the sentence is “My father had 300 tomans with your father”.

44 Salāmi, 2004–14, i-ii, Sentence 91.

45 Ibid, V.

46 Borjian, “Krman”, 2017.

47 Dabir-Moqaddam, 2014, ii, p. 913.

48 Naγzguy-Kohan, M., “Dastgāh-e feʿl dar guyeš-e dašti” (Verbal system in the Dašti dialect), in Jašnnāme-ye doctor ʿAli-Ašraf-e Ṣādeqi, (ed.) Ṭabibzāde, O. (Tehran, 2003), pp. 61–69Google Scholar.

49 Comparable form in earlier Persian: ū-rā quvvat-i saxt ba-kār bāyīst “he needs a strong power” (Sijistānī, Kašf al-Maḥǰūb, (ed.) H. Corbin [Tehran, 1949], p. 62).

50 Windfuhr, 1999, Table 6.

51 Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, p. 107.

52 Dabir-Moqaddam, 2014, ii, p. 913.

53 Cf. the mischaracterisation by an early twentieth century report: “The village [of Kharg] consists of about 120 houses inhabited by some 600 degenerate Arabs talking a mixture of Persian and Arabic. Seven-eighths of the population are Sunnis” (Government of India, Military report on Persia, 4 vols., [Simla, 1924]; available at www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100023505832.0x000030; Vol. IV, part 2, Fars, Gulf Ports, Yazd and Laristan, p. 36). Thanks to Dr Willem Floor for introducing this reference to me.

54 Reflected in Av. saŋh-, cf. OPers. θanh- “to declare, say” (Ḥasandust, 2014, §413).

55 Faqiri, A., “Marāsem-e ʿarusi dar Širāz”, Honar o mardom, ser. no. 162 (1976), pp. 76–80Google Scholar.

56 Ṣādeqi, 2004, p. 8.; cf. idem, Takvin-e zabān-e fārsi (Tehran, 1978)Google Scholar.

57 Andar-ovi means “in the water”. The strait between the Kharg and Khārgu islands is called Mow-xur, a toponym apparently consisting of miān “middle” and xor, xowr “estuary”, a term prevalent along littoral Persian Gulf.

58 See Borjian, “Kerman”, 2017, Table 1, Isogloss 22.

59 Salāmi, 2004–14, Sentences 41 and 56 in all volumes.

60 Ibid, I, ii.

61 Cf. Borjian, “Kerman”, 2017, Isogloss 17.

62 See Stilo, 2007, Figure 6; Borjian, H., “Kashan ix. The Median Dialects of Kashan”, Encyclopædia Iranica, xvi/1 (2012), pp. 38–47, Isogloss 8Google Scholar.

63 Cheung, Johnny, Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb (Leiden, 2007)Google Scholar.

64 For historical roots of this morpheme, see Stilo 2007, pp. 106–108.

65 Past with be-, found also in Bušehri, Davāni, etc. in “go” is a reflex of the earlier perfective be- (Windfuhr, 1999).

66 Dabir-Moqaddam, 2014, ii, pp. 915, 928.

67 Ibid, ii, pp. 916, 929.

68 Naγzguy-Kohan, 2003, p. 388.

69 Borjian, “Kerman”, 2017, Isogloss 20.

70 Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, pp. 95, 99.

71 Anonby, Erik and Asadi, Ashraf, Bakhtiari Studies: Phonology, Text, Lexicon (Uppsala, 2014)Google Scholar.

72 For Delvāri, see Dabir-Moqaddam, 2014; Haig and Nemati, 2013. For Dašti, see Naγzguy-Kohan, 2003.

73 These include the varieties of Somγān, Māsaram, Pāpun, Burenǰān, the Jewish community of Shiraz, etc. The documentation by Mann, Oscar (Die Tājīk-Mundarten der Provinz Fārs [Berlin, 1909])CrossRefGoogle Scholar, together with other data, received an extensive analytical-descriptive study by Kerimova, A. A. (“Dialekty farsa”, in Osnovy Iranskogo Jazykoznannija [Foundations of Iranian Linguistics], iii/1 [Moscow: Academy of Science, 1982], pp. 316–363)Google Scholar and a comparative study by Windfuhr (1999). A survey of this group is conducted by Salāmi (2004–14, i-ii). In Fārs proper there are also the well-assimilated dialect of Davān and old enclaves such as the Kurdish varieties of Kalāni and ʿAbduʾi.

74 A survey of the area is found in Salāmi, 2004–14, iv-v.

75 Borjian, “Kerman”, 2017.

76 Among many sources, see Amanolahi, Sekandar and Thackston, W. M., Tales from Luristān (Matalyā Lurissu): Tales, Fables and Folk Poetry from the Lur of Bālā-Garīvā (Cambridge, 1987); Anonby and Asadi, 2014Google Scholar.

77 See Xānlari, P. N., Tārix-e zabān-e fārsi, 3 vols. (Tehran, 1995), ii, p. 222Google Scholar.

78 Borjian “Kerman”, 2017.

79 Floor and Potts, 2017, pp. 1–17.

80 Perry, J. R., “Mir Muhanna and the Dutch: Patterns of piracy in the Persian Gulf”, Studia Iranica, 2/1 (1973), pp. 79–95; especially p. 93Google Scholar.

82 de Planhol, Xavier, “Kāriz iv. Origin and Dissemination”, Encyclopædia Iranica, xv/6 (2012), pp. 573–578Google Scholar.

83 R. Bashash, “Newly found Old-Persian cuneiform inscription of Kharg Island deciphered”, CAIS: The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), 9 December 2007; at cais-soas.com/News/2007/December2007/09-12.htm.

84 A strikingly similar development, albeit in an entirely different setting, can be found in Biābānak, in the fringes of the salt desert in central Iran. Its settlements served the caravan routes established ca. Eighth Century ce and sustained themselves on date palm plantation irrigated by the kāriz. Their languages display mixed traits similar to those found on the language of Kharg. See Borjian, H., “The Dialect of Khur”, in Mélanges d'ethnographie et de dialectologie irano-aryennes à la mémoire de Charles-Martin Kieffer (Studia Iranica, Cahier 61), (ed.) De Chiara, M., Rossi, A. V., and Septfonds, D. (Paris, 2018), pp. 77–98Google Scholar.

85 An early twentieth century account by J. G. Lorimer describes the Kharg village consisting of 120 houses, with inhabitants being partly recent settlers from Bahrain, Mināb, and elsewhere, as well as tribesmen who gave conflicting accounts of their origin. See Lorimer, J. G., Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, 2 vols. (Calcutta, 1908), ii, p. 1020Google Scholar. The report also alludes to the resemblance between Khargi and Kumzari, which is not entirely incorrect as long as the affiliation of both languages to the same language family is concerned.

86 From Āl-e Aḥmad, 1960, pp. 81–82.

87 From Možde, 2009, pp. 16–17.

88 Khārgu is an uninhabited satellite island 4 km north of Kharg. Khārgu was used by the inhabitants of Kharg as pastureland in autumn. Khārgu is called Xwayrij in Arabic sources.

89 Herte Boland was a place on the shores of the Khārgu island. See also §4.4.

90 Sange is fish (pomadasys kaakan) native to Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Možde (2009), p. 17 translates the word to “turtle” is unsound since we find širu “he-turtle” and hamas “she-turtle” in Al-e Ahmad, 1960, p. 103.

91 From Amāni, 2015.