Tati language (Iran)
The Tati language is a Northwestern Iranian language which is closely related to the Talysh, Mazandarani and Gilaki languages spoken by the Tat people of Iran. It is for the most part not mutually intelligible with Persian. Tats are a subgroup of Northwestern Iranians.
Old Azari
Some sources use the term old Azari/Azeri to refer to the Tati language as it was spoken in the region before the spread of Turkic languages, and is now only spoken by different rural communities in Iranian Azerbaijan, and also in Zanjan and Qazvin provinces.Tati language structure
In any language, roots and verb affixes constitute the most basic and important components of a language. The root is an element included in all the words of a lexical family and carries the basic meaning of those lexical items. A verb affix is an element added to the root to form a new meaning.In many new Iranian languages, verb affixes have been left almost unnoticed, and it will be possible, by the act of deriving roots, to clear up most of their structural and semantic ambiguities. Unlike the root, verb affixes can be easily identified and described. In many languages, verb affixes act as the base of verb formation and are often derived from a limited number of roots. Tati, Talysh, Mazandarani and Gilaki languages belong to North-western Iranian languages currently spoken along the coast of Caspian Sea. These languages which enjoy many old linguistic elements have not been duly studied from a linguistic perspective.
In the field of phonetics Tati is similar to the rest of the north-western Iranian languages: it is distinguished by the persistence of Iranian *z, *s, *y-, * v- against the south-western d, h, j-, b-; development < * j, against the south-west z, and the preservation of intervocalic and postvocalic *r and even, for a number of dialects, development rhotacism.
In the field of morphology, Tati is less analytical in structure than the south-western Iranian languages. Having lost the ancient foundations of classes and verb, tati preserved case. It is a gender-neutral language except in some name and verb formations.
Ergative in Tati language
Tati is an ergative language, i.e. "with transitive verbs the subject/agent of the verb is expressed by the direct case in the present tenses, but by the oblique in the past tenses, whereas the direct object/patient in the present tenses is expressed by the oblique, but by the direct in the past".Khalkhali is one of the Tati dialects spoken in Shahrood and Xorsh-rostam districts of Khalkhal. Khalkhali Tati is distinguished from other dialects producing ergative structures, because of the adherence of verb to semantic object, in number, person and specially in gender. Meanwhile, according to some evidence in this dialect, apart from past transitive verbs, some intransitive verbs are influenced by the ergative structure.
Phonology
Consonants
The phonology is based on the Southern Tati dialects:The sound // only occurs before a voiced plosive //, and is most likely an allophone of //. A glottal stop // may only appear after some elongated vowel sounds, and is likely adopted from Persian loanwords. A labialized sound // occurs only before the vowel sound //. The following sounds // may allophonically range to the sounds. In the Takestani dialect, // may have the allophone.
The sound does not occur as a phoneme, but it does occur when // is preceding another vowel.
Vowels
The vowel sound for /e/ is recognized as two sounds, and allophonically as.In the Chali dialect, the /o/ phoneme is only realized as a diphthong, whereas in Takestani, it is only recognized as ranging from.
Dialects
Tati has four main dialects:- South of Qazvin province
- Ardabil province
- Alborz mountains range
- North Khorasan province
Comparison of various Tati dialectshttp://www.mehremihan.ir/language-and-dialect/2956-tati-ghazvini.html
| English | Persian | Pahlavi | Avestan | Tākestāni Tāti | Sagzābādi Tāti | Ebrāhimābādi Tāti | Ardabilaki Tāti | Ziārāni Tāti | Tikhuri Tāti | Kurmanji Kurdish |
| Dog | سگ Sag | sege | span | asbe/māĉĉiye ماچيه/اَسبه | Asba اَسبه | asba اَسبه | Sag سگ | Sage/māĉĉe ماچه/سَيگ | Sag/Māĉĉe ماچه/سَيگ | Kûçik / Seg |
| Bone | استخوان Ostexān | ast/xastak | ast | esqonj اسقُنج | Xaste خسته | Xaste خسته | Esdeqān اسدقان | Hasta هَستَه | hasta هَستَه | estî / hestî |
| Lie | دروغ Doruq | drog/droo | droj | duru دورو | deru درو | doru دُرو | duru دورو | duru دورو | duru دورو | Deraw |
| Needle | سوزن Suzan | darzik/darzi | dereza | darzone درزُنه | darzena درزنه | darzena درزنه | darzan درزَن | darzen درزِن | darzen درزِن | Derzî |
| Face | چهره Ĉehre | ĉihr/ĉihrak | dim دیم | dim دیم | dim دیم | dim دیم | dim دیم | dim دیم | Dêm | |
| Groom | داماد Dāmād | zāmāt | zāmātar | zomā زُما | Zummā زوما | zeymā زیما | zāmā زاما | zāmā زاما | zāmā زاما | Zava |
| House | خانه Xāne | Mābān | ke | kiye کیه | čia چیه | kia کیه | Xāne خانه | Xāneh خانه | Xāneh خانه | Mal Xanî |
| Man | مرد Mard | mart | mereta | mardak مردک | miarda میرده | miarda میرده | Mardi مِردی | Mardak مَردِک | Mardak مَردِک | Mêr |
| Lamb | بره Barre | varrak | Ware وَره | Wara وره | Wara وره | vara وره | vara وره | vara وره | Berx | |
| Bride | عروس Arus | vazyok | vaze | Weye ویه | Weya ویه | veya ویه | ayris/eris عریس/عَی ریس | ayris/eris عریس/عَی ریس | Bûk | |
| Nose | بینی Bini | Pini | Pini | vinniye وینیه | venia ونیه | venia ونیه | vini وینی | vini وینی | vini وینی | Poz Bîhn |
| Wolf | گرگ Gorg | Gourg | vehraka | varg ورگ | varg ورگ | varg ورگ | verg وِرگ | gurg گورگ | gurg گورگ | Gur |
Other Tati dialects are Vafsi, Harzandi, Kho'ini, and Kiliti Eshtehardi.
Vafsi Tati
Vafsi is a dialect of Tati language spoken in the Vafs village and surrounding area in the Markazi province of Iran. The dialects of the Tafresh region share many features with the Central Plateau dialects, however their lexical inventory has many items in common with the Talysh subgroup.Vafsi has six short vowel phonemes, five long vowel phonemes and two nasal vowel phonemes. The consonant inventory is basically the same as in Persian.
Nouns are inflected for gender, number and case.
The oblique case marks the possessor, the definite direct object, nouns governed by a preposition, and the subject of transitive verbs in the past tense.
Personal pronouns are inflected for number and case.
A set of enclitic pronouns is used to indicate the agent of transitive verbs in the past tenses.
There are two demonstrative pronouns: one for near deixis, one for remote deixis.
The use of the Persian ezafe construction is spreading, however there is also a native possessive construction, consisting of the possessor preceding the head noun.
The verbal inflection is based on two stems: present and past stem. Person and number are indicated personal suffixes attached to the stem. In the transitive past tense the verb consists of the bare past stem and personal concord with the subject is provided by enclitic pronouns following the stem or a constituent preceding the verb. Two modal prefixes are used to convey modal and aspectual information. The past participle is employed in the formation of compound tenses.
Vafsi is a split ergative language: Split ergativity means that a language has in one domain accusative morphosyntax and in another domain ergative morphosyntax. In Vafsi the present tense is structured the accusative way and the past tense is structured the ergative way. Accusative morphosyntax means that in a language subjects of intransitive and transitive verbs are treated the same way and direct objects are treated another way. Ergative morphosyntax means that in a language subjects of intransitive verbs and direct objects are treated one way and subjects of transitive verbs are treated another way.
In the Vafsi past tense subjects of intransitive verbs and direct objects are marked by the direct case whereas subjects of transitive verbs are marked by the oblique case. This feature characterizes the Vafsi past tense as ergative.
The unmarked order of constituents is SOV like in most other Iranian languages.
Harzandi Tati
Harzani is considered an endangered language with a little less than 30,000 speakers in present day. Its speakers principally reside in the rural district of Harzand, particularly in the village known as Galin Ghaya/Kohriz. Harzani is also present in the neighboring villages of Babratein and Dash Harzand.As of now, Harzani has not been formally recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and thus receives no government support.
Like other languages and dialects of the Iranian language family, Harzani follows a subject–object–verb word order. It has nine vowels, and shares a consonant inventory with Persian. It further exhibits a split-ergative case system: its present tense is structured to follow nominative-accusative patterning, while its past tense follows ergative-absolutive.
One characteristic that distinguishes Harzani from related Northwestern Iranian languages is its change from an intervocalic /d/ to an /r/. It also has a tendency to lengthen its vowels. For instance, it has the closed vowel /oe/.
Nouns and pronouns in Harzani do not reflect grammatical gender, but they do express case. Nouns, in particular, encode two cases: direct and oblique case, the first of which is not rendered morphologically, but the second is by attaching a suffix. Meanwhile, personal pronouns have three cases: direct, oblique, and possessive.
Verbs in Harzani are inflected for present tense and past tense. Information concerning person and number is reflected in suffixes that attach to these two verb stems. Modal and aspectual information is expressed using prefixes.
Kho'ini Tati
It is spoken in the village of Xoin and surrounding areas, about southwest of Zanjan city in northern Iran. The Xoini verbal system follows the general pattern found in other Tati dialects. However, the dialect has its own special characteristics such as continuous present which is formed by the past stem, a preverb shift, and the use of connective sounds. The dialect is in danger of extinction.Nouns have two cases: direct and oblique. Contrary to the often case in Persian, adjective is not Post-positive.
The suffixes may be attached to the verb; the agent of the verb in an ergative construction; an adverb; a prepositional or postpositional phrase; and in a compound verb to its nominal Complement.
The same set of endings is used for the present and the subjunctive. The endings of the preterit and the present perfect are basically the enclitic present forms of the verb 'to be'. For pluperfect and subjunctive perfect the freestanding auxiliary verb 'to be' is utilized. There is no ending for singular imperative and it is -ân for plural. For the inflections of "to be" see "Auxiliary inflection" below.
The past and present stems are irregular and shaped by historical developments, e.g.: wuj- / wut- ; xaraš-/xarat- ; taj-/tat-. However, in many verbs the past stem is built on the present stem by adding -st; e.g.: brem- → bremest-.
The imperative is formed by the modal prefix be- if the verb contains no preverb, plus the present stem and without ending in the singular and with -ân in the plural. be- is often changed to bi-, bo- or bu- according to the situation, and appears as b- before a vowel of a verbal stem.