Kuhmareyi is one of the
languages of southwestern Fars. It is a cluster of disparate dialects; the one illustrated here is the Davani dialect (Davani: ''devani'';
[Encyclopedia Iranica article on Davani](_blank)
fa, دوانی, transliteration: Davāni) of the village of
Davan, 12 kilometers north of
Kazerun
Kazeroon ( fa, کازرون, also Romanized as Kāzerūn, Kāzeroūn, and Kazeroon; also known as Kasrun) is a city and capital of Kazeroon County, Fars Province, Iran. In 2016, as the fifth big city in the province, its population was 96,683. ...
city in southern
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. Davani had an estimated 1,000 speakers in 2004.
[Salami, A., 1383 AP / 2004 AD. Ganjineye guyeššenâsiye Fârs (The treasury of the dialectology of Fars). First Volume, The academy of Persian language and literature]
(in Persian)
Phonology
The transcription used here is only an approximation.
[Mahamedi, H., 1982]
The story of Rostam and Esfandiyâr in an Iranian dialect
''Journal of the American Oriental Studies'', 102.3, 451-459.
Vowels
short: a, e, i, o, u
long: â, ā, ē, ī, ō, ū
Consonants
*
voiced dental fricative
The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the ''th'' sound in ''father''. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old Engl ...
: ð, generally after vowels, like in, 'bað' (bad).
*
voiced velar fricative
The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , ...
: γ, like in "γal'ati" (shroud).
*
alveolar trill
The voiced alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ...
: like in 'borrâ' (flail).
*
palatalization: inclination for 'g' and 'k' before front vowels, like in 'bega' (say).
*
voiceless alveolar affricate
A voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of affricate consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are several ty ...
:
ts, like in '
tse' (what), and
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
dz, like in an
dzi (fig).
Grammar
Verbs
Davani is
ergative in past transitive constructions. For example (Persian transliterations are in UniPers):
English: Hasan saw Ali in the garden.
Persian: Hasan, Ali-râ tuye bâq did.
Davani: hasan
-eš ali
-a tu bâγ di.
Infinitive markers include ''-san'', ''-tan'', ''-dan'', ''-ðan''.
Nouns
The suffix ''-aku'' makes nouns definite. For example:
''bard'' "stone" → ''bard-aku'' "the stone"
The plural is marked by the suffix ''-gal''. ''-u'' is exceptionally used for "man". For example:
''sēv'' "apple" → ''sēv-gal'' "apples"
''merd'' "man" → ''merd-u'' "men"
Pronouns
Vocabulary
Example sentences
See also
*
Lari dialect
*
Dialects of Fars
Dialects of Pars ''(Persia)'' are a group of southwestern and northwestern Persian dialects spoken in the central Pars province. The southwestern dialects can be divided into three families of dialects according to geographical distribution and lo ...
*
Persian dialects and varieties
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken an ...
*
Southwestern Iranian languages
The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median.
Languages
The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a g ...
*
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are groupe ...
References
Further reading
*Morgenstierne, G., 1960. Stray notes on Persian dialects, II, Fârs Dialects-Davâni. ''Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap'', XIX, 123–129.
*Hasamzada-Haqiqi, C., 1970
Guyeše Davâni(Davani Dialect), in ''Proceedings of the First Congress of Iranian Studies''. Tehran University, 77–98.
*Mahamedi, H., 1979. On the verbal system in three Iranian dialects of Fârs, in ''Studia Iranica'', VIII, 2, 277–297.
*Salami, A., 1381
AP / 2002
AD. Farhange guyeše Davâni (The Dictionary of Davani dialect). The academy of Persian language and literature
{{ISBN, 964-7531-03-6 (in Persian).
External links
Encyclopædia Iranica article on DavaniDavani sayings
Fars Province
Languages of Iran
Southwestern Iranian languages
Endangered Iranian languages