Kasre-ye badal az yā-ye nakareh [e-sounding phonological element serving as the indefinite yā]: a dialectal-orthographic feature

In the present article we examine a number of instances of the use of the e-sounding element utilized instead of the indefinite yā (also sometimes yā-ye insha’), and the process of its emergence in certain texts, its scope of use in terms of place and time and the possible influences of such characteristic on Persian grammar. Different factors have been effective in the formation of this characteristic, which we designate as “dialectal-orthographic feature”. In studying the formation process of this feature, we have taken account of some of the orthographic characteristics of Persian manuscripts as well as the vowel system of the Early New Persian and have discovered one of the characteristics of Herati dialect (and probably the dialect of the suburbs of Nishabur).