ILexical Borrowing Hierarchies in Kolhari Kurdish: Gender, Age and Educational Background

This study is intended to investigate lexical borrowing in Kalhori Kurdish. The main lexical categories such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs were examined to find whether native speakers prefer to use native words or loan words (of Farsi). This study was carried out in relation to three social variables as gender, age and educational backgrounds. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 339 items was employed. The results indicate that in all lexical categories, native words (as apposed to loan words) are mainly chosen by the subjects in all groups. In addition, there is no basic difference in all investigated lexical categories. Almost the same amount of borrowing is reported in all lexical categories, while in all borrowing hierarchies (Treffers-Daller, 2010; Muysken, 1988; Thomason and Kaufman, 1988), nouns were easier to borrow than the elements lower in the hierarchy. The results of this study, however, suggest that the reasons for borrowing are beyond the position in the hierarchy. The importance of lexical gap in borrowing is identified as an alternative to hierarchical approaches in the present study.
Keywords: Borrowing, Borrowing hierarchy, Kalhori Kurdish, Lexical categories