The Study of Gender System in the Vafsi dialect

In this article, the gender system in the Vafsi dialect is examined. The theoretical framework is based on the view of Corbett (1991) according to which gender is a system at the level of relations between words (outside lexical derivation). In this view, The criterion for evaluating and determining the number of grammatical genders or word classes in a language is agreement. In addition to determining the number of genders in the Vafsi dialect, the semantic/formal parameters involved in gender assignment have also been studied. The results of this study show that according to the agreement criteria, there are only two word classes or grammatical genders in this dialect feminine and masculine: 1- Words ending in an unstressed vowel –æ̀ (feminine) 2- Other words that end in other vowels and consonant (masculine). Also, the synchronic status of this dialect shows that the gender assignment to the words is not based on a semantic criterion such as biological sex (sex-based) or animacy. Instead, the mentioned phonological criterion forms a separate class of words in this language. Thus, from a typological point of view, the Vafsi dialect has a non-sex-based gender system in which gender assignment to the words is formal, not semantic.