past stem

In the current research, past stem allomorphy of the Persian verb is discussed in the framework of Distributed Morphology (Siddiqi, 2009) and its purpose is to present an analysis of the past stem allomorphy of the Persian verb in a way that is economical. Therefore, to answer the questions of this research, 193 verbs (present and past tenses of verbs) were collected and analyzed according to the regularity or irregularity of their past tense forms. It was concluded that the general and economic approach is that the past stems of the Persian verbs, as vocabulary items, are selected from the inventory of the vocabulary of the Persian language and with the competition between these items and then the selection of the winning item according to the syntactic context, the winning item is inserted in the target node of the syntactic structure. Finally, it will be registered as a vocabulary item in the vocabulary with the constraint that if the fusion of the present root with the past is blocked,, regular inflection will occur. In this analytical approach, there is no need to explain the variation in past stem forms based on morpho-phonological conditions, numerous readjustment rules, and exceptions for each verb or class of irregular verbs.

Katouli is regarded as the most eastern dialect of the Mazandarani language that in addition to some differences in words, is different from Mazandarani to some extent in verbal constructions such as continuous preterit construction and the infinitives used in past and present verbs. In the present study, verbal stem, personal ending and constructions, infinitive, subject and object adjectives as well as active and passive forms have been investigated in Katouli dialect. In this dialect, verb is based on the past and present stems. The present verb has indicative, subjunctive and continuous constructions, and the preterit verb also has simple, continuous, progressive, present perfect, subjunctive and past perfect constructions. In Katouli dialect, the passive form also is not common as it exists in Persian language and the informants prefer using the active structure. The main characteristics of the verb in Katouli dialect which is important in language studies include: lack of present perfect tense as it is common in Persian and using simple past instead of it, not using prefix in present indicative verb construction, using the past stem of kœrd in past continuous construction and some other characteristics which are mentioned in this paper.

Behdini dialect is one of the central dialects of Iran also known as Dari or Gavruni. This dialect has two varieties, Yazdi and Kermani, which in contrast to many similarities, have some differences. There seems to be many loan words and religious terms from Avestan and Middle Persian in this dialect. In the present research, the verbal system in Behdini dialect of Kerman has been studied. Using questionnaire and indirect elicitation techniques the data has been gathered and recorded, analyzed and studied. Sentences for each verb has been gathered in order to show an example for the use of the verb. The results show that the main important characteristic of the verbal system in this dialect is that it has retained ergativity in the past tense of verbs. Also, there are some special characteristics for the structures of present and past stems and the infinitive is made using the suffix “-mon”.

In many Iranian languages including Persian, the past tense stem of some verbs terminates with –št, while their present stem ends with a /r/ which in fact exists in the root; but this /r/ does not appear in the past stem. These verbs are /ænbaštæn/, /engaštæn/, /pendaštæn/, /daštæn/, /kaštæn/, /gozaštæn/, /gaštæn/, /gozæštæn/, /gomaštæn/, /negaštæn/ and their combinations. Concerning the basic morpheme of │T│ for the past tense of verbs represented in different allomorphs (t, d, st, št, xt, ft, ɑd, ud and id), this research aims to detect the process of formation the -št form of this morpheme in the mentioned verbs. The question is what phonemic processes have led to the deletion of a consonant (r) from the root (which is athwart the definition of "root”) and appearance of /š/ in the past stem. The main motivation for this investigation was the lack of convincing reason, explanation or even analysis for the issue. This research based on phonetic factors for sound change containing the elements of motor planning, aerodynamic constraints, gestural mechanics, and especially interactive-phonetic (IP) on one hand, and historical studies on the other hand, has applied both diachronic and synchronic evidences for analysis and explanation of the sound change, and ultimately morpheme formation in the discussed subject. The absence of a consonant in the stem of a verb, in Persian is a token for being stem constructor, but the presence of a consonant in the root and its absence in only one of the stems indicates that there must be a reason for disappearing the consonant of the root; particularly in past stems due to their construction. In the base of all past stems, “t” or “d” (depending on their voicing the environment) is seen, whilst the presence of /š/ (the only phoneme without any vestige neither in the root nor in the base form of stems, unlike other phonemes than “t/d” in the stems) in /št/ has been regarded as the sole “exceptional” past stem morpheme by the scholars, due to the lack of any reason for it. The assumption of this study was that the initial allomorph of past stem constructor should have been /st/ which had make the ending consonant cluster /rst/, and then through the telescoping process of the /r/ (unvoiced [ɾ/ɹ]) with [s] has triggered to emerge /š/. The question here is about the fount of /s/ in the stem. Some investigations have pointed out that in the aorist paradigm of the Old Iranian languages including Old Persian, /s/ had been the aorist stem constructor; therefore some stems were ended with /*rst/. According to researchers, this /s/ is still seen in some verbs, despite vanishing of aorist inflection, and in some cases, it has been changed into /š/. This statement improves our presupposition about the initial allomorph of past stem constructor /st/ instead of /št/ to make ending consonant cluster /rst/ in the past stem. Moreover, one of the most frequent past tense morpheme of many stems in Iranian languages is /-st/, and based on diachronic (e.g. in Indo-European and Indo-Iranian Languages) and synchronic (German dialects and Scandinavian Languages) studies there is a universal sound change of s→š in an especial context. Hereupon, it seems reasonable to emerge such phoneme in the discussed stems if the condition is fulfilled. One of the triggering conditions has been reported in ruki rule (s → š / r, u, k, i -). Concerning the adjacency of /r/ (the last consonant of the root) and /s/ of the morpheme /st/, the condition is acquired, but the data in Iranian Persian language show that a /t/ or /n/ is needed for the change to occur. The process of this phonemic change seems to be a phasic telescoping process via saltation (conversion of sound A to C, leaping over a phonetically intermediate sound B) as follows. In order to articulate /r/ at the end of the root and the /s/ of the past tense morpheme, respectively the tip and the blade of the tongue touches the back and the front of the alveolar ridge. In this companion, /s/ gets regressive assimilation with /r/ and becomes retroflex ([ʂ]: intermediate of saltation) by pulling back the tip of the tongue into the hard palate, but the alveolar /t/ in /st/ (which is articulated by blade of the tongue in Persian language) removes immediately the retroflex feature by pulling up the tip of the tongue toward the blade to form /š/. Thus based on telescoping process, contrary to the opinion of most scholars, the /r/ of the root has not been omitted but has been merged into /s/ to emerge the sole phoneme /š/: CVr+st →CVšt. The results not only explain the sound change in the above mentioned verbs, but also in some other words in Persian  (e.g. /gošne/ hungry, /tešne/ thirsty and etc.); and in dialects of Iranian languages (e.g. /šuštan/ in Mahabadi Kurdish and /šištan/ in Davani dialect for /šostan/ to wash in Persian). As previously mentioned, in all of the samples of this change a /t/ or /n/ must be after /rs/ (Vrsn/t). Moreover, the appearance of this phenomenon in simple words (free morphemic structure) like gošne (hungry), tešne (thirsty), Paštu (Pashto), pašne (heel) and so forth, indicates that this change cannot be a morphophonemic change. Therefore, this view does not consent to most of the studies in this case which remark it as a morphophonemic change; athwart, it accords with all studies and findings in IP model on phonemic change of /s/ to /š/.

In Persian grammar and linguistic studies books, the structure of the Persian verb in perfect tenses is introduced as the combination of ‘participle adjective’ + ‘auxiliary verb’ or ‘copula verb’, which is not plausible for different reasons. The present study analyzes the morphological structure of Persian perfect verbs based on different linguistic evidence. In contemporary Persian, the personal clitics (personal endings) are an indispensible part of the verb and in perfect tenses also one inflectional morpheme is required to represent the concept of perfect aspect and in addition every verb phrase is supposed to have one verb in itself. Therefore, the following morphological structures are introduced for present perfect and past perfect tenses respectively in this study: present perfect = ‘past stem of verb + /-e/ (inflectional morpheme of perfect aspect) + personal clitics; past perfect = ‘past stem of verb + /-e/ (inflectional morpheme of perfect aspect) + bud (past form of “to be”) + personal clitics. Based on some linguistic analyses, especially in coordinating the linguistic units, we came across with some similarities between perfect verbs and adjectives which demonstrate the historical development of the language. Based on the present evidence, the structure of verb in present perfect tense is modified in the way: present perfect = ‘past stem of verb + /-e/ (inflectional morpheme of perfect aspect) + portmanteau morph (personal clitics and auxiliary verb “to be”).

Taleshi is one of the Iranian north-western dialects which are spoken on the shore of the Caspian Sea. It has retained some of the ancient phonetic variations. In this study, after a brief description of the Taleshi verb construction, the etymology of 14 verbs of the central Taleshi dialect was investigated. Research data and their transcription were based on the pronunciation common to central Taleshi dialect. In the lexical entry of each verb, first the present and past stem of the Taleshi verbs have been inserted. Then, based on the equivalent or cognate of the word in other Iranian dialects and languages and also in other Indo-European languages, the etymology of the words has been considered and their ancient Iranian and primary Indo-European forms have been reconstructed. Then, based on the evidences from the dialect itself, the derivational structure of the words and the accomplished phonetic changes on their stems has been explained. Also, the historical evolution of Taleshi phonemes in the selected verbs of this paper has been studied from ancient Iranian up to the modern period.

The suffix /-e/, referred to by some traditional grammarians as the silent /h/, is one of the most creative affixes of Persian. Its major role is to make the past participle out of the past stem. It also attaches to the present stems and produces abstract nouns and instrumentation terms. This affix, however, has a variety of minor functions. It produces adjectives out of nouns, nouns out of adjectives, new nouns and new adjectives out of the previously existing ones, etc. These byproducts, though varied in nature, are not generated necessarily numerously, so that for some of them one may find just few examples.The majority of Persian grammarians dealt only with major functions of the affix and some others, also, with just a small number of the minor functions. Moreover, the analyses are, for the most part, prescriptive and; therefore, mingled with presuppositions and misunderstandings. These shortcomings have obscured the versatility of the affix.This study aims to review and criticize the previous literature on the subject descriptively, and to introduce the ignored functions of the affix into the literature of Persian grammar.

Variation of past stem of Persian verbs has been explored by traditional grammarians as well as modern linguists. The present study is an investigation of phonological changes among past verbs traditionally known as regular versus irregular verbs. The study classifies the Persian past stem into five categories based on the number of rules applied to it. The first category refers to verbs like “kosht” (killed) formed from “present stem” (kos) + past maker (t). the second refers to verbs like ”xord”(ate) formed from “present stem” (xor), a morphological rule (past marker) and a phonological one. The third category of verbs described in this study need two phonological rules to alter present into past. The 4th category needs three phonological rules to be applied to in addition to a morphological one. The last one refers to the verbs which need four phonological changes in addition to a past marker. The study shows that the only form of past marker is /t/. it has been also argued that some past stems are influenced by some phonological constraints like consonants appearing as final clusters as well as vowels appearing as a nucleus. Moreover the study indicates that morphological aspects of verbs should be regarded as an important factor in phonological structure of past stem of Persian verbs. In this way the study has provided evidence to support interference of phonology and morphology. The study has provided evidence to show that classifying verbs into regular and irregular is not plausible. It has been argued that all verbs are formed regularly.

This paper provides an analysis of Persian verbs within the framework of Optimality theory. To be more specific, it mainly cocentrates on past and present stems of Persian verbs. Since analyzing this subject within the derivational framework would result phonological rules which are not natural, it is analysed by Optimality theory which is one of the constraint-based approach. Based on this, we hypothesized that past stem is derived from present stem by adding past morpheme. Later, using violation and comparative tableau, we argued that past stems of the Persian irregular verbs are dominated by two violable markedness constraints.