The Study of Persian Multifunctional Discourse Markers in Armenian - Persian Bilinguals

One of the most striking characteristics of Armenian-Persian bilinguals in their Armenian language conversations in Iran, is the use of Persian discourse markers instead of Armenian equivalents. This study gauges the extent to which Persian discourse markers are used as multifunctional by Armenian- Persian bilinguals, their function and position in a clause as well as reasons for this substitution based on 10 hours of recorded informal Armenian conversations. The results show that xob, baba/aqa, be har hal, yani, hala, vali, belakhareh, aslant, vaqean, kollan and khodaees are among the discourse markers used by Armenians. Lack of Armenian equivalent, the multifunctional nature, saliency in content or suprasegmental features and simple structure in some Persian discourse markers are the main reason for their selection.