The Study of Typological Criteria of Ilami Kurdish

This article aims at studying the typological criteria of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics of Ilami Kurdish dialect. The data has been collected through the field study conducted in May 2014 in Ilam city and the suburbs. To do so, the researchers, using a preplanned questionnaire, interviewed 20 speakers who were preferably old male informants. The analysis of the data indicated that among the significant phonological features of the dialect studied are the occurrence of consonants like [ř], [ł], [w], [Ч]and [ŋ] and vowels such as [ĕ], [ə], [ü], and [ε]. Moreover, the syllable structure of the dialect is different from that of Modern Persian in such a way that it has six syllable patterns among which three patterns contain initial consonantal clusters having one of the semivowels [w], [y], or [ч] as the second consonant. Among the other worth-mentioning findings of the study one can refer to the order of modifiers and heads in genitive case and adjective phrases and also the occurrence of prepositions and circumlocutions. Also, the data shows that there is no agreement between number and the noun following it. Meanwhile, no grammatical gender differentiation was observed. Finally, the index of numbers from one to ten shows no considerable discrepancy between Ilami Kurdish and other Iranian dialects.