Dialectometric Analysis of Kinship Terms in Some Persain Speaking Provinces of Iran

Kinship terms have always been an interesting topic for anthropologists from a social relation and interaction point of view, and for linguists for their structural, typological, and historical aspects. Applying methods of dialectometry (Seguy, 1973), including distance matrix, MDS maps, cluster maps, and dendrograms and using Gabmap (Narbonne et al.,2011) for the computational analysis, this study is aimed at discovering the similarities and differences between 704 tokens of kinship terms(Consanguinity and affinity) in 32 varieties spoken in 5 provinces including Yazd, Hamedan, Kerman, Isfahan, and Farsand measuring their distances and closeness to each other and the Standard Persian. Results revealed that phonological and lexical diversity in borrowed terms from Arabic referring to the son’s wife, mother’s sister, father’s brother, and father’s sister is less than other terms. Based on clustering in 10 groups, there is more diversity among the varieties inside Isfahan province. There is less dialect distance among the varieties inside Kerman province, except for a variety in Jiroft which shows more similarities to Hamedan varieties probably due to Lor and Lak populationin both areas.Varieties in Hamedan are grouped as a cluster too, except for a variety which is closer to the Standard Persian. Therefore, linguistic borders and geographical borders are not the same.The largest group includes 13 varieties of Kerman, Fars, Yazd (near birderlines), and southwest, and west of Isfahan near the borderline with Fars. In fact, near borderlines between these provinces, there is a dialect continuum. Two varieties in Isfahan, one in Yazd and one in Hamedan are the closest varieties to the Standard Persian. Kesheh and Tallabad which are probably related to Raji and Ardestani (dialects of central Plateau) can be considered as language islands.