Comparative phonological adaptations of single-part loan names in Esfidani Turkish and Persian

Proper names are among the loan words which are not translated from one language into another. languages (or, more precisely, the speakers of each language) change the loan words so as to both assimilate them into its phonological system to be pronounced and give them the vernacular taste and color in accordance with its specific characteristics. The present study investigated the phonological changes of single-part first loan names in the endangered species of Esfidani (village in Bojnourd) Turkish. To this end, modified loan names were first collected from among the villagers’ names. Each of them was then compared with their form in standard Farsi language and the phonological processes performed were identified and classified. Subsequently, the phonological or pragmatic motives of each name were discussed. The phonological processes of deleting vowels, consonants or a chain, lenition, lowering and raising were the most prominent types of processes in the localization of data. The findings showed that there exist various motivations behind these changes: some of them were due to the assimilation into the Turkish phonemic system and some had pragmatic reasons (humiliation, Ingratiation, intimacy and addressee ). Finding of this research will provide rich data of an extincting language minority on phonological processes and corresponding pragmatic reasons.