Syntactic Interference among Talishi-Persian and Persian-Talishi Bilinguals

The research objective was to investigate Persian and Taleshi syntactic interferences among Persian-Taleshi, and Taleshi-Persian bilinguals, based on the contrastive analysis of the two languages. Moreover, the different types of interference and the main factors influential, as well as the role of the participants’ gender in occurrence of syntactic interference are explained. The research population included both the people who learned Persian prior to Taleshi, and the people who learned Taleshi prior to Persian. The research sample consisted of 20 Persian-Taleshi and 20 Taleshi-Persian bilinguals selected through convenience sampling method from the Taleshi  speakers of Anbarān village (Ardebil Province) and the Anbarāni bilingual immigrants resident in the west side of Tehrān province, Āzādshar town and Shahr-e Qods. The participants’ age range was 8 to 20 (regarding both males and females). The research instrument included a questionnaire containing 50 sentences in Persian and the same number of their Taleshi equivalents. The data was gathered through the research questionnaire transcribed and glossed.
 
 Extended Abstract

1. Introduction
Tālishi is a northwestern Iranian language which is spoken in some parts of Gilān and Ardabil provinces as well as in the Republic of Azerbaijān. Rezāyati- Kishekhāle (2007: 18) believes that this language has three branches: northern, central and southern. The structural differences between Persian and Tālishi in the field of syntax lead to bilinguals’ syntactic interferences. Investigating the linguistic interference between the two languages ​​reveals many educational problems of Tālishi bilinguals. The results could  be used to develop a comprehensive strategy for solving the educational problems and the issues of the two languages' contact as well as the educational material development.
 
2. Research Method
The present contribution was a field research performed through translating 50 sentences by the 8 to 20 years old bilinguals. The participants including twenty Persian speakers of Talishi origin (both male and female), who were selected among Anbarān migrants' resident in west of Tehran in Shahr-e Qods and Āzādshahr districts, and also twenty Tālishi- speaking bilinguals in Anbarān. Submitting the sentences to the bilinguals, they were asked to translate the Persian sentences to Tālishi, and vice versa. The sentences were transcribed and subsequently the ones containing interferences were selected and analyzed.
 
3. Theoretical framework
Contrastive analysis is the systematic study of the two languages ​​to identify their structural differences and similarities. Three strong, weak, and modified versions of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) have been proposed (see Keshāvarz, 2011: 10-12). In 1957, Lado introduced a strong version of the CAH. He believed that the reason for all the problems in learning a second language is interference. Wardhaugh is at the opposite end of Lado and he has provided a weak version with the diagnostic, explanatory, and non-predictive claims. Oller and Ziā Hosseini (1970), who found Lado's view as extreme and Wardhaugh's view as weak, proposed another version as the moderate version of this hypothesis based on their analysis of the spelling errors of the foreign language learners of English.
 
3-1. Bilingualism and Interference
Bilingualism means knowing and using two or more different languages ​​so that one can use each language for their own communication needs (Nilipour, 129: 2011).
Linguistic interference refers to the entry of elements of one language into another language that occurs between bilinguals or during the languages contact. Grosjean (1982: 299) believes that interference is the unwanted effect of one language on another language which arises due to the lack of mastery of the bilingual on the vocabulary of the language.
 
3-2. Gender
Biological gender seems to be involved in the use of the different language varieties. Cameron (1998) believes that women and men belong to certain cultures which engage in gender discourses. Modarresi (1391: 211) considers women to be sensitive to their linguistic behaviors and this makes them conservative in the linguistic behaviors and using different language varieties.
 
4. Research findings and discussion
4-1. Persian-Tālishi bilinguals
Persian-Tālishi bilinguals are people who were born in a non-native environment. They learned Persian from parents at home, and from the Persian-speaking community before school, and they learned Tālishi later from conversations with grandparents and the other relatives. This group has generalized the features of Persian to Talishi in the case of the agreement of subject and verb. This group has generalized the agreement of the transitive verbs in the past tense with the object in Tālishi. Like æv -ün man ʒæʃün, 'They hurt me'  instead of æv -ün man  ʒæ  'they hurts me'.
Also, due to the difference of the two languages ​​in the arrangement of the head, the bilinguals have transferred Persian features to Tālishi, such as using "divār-e sefid", 'white wall' instead of  sәpi-jæ divu, 'wall white'.

This group has also transferred the function words, conjunctions, plural markers, pronouns, comparative adjectives, and verbs from their first language into the second language and produced the following expressions in Talishi: dә gædæ hovæ væ bәvæm heste, 'I have two little sister and brother', instead of dә gædæ hovæ bә bәvæm heste, 'I have two little brothers and sisters' and the pronouns in, an, anha әm æ and ævün, 'this, that, they'.
 
4-2.Talishi-Persian Bilinguals
In this section, the data obtained from 8 -20 years old Tālishi-Persian bilinguals living in the village of Anbarān-e Bālā  is examined to determine the interferences due to the impact of the syntactic characteristics of Tālishi on Persian sentences. This group has produced sentences such as an-ha mara zad, 'They beat me' in Persian because of the Tālishi ergative case, in which there is no subject-verb agreement.
Also because of the arrangement of head and determiners in Tālishi, this group has produced the phrase ʃirin angur, 'sweet grape', instead of angur-e ʃirin, 'grapes sweet'.
Due to the structural differences between Tālishi and Persian languages in terms of functionwords, conjunctions, plural markers, comparative adjectives, pronouns and verbs, this group has generalized Tālishi features to Persian and produced sentences and phrases such as the following: ækbær Siavaʃ æz bozorg æst, 'Akbar than Siyavash older is' instead of  ækbar æz Siavaʃ bozorg-tær æst, 'Akbar is older than Siyavash'.
Or, in the example  hæmeje in gāv væ bozhā male mæn æst, 'all these cow and goats are mine, instead of hæmeje in gāvhā væ bozhā male mæn æst, 'all these cows and goats are mine'. In this later example, under the influence of Tālishi, the plural marker is omitted from the first noun. Removing comparative marker in the Persian equivalent such as  in mard az an mard javan ast, 'this man is young than that man' instead of  in mard az an mard javan-tar ast, 'this man is younger than that man, and the use of ān, 'it', instead of 'he' under the influence of Tālishi and the use of  sedā dād, 'gave voice' instead of sedā kard, 'called' could be the other examples.
 

5. Conclusion
Persian-Tālishi bilinguals showed 82 cases of interferences, of which 40 (48.78%) have been used by males and 42 (51.22%) have been used by females, while TAlishi-Persian bilinguals demonstrated 52 cases of interferences, of which 27 (50.94%) have been used by males and 26 (49.06%) have been used by females. Hence, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of gender. These statistics show that out of 135 first-language syntactic interferences, 60.74% of errors were related to Persian-Tālishi bilinguals and 39.26% of errors to Tālishi-Persian bilinguals. This is due to the positive attitude towards Persian and its prevalence. Statistics also illustrate that the most interferences have occurred from the first language to the second language.