Russian Loanwords in Gilaki Dialect

As a global phenomenon, loanwords are found in all languages. They could empower the target language, if being applied targetedly. Throughout the history, there have been vast linguistic relations between the Iranian province of Gilan and Russia. As a result of geographical proximity and long history of cultural, political, commercial, and military relations, many loanwords have entered the Gilaki dialect from Russian. Some of these loanwords could not be seen in the standard Persian language or other local dialects. In This paper, using Gilaki glossaries we will list Russian loanwords and will categorize them into: 1- loanwords which are not exclusive to the Gilaki dialect and could be seen in Persian language or other dialects. 2- loanwords that exclusively exist in the Gilaki dialect. Writing down the Russian equivalent for each loanword, we will also transcribe each one. Furthermore, the semantic, phonetic, and syntactic changes after transmission to the target language will be analyzed. The goal of this research is to introduce and explain the general process of word Borrowing in Gilaki. Studying the loanwords, we come to this conclusion that Borrowing mostly happens in lexical terms.  The lion’s share of the loanwords is used in the everyday life of Gilak people and they rarely experience intensive semantic changes.
 
1. Introduction
As a global phenomenon, loanwords are found in all languages. They could empower the target language, if being applied targetedly. Throughout the history, there have been vast linguistic relations between the Iranian province of Gilan and Russia. As a result of geographical proximity and long history of cultural, political, commercial and military relations, many loanwords have entered the Gilaki dialect from Russian. Some of these loanwords could not be seen in the Persian standard language or other local dialects.
In this paper, using Gilaki glossaries, we will list the Russian loanwords and will categorize them into: 1) loanwords which are not exclusive to the Gilaki dialect and could be seen in Persian language or other dialects. 2) loanwords that exclusively exist in the Gilaki dialect. Writing down the Russian equivalent for each loanword, we will also transcribe it. Furthermore, the semantic, phonetic and syntactic changes after transmission to the target language will be analyzed.
 
2. Theoretical framework
Borrowing means exchanging elements between two languages and can be of phonetic, lexical or syntactic features of which lexical borrowing is the most common. The reason is that words typically change and evolve more rapidly. Loanwords can be classified into four categories: 1) localized loanwords; 2) international loanwords; 3) loanwords with external characteristic; 4) strange loanwords (barbarism). Grafting is a type of borrowing in which, the foreign word does not enter the target language, but the constituent elements (root, prefix, suffix, terminal) are translated into the target language. This could be called hidden borrowing.
Borrowing can have many different extrinsic or intrinsic reasons. The close cultural, political, commercial-economic, and industrial relations are the major extrinsic reasons for borrowing. The most common type of this kind of borrowing is the entrance of a word to a language along with a new concept or phenomenon. Linguistic taboos, social aspects, and savings in the use of linguistic tools are among the linguistic reasons for borrowing.
 
3. Methodology
In this research, based on Gilaki dialect dictionaries and also field studies, we collected Russian loanwords in Gilaki dialect and classified them into two categories. Some of the words were not specific to Gilaki dialect and were used in standard Persian or other dialects. However, others have entered the Gilaki dialect directly. An indication of direct borrowing is the lack of using these words in Persian and other dialects. In this article, we will discuss in detail the semantic, phonetic, and grammatical changes and will describe the etymological characteristics of these types of loanwords. Moreover, we will discuss the general characteristics of the borrowing process, using a descriptive - analytical method.
 
4. Results & Discussion
This article refers to 49 Russian loan words, not only in the Gilaki dialect, but also in the standard Persian language and other dialects, such as Mazandarani. Investigating this group of loanwords is not the subject of this article, although there are some interesting points in the context of Gilaki dialect. So let's briefly mention these points.  In most of the common Russian loanwords in Persian and Gilaki, the difference is in the semantic field. Russian loanwords in Persian have often undergone little semantic changes, but in Gilaki the meaning has changed or even the word is used in a virtual sense.
The main part of the article focuses on 26 Russian loanwords that do not exist in Persian. The words are first cited in Gilaki, then they are transcribed and their meanings are expressed in Gilaki. Subsequently, the equivalent of the words, their pronunciations and meanings are recorded in the source language. In the following, we will analyze the process of localization and absorption of the Russian word in Gilaki dialect, and their phonetic, semantic, grammatical, and stylistic changes will be discussed. Finally, based on Vasmer's dictionary, the authenticity of the word in Russian in addition to the etymology will be discussed. At the end of this section, we will mention 10 words that are not derived from the Russian language but carry Russian (Moscow) relative adjective function.
 
5. Conclusions & Suggestions
By studying Russian loanwords in Gilaki dialect, we can get the following results: Russian loanwords in Gilaki dialect are mostly related to different aspects of Gilak people’s livelihood, especially fishing and fishery industries. That is somehow tied to the daily life of the Gilaks. In most cases, there is no significant semantic change. In some cases, the semantic scope of the loanwords has been limited in the target language or has been applied in a virtual sense. This reflects the Gilaki speakers' worldview. Vocabulary borrowing is more common than the other types of borrowing (phonetic and grammatical), and borrowing names is the most common case. However, other types of word, such as adjectives and numbers, also entered the target language. In the Gilaki dialect, new compound words were created using the Russian loanwords. In these cases, the foreign word was combined with Persian or Gilaki words to create a new word. Some nouns used only in plural forms in Russian, lose their plural endings in the Gilaki dialect and are used in singular forms although in Russian they are never used in singular forms.
 
Select Bibliography
Anvari, H. 2003. Sokhan Comprehensive Dictionary, Tehran: Sokhan Publications. [in Persian]
Fasmer, M. 1986-1987. The etymological dictionary of the Russian language, in 4 volumes. 2nd edition. Stereotypical, - M.: Progress. [in Russian]
Marashi, A. 1984. Gilaki Dictionaries Glossary Including Gilaki Dictionaries and Proverbs, Rasht: Tarati Publications. [in Persian]
Nozad, F. 2002. Gile Gap, Rasht: University of Gilan. [in Persian]
Sadeghi, A. 2005. "Russian Words in Persian". Journal of Linguistics, 20 (2), 3-46. [in Persian]