Reduplication Process in Birjandi Dialect

“Reduplication” is a morphological process in which some parts of a word or the entire word are repeated, sometimes accompanied by a change in the middle vowel or by a change in the initial consonant. The present study examines the types of reduplication in the Birjandi dialect, which is one of the Persian dialects on the eastern border of Iran and has undergone less changes due to its desert location, distance from the capital, and lack of ethnic and linguistic mixing. The research method is descriptive-analytical and the data under study were collected in both documentary and field forms. Relevant dialect texts and glossaries as well as daily conversations of speakers were the main sources of data. To ensure the accuracy of pronunciation and meaning of the selected reduplicant, the researchers focused on the dialect data of 6 poorly literate native speakers over 60 years of age of both genders. The findings showed that full and partial types of reduplication were observed in the Birjandi dialect, and among them, the unadded full type had the highest frequency. Findings also show that nouns, adjectives, onomatopoeia, adverbs and verbs participate in the reduplication process.
 
Extended Abstract

Introduction

Southern Khorasan is a mountainous region that has long been called Qohistan (Mountains) and in the last century its center was the city of Birjand, which is now the center of South Khorasan Province. In the Birjandi dialect, in line with Standard Persian, word formation takes place through the process of compounding or derivation (addition). In the Persian language, the three processes of derivation, compounding, and reduplication are considered productive word formation patterns. Reduplication is also used significantly in dialects of the Persian language, including the Birjandi dialect. The present study examines this phonological construction process in this dialect. This study seeks to find answers to the following questions: What types of reduplication exist in the Birjandi dialect and what is their frequency? What are the grammatical categories of dual constructions in this dialect?

Theoretical framework

Reduplication is a type of morphological process in which some parts of a word or the entire word are repeated, in some types, by changing the middle vowel or changing the initial consonant. Different types of this process are observed in different languages, in two forms: total and partial reduplication. The theoretical framework of the present study is based on the model of Arkan and Heydarpour (2019). They divide the reduplication process into total, echoic and partial reduplication. In this model, total reduplication has two types: unadded and added, and they classify partial and echo reduplication into two categories: prefix and postfix. In total unadded reduplication, the base word is repeated exactly; without any element being added or deleted from it, such as “susu”. Total added reduplication is of two types: total added middle reduplication and total added final reduplication. In total added middle reduplication, in addition to repeating the base word; another element is added between the two bases, such as ruz-be-ruz. In total added final reduplication, in addition to the base reduplication, a derivational word is also present at the end of the repeated word, such as "ʧel ʧel-e". In partial reduplication, only part of the base word is repeated in the repeated word. In the prefix type, part of the base word is repeated before it, such as "ti tiʃ". In the partial postfix pattern, part of the base word is added at the end of that word, such as "pært-o-pæla". In echo reduplication, the repeated word is always the same as the base word, but meaningless and insignificant. In this reduplication pattern, the base word is repeated in the repeated word with a change in its initial consonant or vowel(s) (sometimes even in just one phonetic feature).

Methodology

The research method is descriptive-analytical and most of the data were extracted from dialect texts and related dictionaries as well as daily conversations of Birjandi speakers. The most important sources used include the text of Molla Ali Ashraf Sabohi's Nisab and the Birjandi Dialect Dictionary. To ensure the accuracy of the pronunciation and meaning of the selected data, the researchers focused on dialect information obtained from interviews with 6 poorly literate native speakers over 60 years of age in both genders. In addition, the authors' linguistic intuition was also used in analyzing the data and confirming the pronunciation considerations. Some of the reduplication examples had objective similarities with their counterparts in standard Persian in terms of phonetics and semantics and were therefore removed from the final list of dialect data. After examining the data based on the reduplication pattern contained in the book "Morphology: Theoretical Approaches and Their Applications in Persian Language Analysis" (Arkan and Heydarpour, 2019), the repeated words, their classification and grammatical categories were determined and finally they were phonetized using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Results & Discussion

4-1. Unadded Total Reduplication
Most of the repeated total examples of reduplication in the Birjandi dialect were of the unadded type, in which the categories of onomatopoeia (40%), adverbs (26%), nouns (22%), verbs (10%), and adjective (2%) were observed in this category in order of frequency.
/bælow bælow/ (a kind of group game), /ron-d-e ron-d-e/ (smallpox), /gor-taz gor-taz/ (to run quickly), /sot sot/ (walking of cattle), /kolot kolot/ (noise)
4-2- Added Total Reduplication
In the frequent adverb words of the Birjandi dialect, the following categories were observed in order of frequency: adjectives (48%), nouns (29%), adverbs (15%), and onomatopoeia (8%).
Medial added: /kus-mæ-kus/ (full of wrinkles), /ʃow-vær-ʃow/ (night by night)
Final added: /kor kor-u/ (Cartilage), /ræx ræx-u/ (worn out), /kam kam-uk/ (slowly)
4-3- Partial Reduplication
Most of the incomplete repeated examples were post-reduplication, which in this group, in order of frequency, were the categories of adjectives (56%), nouns (33%), and onomatopoeia (11%).
Pre-reduplication: /læpp-e-les/ (embezzlement), /læʧʧ-e-liʧʧ/ (watery mud)
Post-reduplication: /kox-o-kæx/ (insects and vermin), /kol-næqol/ (hole), /nærm-e nohur/ (soft and meatballs)
4-4- Echo Reduplication
Most of the echoic repeated words were post-reduplication, which in this group, in order of frequency, were nouns (41%), adjectives (34%), onomatopoeia (16%), and adverbs (7%).
Pre-reduplication: /Ɂælæd-bælæd/ (aware), /ʧǣr ʧar/ (tattered)
Post-reduplication: /sæda-næda/ (noise), /ʃǣxol-pǣxol/ (Additional branches)

Conclusions & Suggestions

In this article, for the first time, the process of reduplication in the Birjandi dialect was studied. In this study, 270 repeated words were collected. Of these, 193 words were of the total reduplication type (100 unadded total reduplications and 93 added reduplications), 27 words were based on the partial reduplication pattern (9 pre-reduplication and 18 post-reduplication), and 50 words were of the echo reduplication type (7 pre-reduplication and 43 post-reduplication). Therefore, the total unadded (37%) and added (34%) types have the highest frequency. The third rank in frequency was related to the echo post-reduplication type (16%), followed by the partial post-reduplication, partial pre-reduplication, and echo pre-reduplication types, respectively. In the Birjandi dialect, about 50 echo words were observed, among which initial consonant change was observed in 33 cases, vowel change in 15 cases, and simultaneous occurrence of both types of changes in 2 cases. The adjective category had the highest frequency in the full added reduplication. Among all the data of this study, the categories of nouns (31%), adjectives (27%), onomatopoeia (17%), adverbs (21%), and verbs (4%) were observed in order of frequency.
 Select Bibliography
Arkan, F. Heydarpour Bidgoli, T. Morphology: Theoretical Approaches and Their Applications in Persian Language Analysis. Tehran: SAMT. 2020. [In Persin]
Dabir Moghadam M, Maleki S. The Study of Total Reduplication Process in Persian Language: A Research Based on Morphological Doubling Theory. Linguistic Research; 2017; 8 (7): 29-51. [In Persin]
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-3361-en.html
Hurch,   B.  Studies  on  Reduplication,  Volume  28  of  Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT], Publisher: Walter de Gruyter. 2005.
Kauffman, C. Reduplication reflects uniqueness and innovation in language, thought and culture. York Collage of Pennsylvania; 2015.
Marantz, A. Reduplication. Linguistic Inquiry; 1982; 13: 483-545.
Rasekh Mahnad, M. and Mohammadi-Rad, M. “A formal and semantic study of reduplication in the Sorani Kurdish dialect”. Iranian Languages ​​and Dialects; 2013, 133-146. [In Persin]
Rezaei, J. Birjand Dialect (Part One: The Culture of Molla Ali Ashraf Sabohi). Tehran: Tehran University Press; 1965. [In Persin]
Rezaei, J. Dictionary of Birjand Dialect. Tehran: Roozbahan Publications; 1994. [In Persin]
Rezayati Kishekhaleh, M., Soltani, B. A Study on the Reduplication Process in Persian Language from Vocabulary Building, Grammar and Semantics Points of View. New Literary Studies. 2015; 48(2): 81-112. [In Persin]
doi: https://doi.org/10.22067/jls.v48i2.40486
Shaghaghi, V. The Reduplication Process in Persian. Allameh Tabatabaei University Proceedings. 1379; 97; 519-534. [In Persin]