| ID | 189071 |
| Title Proper | Diachronic Development of the K-suffixes: Evidence from Classical New Persian, Contemporary Written Persian, and Contemporary Spoken Persian |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Maryam Nourzaei |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This paper aims to investigate the usage and frequency of what we refer to as K-suffixes in Classical New Persian of the ninth to thirteenth centuries, Contemporary Written Persian of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and Contemporary Spoken Persian. It shows that K-suffixes are most likely to be the reflexes of earlier evaluative morphemes, traditionally called “diminutives,” and are characterized by a high degree of multifunctionality. While evaluative functions continue to dominate in the Classical New Persian works, they have largely been lost in contemporary spoken Persian, and the suffix is now systematically used to express definiteness. The development of the K-suffix as a definiteness marker in contemporary colloquial Persian appears to be innovative, and is mainly dependent on genre, speaker, and speech situation. |
| `In' analytical Note | Iranian Studies Vol. 56, No.1; Jan 2023: p.115 - 160 |
| Journal Source | Iranian Studies Vol: 56 No 1 |
| Key Words | Diminutive ; Evaluative ; Definiteness Marking ; Grammaticalization ; Classical New Persian ; Contemporary Written Persian ; Contemporary Spoken Persian |