Article In:
Journal of Historical Linguistics: Online-First Articles

West Iranian in historical perspective

The grammaticalization of *rādī ‘because of’

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The development of the Persian definitive object marker -rā from Old Persian rādī through Middle Persian benefactive rāy has been established as a model grammaticalization process by Bossong (1985). His explanations on other modern Iranian languages, and their interplay in the historical development, have received far less research attention. This article offers a novel and comprehensive account of the historical development of -rā in West Iranian, from Old Persian up to approximately 20 New Iranian languages. Based on the semantic map model, it demonstrates that concerning -rā, most West Iranian languages can be subdivided into three typological groups, two of which represent more or less clearly defined genetic subgroups within the continuum of West Iranian. The interplay of genetic and typological/functional factors is complex, and open questions remain. The present study aims to provide empirical data, and to raise relevant questions, for future in-depth studies.
Keywords: West Iranian, *rādī, grammaticalization, semantic map, Persian -rā
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The development of Proto-Iranian *rādi- in Old and Middle Iranian up to Early New Persian
    • 2.1Old Persian (6th–4th centuries BCE)
    • 2.2Middle Persian (3rd–9th/10th centuries CE)
      • 2.2.1Middle Persian of the 3rd–7th centuries CE
      • 2.2.27th/8th-century Middle Persian on ostraca, leather, linen, papyrus, or parchment
      • 2.2.3Zoroastrian “late” Middle Persian
    • 2.3Other Middle Iranian languages
    • 2.4Early New Persian
  • 3. Rādī in New West Iranian languages and dialects
    • 3.1The first and second groups (ben and do)
    • 3.2Balochi
    • 3.3The caus group
    • 3.4Kurdish
  • 4.Analysis, summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Author queries
  • References
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