Gileki or Giliki (Gilaki in Persian) is a northwestern Iranian language and is spoken in Iran's Gilan province. It can be divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki and Tabari Gilaki. The Gilaki language is closely related to Mazandarani and the two languages have similar vocabularies. The western and eastern dialects are separated by the Sefid Rud river [1]. According to Ethnologue, there were more than 3 million native speakers of Gilaki in 1993 [2]. Persian (known variously as: فارسی Fârsi, local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, پارسی Pârsi, older, local name still used by some speakers, Tajik, a Central Asian dialect, or Dari, another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia... This article deals with the linguistic family of the Iranian languages, a sub-branch of the Indo-European languages. ... Guilan (گیلان in Persian) is one of the 30 provinces of Iran, during antique time known as part of Hyrcania, with a population of approximately 2 million and an area of 14,700 sq. ... Mazandarani is an ancient northwestern branch of the Iranian languages, and is even considered by some a language in its own right. ... Sefid Rud (sÄ•fÄ“d´ rd) or Safid Rud , river, c. ... Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with native language biblical texts. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

There are some major grammatical differences between Gilaki and Persian, specially in possessive and adjectives. Unlike Persian, most possessives and adjectives precede the head noun, similar to English.[3] This article is about grammar from a linguistic perspective. ... Persian (known variously as: فارسی Fârsi, local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, پارسی Pârsi, older, local name still used by some speakers, Tajik, a Central Asian dialect, or Dari, another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia... Possessive can refer to: Possessive case Possessive pronoun This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually describing it or making its meaning more specific. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

• Example for noun-noun possessives in Western Gilaki: məhin zakan (Mæhin's children)(Bæče-ha-ye Mæhin in Persian), Baγi gulan (garden flowers)(Gol-ha-ye Baγ in Persian). In Eastern Gilaki: Xirsi Kuti (bear cub) (Bæč-e Xers in Persian).

• Example for adjectival modification: Western Gilaki: pilla-yi zakan (big children), Surx gul (red flower). Eastern Gilaki: Sərd aw (cold water) (ɑb-e særd in Persian), kul čaqu (sharp knife) (čaqu-ye Tiz in Persian).

Nevertheless, Gilaki is believed to be heavily influenced by Persian in its structure, and most of the Gilak people speak Persian as a second language. Persian (known variously as: فارسی Fârsi, local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, پارسی Pârsi, older, local name still used by some speakers, Tajik, a Central Asian dialect, or Dari, another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia... Persian (known variously as: فارسی Fârsi, local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, پارسی Pârsi, older, local name still used by some speakers, Tajik, a Central Asian dialect, or Dari, another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia... Persian (known variously as: فارسی Fârsi, local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, پارسی Pârsi, older, local name still used by some speakers, Tajik, a Central Asian dialect, or Dari, another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia...

Some Gilaki Words

Phonology

Gilaki has the same consonants as Persian, but different vowels. Here is a table of correspondences for the Western Gilaki of Rasht (as will be the variety used in the remainder of the article):

The consonants are:

Verb System

The verb system of Gilaki is very similar to that of Persian. All infinitives end in -tən/-dən, or in -V:n, where V: is a long vowel (from contraction of an original *-Vdən). The present stem is usually related to the infinitive, and the past stem is just the infinitive without -ən or -n (in the case of vowel stems).

Present Tenses

From the infinitive den, "to see", we get present stem din-.

Present Indicative

The present indicative is formed by adding the personal endings to this stem:

Present Subjunctive

The present subjunctive is formed with the prefix bí-, bú-, or bə- (depending on the vowel in the stem) added to the indicative forms. Final /e/ neutralizes to /ə/ in the 3rd singular and the plural invariably lacks final /i/.

The negative of both the indicative and the subjunctive is formed in the same way, with n- instead of the b- of the subjunctive.

Past Tenses

Preterite

From xurdən, "to eat", we get the perfect stem xurd. To this are added unaccented personal endings and the unaccented b- prefix (or accented n- for the negative):

Imperfect

The imperfect is formed with what was originally a suffix -i:

Pluperfect

The pluperfect is paraphrastically formed with the verb bon, "to be", and the past participle, which is in turn formed with the perfect stem+ə (which can assimilate to become i or u). The accent can fall on the last syllable of the participle or on the stem itself:

Past Subjunctive

A curious innovation of Western Gilaki is the past subjunctive, which is formed with the (artificial) imperfect of bon+past participle:

This form is often found in the protasis and apodosis of unreal conditions, e.g., mən agə Əkbəra bidé bim, xušhal bubosti bim, "If I were to see/saw/had seen Akbar, I would be happy".

Progressive

There are two very common paraphrastic constructions for the present and past progressives. From the infinitive šon, "to go", we get:

Present Progressive

Past Progressive

Compound Verbs

There are many compound verbs in Gilaki, whose forms differ slightly from simple verbs. Most notably, bV- is never prefixed onto the stem, and the negative prefix nV- can act like an infix -n-, coming between the prefix and the stem. So from fagiftən, "to get", we get present indicative fagirəm, but present subjunctive fágirəm, and the negative of both, fángirəm or fanígirəm. The same applies to the negative of the past tenses: fángiftəm or fanígiftəm.

Nouns, Cases and Postpositions

Gilaki employs a combination of quasi-case endings and postpositions to do the work of many particles and prepositions in English and Persian.

Cases

There are essentially three "cases" in Gilaki, the nominative (or, better, unmarked, as it can serve other grammatical functions), the genitive, and the (definite) accusative. The accusative form is often used to express the simple indirect object in addtion to the direct object. A noun in the genitive comes before the word it modifies. These "cases" are in origin actually just particles, similar to Persian ra.

Nouns

For the word "per", father, we have:

The genitive can change to -i, especially before some postpositions.

Pronouns

The 1st and 2nd person pronouns have special forms:

The 3rd person (demonstrative) pronouns are regular: un, uʃán/iʃán

Postpositions

With the genitive can be combined many postpositions. Examples:

The personal pronouns have special forms with "-re": mere, tere, etc.

Adjectives

Gilaki adjectives come before the noun they modify, and may have the genitive "case ending" -ə/-i. They do not agree with the nouns they modify.

External links

• Translation of Bible in Gilaki language
• Ethnologue report on Gilaki
• Gilaki language, Encyclopeadia Iranica
• Sample recording in Gilaki
• Some fish names in Gilaki and Persian
• Dictionary of Gilaki (Dialect of Lahijan) and some of its characteristics
• A weblog on Gilaki language
• Gilaki poets and Gilaki poetry
• An on-line Gilaki-Persian Dictionary
• A Gilaki Weblog containing some Gilaki words