Aimaq or Aimaqi (Persian: ایماقی, romanizedAimāqi) is the dominant eastern Persian ethnolect spoken by the Aimaq people in central northwest Afghanistan (west of the Hazarajat) and eastern Iran. It is close to the Dari varieties of Persian.[2] The Aimaq people are thought to have a 5–15% literacy rate.[1]

Aimaq
گویش ایماقی
Aimaqi written in the Perso-Arabic script in Nastaliq style.
Native toAfghanistan, Iran
EthnicityAimaq
Native speakers
1.9 million (2017–2019)[1]
Persian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3aiq
Glottologaima1241

Dialects

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Subdialects of Aimaq dialect include:

  • Changezi
  • Firozkohi
  • Jamshidi
  • Maliki
  • Mizmast
  • Taimani
  • Timuri
  • Zainal
  • Zohri (also known as Zuri)

Phonology

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Phonetically, as one of the eastern Persian dialects, the Aimaq dialect resembles a formal or classical form of Persian.

Vowels:

  • The "majhul" vowels ē / ī and ō / ū are still kept separate, whereas in western Persian they are merged as ī and ū respectively. For instance, the identically written words شیر 'lion' and 'milk' are in western Persian both pronounced [šīr], but in Aimaq [šēr] for 'lion' and [šīr] for 'milk'. The long vowel in زود 'quick' and زور 'strong' is realized as [ū] in western Persian, in contrast, these words are pronounced as [zūd] and [zōr] respectively by Aimaq speakers.
  • The diphthongs of early Classical Persian aw (as ow in Engl. cow) and ay (as i in English ice) have in Aimaq become [ow] (as in Engl. low) and [ej] (as in Engl. day). Dari, on the other hand, is more archaic, e.g. نوروز 'Persian New Year' is realized as [nowrūz] in Iranian, and [nawrōz] in Aimaq, and نخیر 'no' is uttered as [naχejr] in Iranian, and as [naχajr] in Aimaq.
  • The high short vowels [i] and [u] tend to be lowered in western Persian to [e] and [o].
  • /æ/[clarification needed] and /e/ are in Aimaq kept separate in word-final positions, unlike western Persian, where /æ/ has [e] as a word-final allophone.

Consonants:

  • Aimaq still retains the (classical) bilabial pronunciation [w] of the labial consonant و, which is realized as a voiced labiodental fricative [v] in western Persian. [v] is found in Aimaq as an allophone of f before voiced consonants.
  • The voiced uvular stop /ɢ/ (ق) and voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ (غ) are still kept separate in Aimaq. They have coincided in western Persian (probably under the influence of Turkic languages like Azeri and Turkmen).[3]

See also

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References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b Aimaq at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ "Aimaq". World Culture Encyclopedia. everyculture.com. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  3. ^ A. Pisowicz, Origins of the New and Middle Persian phonological systems (Cracow 1985), p. 112-114, 117.

Notations

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  • Clifton, John M. (ed.) (2005) Studies in languages of Tajikistan North Eurasia Group, SIL International, St Petersburg, Russia, OCLC 122939499