It is the predominant language of Gerash, Larestan, Lamerd, Khonj, and Evaz counties in Fars and Bastak County in Hormozgan Province.[3][4]

Moreover, many cities, towns, and villages in Iran have their own particular dialect, such as Larestan, Khonj, Gerash, and Banaruiyeh. The majority of Achomi speakers are Sunni Muslims.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Etymology and name of the language[edit]

There are different ways to refer to this language.

  • Achomi: Native speakers often refer to their language as Achomi.[13] There are different reasons for this name. One of them is the language's frequent usage of the [tʃ] consonant.[14] The second reason originates from when Arabs began trading with Achomis.[14] This because Arabs called Achomis 'Ajam', which means non-Arab.[14] Therefore, Achomi is a variation of Ajam.[14] Additionally, Achomi can be linked to Achom, which means 'I go' in the language.[13]
  • Khodmooni: In GCC states surrounding the Persian Gulf, Achomis are referred to as Khodmooni'.[2] This translates to "of our own kind".[2][3][4]
  • Lari: This language is sometimes called Lari.[15] To reiterate, 'Lar' originates from 'Lad' which means "the origin of everything".[16] It is also important to note that Lari can be used to refer to a dialect or a language.[13]

History[edit]

The Achomi language can be considered a descendant of the Sassanid Persian language or Middle Persian.[17]

Achomi language and its various local dialects such as Lari, Evazi, Khonji, Gerashi, Bastaki, etc., is the branch of the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) language of the Sassanid Empire.[18]

Today, the language is known as an endangered language.[15] In particular, UNESCO refers to it as a "definitely endangered" language with approximately 1,180,000 speakers.[15] It also does not have official language status in Iran. This is because Iran only recognizes standard Persian as an official language. However, Iran allows the use of minority languages, such as Achomi, in the media and the education system (alongside Persian).[19] Nevertheless, Achomi remains an endangered language with many dialectal differences gradually disappearing because of the domination of Persian.[15][20]

Many Iranians moved to GCC States in order to pursue better economic opportunities.[21] This included Achomis.[2] These Achomis are often multilingual.[2] Achomi migrants still speak this language in their homes, however, this variety has been influenced by the Arabic language a little but is mutually intelligible with standard Persian.[18]

Classification[edit]

The language is a branch of the Pahlavi language.[16] This means that it shares the ergative structure of Pahlavi.[16] It is also an analytical language.[13] This can be linked back to its membership in the southwestern branch of Middle-Iranian languages.[13][16]

With the exception of the regional accent, pronunciation of certain words, and a slight variation in grammar, this old language has been the common language of the Southwestern Pars Province and parts of Hormozgan Province for nearly 1,800 years despite the various conquests of the region since the fall of the Sassanid Empire.[22]

Dialects[edit]

Achomi has many dialects.[20][14][16] These dialects correspond to Larestan's different towns.[16] Examples of these dialects include Lari, Evazi, Gerashi, Khonji and Bastaki.[20]These dialectical variations may present themselves through pronunciation.[16][14] There may also be grammatical and word differences between the dialects.[20] Hence, if the speaker is from Evaz, they are referred as speaking Evazi, and if they are from Bastak their dialect is known as Bastaki.[2]

An example of a dialectal variation: in some particular regions, Achomi people say raftom for "I went" (very similar to the Persian raftam), but in some other regions, just as Lar people, they say chedem (Kurdish: dichim or dechim) instead.

Samples[edit]

Verbs[edit]

To make simple past verbs

The ids (om / ot / osh / mo / tosho) + The simple past root of the first type

Example:

Omgot: I said

oshbu: you (You could be referring to one or more) won

Tokha: You (has to be more than two people) ate

And ...

The root of the past simple second type + ids (am / esh / ruleless / em / eh / et) Example:

Chedam: a to be shortened! I went

Khatesh: Sleep

bodem: we got

And...

Ergativity[edit]

To create an ergative verb in past tense we can use the verb root plus its proper prefix. For example, in Achomi, the root for the verb "to tell" is got (gota equals "tell").

omgot (om+got), Kurdish (mi got or min got) = I told ...

otgot (om+got), Kurdish (tu got or te got) = You told...

oshgot (osh+got), Kurdish (wi got) = He told...

mogot (mo+got), Kurdish (me got) = We told...

togot (to+got), Kurdish pl (we got) = You (pl) told

shogot (sho+got), Kurdish (wa-n got) = They told

Another example: "deda" means "see," and "dee" Kurdish (Deed or dee) is the root verb. So:

omdee = I saw, Kurdish (mi deed, mi dee, min deed, min dee)

otdee= you saw, Kurdish (tu-te dee)....

To create a simple present or continued present tense of a transitive verb, here's another example:

agota'em (a+got+aem):I am telling...

agota'esh (a+got+aesh): You are telling...

agotay (a+got+ay): He is telling...

agota'am (a+got+a'am): We are telling...

agotay (a+got+ay): You (pl) are telling...

agota'en (a+got+a'en): They are telling...

For the verb "see" ("deda"):

adead'em, adeda'esh, adeaday,...

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c Achomi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) closed access
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Halkias, Daphne; Adendorff, Christian (2016-04-22). Governance in Immigrant Family Businesses: Enterprise, Ethnicity and Family Dynamics. Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 9781317125952.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Mehran (2 March 2023). "كتاب تاريخ جنوب فارس لارستان وبستك" (in Arabic).
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c khodo mania (27 April 2023). "كتاب تاريخ جنوب فارس لارستان وبستك". YouTube (in Arabic).
  5. ^ "Larestani, Lari in Iran".
  6. ^ "Larestani people of Iran". The Larestani people are predominantly Sunni Muslims.
  7. ^ "Larestani". While most people in Iran are Shi'ite Muslims, the Larestani are Sunnis.
  8. ^ Van Donzel, E. J., ed. (January 1994). Islamic Desk Reference. Brill. p. 225. ISBN 9004097384.
  9. ^ "Information of the people of Bushehr province". Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  10. ^ "Bushehr Governor's Website". Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  11. ^ "Bushehr Province Justice Website".[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ "Cyrus The Great International Open Academy".[permanent dead link]
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Moridi, Behzad (2009). "The Dialects of Lar (The State of Research)". Iran & the Caucasus. 13 (2): 335–340. doi:10.1163/157338410X12625876281389. ISSN 1609-8498. JSTOR 25703812.
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Rahimi, Ali; Tayebeh Mansoori (2016). A Study of Personal Pronouns of Achomi Language as an Endangered Iranian Language. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.1342.0566.
  15. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  16. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g "ICEHM: International Centre of Economics, Humanities and Management" (PDF). icehm.org. doi:10.15242/icehm.ed0115115. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  17. ^ گويش مردم اوز. نسرين انصاف پور و محمد رفيع ضيايى 1396
  18. ^ Jump up to:a b Wikipedia, Source (2013). Southwestern Iranian Languages: Persian Dialects and Varieties, Persian Language, Tajik Language, Dari, Persianate Society, Tajik Alphabet, Old Persia. General Books. ISBN 9781230641287.
  19. ^ "Islamic Parliament of Iran - Constitution". en.parliran.ir. Archived from the original on 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  20. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Moridi, Behzad (2009). "The Dialects of Lar (The State of Research)". Iran & the Caucasus. 13 (2): 335–340. doi:10.1163/157338410X12625876281389. ISSN 1609-8498. JSTOR 25703812.
  21. ^ Worrall, James; Saleh, Alam (2019). "Persian Pride and Prejudice: Identity Maintenance and Interest Calculations among Iranians in the United Arab Emirates". International Migration Review. 54 (2): 496–526. doi:10.1177/0197918319860154. ISSN 0197-9183. S2CID 203427429.
  22. ^ "Iranian and Arab in the Gulf : endangered language, windtowers, and fish sauce".
Achomi language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator