Sort of Grammaticalised: New Approximative Morphology in Persian and Azeri
Résumé
This paper presents cases of grammaticalisation leading to the formation of new suffixes in Persian and Azeri. Persian already features the suffix -gune (related to the suffix -gun, cf. gun “colour, type”), whose use in all Persian varieties (Iranian Persian, Dari, Tajik) is a sign of a relatively old grammaticalisation. More recently, the suffix -ṭōr (from ṭour “sort”) has emerged, albeit only in Iranian Persian. In Azeri, the suffix -təhər (from təhər “type”, likewise from ṭour) has been widely acknowledged, and its use predating that of -ṭōr in Persian suggests an independent grammaticalisation. Colloquial Azeri has also seen the emergence of the suffix -fason (from Russian fason, from French façon). The data indicate that all of the above suffixes are adjectival, carrying the meaning “being of the type, of the kind; having the quality of”. We offer a diachronic description of these suffixes and their synchronic analysis in Persian and Azeri.