Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale

Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 57 | 2021
Research Article | On the Indicative Imperfect and the Other Tenses in -eɾ of the Armenian Dialect of Urmia

On the Indicative Imperfect and the Other Tenses in -eɾ of the Armenian Dialect of Urmia

Historical and Typological Aspects of a Morphological Innovation

Abstract

In the Armenian dialect of Urmia (Northern Iran), the indicative imperfect displays a very innovating inflection, based on the addition of the morpheme ‘-eɾ’ (properly the imperfect 3s of the verb ‘to beʼ) to the indicative present. This morpheme of ‘remotenessʼ creates opposition between other tenses as well, such as perfect and pluperfect, future and past future. The article deals with the reconstruction of the origin and diffusion of this innovating morpheme in the verbal system of the Armenian dialect of Urmia, focusing both on endogenous morphological dynamics and on the role of language contact with Turkic varieties as a trigger of this morphological change.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Feb. 5, 2021 | Accepted: June 10, 2021 | Published June 30, 2021 | Language: it

Keywords Armenian dialects • Language contact • Imperfect • Morphemes order • Morphological change • Armenian • Urmia

Copyright © 2021 Andrea Scala. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2021/01/007


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