Reflexes of Old Iranian preverbs in the Shughni language

Elena Armand (Institute of Oriental and Classical Studies of the Higher School of Economics (Moscow); armandlena@yandex.ru)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 22/1-2, 2024 - p.43-74

Abstract: In this paper, I present a descriptive and diachronic analysis of a set of Shughni verbs which include preverbs of Common Iranian origin (a-, an- / im- / am-, bar-, bi- / be- / b-, nax̌- / naɣ̌- / nix̌-, ni- / na-). The main objective of the study is to determine the quantity, grammatical status, and semantic features of these preverbs in the modern Shughni verb system, and to understand how these features correlate with the semantics of the corresponding preverbs at the Old and/or Proto-Iranian level. My analysis shows that some Shughni verbs formed by means of preverbs actually go back to the Common Iranian state; at the same time, a significant portion of such verbs have parallels only in the languages of the Shughni-Rushani group and are not represented in other Iranian languages, which may indirectly indicate a certain period of productivity of preverbal word formation after the collapse of the Iranian linguistic unity. The analysis is accompanied by examples of synchronic usage and etymological information. The findings help clarify some controversial issues related to verbal word formation in the history of Iranian languages.

Keywords: Iranian languages, Proto-Iranian, Shughni-Rushani languages, Shughni language, preverbs, verb formation

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