Toward a Phylogenetic Taxonomy of the Iranian Languages: A Focus on Kurdish Varieties and Other Related Dialects

Because of their objective measurement and unambiguous correspondences, syntactic parameters are used as comparanda for deep comparison and relatedness of language varieties. The Parametric Comparison Method (Longobardi & Guardiano, ۲۰۰۹) is based on the hypothesis that syntactic parameters are appropriate traits to use as comparanda for contrastive analysis and distance measurement of language pairs and then to provide language taxonomy. This article addresses the syntactic distance and genealogical taxonomy of language varieties that are closely related genealogically, geographically, and culturally. To analyze relatedness and genealogical issues of Kurdish language varieties and the Persian language, abstract grammatical rules, modeled as syntactic parameters which are applied in the domain of determiner phrase (DP), are used as comparanda. The results show that Laki and Lori are at a close distance from Sorani, and on the other hand, Kurmanji and Kɪrdki are also close syntactically. According to the tree achieved from the syntactic distances, Kurmanji is at one end of the spectrum and Persian is at the other end. Thus, it can be concluded that some preliminary deductions regarding the phylogenetic taxonomy of the Iranian languages and dialects, with a focus on Kurdish language varieties and other related dialects, can be proposed.

کلیدواژه ها:

phylogenetic taxonomy ، syntactic parameters ، syntactic distance ، PCM ، Iranian languages