JIL - Journal of Iranian Linguistics

📢 We are pleased to announce the publication of Volume 2, Issue 2 of the Journal of Iranian Linguistics! ☺️

This issue brings together five articles spanning the full breadth of Iranian linguistics — from historical phonology and morphology to linguistic geography, corpus annotation, and medieval Khotanese literature:

🔹 Shuan Osman Karim — "Contact Across the Iranian World: Curious Convergences between Kurdish and Balochi"

🔹 Muhammed Ourang & Khalsa Al-Aghbari — "Reduplication in Lāri and Jibbāli: A Formal and Semantic Study"

🔹 Mortaza Taheri-Ardali, Mansour Bozorgmehr & Erik Anonby — "Mapping the Languages of Kohgiluyeh va Boyer Ahmad Province, Iran: Is This Region Uniformly Lori-speaking?"

🔹 Vahide Tajalli, Mehrnoush Shamsfard, Yalda Yarandi, Mahtab Sarlak & Arezoo Haghbin — "The Nonverbal Element in Persian Verbal Multiword Expressions: A Corpus Annotation Approach"

🔹 Majid Tame — "An Examination of Two Proverbs in Khotanese and Their Equivalents in Certain New Western Iranian Languages"

This issue would not have been possible without the contributions of many. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to:

✨ Our authors, for their rigorous scholarship and dedication to the field
✨ Our reviewers, for their careful, generous, and expert assessments
✨ Our editorial board, for their continued guidance and support
✨ Our readers, whose engagement and enthusiasm make this journal worthwhile

All articles are open access and freely available to read and share.

📖 Read the issue: https://journals.ysu.am/index.php/JIL/en/issue/view/984

Journal of Iranian Linguistics

🌟 Exciting News! 🌟

Our Journal of Iranian Linguistics (JIL) has officially been indexed in the Linguistic Bibliography (Brill) — one of the most important international reference tools for linguistics! 📚✨

What makes this achievement even more special is that only two issues have been published so far, but JIL is already recognized internationally and included among established linguistic journals. 🙌

This means that articles published in JIL are now systematically listed and accessible to scholars worldwide, increasing our visibility and impact in the global academic community.

A heartfelt thank you to our editorial team, contributors, and readers for making this possible.

Persian borrowings in Kashmiri: A Descriptive and Analytical Study

Midhat Shah, Louisiana State University

https://doi.org/10.46991/jil/2025.01.04

This paper provides a description and analysis of the Persian lexical and structural borrowings in the Kashmiri language. In doing so it explores the different strategies of nativization of Persian lexical borrowings in Kashmiri at phonological, morphological and semantic level and also analyses the structural borrowings and/or innovations as a result of contact at a morphological and syntactic level. The paper will also assess the constraints that limit Persian borrowings into Kashmiri vis-à-vis linguistic constraints which as Winford (2003:51) writes “often limit one language from borrowing heavily from another”.

The Progressive Tenses with the Verb “To Have” as a Peculiar and Exclusive Feature of Western Iranian Dialects Spoken in Modern Iran

Youli A. Ioannesyan, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sceinces

https://doi.org/10.46991/jil/2025.01.03

The article considers the verb forms with the auxiliary verb “to have” used in Persian and other western Iranian dialects of modern Iran to express a continuous action taking place at the moment of speech in the present or at a certain moment in the past. Drawing upon an extensive material collected from a large number of dialects, the author proves that the geographic area within which these forms are found is limited to the territory of modern Iran, which makes them a distinguishing and exclusive feature of western Iranian (Persian and non-Persian alike) dialects spoken in modern Iran. The author supports the idea that these verb forms are completely “native” to the linguistic area they are found in and, therefore, despite the view-point of some scholars, could not have originated under the influence of western or any other foreign languages.

On the etymology of New Persian malang ‘intoxicated; unorthodox dervish’

Jakob Halfmann, University of Würzburg

https://doi.org/10.46991/jil/2025.01.02

This brief article discusses the etymology of the New Persian word malang, which has been widely borrowed into Indian languages. First its semantic range is established as encompassing the two basic meanings ‘intoxicated, drunk’ and ‘(unorthodox) dervish’, then a derivation from a Bactrian loanword into early New Persian is proposed, connecting it with the Indo-Iranian root *mad- ‘to be/become intoxicated’. The article thereby adds another lexical item to the list of Bactrian borrowings into New Persian and makes a contribution to the documentation of the Bactrian lexicon, as the presumable Bactrian source word is so far unattested in the known documents and inscriptions.

Ewer, Garden and Gardening: An Edition of Berk. 25 and Revised Readings of Berlin 26, Berk. 11, and Berk. 122 Documents Belonging to the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijan

Nima Asefi, Hamburg University

https://doi.org/10.46991/jil/2025.01.01

The publication of research findings on the documents that today should be referred to as the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijan, began in 1991 with an article by Gignoux (1991). These studies were continued by Gignoux himself and Weber, resulting in significant advances in our understanding of the archive. Weber's involvement in the research, along with his valuable contributions, notably accelerated progress and greatly improved the precision of the interpretations. Despite their extensive efforts, a portion of the documents still requires rereading and retranslation. It is important to emphasize, however, that the possibility for younger researchers like myself to undertake such tasks today is entirely thanks to the remarkable groundwork and deep expertise of both Gignoux and Weber.

🎉Exciting News from JIL!

We’re thrilled to announce that the second issue of the Journal of Iranian Linguistics is now LIVE! Dive into a treasure trove of cutting-edge research from around the globe, covering everything from phonology to language contact.

🔗 Check out the full issue here: https://journals.ysu.am/index.php/JIL/issue/view/932

A huge shoutout to our amazing contributors and dedicated editorial team for making this possible! 🌟 Special thanks to Dr. Artyom Tonoyan for his outstanding efforts in bringing this issue to fruition.

Spread the word, share the knowledge! 📢 Let’s celebrate the vibrant world of Iranian linguistics together.

Hey, dustān! 😊 Long time no see!

We’re excited to share that the second issue of the Journal of Iranian Linguistics is almost here, featuring top-notch research from across the globe. We can’t wait to share it with you!

📢 The printed copies of the first issue of the Journal of Iranian Linguistics are finally here!

Holding this in our hands feels surreal after months of hard work. A huge thank you to our editorial board members, authors, and everyone who supported this journey.

The copies will soon be on their way to contributors and institutions. Stay tuned!

The Journal of Iranian Linguistics is the only academic journal dedicated to Iranian linguistics. It is a peer-reviewed scholarly platform dedicated to the study of Iranian languages across all historical periods — Old, Middle, and New Iranian. Established in 2024 by the Chair of Iranian Studies at Yerevan State University, the journal fosters global academic research on Iranian linguistics by publishing original, high-quality research in English.
The scope of JIL includes phonology, syntax, morphology, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, language policy, and language acquisition, among other topics. Published biannually in March and September, the Journal of Iranian Linguistics aims to advance understanding of the linguistic diversity and phenomena within the Iranian context, engaging scholars, researchers, and enthusiasts worldwide.

New Journals on Iranian Studies - Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature A comprehensive list of academic Iranian Studies journals that have appeared since 2020, with a detailed description

SISR (Società Italiana di Storia delle Religioni) on the Journal of Iranian Linguistics:

“The Journal of Iranian Linguistics is a new journal founded in Armenia (in a key moment of its millennial tragic history), with a truly international editorial board - a sign of the global flourishing of Iranian studies, as well as international cooperation across bloody borders undermined by inter-ethnic and inter-religious hostility.”

Thank you Società Italiana di Storia delle Religioni - SISR for this beautiful and meaningful description of JIL. Words like these truly inspire us 😊

Where the Demons Fell. A Manichaean Sogdian Manuscript in Sogdian Script from Mani’s Book of the Giants Enrico Morano, Where the Demons Fell. A Manichaean Sogdian Manuscript in Sogdian Script from Mani’s Book of the Giants, JIL 1 (2024): 8-20 Two unpublished Sogdian fragments in Sogdian Script of the…