Hierarchy among Languages: Persian Suffixes in Modern Uyghur

Szabolcs, Krisztina

Hierarchy among Languages: Persian Suffixes in Modern Uyghur

(55th Meeting, 2012)

In historical linguistics the role of linguistic and cultural dominance is emphasised in inducing language change. In my lecture I will investigate Persian suffixes in the Modern Uyghur language from the point of view of language hierarchy. I analyze two sorts of dominancy: at first the relationship between the Persian and the Uyghur language and secondly between the Uyghur language and its dialects. In the first case, we can state that in the consequence of Persian cultural influence many loan-words and grammatical elements of the Persian language, which possesses higher prestige, were copied into the Uyghur language. I will study some of these grammatical elements, namely the +puruš, +šunas, +kar, +gär, +käš, +χor, +dar and +päz suffixes: their occurrence, historical background and usage will be described and their usage and the occurrence will be compared with the Turkic +či agent suffix. Regarding the second case, I will investigate whether the forms with the +či suffixes in the Uyghur dialects preserved their dominancy over the suffixes of Persian origin.