Open AccessOn the Indicative Imperfect and the Other Tenses in -eɾ of the Armenian Dialect of Urmia Historical and Typological Aspects of a Morphological Innovation
Author(s) -
Andrea Scala
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
annali di ca' foscari. serie orientale/annali di ca' foscari. serie orientale
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2385-3042
pISSN - 1125-3789
DOI - 10.30687/annor/2385-3042/2021/01/007
Subject(s) - armenian , imperfect , inflection , morpheme , linguistics , verb , opposition (politics) , history , philosophy , political science , politics , law
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.