Gholami Saloumeh. Selected Features of Bactrian Grammar

Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014. — 241 p. — (Göttinger Orientforschungen. Iranica 12). — ISBN 978-3-447-10300-8.Bactrian, the only Iranian language written in the Greek alphabet, was spoken in ancient Bactria in northern Afghanistan. It is an intermediary Middle Iranian language, possessing the characters of both Eastern and Western Iranian groups, and thus playing a very important role in the dialectology of Iranian Languages. Saloumeh Gholami's study deals with various relatively unknown phonological, morphological and syntactical features of Bactrian and includes the following topics: historical phonology of Bactrian; the syntactical position of different kinds of nouns and their relationship in a sentence; the different types of pronouns and their syntactical properties; the function and syntactical position of prepositions and postpositions; adverbs and their formation; proximate and remote deixis adverbs as well as their different syntactic positions; various kinds of conjunctions and their functions; selected aspects of the verb; word order in clauses with transitive or intransitive verbs, and an investigation of double object constructions; as well as the different types of compounds.Abbreviations
Table of phonetic values
Acknowledgements
Chapter One: Introduction
Bactria
Bactrian language and script
Bactrian sources
Coins
Seals
Inscriptions
Surkh Kotal
Rabatak
The other inscriptions
Manuscripts
Documents
Legal documents
Lists and accounts
Letters
Buddhist texts
Fragments of documents of uncertain type
Aims and assumptions
Chapter Two: Historical phonology of Bactrian
Consonants
Simple consonants
PIr. plosives
PIr. fricatives and affricates
PIr. Sonorants
Summary of the system of consonants
Consonant clusters
Combination with plosives
Combination with nasals
Combination with fricatives
Combinations with affricates
Combination with Trill
Combination with approximant
Phonological processes: Metathesis
Vowels
Simple vowels
Loss of vowels
Diphthongs
Combination of vowel and consonant
Palatalization
Vowel assimilation
Dissimilation
Lowering (?)
Reduced vowel (ǝ)
Summary
Chapter Three: Nominal phrases
Number and case
Substantive
Adjective
Gender
Genitive construction
Apposition
Numerals
Adjectives
Word formation
Nominal phrases consisting of an adjective
Ordering of adjectives
Summary
Chapter Four: Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Demonstratives
Reflexive forms
Indefinite pronouns
Possessive pronouns
Relative pronouns
Summary
Personal pronoun
Demonstratives
Reflexive pronoun
Indefinite pronoun
Possessive pronoun
Relative pronoun
Chapter Five: Prepositions and postpositions
The functions of prepositions and postpositions
Summary
Chapter Six: Adverbs
Formation of adverbs by suffixes
Types of adverbs
Deictic adverbs
Syntactical positions of adverbs
Summary
Chapter Seven: Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions
Summary
Chapter Eight: The verb
Position
Agreement with subject
Passive and ergative constructions
Auxiliary verbs
Perfect
Pluperfect
Past Subjunctive
Summary
Chapter Nine: Word order
Nominal sentences
Verbal sentences
Transitive verbs
Double object constructions
The order of elements in Bactrian
Summary
Chapter Ten: Compounds
Bactrian compounds according to the grammatical feautures of elements
Bactrian compounds according to the syntactical features of elements
Tripartite compounds
Seam vowel
Summary
References