Balanced Bilingualism: Patterns of Contact Influence in L1 and L2 Turkic and Bakhtiari Speech in Juneqan, Iran

Abstract

Most studies on language contact in Iran have focused on the effects of Persian on the country's minority languages. There are also many cases where large regional languages such as Azeri, Kurdish, Balochi, Lori and Bakhtiari exert an influence on smaller regional languages, and a few studies have appeared on this topic. This paper examines the effects of language contact in the city of Juneqan in Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari Province, Iran, where the position of two minority languages-Bakhtiari and Qashqai Turkic-appears to be evenly balanced. The analysis is based on a comparison of L1 and L2 speech from two bilingual individuals with a different L1, as found in responses to the Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI) questionnaire. Drawing on examples from lexicon, phonology and morphosyntax, the article argues that the equivalent influence of each language on the firstand secondlanguage speech of members of the other language community is likely achieved not by simple equal status, but through the counterbalancing of regional Bakhtiari dominance with majority mother-tongue Turkic population in this city.

Toward a picture of Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari Province, Iran, as a linguistic area

“…The remainder of this article describes the research conducted there including results generated by preparatory activities (section 3) and an analysis of the lexical questionnaire data, with a focus on the Iranic varieties of the province (section 4). The morphosyntactic questionnaire data as well as data on the province's Turkic varieties are robust and have necessitated separate studies; these are currently being undertaken elsewhere (Anonby, Schreiber & Taheri-Ardali, 2020;Anonby, Taheri-Ardali, Schreiber et al, 2020;Schreiber et al, 2021;Anonby et al, in preparation).…”

“…In addition, for the purposes of inquiry into effects of language contact and bilingualism on linguistic structures where two minority languages co-exist, we collected supplementary questionnaires from second-language speakers of Bakhtiari and Turkic in the town of Juneqān. The first-language data is included in the present study, but we have reserved the second-language data, which is not comparable to the first-language data collected across the province, for description and analysis elsewhere (Anonby, Schreiber & Taheri-Ardali, 2020).…”

“…varieties in the region. Within the scope of the present paper, it is not possible to give a complete account of these topics, but a fuller analysis is undertaken elsewhere (Schreiber et al, 2017(Schreiber et al, , 2021Anonby, Schreiber & Taheri-Ardali, 2020;Anonby, Taheri-Ardali, Schreiber et al, 2020).…”

Gilaki: From Language Regimes into Minoritizing

“…The most spoken languages of Iran are Persian (62.1% of speakers), Azari (13.6%), Kurdish (7%), Gilaki (3%), Mazandarani (2.8%), Baloochi (2.4%), Arabic (1.6%), Qashqai (1.2%), Tati (1.1%), Turkmani (0.9%), and Taleshi (0.4%). Other minority languages -each with a population of less than 0.2% -include Armenian, Georgian, Neo-Aramaic, and Khuzestani Arabic (Anonby et al, 2020;Moradi, 2019).…”