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Since the turn of the twentieth century, the Kurds in Iran have faced various forms of linguistic exclusion. As part of a genealogical project, this article aims to track the lineages of this exclusion. The linguistic exclusions are inscribed in a field of discursivity, which, tracking one of its lineages, turns our attention to the orientalist interventions. The article discusses two complementary projects: the authentication of the Persian language and the othering of the Kurdish language. These projects were made possible by the hegemony of territorial and linguistic discourses over orientalist studies in Iran. Orientalists proposed a periodization of Iranian languages, dividing them into old, middle, and modern eras, with Persian represented as the sole language that has ever existed throughout history, based on their decoding of ancient manuscripts. Meanwhile, the Kurdish language was completely marginalized, and Persian was represented as the essence of all Iranian languages and, consequently, as the language of all Iranians. As a result, an ontological and epistemic horizon emerged, on which all subsequent instances of othering of the Kurds became possible. Finally, the article also examines the ways in which the Kurds have resisted the linguistic exclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Painting has played an important role in the expression of scientific findings and experiences in different civilizations and cultures. When writing was not able to express the content correctly, traditional medicine scholars incorporated their ideas into pictures and paintings that, although elementary, were used as illustrations of traditional medicine information at the time. There are very few of these traditional medical images left in books and manuscripts, many of which have been lost over the years due to various social upheavals. In this study, descriptive-analytical and library research methods were used to collect information and the objective of this research was to review the images and painting in traditional medical manuscripts that have been mentioned in different resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study describes and analyzes the morphosyntactic expression of the Southern Zazaki Ezafe – a linking element in the nominal domain common among Iranian languages. This morpheme is used to link modifiers (i.e. adjectives and possessors) to their head nouns as follows: n-ez1 mod1-ez2 mod2-ez3 mod3. Southern Zazaki, like other languages of the Kurdish region (and unlike, e.g. Persian) reflects phi-features (and case) of the head noun on each Ezafe morpheme in a noun phrase. This paper is focussed around two morphosyntactic puzzles that arise in Southern Zazaki. First, while the Ezafe marker in general reflects the case of the entire DP, the presence of a possessor produces invariant oblique case, regardless of the case value assigned to the DP externally (Paul, Ludwig. 2009. Zazaki. In Gernot Windfuhr (ed.), The Iranian languages, 545–586. Routledge; Todd, Terry Lynn. 2002. A grammar of Dimili. Also known as Zaza. Stockholm: Iremet Forlag; Toosarvandani, Maziar & Coppe van Urk. 2014. The syntax of nominal concord: What Ezafe in Zazaki shows us. Proceedings of NELS 43(2). 209–220 i.a.). Second, Southern Zazaki uniquely employs a separate series of "D-form" Ezafe morphemes in certain syntactic contexts (Keskin, Mesut. 2010. Zazaca üzerine notlar (Notes on Zazaki). In Şükrü Aslan (ed.), Herkesin Bildiugi Sır: Dersim. Iletisim, 221–244; Paul, Ludwig. 2009. Zazaki. In Gernot Windfuhr (ed.), The Iranian languages, 545–586. Routledge; Todd, Terry Lynn. 2002. A grammar of Dimili. Also known as Zaza. Stockholm: Iremet Forlag; Werner, Brigitte. 2018. Forms and meanings of the Ezafe in Zazaki. In Saloumeh Gholami (ed.), Endangered Iranian languages. Reichert Verlag i.a.). This study aims to provide a cohesive analysis of Ezafe in Southern Zazaki both with respect to its general phi- and case-sensitive realizations, as well as the distribution of D-forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, different types of semantic relationships between the components of endocentric compound words in Gahvarehei Kurdish are investigated. The corpus of the research data includes endocentric compounds that have been obtained from the everyday speech of native speakers of Gahvarehei Kurdish, which is one of the dialects of the southern Kurdish branch and is common in Gahvareh section in Dalahoo County, Kermanshah province, Iran. The results of the research show that endocentric compound words in Gahvarehei Kurdish in terms of structure include: noun -noun head -initial, noun -noun head -final, noun -adjective, adjective -noun and preposition -noun. Various semantic relationships between the components of these structures can be found, such as origin, material, gender, content, possession, use, type, dependence, similarity, instrument, kinship, manner, time, amalgamation, taste, physical condition, age, function, production tools and place. The research findings, which include a list of semantic relationships between the components of endocentric compound words in Southern Kurdish, can be a complement for other lists provided by researchers in other Iranian languages as well as other languages in the world and lead us to a comprehensive classification of different types of semantic relations in compound words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recent growth of attention to language teachers’ emotions, knowledge about how emotional tensions contribute to student teachers’ identity construction is still under-developed. In response to this gap, the present study explored the role of emotional tensions in seven Iranian English language student teachers’ identity construction over a semester-long period. Theoretically grounded in activity theory, the study was conducted through collecting data from pre-course interviews, during-course reflective journals, and post-course interviews. Data analysis revealed three major themes: (1) emotional tensions as a source of marginalisation, (2) emotional tensions as a motivator of professional investment, and (3) emotional tensions as a fund of identity. We found that beyond positive and negative contributions for student teachers’ identity construction, emotional tensions could play a mediatory role in identity development when they interact with system-related discourses and participants. Based on the findings, we provide implications for teachers and teacher educators to turn emotional tensions into a positive contributor to interpersonal and organisational development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pashto is a major language of the Iranian family with multiple dialects spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In this paper, I examine the phonological inventory of the previously little known Khatak Pashto by a comparison with the well‐known Yusufzai, of the Northeast dialect of the language. I use primary data collected from Karak and Mardan districts of northwest Pakistan. In my analysis, I identify the similarities between these two varieties and the differences, based on at least eleven phonological isoglosses including the feature of vowel nasality, which split the two. I conclude by supporting the case for a distinct Central dialect area to represent the position of Khatak Pashto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iranian flavour of the Chinese epithet of the Buddha, tianzhong tian 天中天, 'god among gods,' and its relationship with the Indo-Aryan parallel devātideva -, 'foremost god of gods,' have been repeatedly addressed. Past studies of the origin of the expressions sought to establish an ultimate connection to the Achaemenid royal title 'king of kings' (Old Persian xšāya θ iya- xšāya θ iyānām) , assuming that the divine epithet was coined based on the royal one. However, the comparative Indo-Iranian evidence speaks for the considerable antiquity of the divine epithet '(foremost) god of gods'—Proto-Indo-Iranian * dai̯u̯ānām dai̯u̯a(tama) -, replaced by * bagānām baga(tama-) in Old Iranian—and against its secondary character in relation to 'king of kings'. The Middle Iranian corpora show a particularly broad usage of 'god of gods'-like epithets to refer to supreme figures worthy of veneration; the epithet therefore may be considered part of a pan-Iranian religious vocabulary during the first millennium CE. We further make the case that the Buddhist usage of the expression in Middle Iranian languages as well as the appearance of its equivalents in Chinese and Indo-Aryan sources is specifically due to the super-regional influence of a Bactrian prototype, * βαγανο βαγαδαμο. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article continues the exploration of the ethnonym *märə, previously reconstructed by the author and A. V. Savelyev, as evidenced in the self-designation of the Mari people and in the names of Merya and Muroma found in Russian chronicles. In Finno-Ugric literature, it is commonly sub-derived from the Aryan *márya- meaning ‘young man, warrior.’ However, within the current framework, the specific Aryan origin of this ethnonym, along with the time and circumstances of its adoption, remains unspecified. The Mari-Meryan *märə cannot be construed as an ethnonym meaning ‘human, man,’ as such semantics would be anachronistic in terms of ethnic designation typology. Instead, it is proposed that this word was borrowed as a socionym with the additional connotation of ‘husband’ into the ancestral language of Mari and Meryan around the first millennium BC. The Aryan *márya- denoted a class of free (possibly noble) young men forming military communities, where they undertook feats to attain a social status entitling them to acquire a wife, hence the meaning ‘groom, husband’. Indo-Aryan (including Mitanni Aryan) languages predominantly associated it with ‘warrior’ and ‘noble youth,’ while Iranian languages developed pejorative meanings (‘rascal; slave’) but retained the meaning ‘husband’. An Eastern Middle Iranian language is deemed a more plausible source for borrowing, both temporally and semantically. The etymology suggested in the article resolves the issue of the limited representation of Aryan *márya- primarily as ‘slave, servant’ in Eastern Iranian languages. The proposed derivation links Ossetian bal ‘group, squad, gang, pack (of wolves)’ < Alanian *mal < *márya-; likely borrowed into Proto-Marian-Meryan from a Scytho-Sarmatian language around the middle of the first millennium BC (prior to the transition *-ry- > -l-). The subsequent Turkic designation of the Mari as *čermiš (Chuvash śarmə̑s, Tatar čirməš > Russian cheremis) < Turkic *čär ‘to fight, to wage war’ may be a calque of this ancient ethnonym.

Abstract In New Western Iranian languages, plurality is an obligatory category, and it is marked both morphologically and syntactically; however, Bâdrudi, as a central Iranian language, has a special status among Iranian languages. Insofar as the plural number is not an obligatory category and only appears alongside the plural suffix and verb agreement, this language uses other ways to mark plurality. This article examines some features of plurality in the Bâdrudi. Findings indicate that in Bâdrudi, the plurality is marked by the suffix -u, but mostly noun plurality is marked syntactically by verb agreement and pronominal agreement. The reduplication of noun stem is another way to mark plurality in animate nouns. In all the ways through which the plural number of nouns is marked, the verb agreement is always obligatory. This is but the use of the plural suffix, pronominal agreement, and reduplication are optional. There are also cases where the noun is not plurally marked in any way. This means that the distinction of number is not an obligatory category in Bâdrudi. Keywords: number, plurality, noun, Bâdrudi, Iranian languages Introduction Number is one of the most common features of nouns in world’s languages. For example, English makes a semantic and a formal distinction between, for instance, dog and dogs, or child and children. In English, the number feature can also be realized on verbs and pronouns through agreement with a subject, as in: ‘these children were playing together’. In this example, the verb and the demonstrative pronoun are plural and indicate the number of children. This is by no means to state that they point to the number of ‘playing’ events. While Number is an obligatory category in English, there are many other languages in which the use of the plural marker is called upon only when it is important to mark number. Unlike English, and similar languages in which the majority of nouns, from the personal pronouns and nouns denoting persons to those inanimate objects and abstract entities, can mark number, there are many languages that restrict the number opposition to fewer situations, namely those which are high in animacy. In terms of the number values, most number systems have only the two singular and plural polarities. But there are other degrees of numerosity that occur in different languages. The most frequent form of such number system is duality, which designates only two instances of one thing. Another one is the trial system which refers to three distinct real-world entities. Finally, ‘paucal’ stands for a small number of distinct real-world entities. Given the different ways that the number is expressed, some languages have special ‘number words’ which are employed merely for the purpose of indicating number. This includes morphological expression of number which manifests widely in terms of affixes. Stems can show changes from minor stress alternations to major restructuring to show number. The way in which number is marked syntactically is through agreement. Agreement is often in addition to other morphological means of marking plurality. Demonstratives and verbs are relatively frequent agreement targets, showing agreement in number either uniquely or combined with other categories, notably gender. Reduplication is a frequent and iconic way of indicating plurality. This may involve the whole stem, more frequently, or part of the stem; the relevant part may appear at beginning, or end of the noun. Materials and Methods This article examines some features of plurality in the Bâdrudi language, a central Iranian language spoken in central Iran. Part of the data used in this article are taken from Bâdrudi and Arismani corpuses, archived at ‘Corpus of Iranian Languages’. It is to note that another part of the data is collected by the author from the Fami village, where a variety of Badrudi is spoken. The data are transcribed based on the APA phonetic transcription and glossed in a semi-Persian way of glossing. Through this approach, the meanings are in Persian but the grammatical features are shown in English. Discussion of results and Conclusion The analyses suggest that Bâdrudi uses three methods to mark plurality: 1. Morphological Marking: In this marking system, the plural number is indicated by adding the plural suffix ‘–u’ to the noun stem, which is not obligatory and can be used along with the syntactic ways of verb agreement and pronominal agreement. Verb agreement: Through such a strategy, the plurality is shown by the agreement between the plural noun and the verb. In this connection, the noun can also have a plural suffix: jen-u vo mir-u ru kade de âx-en “Men and women are sitting at home”. Verb agreement marks the noun that is a subject or an agent: sang baalaa cinu de darkat-en “The stones fell from the wall”. But in the sentences with ergative structure, it marks a noun that serves as an object: ču-šun ataš xossen “They burned the wood”. Pronominal agreement: In this way, the plural number is marked on the demonstrative pronouns and comes in a noun phrase. In this case, the verb of the sentence is also used in plural form: nome izom bâ tabar amariy-en “these woods are broken by an ax”. reduplicating: This involves the use of material from the noun stem and suffixing it at the end of the noun, like dot ‘girl’ > dotmot ‘girls’ in nin dotmot čerâ namden? “Why did not these girls come?” It can be said that in Bâdrudi while the use of morphological suffix is not obligatory to indicate the plurality of noun, the use of pronominal agreement is also not obligatory as long as there is a verb agreement. On the other hand, in all the examined examples, the use of verb agreement is an obligatory way of marking plurality. The results show that in Bâdrudi, the verb agreement is a necessary and imperative way of marking the plurality of nouns. It is interesting to note that other markers are compulsory to be used. There are also cases where the plurality is not marked in any way. Considering that the verb agreement generally marks subject or agent, a noun serving as an indirect object, is not marked by any of the morphological or syntactical ways. In general, it can be said that although Bâdrudi marks plurality morphologically and syntactically, plurality is not an obligatory category in Bâdrudi, and there are still degrees of splitness in marking the plurality.

Language teachers deal with different groups of learners as a natural aspect of their professional careers. However, little is known about how teachers construct their identities in response to various learner groups. This study relies on the concept of identities‐in‐practice and explores how six English‐L2 teachers construct their identities across beginner and advanced levels of teaching. Data were collected from semi‐structured interviews, stimulated recalls, and classroom observations to examine teacher identities across the two practice levels. Data analyses revealed similarities and differences in teacher identities across the two levels, which involved three components: agentic variations, discursive realisations, and extended identities. These findings provide novel implications for understanding language teacher identity construction across different learner groups. The study also provides implications for teachers and teacher educators to pay focal attention to the role identity plays in teachers' work across different practice levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Tati is a North-Western Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. Different varieties of this language group are spoken intermittently in the northern and northwestern parts of Iran, mainly in the Qazvin, Alborz, Markazi, Tehran, Ardabil, Gilan, Zanjan, and Khorasan-e-Shomali provinces. Previous linguistic work on the language consists of multiple descriptive grammars. These include Yarshater's (1969) analysis of multiple Tati dialects including Takestani, Chali, Eshtehardi, Xiaraji, Ebrahim-abadi, Sagz-abadi, Danesfehani, Esfarvarini, and Xozini, as well as Taheri's (2009) and Rahmani & Rahmni's (2021) analyses of the Takestani dialect. The variety of Southern Tati analyzed in this study is the Takestani dialect (tks, ISO 639-3). Takestani is spoken by the Tat community in the city of Takestan, known by its residents as Siayden (IPA: [sijʌˈten]). The speakers of Takestani know their dialect of the Tati language as Siaydiniji (IPA: [sijʌtiniˈd͡ʒi]), as 'related to the residents of Siaden.' Figure 1 shows the location of Takestan in the Qazvin province in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper argues for the existence of an ablative-instrumental case in Kushan Bactrian with the endings - α (from original a-stems) and - να ~ - νο (from the Old Iranian pronominal declension). While the corpus is small and many details remain unknown or speculative, there are enough such case forms to show that the Kushan Bactrian case system is more archaic than often thought. It further becomes clear from the examples that the ablative-instrumental case had largely two functions: Several times it is used a prepositional case and, once, to mark the ergative agent of a transitive past tense verb. The existence of an ablative-instrumental in Bactrian as such, its endings and its functions have good parallels in other Middle and New Iranian languages spoken in the region, and should therefore not be too surprising for the Bactrian language of the 2nd century A.D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language teaching is a tense occupation wherein countless negative stressors such as students' misbehaviors, low income, assessment issues, and personal conflicts might threaten the well-being and happiness of teachers. Thus, cultivating a flexible mindset responsive enough to tackle various stressors has become a promising research scope. In this vein, minimalism, as a worldview that helps people reduce unwanted and excessive distractors, might be a possible solution that would possibly reduce the teachers' life and occupation stressors and cultivate their well-being-related strengths. However, the concept has been ignored in educational domains. Therefore, the present exploratory study sheds light on the minimalistic mindset of 34 Iranian English language teachers, recruited through purposeful sampling method and partook in an interview. Their answers were analyzed through thematic analysis to see whether minimalistic mindsets of teachers contribute to their welfare or not. The analyses of the qualitative data signaled that the findings would contribute to the educational psychology and language education literature by suggesting that teachers with minimalistic worldviews towards life are less stressed and concerned about distractors and are more prone to value inner peace, tolerance, and rapport in their personal and professional life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the local languages and dialects of Iran and the collection of various cultural manifestations, including proverbs, leads to a better understanding of the culture and history of the tribes, preserving their dialect and culture, and finally a better understanding of the Iranian languages and culture. Proverbs are a major part of the popular culture of the Baluch people, and a careful study of them will pave the way for the study of cultural patterns, social values, and sociological research. Most of these proverbs have great moral meanings that play an essential role in teaching transcendent ideas and concepts, transmitting ethnic and generational experiences, and the advancement of individuals in society, but there are also proverbs that have negative functions in history, which have been the cause of social and cultural damage and failure. This research studied this group of proverbs by library and analytical method in order to have an increasing cultural awareness and promote rational views in Baluch society and culture. Although the number of such proverbs is limited, they have caused cultural damage in society due to their widespread use. Cultural harms have been studied in three areas of individual, family and society along with superstitious beliefs in the field of culture. However, the findings of the current research show the highest frequency in injuries that are related to families. Nonetheless, an independent and documented research with a specific statistical community has not been done in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been ongoing research contrasting online vs. Face-To-Face (FTF) interactions for more than a decade. This study fills the gap in the literature considering FTF vs. online contexts by comparing the norms and patterns of complimenting in Persian and explores the complimenting strategies, syntactic patterns, and internal and external modifiers used in each setting. The corpus included 366 FTF compliments related to the topic of appearance. Findings demonstrated that in both settings explicit and formulaic compliments are used more frequently than implicit and non-formulaic ones. However, implicit compliments in FTF interactions were less prevalent than those in online settings. FTF compliments did not show the same level of creativity as the online ones did and a more diverse set of adjectives were used in online vs FTF compliments. Finally, the paper provides implications for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the lack of proper Learning from Demonstration (LfD) architectures for Sign Language-based Human–Robot Interactions to make them more extensible. The paper proposes and implements a Learning from Demonstration structure for teaching new Iranian Sign Language signs to a teacher assistant social robot, RASA. This LfD architecture utilizes one-shot learning techniques and Convolutional Neural Network to learn to recognize and imitate a sign after seeing its demonstration (using a data glove) just once. Despite using a small, low diversity data set (~ 500 signs in 16 categories), the recognition module reached a promising 4-way accuracy of 70% on the test data and showed good potential for increasing the extensibility of sign vocabulary in sign language-based human–robot interactions. The expansibility and promising results of the one-shot Learning from Demonstration technique in this study are the main achievements of conducting such machine learning algorithms in social Human–Robot Interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In New Western Iranian languages, plurality is an obligatory category, and it is marked both morphologically and syntactically; however, Bâdrudi, as a central Iranian language, has a special status among Iranian languages. Insofar as the plural number is not an obligatory category and only appears alongside the plural suffix and verb agreement, this language uses other ways to mark plurality. This article examines some features of plurality in the Bâdrudi. Findings indicate that in Bâdrudi, the plurality is marked by the suffix -u, but mostly noun plurality is marked syntactically by verb agreement and pronominal agreement. The reduplication of noun stem is another way to mark plurality in animate nouns. In all the ways through which the plural number of nouns is marked, the verb agreement is always obligatory. This is but the use of the plural suffix, pronominal agreement, and reduplication are optional. There are also cases where the noun is not plurally marked in any way. This means that the distinction of number is not an obligatory category in Bâdrudi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractArdalani dialect belonging to the central group of Kurdish dialects, is mainly spoken in Sanandaj and its suburbs. The word “Ardalani” is derived from the name of Ardalan family who had ruled over the city. The dialect is also known as “Sanandaji (Sene’i)”. This article is devoted to the verb conjugation in Ardalani dialect. At the first, verb components such as stems, personal endings, verb inflectional affixes are discussed. Then the formation of in different tenses, modes, and voices, as well as the modals and auxiliaries are discussed. According to the results of this research, the most important characteristic of Ardalani dialect is preserving the passive stem of Old and Middle Iranian which distinguishes it from other Iranian languages. Another characteristic is that Ergative structure is used in conjugation of the past tense of transitive verbs.

This study aims to investigate the wellbeing of Iranian English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers across their career stages in terms of teaching experience. In this regard, the study categorized teachers into three groups based on their experience: novice, experienced, and highly experienced. Using a quantitative and cross-sectional survey design, this study employed a validated scale to measure psychological wellbeing, positive perception about self and life, goal setting and time management, and positive relationships among teachers. Using a convenience sampling procedure, 182 teachers participated in the study, representing varying age ranges, teaching experience, and employment status. The data was collected through an online survey within a month and underwent descriptive and inferential statistical analyses using SPSS software. The results revealed significant differences in the wellbeing of language teachers across experience groups. More specifically, novice teachers scored lower in various wellbeing dimensions than experienced and highly experienced teachers. These findings emphasize the importance of considering career stages when investigating teachers' professional wellbeing. The findings also contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between teaching experience and wellbeing, with implications for supporting the EFL teachers' wellbeing and informing educational policies and practices. The study results are discussed, and the related implications are provided for running professional development courses to enhance teachers' wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although compilations of the Turkic language of Khalaj had been made before Doerfer, Doerfer was the first to determine the importance of this language, after which he sent his students to Iran in 1968 to do fieldwork. Thus, a comprehensive study of Khalaj was carried out during this period. The collected materials were examined in Doerfer’s book Khalaj Materials in 1971. The book’s third chapter contains materials from the dialects of Talxab, Mansurabad, and Xaltabad. These materials are given in word lists. The longest most comprehensive list contains 319 words compiled from Talxab village. The Mansurabad and Xaltabad word lists have 111 words in common with the Talxab list. This study was carried out to determine the changes in the vocabulary of Khalaj as published by Doerfer. In order to achieve this aim, the Persian words in the Talxab list in the fifth chapter of Khalaj Materials were presented to people native to the specific areas, who were then asked for their Khalaj equivalents. Due to the lists in Khalaj Materials being the first comprehensive study compiled on the Turkic language of Khalaj, this book was chosen as the primary source in this research. In addition, the words are even more important, as they were compiled by a team of Turcologists. Thus, the similarities and differences were revealed by comparing the words compiled from the Xarrab (currently Baharistan) region in January 2022 with those the Doerfer team had compiled in 1968. The results reveal how much the Khalaj Turkish vocabulary has changed under the influence of other languages over half a century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turfan Parthian word "nw ̉r" appears in Manichaean Fragment M5815 Vi/29/. Andreas Henning (Durkin-Meisterernst, 2004) and Boyce (1975) have cited this word, but without any meaning or interpretation. Durkin-Meisterenst (2004) suggested that «poss. a misspelling of wᵓwr «belief» which occurs in the same text a few later?» This pafa aimed to find the root of this word and to interpret it with the help of other Persian words in modern Persian literature. To do this, the content of M5815 I from /22/ to /31/ and M5815 II, /1/ and /2/ were first transcribed and rendered into modern Persian. Then, the meaning of the word was clarified. Finally, it was shown that this word can be related to another Persian word "niv ridan" in both form and meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While numerous significant works on Iranian etymology and historical lexicology have emerged since the end of the 19th century, and several important etymological dictionaries on Iranian languages were published at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries (such as V. Rastorgueva and D. Edelman's "Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Languages", R. Tsabolov's "Etymological Dictionary of the Kurdish Language", J. Cheung's "Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb"), there is still no dedicated work on the history of Talyshi vocabulary. Only a small portion of the Talyshi inherited lexicon has been subjected to etymological analysis, either in some of the aforementioned works as Talyshi cognates or in various papers addressing diverse issues of Iranian historical lexicography. This paper represents an attempt to investigate the origin of the word suk meaning 'rooster' in Talyshi, a subject that has not been examined from an etymological perspective in works dealing with Iranian linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and when did domestic donkeys arrive in China? This article sets out to uncover the donkeys' forgotten trail from West Asia across the Iranian plateau to China, using archaeological, art historical, philological, and linguistic evidence. Following Parpola and Janhunen's (2011) contribution to our understanding of the Indian wild ass and Mitchell's (2018) overview of the history of the domestic donkey in West Asia and the Mediterranean, we will attempt to shed light on the transmission of the beast of burden to Eastern Eurasia. Due to its length, the paper is published in two instalments: Part I covers archaeological, art historical and textual evidence for the earliest occurrence and popularization of donkeys in China. Part II (in the fall issue) contains three sections: Two sections explore possible etymologies of ancient zoonyms for donkeys or donkey-like animals in Iranian and Chinese languages respectively. In a final discussion, possible ways of transmission for the donkey from the Iranian plateau to the Chinese heartland are evaluated with regard to the cultural, linguistic, and topographic conditions reflected in the previous parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the impact of systemic-theoretical instruction (STI) on Iranian EFL learners' English Passive Structure formation. In such doing, first, an Oxford Placement Test was administered among 12 Iranian EFL language learners studying in Iran. Based on the OPT scores, 50 out of 68 participants were randomly selected and divided into two equal experimental and control groups. As the main treatment, Concept Based Instruction (CBI) principles, was taught twice a week, and lasted eight weeks. At the end of the treatment, a posttest on English Passive structure with the similar content as the pretest was given to the learners, and the results were analyzed through independent sample t-test. The findings revealed that there was a significant difference between two groups' performance in learning passive structure in posttest. In fact, the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control groups in terms of English Passive structure learning. Finally, the pedagogical and theoretical implications of the study were presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although critical views of language education have redefined teacher roles, teachers' understanding of their own position within the ideological contestations surrounding language teaching is not widely investigated. This narrative study explores the perspectives of three Iranian English language teachers on the sociocultural roles and responsibilities that they may assume for themselves and examines how such perspectives are shaped. In extensive multi‐session narrative interviews, the participants shared their stories of becoming a teacher, starting from their retrospection on teacher roles during their language learning. Our narrative analysis depicts their different trajectories of shaping conceptions of language teachers' sociocultural roles in three stages: as a language learner, as a student teacher, and as a beginner teacher. On this basis, their narrative accounts of becoming English teachers appear to indicate that critical sociocultural views still play a marginal role in actual teacher preparation processes and the field needs to further embrace critical approaches to language teacher education aimed at raising English language teachers' awareness of their sociocultural responsibility. Moreover, our participants' narratives illustrate that understanding the genesis of language teachers' teaching philosophies requires a wide perspective of their long‐term background of learning (to teach) the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion labor is expecting individuals to display institutionally‐accepted emotional behaviors. This study examined the role of school assessment policies in 13 Iranian English language teachers' emotion labor in a private language school. To this end, data were collected from semi‐structured interviews and narrative frames. Data analyses revealed three major themes in relation to the teachers' assessment‐related emotion labor: Constrained assessment agency, resilience in assessment, and the significance of heeding assessment emotions. The study shows that top‐down policies of the school created emotional conflicts for the teachers, yet such policies in turn motivated the teachers to invest more in implementing assessment techniques that respond to their own and students' needs. The findings are discussed in light of contextual particularities of assessment, which are linked to power and dominant discourses shaping teachers' assessment‐related emotion labor. Based on the findings, we provide implications for policymakers and teacher educators to pay more focal attention to teachers' assessment emotions and emotion labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Introduction Ardalani dialect belonging to the central group of Kurdish dialects, is mainly spoken in Sanandaj and its suburbs.The word "Ardalani" is derived from the name of Ardalan family who had ruled over the city. The dialect is also known as "Sanandaji (Sene'i)". This article is devoted to the verb conjugation in Ardalani. 2. Methodology This study is based on the descriptive analysis method with a synchronic approach. Analyzing the data, the verb conjugation system of verb was described, including verb components (stem and inflectional affixes), types of verb according to tense, mode, aspect, voice as well as infinitive and participles. Modal verbs were also discussed. 3. Discussion 3-1. verb components 3-1-1. stem: verb has 2 stems: present stem (also denominative, passive and causative), past stem (also secondary). Causative affix and passsive affix are respectively -ēn, and _yē attaching to the present stem. Secondary past stem is made by adding -i, -â or -yâ to the present stem. 3-1-2. Inflectional affixes of the verb, b(e)- is used for subjunctive and imperative modes. The continuity prefix is a-. Na- is used for negation. The negation prefix for the imperative is ma- or na-. Personal endings are -em, -i(t) and -ē(t) for singular, and -in, -en and - en for plural. 3-2. verbal derivatives: The suffix for infinitive is -(e)n which attaches to the past stem. Past active participle and past passive participle are formed by adding -(e)g, respectively to the past stem of intransitive and transitive verbs. 3-3. tense, mode and aspect: Present indicative and present subjunctive are made respectively by aand be- + present stem + the personal endings. būn, ‘to be' in present indicative has enclitic forms as well as free forms. Present progressive is made by using the present of xarik būn, ‘to be busy'. Imperative is only for 2nd person, and is made by present stem and the personal endings, -a (singular) and -(e)n (plural). Past conjugation for transitive verbs is different from that of the intransitive; Transitive verbs have the ergative structure in which the enclitic personal pronouns have the function of the personal endings, and come at the end of the past stem as the personal endings do. They can also attach to some words before the verb, such as the object, adverb, negation, continuity prefix or verbal prefix. Simple past is made by past stem + personal endings (intransitive) or the enclitic personal pronouns (transitive). In continuous aspect, a-comes before the simple past. In present perfect of intransitive verbs, present enclitic forms of būn, ‘to be' follow the past paticiple but in the case of the transitive verbs, present perfect is made by the past paticiple + the enclitic personal pronouns + -a, present 3rd person singular of būn, ‘to be'. In past perfect of intransitive verbs, past enclitic forms of būn, ‘to be' follow the past paticiple but in the case of the transitive verbs, past perfect is made by the past paticiple + the enclitic personal pronouns. Past progressive is made by using the past of xarik būn, ‘to be busy' Passive voice is made by means of the passive stem. 3-4. Modal verbs: garak būn, ‘to want' and twânin, ‘can, to be able' are personal modal verbs. The main verb is present subjunctive. šeyân, ‘must' is impersonal. The main verb is present subjunctive. It does not appear as infinitive. 4. Conclusion According to the description given, on the conjugation system of verb, the most important features of Ardalani can be summarized as follows. - The most obvious characteristic of Ardalani, regarding the types of the verb stems is the presence of passive stem which most of the new Iranian languages and dialects lack it. - In Ardalani būn, ‘to be' has two forms: enclitic foms and free forms. ardalani lacks future verbs; present tense is used for future either. The main feature in the conjugation system of the verb is the use of ergative construction in the past tense of the transitive verbs. In this construction, enclitic personal pronouns have the function of the personal endings and are an integral part of the verb. Even when the subject is mentioned, they are not deleted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, considerable material has been accumulated in the field of experimental studies of Iranian languages, including the works by Soviet and Russian scholars, enabling us to make new generalizations regarding the acoustic characteristics of word stress as part of the problem of speech recognition. The study of Iranian languages has been rather uneven: most of the acoustic studies focused on Persian, and only a few covered other 11 languages described in this article. In addition, most of these studies have been published in Russian and therefore remain unknown to the wide international linguistic community. The purpose of the article is to sum up the achievements of Soviet and Russian scholars regarding the acoustic properties of the stressed syllable in Iranian languages. Different views of Soviet, Russian and foreign authors were compared. A number of positions with weak points in reasoning were screened out, and the most well-reasoned ones adopted as the most probable traits of word stress in Iranian languages. Tonal stress was found in Mazandarani, Persian and Tajik; quantitative - in Dari (Afghanistan), Sarikoli and theoretically in Rushani; multicomponental - in Abyanei, Gavruni, Gilaki, Pashto, and Wakhi. Ossetic is likely to have quantitative stress, but statistical proof hasn’t been found yet. Apparently, the overall situation reveals that tonal and quantitative stress types are typical for many Iranian languages. Dynamic stress is found in several languages, but only as a part of multicomponental one; and spectral stress is the rarest feature. The results achieved could be used in automated transcription and speech recognition services.

This paper examines alignment in Literary Gorani by analysing an unknown Gorani manuscript titled 'Dīwān-i Mawlawī' (Manuscript 11092), which is housed at the Āstān-e Qods-e Raḍavī library. The paper has two main objectives. Following Haig (2017) regarding the extent of the micro-variation of ergativity within Iranian languages, the paper explores strategies of interrelated subsystems such as case, indexation, verbal suffixes, and pronominal clitic systems to discover whether Gorani manifests an accusative or an ergative pattern. This helps us to answer the second more general question in this study: is it even possible to consider Literary Gorani as a written form of Hawrami? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Katarina Katavić's book, "Povijest romskoga jezika i suvremeni ustroj" (History and Contemporary Structure of the Romani Language), offers a comprehensive historical grammar of the Romani language and its dialects. It combines information from various sources and introduces a new systematization and terminology for describing the structure of the language. The book covers phonetics, morphology, syntax, and lexicon, and includes original observations and interpretations. Although written in Croatian, it is a valuable contribution to Romani studies and would benefit from being translated into a more widely accessible language in the future. This report by Ivan Andrijanić highlights the book's innovative synthesis of Romani's historical grammar, along with a practical descriptive grammar. It would be of interest to library patrons researching the Romani language and its historical grammar. [Extracted from the article]

Pinpointing the role of language, emotion, and culture in intercultural interactions as the three basic needs of intercultural interactions is one of the most important problems in the intercultural field. Therefore, this paper probed the role of language, emotion, and culture simultaneously in intercultural communication in Iran. By using convenience sampling, one hundred Iranian language teachers were chosen and their language proficiency and ICC levels were specified by using Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) questionnaire. Then, the researchers used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to classify ICC questions under language, emotion, and culture categories. After classifying the questions, the researchers used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), standard solution coefficient, standard path coefficient, T value, and Sobel formula to analyze the collected data from the ICC questionnaire based on participants' answers. The results revealed that language, culture, and emotion were the main macro-elements of intercultural communication. Also, it was shown that language was the most important need and macro-element in intercultural communication and then the second and third place went to culture and emotion respectively. It was found that emotion acted as a mediator variable between language and culture and there was a relationship among language, culture, and emotion, too. This study was of high importance for language teachers, curriculum designers, textbook writers, intercultural experts, and cultural psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turks and Iranians have interacted in different geographies for centuries. Although the traces of this interaction can be detected in various Iranian and Turkic languages, the obvious examples are presented in Khalaj. Although many archaic features are preserved today, numerous linguistic copies made from Persian are also used in Khalaj. This article focuses on the texts collected from the village of Talkhab, where the majority of the Khalaj population is located. In the texts, it is seen that the features of Persian such as sound, form, syntax etc. are copied into Khalaj as a result of intense language relations. Global lexical and global grammatical copies in these texts are discussed. The use of these units, which can have simple and complex structures, differs according to age groups. When the data collected from different age groups are examined, it has been detected that while the number of lexical copies is higher in the middle (35-60) and upper middle (60-...) age groups, both lexical and grammatical copies are often used in the young population (15-35). However, this article highlights the large number of people fluent in the Khalaj language in the village of Talkhab, which has a multilingual language ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tajikistan, at the heart of Central Eurasia, had a population of 7,563,687 in 2010, estimated recently to be almost 10,084,935. Named for its majority nationality, Tajikistan has many other nationalities, most with their own language. This article explores what is known about the historical, development and current status of multiple languages in Tajikistan's linguistic tapestry. We provide a tentative overview of Tajikistan's evolving language ecology from earliest times when a range of Eastern Iranian languages were dominant, to the reduced use of Eastern Iranian languages following the entry of Arabic and New Persian (a western Iranian language) into the ecology with the Arab conquest, and the subsequent entry of Turkic languages, and more recently the entry of Russian under the late Russian empire and its spread under the Soviet Union. Following independence in 1991, a shift in balance among domains of use of Tajik and Russian has been ongoing at the same time as international languages, especially English, have entered Tajikistan's language ecology. We review the current state of knowledge about contemporary sociolinguistic dynamics, monolingualism and plurilingualism in society, where the titular language, Tajik/Persian, is in interaction with local, regional and global languages. Against the background of changing post-independence language and language-in-education policies, we discuss the prospects for monolingual, multilingual and plurilingual education in Tajikistan among efforts to promote the official language, Tajik, and to provide minority language education, while also developing proficiency in foreign languages in Tajikistan, through initiatives such as English-medium instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several dozen inscriptions in an unknown writing system have been discovered in an area stretching geographically from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to southern Afghanistan. Most inscriptions can be dated to the period from the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd century CE, yet all attempts at decipherment have so far been unsuccessful. The recent discovery of previously unknown inscriptions near the Almosi gorge, Tajikistan, however, allows for a renewed attempt at decipherment. Drawing upon a catalogue of characters and a distributional analysis, we report two identical sequences in the newly found Almosi inscriptions and in the Dašt‐i Nāwur trilingual. Based on parallel texts in Bactrian, we suggest to read the name of the Kushan emperor Vema Takhtu in these sequences, accompanied by the title 'king of kings' and several epithets. This allows for the deduction of probable phonetic values of 15 different consonantal signs and four vocalic diacritics and the inference that the inscriptions record a previously unknown Middle Iranian language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an obituary for Philippe Gignoux, a prominent scholar in the field of Syriac and Iranian studies. Gignoux's work greatly influenced research on late antique Middle Eastern studies for over sixty years. He was known for his extensive knowledge of languages and writings, particularly in Semitic and Iranian studies. Gignoux's contributions to Syriac studies were highly regarded for their wide range of topics and innovative approaches, opening up new areas of investigation. He was also involved in the development of Iranian studies and played a significant role in the creation of the international journal Studia iranica. Gignoux's dedication to his research and his empathy for the plight of Christians in the Middle East were notable aspects of his career. [Extracted from the article]

Modern Western Aramaic is presently spoken in two villages in the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as a small but growing diaspora. All its speakers are bilingual in Arabic, and its phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon bear the hallmarks of this longstanding contact situation. These characteristics distinguish Modern Western Aramaic from all other surviving Aramaic languages, most of which evolved to their present forms in a similarly bilingual situation with Iranian languages such as Kurdish and Persian. Scholars have characterized these hallmarks as "corrupt," "deep," and even so numerous as to be "pointless to list," but the degree of their influence has never truly been quantified. While no scholar has yet understated the degree of Arabic influence upon Modern Western Aramaic, evidence suggests that prior scholarship may have overstated it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recent growth of attention to English for research publication purposes, little is known about how researchers view the role of peer review in their success of publication. In light of this gap, the present study investigated Iranian surgeons' attitudes towards peer review and the challenges they face in getting their papers published. To this end, 26 Iranian surgeons were interviewed, and the transcribed data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The results revealed that firstly the surgeons attested to the positive and negative contributions of peer review in terms of changing or unchanging their attitudes, respectively. Secondly, the authors faced a myriad of challenges related to editors, reviewers, and socio-political-linguistic factors in getting their papers published. Moreover, they associated these challenges with positive and negative effects in being connected to their career-stage development and motivating them to conduct and submit more papers. The study concludes with implications for research and practice in how researchers can craft more quality papers to enhance their chance of publication in high-quality journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the dynamic nature of second language willingness to communicate (L2WTC) exploring the numerous factors that contribute to the construct. Drawing upon the sociocognitive perspective, we analyzed the environmental, individual, and linguistic factors that influence the development of L2WTC in an Iranian language learning context. Data were collected through interviews, stimulated-recall sessions, journal keeping, and observations from an intact class of five students. The environmental factors identified throughout the analysis stage were interlocutor familiarity, topic, teacher influence, task type, discussion dynamics, and family dynamics. The individual factors that were found to play a role in the development of L2WTC included anxiety, motivation, self-confidence, security, shyness, perfectionism, perceived need for the target language use, cultural identity, personality, interest in the topic, fear of failure, seeking validation, cultural adaptation, and emotional state. Finally, perceived and actual linguistic competence were among the linguistic factors that influenced L2WTC. Overall, the findings of this study confirmed that L2WTC is a multifaceted complex system that is constantly reacting to environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the effect of instruction on the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) level of Iranian language teachers in four dimensions: skills, attitude, knowledge, and awareness. One hundred language teachers were chosen through convenience sampling and divided into two groups of experienced and novice teachers based on their teaching experience. All participants were chosen from state schools in Golestan province and they all taught English at English institutes and high schools. Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and ICC questionnaire were used to find the language proficiency level and ICC level of language teachers respectively. ICC questionnaire was carried out before and after instruction to determine the effect of instruction on ICC. The instruction lasted for 20 hours across ten sessions. The results of the study disclosed that the teachers' level of language proficiency was upper-intermediate. Also, it was revealed that instruction was effective as the ICC level of the teachers was below average before instruction and was improved after instruction. Therefore, the results of this study showed that instruction had an eye-catching effect on improving four dimensions of intercultural communicative competence of language teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acknowledging that hidden constructs underlying teachers' professional identity at a given point of teaching life are presumed to account for their practical qualities, the current study explored the cognitive variations among three groups of Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers with low, moderate, and high degrees of teaching experience. To this end, a convenience sample, including 382 Iranian EFL teachers from 660 branches of five countrywide English language institutions, participated in a sequential explanatory mixedmethod study. In the quantitative phase, the three groups were compared in terms of a linear combination of nine subscales representing teachers' pedagogical knowledge base, using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). As shown by the results, the between-group differences in four of the nine sub-domains yielded a significant between-group gap in the overall level of teacher cognition. These differentiating knowledge areas included knowledge of learning, teaching, classroom management, and professional self. A qualitative follow-up phase was then launched in which a 95-member sample of the participants attended a retrospective interview to delve deeply into the nature of the four differentiating subdomains. The thematic analysis of the interview data divulged the processes and reasons underlying the four differentiating knowledge areas. The differences in knowledge of learning facilitator processes, digital literacy, preferences for classroom management policies, and views on professional relations use were some of the reasons for the quantitative between-group gaps. The findings may have new insights into the exact nature of Iranian EFL teachers' intellectual peculiarities at different stages of a teaching career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although several studies have been carried out after the approval of the Fundamental Reform Document of Education (FRDE) in 2011, a small number of studies have reviewed the textbooks of Iranian schools in the light of this document, and unfortunately, English language textbooks have almost been ignored. Accordingly, the present study sought to answer the questions of what objectives are included in this document regarding English language teaching at schools, and to what extent the English language textbooks for Iranian Junior High Schools are based on these objectives. Therefore, the text of the document was first analyzed using directional content analysis. Then, based on the objectives extracted from the FRDE, the content of English language textbooks were reviewed. The results showed that the objectives of teaching English in accordance with this document should be (1) critical understanding and analysis of non-Iranian culture, (2) responsible interaction to introduce Iranian-Islamic culture and civilization, as well as dissemination of local findings and achievements and (3) establishing effective interaction and communication with non-Iranian parties, which is specifically explained in the form of two micro-goals (a) knowledge and mastery of local issues and (b) knowledge and awareness of global issues. Then, using deductive content analysis, English textbooks were analyzed. The results showed that these textbooks deal mainly with Iranian culture, and the balance between Iranian and "non-Iranian" culture, which is clearly defined in the document in three regional, Islamic and global forms but is not noticed. Accordingly, the findings of this study implied that it is essential that prospect series be revised to include non-Iranian cultural issues, especially those from Islamic countries and nations. In addition, there is a need to include global issues while domesticating them moderately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The northwestern branch is one of the important branches of Iranian languages, which has many subcategories. This branch has many speakers in large areas of Iran and outside Iran. Among the sub-branches of that language, we can mention Tati, Talshi, Semnani, etc. In recent decades, a lot of research has been done on Iranian languages and dialects and they are being completed every day. Henning, Yarshater, Lecoq, and Stillo have expressed good opinions about the classification of the North, North-West, and Central Iranian languages. researchers inside Iran have also published useful data about the common language in their regions in recent decades. Yarshater and Stillo have made significant classifications about the Tati family. In this article, while stating those categories, several Tati dialects that are not included in the categories of Yarshater and Stilo will be mentioned. The purpose of this research is to read the texts to identify all the dialects of the Tati language family. The main question of this research is that "the languages of the north, northwest and some of the central languages of Iran are the natural continuations of which of the languages of the ancient period of Iranian languages? The research results show that the Parthian language can be assumed as the ancestor of the Tati languages and Madi can be the ancestor of the Kurdish language. What is in this article is just a hypothesis. Of course, by examining all the species known as "Tati", a more complete opinion and classification can be reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jowsheqani is a central Iranian language, spoken in the city of Jowsheqan in the northern Isfahan. Jowsheqani is ergative with respect to verb-agreement since the past transitive verb agrees with object in person, number and gender. The purpose of this article is to investigate how past transitive verbs agree with object in ergative construction, and how the split ergative is conditioned. The findings of this article show that the past transitive verb in the ergative construction agrees with object in gender when object occurs as a noun or pronoun. With respect to person and number, it agrees with the object that occur as independent or enclitic pronoun. But also the past verb can mark an object that has not a reference in the sentence. Jowshaqani, generally, exhibit what is known as split ergativity, since the ergative construction is found only in clauses using tenses based on the past stem of the verb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the researcher has examined the language varieties of Shahroud district in Khalkhal county in Ardebil province. The varieties are spoken in villages of Askestan, Shal, Derav, Kareen, kolour, Gilavan and Lerd, and locally are known as Tati. Also, he has compared these varieties, synchronically, with the three main dialects of Taleshi at phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. These villages are located to the west of Guilan, exactly beyond the Talesh Mountains. The survey is based on studying phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and lexical features of the language varieties in question. Data are obtained through library and fieldwork studies. Tati dialects, in spite of their similarities in vocabulary, are so diverse and scattered that cannot all be defined under a specific language group. Because of this, linguists have classified them differently, and in some cases, have added Taleshi dialects to them. The purpose of the article is to answer the question whether the language varieties spoken in Shahroud district of Khalkhal can be categorized as varieties of Taleshi, or are they independent varieties? Based on the data of this article, the language varieties of five villages out of seven villages in question, i.e. Askestan, Shal, Derav, Kolour, and Gilavan, can be placed with Southern Taleshi in the same category, but the language varieties of the two villages of Kerin and Lerd have differences with the varieties of the other five villages, and are different from the Southern Taleshi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, in order to assess the quality of education various measures including high stakes tests have been employed. The validity of these measures has always been a matter of discussion. Thus, the present study addresses the concerns deal with the validity issues of the most important Iranian high-stake test known as Konkur measuring English language proficiency of the participants. In the present study, by taking into account the scores of 5000 high school students who sat for Konkur examination, the dimensionality and factorial structure of the test was examined through running generalizability and IRT analyses; At the first stage, in order to check the data standards along with the descriptive statistics a generalizability analysis was run; it was found that the reliability of the data equals.92 and the generalizability coefficient is 0.9 showing a high dependability for the analysis. In the second stage, the item statistics and parameter measures were analyzed and the misfit items were investigated. Next, the data was checked in terms of dimensionality and three IRT models namely unidimensional, bifactor and testlet model were run and compared. Findings showed that in terms of fit indices (M2, AIC, BIC) testlet model has the best model fit, followed by bifactor and unidimensional respectively, in determining variance of the responses to test and functions well for assessing language proficiency of the EFL leaners. The findings also showed that the variance of the factor structure of language proficiency is best explained when it is assessed through examination of several language sub-skills(i.e. testlet) rather than being measured through a number of items directly (i.e. bifactor). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sign language is a non-verbal communication tool used by the deaf. A robust sign language recognition framework is needed to develop Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) platforms that are able to interact with humans via sign language. Iranian sign language (ISL) is composed of both static postures and dynamic gestures of the hand and fingers. In this paper, we present a robust framework using a Deep Neural Network (DNN) to recognize dynamic ISL gestures captured by motion capture gloves in Real-Time. To this end, first, a dataset of fifteen ISL classes was collected in time series; then, this dataset was virtually augmented and pre-processed using the "state-image" method to produce a unique collection of images, each image corresponding to a specific set of sequential data representing a class. Next, by implementing a continuous Genetic algorithm, an optimal deep neural network with the minimum number of weights (trainable parameters) and the maximum overall accuracy was found. Finally, the dataset was fed to the DNN to train the model. The results showed that the optimization process was successful at finding a DNN structure highly suitable for this application, with 99.7% accuracy on the verification (test) data. Then, after implementing the module in a robotic architecture, an HRI experiment was conducted to assess the system's performance in real-time applications. Preliminary statistical analysis on the standard UTAUT model for eight participants showed that the system can recognize ISL signs quickly and accurately during human–robot interaction. The proposed methodology can be used for other sign languages as no specific characteristics of ISL were used in the preprocessing or training stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enclitic pronouns are used in most of New West Iranian languages. They are mainly used for marking the possessor, as well as objects, besides, those Iranian languages and dialects, which show ergative patterns, make use of enclitic pronouns for marking the agent in erga-tive constructions. This paper deals with the enclitic pronouns and their functions in Anbarāni, one of the Northern Talyshi dialects, spoken in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Where it is possible the features of Anbarāni enclitics will be compared with some other West Iranian languages.