Aimaq dialect

Aimaq
گویش ایماقی
Aimaqi written in the Persian script in Nastaliq style.
Native toAfghanistan
EthnicityAimaq
Native speakers
1.9 million (2017–2019)
Persian alphabet
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3aiq
Glottologaima1241

Aimaq or Aimaqi (Persian: ایماقی, romanized: Aimāqi) is a Persian dialect and the dominant eastern Persian ethnolect spoken by the Aimaq people in central northwest Afghanistan (west of the Hazarajat). It is close to the Dari varieties of Persian. The Aimaq people are thought to have a 5–15% literacy rate.

Dialects

Subdialects of the Aimaq dialect are as follows: Chinghizi, Firozkohi, Jamshidi, Maliki, Mizmast, Taimani, Taimuri, Zainal and Zohri.

Phonology

Phonetically, as one of the eastern Persian dialects, the Aimaq dialect displays typical phonological features of eastern varieties of Persian.

Vowels

  • The "majhul" vowels ē and ō are kept separate in Aimaq, whereas in western Persian they are merged with ī and ū respectively. For instance, the identically written words شیر 'lion' and 'milk' are in western Persian both pronounced [šīr], but in Aimaq [šēr] for 'lion' and [šīr] for 'milk'. The long vowel in زود 'quick' [zūd] and زور 'strong' [zūr] is realized as [ū] in western Persian, whereas these words are pronounced as [zūd] and [zōr] respectively by Aimaq speakers.
  • The diphthongs of early Classical Persian aw (as ow in Engl. cow) and ay (as i in English ice) have in Aimaq become [ow] (as in Engl. low) and [ej] (as in Engl. day). Dari and Iranian Persian, on the other hand, are more archaic, e.g. نوروز 'Persian New Year' is realized as [nowrūz], and نخیر 'no' is uttered as [naχejr] in Dari and Iranian Persian, and as [naχajr] in Aimaq.
  • /æ/[clarification needed] and /e/ are kept separate in word-final positions in Aimaq, whereas in western Persian, /æ/ has [e] as a word-final allophone.

Consonants

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Aimaq at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. 1 2 "Aimaq". Glottolog. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
  3. ↑ "Aimaq". World Culture Encyclopedia. everyculture.com. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  4. ↑ A. Pisowicz, Origins of the New and Middle Persian phonological systems (Cracow 1985), p. 112-114, 117.

Notations

  • Clifton, John M. (ed.) (2005) Studies in languages of Tajikistan North Eurasia Group, SIL International, St Petersburg, Russia, OCLC 122939499