2008 Articles

Two Mazandarani Texts from the Nineteenth Century

Borjian, Habib

This article transcribes, translates, and compiles a glossary for two Mazandarani texts written in 1889 in the town of Barforush and published as facsimiles by Jacques de Morgan. The language of the texts, Mazandarani or New Tabari, is fundamentally similar to that spoken today by more than three million people in the Persian province of Mazandaran, located south of the Caspian Sea. However, there are several extinct words and grammatical traits in the texts, which could be identified only by drawing on other surviving Mazandarani documents of the same period. The texts are meant to contribute to the study of the largely understudied language of Mazandaran, a northwestern Iranian language. They may also serve as historical documents, for they relate certain events in such details not found in other sources. Ample historical remarks follow the texts.