Abstract:
This empirical study deals with language contact phenomena in Sistan. Code- copying is viewed as a strategy of linguistic behavior when a dominated language acquires new elements in lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatic organization, etc., which can be interpreted as copies of a dominating language. In this framework Persian is regarded as the model code which provides elements for being copied into Balochi as the basic code. It is argued here that code-copying affects most readily the lexicon, whereas more structured subsystems like morphology and syntax hardly admit to copying. Instead lexical copies serve as an intermediary for copying phonic and morphological-syntactical features of the model code. Copies of the Persian model code which become established linguistic features of Balochi are distinguished from ephemeral linguistic switches which are studied within the context of communication situation variables and other linguistic or extra- linguistic factors. The study is based upon audio recordings of colloquial Balochi speech made by the author in Sistan during the last six years.
Machine summary:
"Today such lexemes of the common lexicon can be pronounced by following the Persian model code if a word is associated with those fields of communication which are regarded as the linguistic domain of Persian rather than of Balochi within the structural functional distribution of languages.
’ A copy of the Persian compound preposition baʿd az ‘after’ can be generated similarly by replacing az by ša and by a slight phonic adaptation (baʿd > bād); the copy bād ša ‘after’ also requires the prepositional case as in ēš-'ān in the following sequence: [25] gēšt'irēn bal'ōčānā nīmr'ūzī welāy'atay tā tāyip'a-e šīrz'ī ant tašk'īl-a day'ant bād ša ēš'ān gōrg'ēǧ ham h'astant wa raxšān'ī ham h'astant – ‘The majority of the Baloch in the province of Nimroz holds the tribe of the Shirzi; after them there are also Gurgej and Rakhshani.
More probably than not in the following sequence the expression qab'ūl … n'axāhēm dāšt was copied as a complete lexical unit which reveals itself by the fact that the personal ending -ēm / -īm of the Persian model code was preserved in Balochi: [44] amm'ā qab'ūl n'adāran wa n'axāhēm dāšt – ‘We do not accept [this] and we never will do so."