Stress position of nominal plurals in -ån in the Parachi language and its connection with the accent in Proto-Iranian

Artem Trofimov (School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, RANEPA, Moscow; artemii.trofimov@gmail.com)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 19/3-4, 2021 - p.210-231

Abstract: It has been established that Parachi, a minor Iranian language, partially preserves reflexes of the Proto-Iranian accent. V. A. Efimov noticed a peculiar accentual distribution in Parachi for plural forms of nouns with the formant -ån: a number of such nouns show stress on the stem, while others prefer a stressed ending. This distribution is characteristic of both inherited and borrowed nouns. In this paper, based on analysis of available Parachi data, I assume that this distribution corresponds to the features of Proto-Iranian: inherited stems reflecting Proto-Iranian barytona are root-stressed, while nouns continuing oxytona have plural forms with stress on the ending -ån, respectively. It is more difficult to establish rules that govern borrowings, although there is a tendency for words ending in a consonant to feature root stress in plural, while borrowed nouns ending in a stressed vowel obtain the stress in the plural ending -ån. My analysis allows to identify 9 inherited Parachi words with root stress on plural forms continuing old barytona, and 10 words with ending stress on plural forms continuing old oxytona. Thus, despite loss of any traces of Proto-Iranian stress in singular forms, Parachi nouns may still preserve them in corresponding plural formations.

Keywords: Parachi language, Proto-Iranian stress, oxytona, barytona, accentual distribution

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