# Vafsi dialect

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Iranian language spoken in the Vafs village

Vafsi Native to Iran Region Markazi province Native speakers 23,000 (2021)[1] Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Adharic Tatic Southern Tatic Vafsic[2] Vafsi Language codes ISO 639-3 vaf Glottolog vafs1240 ELP Vafsi Vafsi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

**Vafsi** ([Tati](/source/Tati_language_(Iran)): ووسی, *Vowsi*) is a dialect of the [Tati language](/source/Tati_language_(Iran))[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] spoken in the [Vafs](/source/Vafs%2C_Markazi) village and surrounding area in the [Markazi](/source/Markazi_Province) province of [Iran](/source/Iran). The dialects of the [Tafresh](/source/Tafresh) region share many features with the Central Plateau dialects. It is closely related to [Ashtiani](/source/Ashtiani_language).[3]

## Grammar

Vafsi Tati has six short vowel phonemes, five long vowel phonemes and two nasal vowel phonemes. The consonant inventory is basically the same as in [Persian](/source/Persian_language). Nouns are inflected for gender (masculine, feminine), number (singular, plural) and case (direct, oblique).

The oblique case marks the possessor (preceding the head noun), the definite direct object, nouns governed by a preposition, and the subject of transitive verbs in the past tense. Personal pronouns are inflected for number (singular, plural) and case (direct, oblique). A set of enclitic pronouns is used to indicate the agent of transitive verbs in the past tenses.

There are two demonstrative pronouns: one for near deixis, one for remote deixis. The use of the Persian ezafe construction is spreading, however there is also a native possessive construction, consisting of the possessor (unmarked or marked by the oblique case) preceding the head noun.

The verbal inflection is based on two stems: present and past stem. Person and number are indicated personal suffixes attached to the stem. In the transitive past tense the verb consists of the bare past stem and personal concord with the subject is provided by enclitic pronouns following the stem or a constituent preceding the verb. Two modal prefixes are used to convey modal and aspectual information. The past participle is employed in the formation of compound tenses.

Vafsi Tati is a split ergative language: Split ergativity means that a language has in one domain accusative morphosyntax and in another domain ergative morphosyntax. In Vafsi the present tense is structured the accusative way and the past tense is structured the ergative way. Accusative morphosyntax means that in a language subjects of intransitive and transitive verbs are treated the same way and direct objects are treated another way. Ergative morphosyntax means that in a language subjects of intransitive verbs and direct objects are treated one way and subjects of transitive verbs are treated another way.

In the Vafsi past tense subjects of intransitive verbs and direct objects are marked by the direct case whereas subjects of transitive verbs are marked by the oblique case. This feature characterizes the Vafsi past tense as ergative.

The unmarked order of constituents is SOV, similar to most other Iranian languages.

### Numerals

Numerals are transcribed in the IPA.[10]

1. jej 21. vis-o-jej 2. do 22. vis-o-do 3. sɛ 23. vis-o-sɛ 4. t͡ʃɑr 24. vis-o-t͡ʃɑr 5. pɛd͡ʒ 25. vis-o-ped͡ʒ 6. ʃiʃ 26. vis-o-ʃiʃ 7. hæf(d) 27. vis-o-hæf(d) 8. hæʃ(d) 28. vis-o-hæʃ(d) 9. no 29. vis-o-no 10. dæ(h) 30. si 11. jɑzdæ(h) 40. t͡ʃɛl 12. dævazdæ(h) 50. pænd͡ʒɑ 13. sizdæ(h) 60. ʃas(d) 14. t͡ʃɑrdæ(h) 70. hæftɑd 15. panzæ(h) 80. hæʃtɑd 16. ʃanzæ(h) 90. nævæd 17. hɛvdæ(h) 100. sæd) 18. hɛʒdæ(h) 200. divisd 19. nuzæ(h) 1000. hæzɑr 20. vis 2000. do hæzɑr

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-e26_1-0)** [Vafsi](https://www.ethnologue.com/language/vaf) at *[Ethnologue](/source/Ethnologue)* (26th ed., 2023)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). ["Vafsi"](http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/vafs1240). *[Glottolog](/source/Glottolog)*. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_3-1) ["Vafsi"](https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/vafs1240). *Glottolog*. Retrieved 11 December 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Stilo, Donald Leonard (5 March 1971). ["A grammar of Vafsi-Tati: an application of a transformational computer model"](https://books.google.com/books?id=S23MngEACAAJ) – via Google Books.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Stilo, Donald L. (5 March 1981). "The Tati Language Group in the Sociolinguistic Context of Northwestern Iran and Transcaucasia". *Iranian Studies*. **14** (3/4): 137–187. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/00210868108701585](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00210868108701585). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [4310364](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4310364).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Yar-Shater, Ehsan (5 March 1969). [*A grammar of southern Tati dialects*](https://archive.org/details/grammarofsouther0000yars). Mouton – via Internet Archive.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد رشت - جهاندوست سبزعلی پور"](http://sabzalipour.iaurasht.ac.ir/faculty/Files/111/Staff/Faculty/111_2015-11-22_04.23.07_cv+sabzalipour+94.pdf) (PDF). *sabzalipour.iaurasht.ac.ir*.[*[permanent dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*]

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Raheleh Izadifar. ["HENING TATI"](https://archive.org/details/HeningTati) – via Internet Archive.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Tats of Iran and Caucasus, Ali Abdoli, 2010.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** ["Vafsi"](https://web.archive.org/web/20201105132507/https://mpi-lingweb.shh.mpg.de/numeral/Vafsi.htm). Archived from [the original](https://mpi-lingweb.shh.mpg.de/numeral/Vafsi.htm) on 2020-11-05. Retrieved 2020-10-31.

## Further reading

- Yousefi, Saeed Reza. 2012. ‘Tahlil væ bærræsi-e halæt væ halæt-næmai dær væfsi dær Chârchube Nazari-e Behinegi’ [Case and Case Marking in Vafsi within the OT Framework]. M.A. Thesis. Shahid Beheshti University. Under the supervision of Mahinnaz Mirdehghan.

- Mirdehghan, Mahinnaz; Yousefi, Saeed Reza (2017). "Dative Case Marking in Vafsi within the OT Framework". *Iranian Studies*. **5** (1): 149–161. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/00210862.2015.1108720](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00210862.2015.1108720). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [163307049](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:163307049)..

- Mirdehghan, Mahinnaz and Saeed Reza Yousefi. 1395/2016. ‘Hærf-e ezafenæmai-e efteraqi dær Vafsi dær čaharčub-e næzæri-e behinegi [Differential Adpositional Case Marking in Vafsi within the OT Framework].’ In Language Related Research, 7 (3), pp. 197–222, Tehran: Tarbiat Modares University.

- Mirdehghan, Mahinnaz, and Saeed Reza Yousefi. "Dative case marking in Vafsi within the [OT](/source/Optimality_theory) framework." *Iranian Studies* 50, no. 1 (2017): 149-161.

- Donald Stilo. 2010. "Ditransitive Constructions in Vafsi: a Corpus-Based Study". In: *Studies in Ditransitive Constructions: A Comparative Handbook*. Edited by Andrej Malchukov et al. pp. 243–276. de Gruyter.

- Stilo, Donald L. (Summer–Autumn 1981). "The Tati Language Group in the Sociolinguistic Context of Northwestern Iran and Transcaucasia". *Iranian Studies*. **14** (3/4): 137–87. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/00210868108701585](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00210868108701585). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [4310364](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4310364).

- Stilo, Donald L., and [Ulrich Marzolph](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ulrich_Marzolph&action=edit&redlink=1) [[de](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Marzolph)]. 2004. *Vafsi Folk Tales: Twenty Four Folk Tales in the Gurchani Dialect of Vafsi as Narrated by Ghazanfar Mahmudi and Mashdi Mahdi and Collected by Lawrence P. Elwell-Sutton*. Wiesbaden: Reichert.

- Csató, Isaksson, and Jahani, trans. 2005. Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion: Case Studies from Iranian Semitic and Turkic. Routledge Curzon.

- Stilo, Donald. 2004. "Coordination in three Western Iranian languages: Vafsi, Persian and Gilaki." Typological Studies in Language 58. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 269–332.

- Stilo, Donald L. 1971. *A grammar of Vafsi-Tati: An application of a transformational computer model*. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan.

- Elwell-Sutton, Laurence Paul. 1960. *The Vafsi Dialect (North-Western Persia)*.

- Bakhtyari, Behrooz Mahmoudi. "Vafsi Folk Tales. Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2004, 288 p., biblio., no index.", Abstracta Iranica [En ligne], Volume 27. 2004. document 34, mis en ligne le 02 janvier 2007, consulté le 20 février 2014.

## External links

- [Vafs Village Weblog(in Persian language)](http://vafs.blogfa.com)

- [Vafsi Folk Tales](http://www.ilexfoundation.org/public/vafsi.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20060903150855/http://ilexfoundation.org/public/vafsi.html) 2006-09-03 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine)

- [Vafsi numerals](http://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/numeral/Vafsi.htm)

- [Coordination in three Western Iranian languages: Vafsi, Persian and Gilaki](http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=TSL+58&artid=333047886)

- [A Description of the Northwest Iranian Project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology](https://web.archive.org/web/20061001183630/http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/files/NWIran.html)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Vafsi dialect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vafsi_dialect) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vafsi_dialect?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.