The Documentation of Iranian Dialects as Cultural Heritage

زبانشناسی و گویش های خراسان

Article 5, Volume 2, Issue 2, October 2010   

Document Type: علمی - پژ‍وهشی

DOI: 10.22067/lj.v2i2.15906

Author

Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari^*

Abstract

Maintenance of the cultural heritage as a part of the national identity has recently drawn the attention of Iranian people and officials. However, it seems that such an interest has not been shown in the "spiritual" cultural heritage of Iran. Since many of the Iranian languages and dialects are on the verge of extinction, and their death will surely affect many other traditions and beliefs, one of the major national concerns of the officials should be the maintenance of their important, endangered, and scattered cultural heritage. This article deals with the issues of the endangered languages, and focuses on the Iranian languages, emphasizing on "language documentation", aiming to provide a modern, scientific method for preserving these dialects.

Keywords

Spiritual cultural heritages; endangered languages; Language; documentation; Iranian languages and dialects