Document Type : short article
Authors
1 PhD student, Persian Language and Literature, Yasuj University, Yasuj, Iran
2 Yasuj, Faculty of Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature
Abstract
Beyond his prominent standing in poetry, Asadi Tusi is a major figure in Persian lexicography and word-formation, and his Garshāsp-nāma constitutes a rich corpus of archaic, obsolete, and occasionally unique vocabulary. One such lexical item is “Shakāvand,” which, across Persian lexicons—each following its predecessors—has generally been recorded as a proper noun, with the initial consonant vowelled with fatha (a). Problematising the assumption that “Shakāvand” functions as a proper noun within the Garshāsp-nāma, this study seeks to offer a new reading of the term by attending to the analysis of its linguistic context, the morphological structure of the word, and Asadi Tusi’s poetic lexicon, while also consulting a number of manuscripts of this epic work. The present inquiry demonstrates that the frequent co-occurrence of synonyms for “valley” in glossing or referring to “Shakāvand,” together with a morphological analysis of the word and an examination of the characteristic features of Asadi Tusi’s poetic lexicon, supports the conclusion that “Shakāvand” is a common noun probably coined by the poet himself, used in the sense of “valley,” and that its vocalisation with kasra (i) on the initial consonant—rendering it “Shikāvand”—is more justified. A further finding of this research indicates that, over time, the word probably underwent a gradual shift from a poetic coinage to a proper noun. By tracing this lexeme’s diachronic development from a poetic innovation into a toponym, this study illustrates that the recording and interpretation of archaic vocabulary, when detached from textual context, linguistic structure, and a word’s historical trajectory, can lead to inaccurate or mistaken conclusions.
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