Phytonyms Representing Faunal Characteristics and Their Linguistic Features (A Study on the Yaghnob Language)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Tajik Language, Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

2 Master’s student of the Department of Tajik Language IZA (Rudaki AMIT), Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Abstract

An important and valuable part of every language, including the Yaghnobi language, is the various types of plant terms, which play a role in bringing order to a language. Accordingly, studying and analyzing these plant terms is a fundamental issue. We, thus, decided to research and analyze the linguistic features of phytonyms that express fauna characteristics based on one of the Eastern Iranian languages, Yaghnobi, from a historical and ethnolinguistic perspective. In the same way, this article draws mainly from the material of fauna characteristic phytonyms of the Yaghnobi language from the Yaghnob valley and delves into research of their structural and semantic characteristics, grammar, and etiology. The necessity to choose this topic arose due to a need for more research on the subject from the perspective of the researchers. The research aims to determine the structural and semantical features, word formation (morphology), and phraseological models of plant vocabulary and define and determine their role. In the article, eleven plants terms are analyzed and discussed; most of these are related to domestic animals, including donkey (four words), goats (two words), cow, and horse (one word each), and about birds and reptiles, for example, crows, sparrows, and mice (one word each).

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