Discourse Fillers in the Speech of Fereydan Georgians

Abstract

Fereydan Georgians, who have resided in the Fereydunshahr province of the Islamic Republic of Iran for over four centuries, frequently employ various types of discourse fillers in their speech (including sounds/syllables, pronouns, interjections, particles, words, phrases, pauses, etc.). The diversity and frequen­cy of such fillers are primarily determined by the local bilingual environment and, respectively, Fereydan Georgians’ low level of linguistic proficiency in their native language/dialect. Generally, fillers are common among the speakers lacking full mastery of their mother tongue, who use them to bridge conversational gaps through various means. In addition to linguistic competence, there are other factors (such as education level and psycholinguistic factors) that must be considered.

The Fereydan dialect actively utilizes Georgian lexical fillers. However, the long-term existence in a foreign linguistic environment led to the integration of foreign word forms (predominantly of Persian and occasionally Arabic origin). This phenomenon naturally occurs through the displacement and restriction of corresponding Georgian linguistic material.

Premised on the existing dialectological data and scholarly literature, this research analyzes the mecha­nisms of “pause-filling” in the speech of Fereydan Georgians, examining their formal, semantic, and func­tio­nal properties. The Fereydan material is evaluated as opposed to the data from other Georgian dialects.

The empirical basis of this study consists of dialectal texts recorded by the authors in Georgian settle­ments of Fereydan during various periods. It also incorporates Fereydan speech samples recorded by other Georgian researchers, which have been published and integrated into the Georgian Dialect Corpus (corpo­ra.co).

The analyzed material illustrates the current linguistic situation caused by the Georgian-Persian linguistic interference in Fereydan and highlights general trends of ongoing changes in the speech of Fereydan Geor­gians.