Etymological Analysis of Six Mazandarani Toponymical Suffixes

Abstract

DOI: 10.55804/jtsu2346-8149.2025.09.10

Toponyms are among the most conservative elements of language, often preserving lexical, syntactic, and morphological features across centuries. Due to its relative geographic isolation from the Iranian plateau, Mazandarani—a northwestern Iranian language spoken in Mazandaran province—has retained lexical items traceable to Old Iranian, including archaisms absent in other Iranian languages. Mazandaran, historically known as Tabarestan, is a southern Caspian littoral region whose well-protected terrain, shielded by the Alborz Mountains, has safeguarded its linguistic heritage from invasions and external influence. Consequently, Mazandarani, or Tabari, preserves a rich inventory of Middle and Old Iranian vocabulary, including Avestan and Middle Iranian lexical items, as well as borrowings (Borjian, 2021). Spoken by approximately 2.5 million people, Mazandarani is also the only Iranian language with recorded written literature dating to the medieval period, including works such as Nikināme, Marzbānnāme, Bāvandnāme, and various Koranic exegeses, some of which have been later translated into Persian or lost (Borjian, 2021; Najafzadeh, 1989).

This study investigates the etymology and semantic development of six Mazandarani toponymic suffixes. From a dataset of 1,184 rural Mazandarani toponyms, 43 suffixes were extracted, of which six were selected for detailed analysis due to their semantic ambiguity. The results indicate that all six suffixes ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European, via Proto-Indo-Iranian and Iranian stages, exhibiting parallels with other Indo-European language families, including Germanic and Balto-Slavic. Phonetic forms and semantic content, however, underwent transformations through processes of grammaticalization and semantic change, including decategorization, desemanticization, erosion, and metonymical generalization (Hopper & Traugott, 1993; Heine, 1993; Trask, 2003; Geeraerts, 2010). For example, the common noun marz (“border”) experienced decategorization, losing its nominal function and becoming a functional suffix; through desemanticization and metonymic processes (synecdoche), its meaning broadened from “border” to a general sense of “land.”

The findings corroborate Tame’s (2020) conclusion that many toponymic suffixes originate as ordinary lexical items that acquire specialized toponymic functions through semantic change. Suffixes such as kelā (“village”), marz (“border/field”), male (“village”), and keti (“hill”) illustrate this trajectory. Comparable suffixes appear in other Indo-European languages, particularly Germanic and Balto-Slavic groups, reflecting shared etymological roots and inherited tendencies in word formation. The recurrence of related phonetic forms with consistent semantic functions further suggests the impact of successive waves of Indo-Iranian settlement in Mazandaran, the retention of Indo-European archaic forms, and the subsequent influence of Persian as a regional lingua franca. Overall, this research highlights the significance of regional dialects in reconstructing lost etymologies, preserving linguistic archaisms, and understanding the mechanisms of toponymization

License Notice: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International