Northwestern phonological features in Guilaki

Spoken in southwestern shores of Khazar Sea in Guilan Province, Guilaki is a northwestern Iranian dialect, and together with Māzandarāni and Semnāni dialects constitute Khazar group of Northwestern Iranian dialects. Gilaki has varieties in diverse regions in Guilan province such as Rasht, Langerud, Anzali, but its archaic variety is Gāleshi, spoken in mountainous area in the east of Guilan. The vocabulary and sound system of this dialect is profoundly affected by Persian, so that most of its northwestern features were disappeared or only may be seen in archaic variety of Guilaki such as Gāleshi. The aim of this paper was to examine the vocabulary of Guilaki varieties to find the northwestern phonological features of this dialect by looking at certain characteristics of its historical phonology. Findings showed that Guilaki has basic northwestern features, though exhibit some of them only in one word, or though these characteristics are best seen in archaic varieties of Guilaki such as Gāleshi.