Syntactic and Morphological Study of Kinship Terms in Caspian Languages

Kinship terms are words used to identify relationships between individuals in a family and to address these individuals in a speech community, such as, father, mother, brother and daughter. These names act independently in syntax and morphology in some languages. This independence is not frequently found in other areas of these languages. This article focuses on kinship terms in Caspian languages (i.e., Gilaki, Taleshi and Tati). Rashti dialect has been selected from Gilaki language, Parasari dialect has been sleeted from Taleshi language and Deravi dialect has been selected from Tati language. The data analysis of this research shows that in these dialects the nominative and non-nominative cases of kinship terms are different from the same cases of other words in these dialects. These terms have their exclusive forms for the nominative and non-nominative cases. In terms of morphology there are also specific rules for these terms; for example, in kinship terms of Gilaki language we can see five-part compound names; this phenomenon not only is rare in other Iranian languages, but also in other compound names in Gilaki.