Modal Forms for Permission in Gilaki: A Historical Approach

In Gilaki, four forms are used to express permission: vâhâštǝn, bedâ, benǝ and tânǝstǝn. Some of these forms indicate the issuance of permission and some indicate the request for permission. These forms are the result of the grammaticalization of the forms that had lexical functions in the old periods of Iranian languages. In this article, the process of grammaticalization of the grams which represent permission has been investigated based on the data from Avestan, Old Persian, Middle Persian, and Persian literary texts. In most languages, permission is represented either through the grammaticalization of verbs that imply abandoning and leaving or through the grammaticalization of verbs that imply the concept of ability and are also used to express probability. In the Gilaki, the forms vâhâštǝn and bedâ, from the root harz / hard, which means "to leave", survived in the old period of Iranian languages. Benǝ, from the infinitive nehan, in addition to the lexical meaning of "putting", was used in a stage of language evolution to express the meaning of "leaving" and then its imperative verb was grammaticalized to express the concept of permission. Tânǝstǝn is also from the root tav meaning "to be able" in the old period of Iranian languages. This form in the course of evolution, in addition to the modal concept of ability, is also used to express possibility and permission.