Iranian Topoformants in Compound Oykonyms and Their Role in Creating Cultural and National Identity

Language plays a special role among the various factors that cause the formation and consolidation of identity for a society. In the meantime, toponyms or place-names have a special role. In these geographical names, there are common elements that lead to a cultural similarity and, ultimately, a common identity for their users. Most of these common elements in geographical names are those linguistic units which are called topoformants. The role of these formants, especially in countries such as Iran, which is composed of different ethnic groups and different languages are prevalent in it, is very important in creating a common cultural identity and, ultimately, national identity. In this paper, we intend to answer this question, given that different languages are common in Iran, what strategy has been chosen in choosing the geographical names, that are prominent manifestations of identity in each country, and whether this strategy has been useful. The data of this paper show that the use of common and transparent topoformants is a solution that Iranian people have chosen in naming geographical places. In fact, by using these common topoformants Iranian people have been able to create a common cultural identity, which has also strengthened their national identity.