Future in Jowshaqani, the form and function

While most new Iranian languages do not have a separate construction to express the future time, Jowshaqani a central Iranian language in northern Isfahan shows a triple construction for future time: a near future referring to immediate future and future certainty, a distant future referring to remote future and future possibility, which is also used for optative and irrealis, as well as a construction for a future imperative. Apart from describing the forms and uses of the future, this article also examines the historical evolution of the future construction in Jowshaqani, and how the new uses are developed for the older ones. The study of the form and function of the future tense in Jowshaqani shows that the new uses of the future tense has as optative, irrealis, and imperative meanings which can be analyzedin terms of the relation of the future tense with modality. For expressing near future, the aspect has been an important factor in the development of such a near future construction.