Abstract
Subject. The article examines the system of accentuation of the minor Iranian languages, Parachi and Ormuri, and its connection with the Pashto system.
Purpose. Etymological description of the Parachi and Ormuri accent systems.
Relevance. Importance of Iranian data for Indo-European reconstruction.
Novelty. First, the authors give a historical review of existing studies, which establish the archaic character of accentuation of both Pashto and Parachi-Ormuri, and then, based primarily on the research of V. A. Dybo and V. A. Efimov, a list of lexical etymological connections between these languages is compiled, which allows us to indicate the place of the original Proto-Iranian stress.
Methods. Etymological, lexicographic.
Results. The list shows that the accent system in Ormuri-Parachi languages corresponds in detail to the one described for Pashto: traces of baritonesis and oxytones are preserved in two- and three-syllable nouns, in numerals and verbs; accent in derivative names is placed “by contrast”, of the same type that is established for the Vedic language. Moreover, a number of similarities under consideration are exclusive to Eastern Iranian languages, and in general, there are even more lexical and morphological isoglosses between Parachi and Ormuri and Eastern Iranian languages.
Findings. The two factors described above indicate that Parachi and Ormuri, according to the traditional classification, are more likely to be closely related to the South-Eastern Iranian languages, primarily Pashto and, possibly, Mundjan and Yidga.
Recommendations. It is desirable to collect new field data on Parachi and Ormuri.