On August 16-27, 2010, YSU Iranian Studies Department graduates Ophelia Frangian, Hasmik Sargsian and Narine Gevorgian took part in Summer School courses, titled “New Western Iranian and Early Judeo-Persian Dialectology”, hosted by the Asien-Afrika Institute, Hamburg University, Germany.
The Summer School was an exceptional undertaking in respect of the way it was designed to correlate topics, viewing the early stage of Judeo-Persian and New Western Iranian dialectology together. The program was divided into morning seminars and afternoon lectures.
The seminar on Early Judeo-Persian text-reading, held by Dr. Thamar E. Ghindin, was aimed to give general overview of early Judeo-Persian text corpus. By studying a number of Early Judeo-Persian text fragments, participants were introduced to the principles of EJP dialect classification. The focus of the second seminar, held by Dr. Agnes Korn, was Western Iranian languages and dialects, laying stress on some crucial points in comparative Iranian linguistics and its research methodology, as well as providing keener insight into the study of the field.
Afternoon lectures touched upon various topics, like “Highlighting the Evolution of New Persian” and “West Iranian Dialects and Folklore” (Prof. Dr. Ludwig Paul), “Specimens in Dialectology” and “Problems in Fieldwork” (Prof. Dr. Lutz Rzehak), “Methods of Language Documentation” and “Iranian Languages in Georgia” (Prof. Dr. Jost Gippert), “Problems in Middle Persian Syntax and Lexicography” and “Judeo-Persian, Early Judeo-Persian and Early Judeo-Bukharian ” (Prof. Dr. Shaul Shaked), “Kurdish Dialects” (Prof. Dr. Jeoffrey Haig), “From Early Judeo-Persian Jargons to 20th Central Asiatic Tajik and Uzbek Argots: An Aramaic Lexical Continuum” (Prof. Dr. Martin Schwartz), etc.
More than 30 participants of the courses, engaged in Iranian and Semitic Studies, Linguistics, etc., were encouraged to be actively involved into discussions during both the seminars and lectures, and also during extracurricular get-togethers being a part of the social program of the Summer School. By asking questions, summarizing ideas and putting them together, the process of learning appeared more interesting and efficient. Participants were also given the opportunity to represent their own research papers and activities.