In this paper I am going to describe an onomatopoeic suffix in some khorasani dialects spoken in the north east of Iran. In Sabzevari dialect, one of khorasani dialects, the repetition of two onomatopoeic words shows the continuity of that sound: vez vez : the continuous buzzing sound of bees; shor shor: the continuous sound of water coming down veng veng : the continuous sound of a fly To refer to the sudden production of these sounds, the suffix –ast is added to the onomatopoeic word (doubling the last consonant of the word): vez-z-ast: the sudden buzzing of bees shor-r-ast: the sudden sound of water coming down This suffix can be added to words showing a continuous state, too: mol mol: the continuous state of worms moving around mol-l-ast: the sudden movement of a worm (staying still) The suffix –ast is very productive and it can be added to all onomatopoeic words, marking this change of meaning. This suffix can be seen in Tajiki and Afhgani, too (which have historical affinities with khorasani dialects) but I could not find any example of it in other parts of Iran. I will also present some historical data showing the use of this affix by khorasani writers in classical Persian.

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