Iranian languages

This article deals with the language family. For languages spoken on the territory of Iran, see Languages of Iran.

Iranian
Geographic distribution:	Southwest Asia, Central Asia and parts of South Asia
Genetic classification:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Iranian
Subdivisions:	Western Iranian Eastern Iranian
Geographic distribution of the modern Iranian languages: Persian (green), Pashto (purple), Balochi (yellow), and Kurdish (turquoise), as well as smaller communities of other Iranian languages (User-created map)

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family with an estimated number of 150-200 million native speakers today.^[1] Together with the Indo-Aryan languages they form the Indo-Iranian languages group, a branch of Indo-European. With Avestan and Old Persian, the Iranian languages comprise two of the oldest recorded Indo-European languages (along with the Indic language Vedic Sanskrit, Greek, and Hittite).

Name

This branch of languages is called 'Iranian' because its principal members, including Persian, have been spoken in an area centered around the Iranian plateau since ancient times. However, as a linguistic classification, the term does not imply any connection with the state of Iran, for which see Languages of Iran.

Early Iranian languages

Historical distribution in 100 BC: shown is Sarmatia, Scythia, Bactria and the Parthian Empire.

The Indo-Iranian languages probably originated in Central Asia. The Andronovo culture is the near-universally preferred candidate for the common Indo-Iranian culture ca. 2000 BC.

Together with the other Indo-Iranian languages, the Iranian languages are descended from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-Iranian. This language split up into:

• Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, attested from the 2nd millennium BC
• Dardic languages
• Nuristani languages
• Iranian languages, including Avestan (dated to roughly 1000 BC) and Old Persian (attested from roughly 500 BC).

Proto-Iranian thus dates to some time after Proto-Indo-Iranian breakup, or the early second millennium BC, as the Old Iranian languages began to break off and evolve separately as the various Iranian tribes migrated and settled in vast areas of southeastern Europe, the Iranian plateau, and Central Asia.

Linguistically, the Old Iranian languages are divided into two major families and sub classes:

• The eastern group
• The western group
  • The southwestern group
  • The northwestern group

The eastern group includes the Sogdian, Khwarezmian, Saka, and Avestan, (also known as Old Bactrian). The northwestern branch includes the Median language. The southwestern group includes Persian.

Avestan is mainly attested through the Avesta, a collection of sacred texts connected to the Zoroastrian religion. Old Persian is attested through inscriptions in the Old Persian cuneiform script.

The Middle Iranian languages

What is known in Iranian linguistic history as the "Middle Iranian" era is thought to begin around the 4th century BCE lasting through the 9th century. Again, geographically, one can classify these into two main families, Western and Eastern.

The former family includes the languages of Parthian (Arsacid Pahlavi) and Middle Persian, while Bactrian, Sogdian, Khwarezmian, Saka, and Old Ossetic (Scytho-Sarmatian) fall under the latter category. The two languages of the western group were linguistically very close to each other, but quite distinct from their eastern counterparts. On the other hand, the Eastern group retained more proximity to Old Iranian. They were inscribed in various Aramaic alphabets, which had evolved from the Achaemenid Imperial Aramaic.

Middle Persian (Pahlavi), was the official language of the Sassanids. It was in usage from the 3rd century until the top of the 10th century. Pahlavi was also the language of the Manichaeans, whose texts survive albeit in limited numbers. The Imperial Aramaic script used in this era experienced significant maturation.

Iranian languages after the Arab conquest of Persia

Dark green: Countries where Iranian languages are official. Teal: Regional co-official/de facto status.

Following the Islamic Conquest of Iran, there were important changes in the role of the different dialects of Persian within the Persian empire. The old prestige form of Middle Persian, also known as Pahlavi, was replaced by a new standard dialect called Dari as the official language of the court. The name Dari comes from the word darbar (دربار), which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished (See Persian literature). The Saffarid dynasty in particular was the first in a line of many dynasties to officially adopt the new language in 875CE. Dari is believed to have been heavily influenced by regional dialects of eastern Iran, whereas the earlier Pahlavi standard was based more on western dialects. This new prestige dialect became the ancestor of modern Standard Persian. Medieval Iranian scholars such as Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa (8th century) and Ibn al-Nadim (10th century) associated the term "Dari" with the eastern province of Khorasan, while they used the term "Pahlavi" to describe the dialects of the northwestern areas between Isfahan and Azerbaijan (see Ancient Azari language), and "Parsi" ("Persian" proper) to describe the dialects of Fars. They also noted that the unofficial language of the royalty itself was yet another dialect, "Khuzi", associated with the western province of Khuzestan.

The Islamic conquest also brought with it the adoption of Arabic script for writing Persian. It was adapted to the writing of Persian by the addition of a few letters. This development probably occurred some time during the second half of the 8th century, when the old middle Persian script began dwindling in usage. The aforementioned script remains the in use in contemporary modern Persian. Tajiki Persian script was however Cyrillicized in the 1920s and 1930s under plans by USSR's government in Central Asia.

The geographical area in which Iranian languages were spoken was pushed back in several areas by new neighbouring languages. Arabic spread into some parts of Western Iran (Khuzestan), and Turkic languages spread through much of Central Asia, displacing various Iranian languages such as Sogdian and Bactrian in parts of what is today Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. They also displaced the Persian language spoken in Azerbaijan.

Classification of the Iranian languages

Main article: List of Iranian languages

Iranian languages are divided into Eastern and Western subfamilies, totalling about 84 languages (SIL estimate). Of the most widely-spoken Iranian languages, Kurdish, Persian, and Balochi are all Western Iranian languages, while Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language.

Notes

1. ^ SIL in a 2005 estimate counts a total of 87 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Persian (ca. 70 million), Kurdish and Pashto (ca. 25 million each) and Balochi (7 million); see also list of languages by number of native speakers.

References

• Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. Rüdiger Schmidt, Reichert, Wiesbaden (1989), ISBN 3-88226-413-6.
• Dehkhoda Dictionary, by Dehkhoda. Library of Congress Title: Lughatʹnāmah / taʾlīf-i Dihkhudā ; [zīr-i naẓar-i Muḥammad Muʻīn ]. Library of Congress Call Number: AE36 .D4 Pers
• Encyclopedia Iranica, Columbia University, p238-245
• The Ancient language of Azarbaijan by W.B. Henning

See also

• Iranian peoples
• History of Iran
• Indo-Iranian Languages

External links

• Iranian languages
• Iranian Language Family
• Kasravi's research on Azari language (in Persian)
• CAIS classification of Iranian languages

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