Geographic distribution of the Iranian languages: Persian (green), Pashto (purple) and Kurdish (turquoise), Lurish (magenta), Baloch (yellow), as well as smaller communities of other Iranian languages
The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian. They are spoken by the Iranian peoples. Avestan is the oldest recorded Iranian language.
Contents |
The Iranian language branch is so named because its principal member languages, including Persian, have been spoken in the area of the Iranian plateau since ancient times. However, as a linguistic classification 'Iranian' implies no specific or special relation with the modern country of Iran. To avoid this confusion, the term Iranic is sometimes also used for this branch. Iranian languages are spoken by many ethnic groups including Persians, Tajiks, Hazara, Aimaq), Kurds (Kurmanji, Sorani), Pashtuns (Abdali, Ghilzai), Baluchis, Goranis, Talishis, Mazandaris, Sangesaris, Tati, and Zazas.
It was situated precisely in the western part of Central Asia that borders present-day Russia (and present-day Kazakhstan). It was relatively proximity to the other satem ethno-linguistic groups of the Indo-European family, like Thracian, Balto-Slavic and others according to the reconstructed linguistic relationships of common Indo-European and its original homeland (more precisely, the steppes of southern Russia to the north of the Caucasus).
Proto-Iranian thus dates to some time after Proto-Indo-Iranian break-up, 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.
Avestan, mainly attested through the Avesta, a collection of sacred texts connected to the Zoroastrian religion, is considered to belong to a central Iranian group [2], where only peripheral groups such as southwestern (represented by Old Persian) and northeastern Sogdian and Sakan language (Scythian) had developed. Among the less known Old Iranian languages is Median, spoken in western and central Iran, which may have had an “official” status during the Median era (ca. 700-559 BC). Apart from place and personal names, some report from Herodotus' Histories and some preserved forms in Achaemenid inscriptions; there are numerous non-Persian words in the Old Persian texts that are commonly considered Median. Also some of the modern Western and Central Iranian dialects are likely to be descended from Median.[3]
Others are Carduchi (predecessor to Kurdish) and Parthian (evolving into the language of the later empire).[4]
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. Linguistically and historically one can classify these into two main families, Western and Eastern.
The Western family includes Parthian (Arsacid Pahlavi) and Middle Persian, while Bactrian, Sogdian, Khwarezmian, Saka, and Old Ossetic (Scytho-Sarmatian) fall under the Eastern 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 some proximity to Avestan. They were inscribed in various Aramaic-derived 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 CE until the beginning of the 10th century. Pahlavi and Parthian were also the language of the Manichaeans, whose texts also survive in various non-Iranian languages, from Latin to Chinese. The Imperial Aramaic script used in this era experienced significant maturation.
The Islamic conquest also brought with it the adoption of Arabic script for writing Persian, Pashto and Balochi. All three were adapted to the writing 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 Arabic script remains in use in contemporary modern Persian. Tajik script was first Latinised in the 1920s under the then Soviet nationality policy. The script was however subsequently Cyrillicized in the 1930s by the Soviet government.
The geographical area in which Iranian languages were spoken was pushed back in several areas by newly 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. Sogdian barely survives in a small area of the Zarafshan valley east of Samarkand, and Saka (as Sariqoli) in parts of southern Xinjiang as well as Ossetic in the Caucasus. Various small Iranian languages in the Pamirs survive that are derived from Eastern Iranian.
IndoEuropean language family tree 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.
ar:لغات إيرانية an:Luengas iranias ast:Llingües irániques az:İran qrupu bn:ইরানীয় ভাষাসমূহ br:Yezhoù iranek bg:Ирански езици ca:Llengües iràniques cv:Иран чĕлхисем cs:Íránské jazyky da:Iranske sprog de:Iranische Sprachen et:Iraani keeled es:Lenguas iranias eo:Irana lingvaro fa:زبانهای ایرانی fr:Langues iraniennes ga:Teangacha Iaránacha gl:Linguas iranias ko:이란어군 hsb:Iranske rěče hr:Iranski jezici os:Ирайнаг æвзæгтæ it:Lingue iraniche he:שפות איראניות ka:ირანული ენები ku:Zimanên îranî la:Linguae Iranicae lt:Iranėnų kalbos mzn:ایرانیج زوونون nl:Iraanse talen ja:イラン語群 no:Iranske språk nn:Iranske språk oc:Lengas iranianas pl:Języki irańskie pt:Línguas iranianas ro:Limbi iraniene qu:Iranu rimaykuna ru:Иранские языки sk:Iránske jazyky sl:Iranski jeziki sr:Ирански језици sh:Ирански језици fi:Iranilaiset kielet sv:Iranska språk ta:ஈரானிய மொழிகள் tg:Забонҳои эронӣ tr:İrani Diller diq:Zıwanê İranki zh:伊朗语支
