Iranian group. Iranian languages. External influence and peoples with Iranian roots

IRANIAN LANGUAGES, a group of Indo-Iranian languages. Distributed in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Israel, as well as in the diaspora in Europe and America. Previously, they were represented in the Northern Black Sea region, Central Asia, Eastern Turkestan, Eastern Pamir and Eastern Transcaucasia. The total number of speakers is about 135 million (early 21st century, estimate).

The historical and genetic classification divides the Iranian languages into a western subgroup (with its division into northern and southern languages) and an eastern subgroup. The northern Western Iranian languages include: the dead - the Median language, the Parthian language; alive - Kurdish, Baloch, Talysh, Gilan, Mazandaran, a number of small unwritten languages of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and the languages of Parachi and Ormuri; to the south: the dead - Old Persian, Middle Persian; living ones - Persian, Tajik, Dari (Farsi-Kabuli), Tat, Khazar, Kumzari, a number of minor languages and dialects of Iran. The East Iranian languages include: the dead - the Scythian language, Alanian, Sogdian language, Khorezmian language, Bactrian, Saka languages (Khotanese, Tumshuk, etc.); the living ones are the Ossetian language, the Yagnobi language, the Pashto (Afghan language) and a number of languages that make up the areal group known as the Pamir languages (the Shugnano-Rushan group of languages, the Yazgulam language, the Wakhan language, Ishkashim, Sanglich, Mundzhan and Yidga). The Avestan language, extinct, but used as the language of worship among the Zoroastrians, has a number of features of the Western and Eastern subgroups.

Typologically, the Iranian languages are heterogeneous. In vocalism, the ancient Iranian languages - Avestan and Old Persian - retain the correlation of duration, which in the languages of subsequent periods loses its position, being retained only in a part of phonemic pairs (in Baluch, Yagnob, languages of the Shugnano-Rushan group), turning into a correlation of stability (the main part of languages) or disappearing completely (in Mazandaran). In consonantism, there are 4 types of systems. The 1st type is close to the prasystem (ancient languages, as well as Persian, Tajik, Tat, Gilan, Mazandaran, part of the Kurdish dialects). Other types - with later correlations: 2nd - aspiration (northern Kurdish dialects, East Beluch dialects, parachi); 3rd - cerebrality (Pashto, Mundzhan and Yidga, Wakhan, Ishka-Shim, Parachi, Ormuri, Baluch, Khazar; traces also in the Yazgulam language and Shugnano-Rushan group); 4th - abruptivity (Ossetian). In morphology, the ancient Iranian languages retain the inflectional form formation (see Inflectional) and the ablaut of the root and affix; declension and conjugation are multi-type. Ternary systems of number (singular, dual, plural), gender (masculine, feminine, neuter). The name contains a multi-reliable inflectional paradigm. In the verb, the person and the number are expressed in inflection, the opposition "asset - medialis" (version) - also inflection, "asset - passive" (actually the voice) - suffixed. Species characteristics (duration; singularity, completeness; efficiency, state) are expressed by the types of bases (respectively, present, aoristic, perfect), the category of time - by the type of inflection and augment (a special prefix in the forms of the past tense, mainly perfect). The inclinations are related to the types of stems and inflections. There are analytical constructions (see Analyticism in linguistics).

In later languages - the unification of the types of form formation in the noun and the verb, the withering away of the ablaut. Binary systems of number (in all languages), gender (relics of the neuter gender only in Saka and Sogdian); in a number of languages, the genus dies out (in Persian, Tajik, etc.). Simplification of the case system with restructuring in many languages according to the agglutinative principle (in Ossetian - under the Caucasian influence; in Gilan, Mazandaran, Talysh, Baluch, etc.; see Agglutination). Dying off of cases (Persian, Tajik, Tat, etc.) with agglutination of the number affix. Postpositive (in Persian, Tajik, Sangisari, Gilan, Baloch, Parachi, Kurdish, etc.) and prepositive (in several languages) indefinite article. The verb contains new analytical and secondary inflectional forms based on participles. Person and number are expressed by inflection (new and old), enclitics (see Clitics), separable indicators, ligaments, auxiliary verbs; collateral - by the presence of secondary forms of liability; species characteristics - analytical forms, preverbs, complex verbal verbs; the category of time - by the types of bases, endings, the construction of the form as a whole, less often by the augment (Yagnobi language).

The syntax of a number of languages is characterized by an izafet construction (see Izafet) with a preposition of the defined, decorated with a special indicator (Persian, Tajik, Kurdish, Avromani, etc.). In many languages - ergative (or ergative; see Ergative structure) construction of a sentence with transitive verbs in the past tenses with object (Pashto, Mundjan, Kurdish, etc.) or subjective (Yazgulam, Rushan, etc.) verb coordination.

The division of Iranian languages into ancient, Central Iranian and New Iranian is based on extralinguistic data (cultural and historical, etc.). On linguistic grounds, 2 periods are distinguished: the ancient (ancient Persian, Avestan, Median, Scythian languages) and the subsequent (all other languages).

The first monuments of ancient Persian writing are cuneiform inscriptions (starting from the 6th century BC; see Cuneiform writing). The Avestan hymns, passed down orally for many centuries, were written around the 4th century AD with a special alphabet based on Middle Persian. Monuments of the Middle Persian (from the 2-3 century AD), Parthian (from the 1st century BC), Sogdian (from the 4th century AD) and partially Khorezmian (from the 3rd century BC) languages are written in varieties of Aramaic writing (part of the Khorezm texts reached in Arabic-language works of the 12-13th century AD in the Arabic alphabet). For the Khotanosak language (from the 7th century) a variety of Brahmi was used (see Indian script), for the Bactrian (about 2nd century) - the Greek alphabet (see Greek script). Writing systems for Persian, Dari, Afghani, Baloch languages are varieties of the Arabic alphabet (see Arabic script); the alphabets for the Tajik, Ossetian, Tat languages are created on the basis of Russian graphics. Kurds the former USSR use Russian graphics, some of the Kurds of Syria and Iraq - Latin, the rest - Arabic. Other languages are almost literal.

The study of living Iranian languages began at the end of the 17th century, the ancient - from the 18th century. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the combined work "Grundriss der iranischen Philologie" summarized the previous research. In the 20th century, new monuments of dead languages (including previously unknown ones) were discovered, living languages were studied (and discovered). Generalization of the material from historical and genetic positions - in the works of I. M. Oransky; from historical and typological - in "Experience of historical and typological research of Iranian languages" (volumes 1-2, 1975). The description of the Iranian languages according to a single typological principle is carried out in three volumes in the series "Languages of the World", according to a single comparative historical principle - in seven volumes of the "Foundations of Iranian Linguistics".

Lit .: Grundriss der iranischen Philologie. Strasbourg, 1895-1904. Bd 1-2. IN.; N. Y. 1974; Handbuch der Orientalistik. Leiden, 1958. Abt. 1. Bd 4. Abschrift 1: Linguistik; Essays on the history of the study of Iranian languages. M., 1962; Oransky I.M. Iranian languages. M., 1963; he is. Iranian languages in historical coverage. M., 1979; he is. Introduction to Iranian Philology. 2nd ed. M., 1988; Iranian languages // Languages of Asia and Africa. M., 1978. T. 2; Foundations of Iranian Linguistics. M., 1979-2007. [Book. 1-7]; Edelman DI Comparative grammar of Eastern Iranian languages. Phonology. M., 1986; she is. Comparative grammar of Eastern Iranian languages. Morphology. Syntax elements. M., 1990; Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden, 1989; Rastorgueva V.S. Comparative-historical grammar of Western Iranian languages. Phonology. M., 1990; Languages of the world. Iranian languages. M., 1997-2000. T. 1: Southwest Iranian languages. T. 2: Northwest Iranian languages. T. 3: East Iranian languages.

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Iranian peoples of Russia, Iranian peoples of Dagestan
Total: up to approximately 200 million
Middle East, Central Asia, Asia Minor, South Asia, Transcaucasia and North Caucasus, Europe, America

Language

Iranian languages

Religion

Predominantly Islam, also Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Bahaism, Yezidism, Judaism.

Included in

Indo-European family

Related peoples

Indo-Aryans, Dardas, Nuristanis, Indo-Europeans Finno-Ugric Türks

Iranian peoples, Iranians(Pers. currently distributed on the territory of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan; partly on the territory of Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Crimea, Iraq, Syria, Oman, China, Azerbaijan, Georgia and southern Russia.

1 Origin of the name
2 Ethnogenesis
3 Ambiguity of the term "Iranians"
4 Iranian languages
5 Ancient Iranians
6 Modern Iranian peoples
- 6.1 Formation history
- 6.2 List of modern Iranian peoples
7 Culture and religion
- 7.1 Greater Iran
  - 7.1.1 Iranian culture
  - 7.1.2 External influences and peoples with Iranian roots
  - 7.1.3 Religions
- 7.2 Ossetia
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References

origin of name

Indo-Europeans
Indo-European languages
Anatolian Albanian Armenian Baltic Venetian Germanic Illyrian Aryan: Nuristani, Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Dardic Italian (Romanesque) Celtic Paleo-Balkan Slavic Tocharian dead language groups are italicized
Indo-Europeans
Albanians Armenians Balts Venets Germans Greeks Illyrians Iranians Indo-Aryans Italics (Romance) Celts Cimmerians Slavs Tochars Thracians Hittites italicized now-defunct communities
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language Ancestral home Religion
Indo-European Studies p o p

The ethnonym "Iranians" comes from the historical name "Iran" (pehl. Ērān, Pers. ايراﻥ), derived from the ancient Iranian a (i) ryāna - Aryan (land), (land) of the Aryans. Wed avest. airyana- “Aryan”, airyō.šayana “abode of the Aryans”, airyå daiŋʹhāwō - “land of the Aryans”, Parth. and Sogd. aryān "Iran", Alan. * alān "alan".

Ethnogenesis

The origin of the Iranian-speaking peoples is associated with the disintegration of the Indo-Iranian continuum, which took place approximately at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. on the former territory of the ancient, apparently, pre-Indo-Iranian Bactriano-Margian culture (Central Asia and Afghanistan). As a result, initially compact communities of Indo-Aryans, Mitannians and Iranians proper appeared, which turned out to be separated by geographical and linguistic barriers. From the end of the 2nd to the end of the 1st millennium BC. NS. there is a wide expansion of Iranian-speaking tribes from the Central Asian region, as a result of which the Iranians are settled in large territories of Eurasia from the west of China to Mesopotamia and from the Hindu Kush to the Northern Black Sea region.

Ambiguity of the term "Iranians"

In modern usage, the word "Iranians" often denotes the inhabitants of modern Iran, especially Persian-speaking, which is primarily due to the official renaming of this country in 1935 from "Persia" to "Iran". Meanwhile, the very term "Iran" was originally used for a much larger region, which also includes Afghanistan and the south. Central Asia(Big Khorasan). To distinguish between the concepts of "modern state Iran" and "historical Iran" for the latter, the expression "Persia" is used.

In addition, the very term "Iran" is associated primarily with the Persian language and the Persian epic tradition (see Shahnameh). Other Iranian-speaking peoples formed their own designations based on a common ancient ethnonym, for example, among the ancestors of the Ossetians: alan< *aryāna.

Iranian languages

Main article: Iranian languages

Iranian languages are a group within the Aryan branch of Indo-European languages, the Indo-Aryan and Dardic languages are closest to them, originating with them from one Indo-Iranian community, which disintegrated approximately in the beginning. II millennium BC NS.

As a result of migrations over considerable distances and increasing isolation, Iranian unity disintegrated in the early. 1st millennium BC e., therefore, the Iranian language group is highly differentiated, and the languages of its extreme branches are completely incomprehensible.

The new Iranian community is characterized by the centuries-old domination of the Persian colloquial and literary language(and its closely related branches in the form of the Dari and Tajik languages) and the suppression of other Iranian languages by it, the legacy of which is observed to this day.

Ancient Iranians

Scythians. Drawing of a vessel from Kul-Oba Persian warriors. Relief in Persepolis.

By the end of the 1st millennium BC. NS. Iranian peoples settled in vast territories, including the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, the Hindu Kush region up to the Indus, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, the steppes north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea.

Following the Iranian languages, it is sometimes customary to divide the ancient Iranian peoples into western and eastern, although for the ancient Iranians themselves such a division was hardly relevant, since in the 1st millennium all Iranian languages were still very close to each other and mutually understandable. The difference in economic type was much more relevant: some Iranian peoples were sedentary farmers or mountain semi-sedentary shepherds, others mastered a nomadic way of life.

Sedentary and semi-sedentary peoples
- ancient persians
- Medes
- Parthians
- sagartyas
- satagitias
- zarangians
- arachosia
- Margians
- bactrians
- Sogdians
- Khorezmians
Nomadic peoples
- saki
  - the Saki of Khotan, who became a sedentary people.
- massagets
- dudes
- Scythians
- Sarmatians
  - yazygs
  - roxolans
  - Alans
- Hephthalites
- chionites

Modern Iranian peoples

Formation history

Compared to the ancient era, the ethnic map of modern Iranian peoples has undergone significant changes. The main milestones here were:

Disintegration since the 3rd century n. NS. the world of Iranian-speaking nomads in the Eurasian steppes and its gradual assimilation by the Turkic nomads and Slavs. In the North Caucasus and in the Volga-Don steppes, a semi-nomadic Alanian ethnos remained for a long time, which finally lost its hegemony in the XIII-XIV centuries. after the invasions of the Mongols and Tamerlane. The remainder of it, which has not undergone linguistic assimilation, are the present Ossetians.
The expansion of first the Middle Persian, and then of its descendant, the New Persian language, over the entire space of Greater Iran and the assimilation of many local Iranian dialects by it. As a result, a vast Perso-Tajik community is formed from Hamadan to Fergana, speaking in closely related dialects. Only the Tats community in northern Azerbaijan turned out to be somewhat isolated.
Expansion of Kurds from the regions of central Zagros to upper Mesopotamia and the Armenian Highlands.
Expansion of the Deilemites from the Caspian region, as a result of which the Zazaki and Gurani tribes, subsequently integrated into the Kurdish community, spread to the west.
Displacement of the Azeri language in Azerbaijan by the Oghuz dialects of the Turkic family. Its remains are the Tati dialects and the Talysh language.
The migration of the Gorgan semi-nomads and the formation of the Baluchis in present-day Baluchistan.
Expansion of the Pashtuns in Afghanistan to the west and north.
Extensive, but far from complete, the displacement of the Tajik language by Turkic dialects in Central Asia and northern Afghanistan and the formation of an Uzbek nation with strong sedentary Iranian traditions.

List of modern Iranian peoples

Dariush Talai, Iranian musician with tar Elderly Tajik Pashtuns: governors of Afghan provinces Hazara boy from Mazar-i-Sharif Pashaya youth in national dress. Baloch peasant in Pakistan

Persians and Tajiks(Pers., dari فارسان ، پارسان ، ایرانی‌ها ، تاجیک‌ها fårsån, pårsån, irånihå (īrånīhå), tåjikhå (tåjīkhå), Tajik forson, porson, toҷikҳo). Persians live mainly in Iran, partly in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Tajiks live mainly in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, partly in Uzbekistan. The problem of the ratio of Persians and Tajiks, whose dialects represent a continuum, is far from clear, which is especially evident in the example of Afghanistan, in the western regions of which the Persian-speaking population (Parsivans, Farsivans) is close in language, religion and traditions to the Persians of the Iranian regions of Khorasan and Sistan, and in in the eastern regions, the Persian-speaking population is called "Tajiks" and gravitates towards the Tajiks of Tajikistan. At the same time, the Dari language is recognized as one of the state languages of the country, common for all Perso-Tajiks in Afghanistan, but based on the Perso-Tajik dialect of Kabul. The Perso-Tajiks of Afghanistan themselves usually distinguish themselves by religion (Shiism / Sunnism) and oppose themselves to nomads and semi-nomads as farmers (دهقان / دهغان), that is, sedentary farmers.
Pashtuns(pashto پښتون western paṣ̌tún, eastern paxˇtún plural پښتانه western paṣ̌tānə́, eastern paxˇtānə́), they are Afghans, East Iranian people, with a traditional nomadic and semi-nomadic way of life and an extensive tribal division, living in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pashai(Pers. The number of people is 100 thousand. They speak the Pashai language of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. Dari and Pashto languages are also widespread. Pashai majority - Sunni Muslims A small minority are Ismaili Muslims.
Kurds(Kurd. Kurd / کورد, Kurd. Kurmancî / کورمانجی) - Western Iranian people, the main territory of residence between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. They have tribal (clan) division and speak numerous dialects, grouped into two large dialects: Kurmanji (North Kurdish) and Sorani (South Krudian). The latter is much more fractional, often it is also distinguished from it leki, kelhuri, feili, etc. According to ethnic traditions, speakers of sharply different languages Zazaki (nationality zaza) and mountains.
Baloch(Baloch. بلوچ balōč) - a nomadic and semi-nomadic ethnic group with tribal division. The main territory of which is the Pakistani province of Baluchistan and the Iranian provinces of Sistan and Baluchistan.
Mazenderans and Gilians(mazend.
Lura and bakhtiars(لر ، بختیاری lor, baxtiyårī) are traditionally nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of Western Iran living in the Zagros mountains. They speak dialects related to the Persian language.
Pamir peoples- a set of heterogeneous high-altitude ethnic groups speaking various Eastern Iranian languages (Shugnans, Rushans, Bartangs, Iroshors, Khufs, Sarykols, Yazgulians, Ishkashims, Sanglichs, Wakhans, Mundjans, Yidga) They also live in Pakistan and Sinyan-mountainous regions of Tajikistan Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Also adjacent to them yagnob(yagnob. yaғnobӣ), whose dialect is the last relic of the Sogdian language.
Ossetians(Osset. Iron, Digoron) - mainly Iranian-speaking people, of Alo-local-Caucasian origin, most of the Ossetians are Christians. the strength of the long isolation is significantly different from all other Iranians.
Hazaras(Khazar.azōra) - descendants of Mongol warriors who settled in high mountain areas Afghanistan, mixed with the local population and assimilated the local Perso-Tajik dialect.
Charaymaki(Turkic "four tribes") - a set of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes in the west of Afghanistan and east of Khorasan, mainly of Turkic origin.
Tats(tat. tat, parsi) - the people of Transcaucasia of Persian origin, whose language, due to isolation and archaism, goes beyond the framework of the Perso-Tajik dialect community proper.
Talysh(Talysh. Tolish) - people of Iranian origin, formed on a significant Caucasian substratum with an area of residence in Iran and Azerbaijan.
Yases(Hungarian Jászok, Osset. Yastæ) - Iranian people in Hungary. By religion, Christian Catholics.

There are also other local groups of Iranians - speakers of separate "minor" languages, which usually do not ethnically separate themselves from the surrounding Iranian people (Persians, Pashtuns, Kurds) and are often bilingual.

Bearers of the Tati dialects, which were spread in small islands among Iranian Azerbaijanis (“Azerbaijani Persians”).
Speakers of Semnan's heterogeneous languages (see Semnan)
Speakers of Central Iranian dialects (rajah)
The confessional community of the Zoroastrians Yazd and Kerman, speakers of the northwestern Iranian language Dari.
Natives of the Fars and Larestan dialects.
Bashkardi - a people in southeastern Iran in the province of Hormozgan on the coast of the Gulf of Oman (southwestern Iranian dialects)
Kumzari - a people in the UAE, Oman and the islands of the Strait of Hormuz (southwestern dialects)
Zaza and Gorani, speakers of the Caspian languages, integrated into the Kurdish community.
The Ormurs and Parachi are carriers of isolated northwestern dialects spread by islands in Afghanistan among the Pashtun and Tajik populations.
Vanetsi is a group of Pashtuns with a Vanetsi language that is very different from other dialects of Pashto.

In addition, Persian-speaking groups of Iranian origin live in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf: Ajams (Bahrain) and Huwala (UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain)

Jews living in Iranian-speaking regions are native speakers of various Hebrew-Iranian languages

Culture and religion

Greater Iran

Iranian culture

Most of the Iranian peoples belong to the cultural and historical region of Greater Iran, the culture of which took shape from the beginning. II millennium BC NS. and throughout the 1st millennium BC. NS. on the basis of the ancient Aryans and the culture of the pre-Indo-European population of Central Asia (BMAK), the Hindu Kush and the Iranian plateau (Elam, Manna) going back to the Proto-Indo-European traditions. Throughout history, interethnic contacts with the Middle East, especially with the civilizations of Mesopotamia, and later with the Greeks, Indo-Aryans, Turks, etc., exerted a significant influence on the Iranian peoples.

Zoroastrianism (Mazdeism), a prophetic religion that became the main form of national beliefs of the ancient Iranians, had a great influence on the formation of the common Iranian culture. Remnants of Zoroastrianism are still noticeable in the traditions of the peoples inhabiting Greater Iran, including the Turkic-speaking. Zurvanist beliefs were close to Zoroastrianism. In the ancient Iranian-speaking world, Buddhism, Manichaeism and Christianity were also widespread.

The political culture of the Iranians was formed under the influence of vast empires founded by the Iranian-speaking dynasties: the Achaemenid, Arshakid, Kushan and, above all, the Sassanid, in which Zoroastrianism and the idea of the “Iranian kingdom” (pehl. Ērān-šahr) were widely promoted.

The Sassanian state was destroyed directly by the warriors of the Arab caliphs (VII century), which marked the beginning of the spread of Islam in Greater Iran. Since the completion of the Islamization of the Iranians in general (10th century), the national revival of Iranian culture and the rise of the New Persian language under the auspices of the Samanids and subsequent Turkic dynasties coincide. This is the time of compiling the poetic collection of the national Iranian epic Shahnameh, collected from pre-Islamic legends dating back to the Avesta and folk legends about Iranian kings and heroes. Since this era, Persian cultural influence has spread over vast areas of the Muslim world from Asia Minor and Rumelia to East Turkestan and North India. The extensive development of the Sufi movement is closely connected with classical Persian poetry in the Iranian world.

Traditional Iranian culture is based on a predominantly agricultural structure. Agriculture in the Iranian region has long been of an intensive oasis nature, with extensive use of irrigation. The main grain crop is wheat, and to a lesser extent rice. The garden is also an important element of Iranian life. Cities from administrative centers (šahr (estān) - "place of power") grew into large trade, craft, religious and cultural settlements. Iranians of different religions are united by many common beliefs and traditions, the most striking of which is the celebration of the New Year of Novruz.

Despite the existence in ancient times of Iranian peoples of different languages, most of the sedentary population of Greater Iran (دهقان dehqɒn "peasant") switched to the Persian language, which spread from Fergana to Khuzestan. Significant areas of other Iranian languages have survived only in regions with significant cultural and economic originality. First of all, these are the high-mountain valleys of the Pamirs and the wooded and humid Caspian lowland, where the economy is also based on agriculture, as well as areas where the basis of the traditional economy is semi-nomadic or mountain pasture cattle breeding - Kurdistan, Lorestan, Baluchistan and the lands of the Pashtuns. Iranian pastoralists are culturally diverse and often subordinate their lives to traditional codes of honor and social conventions, like Pashtunwalai among the Pashtuns or Marai among the Baluchis.

External influence and peoples with Iranian roots

Iranian culture has provided big influence to the peoples of the Middle East, the Caucasus, South Asia, as well as the Eurasian nomads and their descendants in different ways: in the form of the culture of Iranian-speaking nomads, the cosmopolitan Achaemenid empire, the national theocratic state of the Sassanids or Persian-Muslim culture. Interaction with other peoples of the Greater Iran region and the extensive assimilation of the Iranian-speaking population in new ethno-linguistic communities led to the penetration of many elements of Iranian culture into the traditions of non-Iranian-speaking peoples. The ethnogenesis of many Turkic-speaking peoples (Azerbaijanis, sedentary Turkmens, Uzbeks, Uighurs) took place on a significant Iranian substrate. Also, Parsis and Jats are considered Iranian groups that have switched to Indo-Aryan languages.

Religions

Most modern Iranian peoples are divided between two directions islam:

Sunnis: Tajiks, Pashtuns, Baluchis, southern Talysh (adherents of the Sufi order of Naqshbandi), some Ossetians, Kurds (mainly Shafi'i madhhab).
Shia Twelver: Persians, part of the Iranian Kurds and most of the small peoples of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Masenderans, Gilans, Semnants, etc.), northern Talysh, Tats, Farsivans of the west of Afghanistan (primarily Heratis), Hazaras.

Other Shiite movements are represented:

Ismailis- among the Pamir peoples;
Alevis- among the people of Zaza
sect Ahl-e Hakk- among the mountains and part of the neighboring Kurds.

Some of the Kurds profess Yezidism- a syncretic movement that has strongly departed from Islam and has absorbed many pre-Islamic Iranian beliefs. Zoroastrianism survived only in the form of the Yazd and Kerman communities, whose representatives in modern times settled in other large cities Iran. most of Iran's Zoroastrians now live in Tehran. Judaism are professed by Iranian-speaking groups of Persian, Mountain and Bukharian Jews.

Orthodox Christianity- among the Ossetians (Iranian-speaking people living in the Caucasus)

Ossetia

The fate of another historical Iranian-speaking region - Alania, which was the last remnant of the world of Scythian-Sarmatian nomads, developed in a different way. The intensive ties of the Alan and other Sarmatian tribes with the oases of Central Asia, primarily with Khorezm and Sogd, inhabited by related Iranian-speaking peoples, did not stop until the end of the 1st millennium AD. e., when the Alans began to come closer to the local peoples North Caucasus and be drawn into the orbit of Byzantine influence. The remnants of the Alans in the form of modern Ossetians formed on a significant North Caucasian substrate and, in fact, are a Caucasian people with a traditional North Caucasian culture, but with noticeable Iranian roots.

A distinctive feature of the Ossetians is the confession of Orthodox Christianity, which penetrated with the Byzantine preachers of the Alan Diocese starting from the 7th-8th centuries, but was finally implanted only with the entry of Ossetia into the Russian Empire. Folk Orthodoxy of the Ossetians is saturated with elements of traditional beliefs that go back to both the Caucasian substratum and the Aryan religion of the Alans. An important role in the culture of the Ossetians is played by the North Caucasian Nartov epic, which included significant Indo-Iranian elements dating back to the beliefs of the Alans and Scythians.

In the present time runs active rapprochement of cultures with kindred Iranian peoples.

Notes (edit)

"The Paleolithic Indo-Europeans" - Panshin.com. Retrieved 4 June 2006.
Izmailova A.A. Talyshi (Ethno-cultural processes).
E. Ehlers. AGRICULTURE in Iran
M. Bazin. BĀḠ ii. General
(people). Article from the Encyclopædia Britannica
The Azerbaijani are of mixed ethnic origin, the oldest element deriving from the indigenous population of eastern Transcaucasia and possibly from the Medians of northern Persia. This population was Persianized during the period of the Sāsānian dynasty of Iran (3rd-7th century ce).
Azerbaijanis in TSB
B.S. Dhillon: History and Study of the Jats, ISBN 1-895603-02-1

Links

Encyclopaedia Iranica

Modern Iranian peoples
Southwest subgroup	Bakhtiars Lurs Persians Tajiks Tats Farsivans Hazaras Charaymaks
Northwest subgroup	Baluchis Gilians (Galshs) Zaza Kurds (Yezidis) Mazendrans Talysh
Southeast subgroup	Pamir peoples (Badzhuv, Bartang, Wakhan, Ishkashim, Mundjans, Rushans, Saryk, Khufs, Shugnans, Yazgulam, Pashtuns, Pashais
North-east subgroup	Ossetian Yagnobians
Ethno-confessional groups	Zoroastrians: (Parsi Hebra) ahl-e Hakk

Iranian peoples of Dagestan, Iranian peoples of the world, Iranian peoples of Russia, Iranian peoples of the north

Iranian Peoples Information About

IRANIAN LANGUAGES, a group of languages belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Distributed in a continuous massif or with foreign-language blotches in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, in the northeastern part of Iraq (Kurdistan), in the eastern part of Turkey (along the borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria, in the Russian Federation (Republic North Ossetia- Alania), in Georgia (South Ossetia). There are separate Iranian-speaking regions in Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, India, Kyrgyzstan, China, Oman, United United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Syria, Uzbekistan. The Iranian language group numbers over 50 languages, dialects and dialect groups. The number of speakers of Iranian languages has not been precisely established, according to 1999 there are more than 100 million. The history of Iranian languages is divided into three main periods: 1) ancient (from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC to the 4th – 3rd centuries AD). ); 2) middle (from 4–3 centuries BC to 8–9 centuries AD); 3) new (from 8-9 centuries AD to the present). On the basis of genetic classification, Iranian languages are divided into two large groups - western (in which the north-western and south-western subgroups are clearly distinguished) and eastern (in which there is also a division into north-eastern and southeastern subgroups, but it is not so clear as in the western group). The Western Iranian group of languages continues the historical line of development of languages and dialects of the western part of the Iranian Highlands, where they spread by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The East Iranian group of languages goes back to the Iranian dialects of Central Asia and adjacent regions. The languages of the southwestern group include: from the languages of the ancient and middle periods - Old Persian and Middle Persian (Pahlavi); from modern languages of modern. Persian, Tajik, Dari, Tat, Khazar, Lur and Bakhtiar dialects, Laristan dialects, Fars dialects, Kumzari, Bashkardi dialects, Char-Aimak dialects. The northwestern languages include: from the ancient period - Median; from the middle - Parthian; and modern - Baloch, Kurdish, Gilan, Mazandaran, Talysh, Semnan, a group of dialects Tati, Parachi, Ormuri, a group of dialects of Central Iran. The northeastern Iranian languages include: from the ancient period - Scythian; from the middle period - Alanian, Sogdian, Khorezm; modern - Ossetian and Yagnob; the southeastern Iranian languages include: from the middle period - Saki languages (or dialects), Bactrian, Khotan, Tumshuk, etc .; from modern - Pashto (Afghan), Pamir languages (Shugnano-Rushan group, Wakhan, Yazgulam, Ishkashim, Mundjan and Yidga).

Typologically, the Iranian languages are heterogeneous. By their morphological type, ancient Iranian languages are inflectional-synthetic with a developed system of declension and conjugation forms. In the Middle Iranian languages, the inflectional-synthetic type is already with noticeable traces of the decomposition of the ancient system. In the new Iranian languages, the inflectional-analytical type was preserved in the Pashto, but also in a strongly modified form in comparison with the ancient Iranian. Most modern Iranian languages are inflectional-analytical with elements of agglutination. The ratio of inflectional and analytical forms in different languages is not the same. Most of the Iranian languages (Old Persian, Avestan, Khotanosak, Sogdian, Persian, Tajik, Dari, Tat, Gilan, Mazandan, Ossetian, Yagnob, etc.) from a typological point of view belong to the languages of the nominative system. Middle Persian, Parthian, Kurdish, Zaza, Gurani, Baluch, Talysh, Semnan, Pashto, Ormuri, Parachi are languages of the mixed type (nominative construction with transitive verbs in all tenses and moods and with intransitive in the present tense. ; with transitive verbs in the past tenses, the construction of the sentence is ergative or ergative). Iranian languages have greatly influenced the languages and cultures of neighboring peoples.

The countries of Europe, Pakistan and the Caucasus among the Iranian peoples, whose number is currently estimated at about 200 million people. Ethnologue has a total of 87 Iranian languages. In fact, their exact number cannot be calculated due to the ambiguity of the language / dialect status of many idioms. The largest number native speakers are Persian (about 90 million, including Tajik and Dari), Pashto (about 43 million), Kurdish (about 30 million) and Balochi (10 million). Most of the "minor" Iranian languages have several thousand speakers.

The term "Iranian languages" originated in Western science in the middle. XIX century. to designate a group of languages genetically related to Iran as an ethnocultural region and related, close or very distantly, to the predominant language of Iran over the last millennium - Persian.

There is still a lot of confusion between "Persian" and "Iranian" in the common consciousness. It should be remembered that the "Iranian language" does not mean the dominant language of Iran (Persian), but one of the many languages of the Iranian group (to which Persian also belongs). In addition, one should not think that every Iranian language should be tangibly similar to Persian. Due to the very early differentiation of the group for most Iranian languages, kinship with Persian (or some other Iranian) can only be shown by means of comparative historical linguistics and is not obvious at a superficial glance.

Iranian languages are descendants of an unrecorded documentary ancient Iranian (Proto-Iranian) language that existed within the 2nd millennium BC. e., which in turn stood out from the Proto-Aryan (general Aryan), a common ancestor with the Indo-Aryan approximately at the end of the 3rd - the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. on the territory of Central Asia. Presumably, the Proto-Iranians inhabited the area of the Bronze Age cultures in the south of Central Asia: the late BMAK and Yaz.

Differentiation of ancient Iranian from general Aryan is characterized primarily by changes at the phonetic level, the main of which are:

The recorded history of the Iranian languages goes back about 3 millennia. Traditionally, Iranian languages are chronologically divided into three periods: ancient, middle and new. Clear criteria exist only for the ancient Iranian languages: these are languages of the "ancient type", largely preserving the Aryan and, deeper, the Indo-European inflectional synthetic system. Central Iranian languages demonstrate, to varying degrees, the destruction of inflection and movement towards analyticism and agglutination. Living Iranian languages are called new Iranian languages, as well as languages that have become extinct in recent times.

Relatively clear continuity at all three stages is demonstrated only by the chain Old Persian - Middle Persian - New Persian (Farsi). Many extinct languages have no descendants, and most of the new Iranian languages have no ancestors recorded in written sources. All this greatly complicates the study of the history of the Iranian languages and their genetic relationships, and, consequently, their classification. The latter is traditionally built on the dichotomy of West Iranian and East Iranian subgroups, each of which is divided in turn into a northern and southern zone.

In the ancient Iranian era, approximately defined as the period before the IV-III centuries. BC NS. (based on Persian data), the speakers of the ancient Iranian language settle in vast territories from the Zagros in the southwest to western China and, probably, Altai in the northeast, and from the Northern Black Sea region in the northwest to the Hindu Kush in the southeast. This expansion caused the disintegration of the ancient Iranian unity and marked the beginning of the formation of separate Iranian languages.

We have two well-documented ancient Iranian languages:

There is also data about two other ancient Iranian languages that have come down to us in a foreign language transfer of names and ancient borrowings into non-Iranian languages:

Based on the data of the Iranian languages, recorded later, one should assume the existence of other ancient Iranian languages / dialect areas, reconstructed by the methods of comparative historical linguistics. In ancient times, the Iranian languages were still very close to each other and were mutually intelligible dialects. The isoglosses, which divided the group into Western and Eastern languages, were just forming. In particular, the position of the Avestan language is not completely clear. Traditionally, it is interpreted as eastern, primarily on the basis of the area described in the Avesta (east of Iran, Afghanistan, south of Central Asia), although it demonstrates quite few differentiating features characteristic of the later East Iranian languages. Therefore, some researchers define it as “central”.

The “central area” as opposed to the marginal (peripheral) ones can be traced on the basis of a number of features. This is manifested primarily in the fact that the western and eastern languages adjacent to the supposed original Avestan area demonstrate unity in phonetic development, opposed by "deviations" on the periphery of the western and eastern subgroups. In particular, the following zones are distinguished according to the development of reflexes * ś and * ź:

1. Central (* ś> s, * ź> z, * śuV> spV, * źuV> zbV, where V is a vowel): Avestan, northwestern, northeastern and most southeastern 2. Southwestern / Persian (* ś> ϑ, * ź> δ (> d), * śuV> sV, * źuV> zV) 3. Scythian (also * ś> ϑ, * ź> δ) - obviously parallel to Persian independent development. 4. Saka (* ś> s, * ź> z, but * śuV> šV, * źuV> žV): Saka and Wakhan (see below).

In fact, some other phonetic features are also “peripheral”, on which the West-East dichotomy is traditionally built. For example, the characteristic East Iranian development * č> s (h> c) did not cover, in addition to the Avestan, the Sogdian area.

Actually Eastern Iranian features are the innovative development of closures:

Other differentiating features of the western and eastern subgroups in phonetics (for example, * h> western h, eastern ø (zero), * ϑ> western h, eastern ϑ, t, s) developed obviously later than the ancient era and are also worn statistical nature, do not cover all languages of their areas and vary greatly in positions. Similarly, specific "western" or "eastern" morphemes and lexemes are often not limited to their area and can also be found in the language of another subgroup.

The Middle Iranian era is defined in the range of the 4th century. BC NS. - IX century. n. NS. This chronology is conditional and is based primarily on Persian data, while such a "Central Iranian" language as Khorezm existed until the XIV century, but did not leave a new Iranian descendant who has survived to this day.

The middle epoch of the development of the Iranian languages is characterized by the destruction of the ancient Iranian inflection and the strengthening of analyticism. The most quickly and completely the inflectional system was destroyed in the Western Iranian languages (although the verb conjugation was preserved), the oriental languages have retained for a long time and often retain to this day significant remnants of the inflectional system.

During this era, the Iranian languages continued to diverge, and while maintaining relative proximity, free mutual understanding between them was essentially lost. The area of the Iranian languages has already become more clearly divided into western and eastern zones (along the line dividing Parthia and Bactria), it is also possible to trace the differentiation of each zone into “south” and “north”. Monuments of 6 Middle Iranian languages have been preserved. There are also glosses, scanty notes, or onomastic data for other Central Iranian dialects.

There are not enough data for the classification of the Yuezhi dialects, the Iranian language of which is reconstructed on the basis of glosses in the Chinese chronicles.

Conventionally, the New Iranian period dates from the time after the Arab conquest of Iran and to this day. In terms of research, this period differs in that, thanks primarily to the active research of European scientists, numerous unwritten new Iranian languages and dialects were literally discovered and studied, either completely unknown stories, or poorly illuminated by any external sources. The circumstances of the addition and development of many new Iranian languages often remain unclear with certainty, and sometimes are simply unknown. Many linguistic communities, devoid of their own literary or supra-dialectal form, represent a linguistic continuum of languages / dialects with an indefinite status.

In the New Iranian era, the New Persian language comes to the fore, spreading over vast territories (from Khuzestan to the Fergana Valley), displacing and continuing to displace both large Iranian languages and local dialects and exerting a significant additive influence on the remaining Iranian and non-Iranian languages of the region (from the Ottoman empire to Bengal). At the same time, a colossal, primarily lexical influence on all New Iranian (except for Ossetian) was exerted by the Arabic language (in most languages, again through the medium of the New Persian) - the language of Islam.

Non-Persian Iranian languages / dialects were preserved mainly in the peripheral regions of Greater Iran, first of all, these are mountains (Pamir, Hindu Kush, Zagros, Suleiman mountains), or territories separated by mountains (Caspian region, Azerbaijan), or desert and areas adjacent to deserts. Some of these linguistic communities in the modern Iranian time also experienced expansion (Kurdish languages, Pashto, Baloch language), although they were influenced by the New Persian.

At the same time, there was and is also observed the displacement of the Iranian languages, including the New Persian, primarily from the side of the Turkic languages. Particularly sharp changes took place in the steppe part of the Iranian world, where the last remnant of it, the Alans, were finally disintegrated in the beginning. II millennium AD NS. The descendant of the Alanian language - the Ossetian language - has survived in the Caucasus mountains. The Iranian languages were significantly pressed out (from a number of regions - completely) in Central Asia and Azerbaijan.

Iranian languages in the south-west border on Arabic, the influence of which in the form of the language of Muslim culture was especially great.

In the northwest, north and northeast, the Iranian languages are closely adjacent to the Turkic languages (Oguz and Karluk subgroups). In many regions, the Iranian-speaking areas are interspersed in the Turkic-speaking massifs; there are also disseminations of the Turkic languages in the predominantly Iranian-speaking regions. The Persian language had a huge impact on the Turkic languages of the region (lexical and sometimes phonetic), and many Turkisms are also observed in the Iranian languages.

From the east, the Iranian languages border on Nuristan, Dard, Indo-Aryan, as well as the isolated Burushaski language. In the Hindu Kush-Indian region, the listed languages, together with the Iranian languages present here (Pashto, Pamir, Parachi, Ormuri, to some extent the eastern dialects of Baloch), form a Central Asian language union, which arose on the basis of a local non-Indo-European substratum. Characteristic features of this linguistic union are the emergence of retroflex consonants, the twenty-decimal counting and some others.

On the areal level, the Ossetian language sharply differs from the rest of the Iranian languages, which has undergone a significant substrate and adstrate influence from the languages of the Caucasus, manifesting itself in phonetics, morphology and vocabulary.

The languages of the middle period are characterized by a system of vocalism with contrasts in brevity / longitude: a - ā, i - ī, u - ū, (e -) ē, (o -) ō. The contrast in brevity / longitude was preserved in the Baluch, most of the Shugnan-Rushan, Mundjan, Yagnob and Digor, residuals in the Pashto and Yazgulyam. Already in these languages, a qualitative opposition of short and long vowels has additionally developed. In most of the new Iranian languages, the quantitative correlation in brevity / longitude has been replaced by correlation in strength / weakness, instability / stability, reducibility / irreducibility. The quantitative opposition in the Masendaran language has been completely lost.

The qualitative development of vowels in comparison with the pro-Iranian state is characterized by the development of medium-rise vowels, including in many languages the middle vowel (e - ə - o or e - ů - o). In the lower rise in many languages, the opposition has developed along the front and back rows (æ - å)

Some Western Iranian languages have positional allophones β and δ. The Kurdish language is distinguished by the development of aspirated voiceless stops and the opposition of r and rolling ř. In many dialects, instability and loss are displayed by h.

In the Ossetian language, under the influence of the Caucasian languages, the opposition of three rows of occlusives developed (deaf aspirated - voiced - abruptive deaf)

Under the influence of Arabic and Turkic, the uvular stop q entered the phonetic system of most Iranian languages.

For all Iranian languages of the non-ancient period, the disintegration of the inflectional-synthetic system, the strengthening of analyticism and the development of agglutination are characteristic. Nevertheless, this tendency manifested itself to different degrees in different languages.

In the languages of the Middle and the New Period, there is an opposition in two numbers, while in most languages the plural is agglutinative in nature, going back to the former genitive plural. (* -ānām> * -ān (a)) or to the abstract suffix * -tāt> * -tā / * -t.

The system of declension was best preserved in Sogdian and Khotanosak (6 cases), but here it is greatly simplified in the monuments of the later period. In Khorezm, 3 cases can be distinguished, in Bactrian - 2. Of the new East Iranian cases, the Pashto and Mundjanian ones retained the two-verse (plus vocative form) inflectional system. Of the western ones - Kurdish, Semnan, Talysh, Tati dialects. The bipartite system in Shugnano-Rushan (mainly in pronouns) is strongly reduced. Languages such as Persian, Luro-Bakhtiar, dialects of Fars, Lara, Semnan stripes, Central Iranian, Ormuri and Parachi, following Middle Persian and Parthian, have lost declension and express case relations exclusively with the help of prepositions, postpositions and izafet. In some languages, on the basis of the remnants of inflection and postpositions, a secondary agglutinative declension system arose: Baluch - 4 cases; Gilan and Mazandaran - 3 cases, Sangesari, Yagnob, South Pamir, Wakhan, Yazgulam - 2 cases. In Ossetian, under Caucasian influence, a rich agglutinative case system with 9 cases developed.

A number of Iranian languages have completely lost the genus category: Middle Persian, Parthian, all new southwestern, Talysh, Baluch, Gilan, Mazandaran, Parachi, dialects of the Semnan strip, (almost all) dialects of Central Iran, Sivendi, Ossetian, Yagnob, Wakhan, South Pamir, sarykol. The dichotomy of two genders (male and female) was preserved in Khotanosak, Sogd, Khorezm; from modern ones - Pashto, Mundzhansky, dialects of southern Tati, where it is expressed in the case endings of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, sometimes in nominal verb forms, an article. In a number of languages, it manifests itself only in declensions of nouns and izafet indicators (Kurdish, Sangesar, Semnan). In others - the form of names, agreement with the nominal verb form, etc. (Shugnano-Rushan, Yazgulam, Ormuri)

All Iranian languages are characterized by the preservation of presence with inflectional conjugation of 3 persons and two numbers. Forms of the subjunctive mood and the imperative are also formed from the basis of the present in most languages. The past tense, formed from the same basis and opposed to the present tense with the help of personal endings (and augment), were preserved only in Sogdian and Khorezm, and of the new ones - in Yagnob. The other Iranian languages are characterized by an innovative form of the past tense (preterite), formed analytically from the perfect participle in * -ta and the conjugated form * asti "is". On the basis of this preterinary basis, analytical forms of perfect, pluperfect, present-definite, passive, etc., which are especially numerous in many languages, are also formed.

Due to the "passive" meaning of the former perfect participles in * -ta from transitive verbs in Iranian languages, an ergative construction of the phrase in the past tense develops, while maintaining the nominative - in presentation: Middle Persian, Parthian, Kurdish, Zaza, Baluch, Talysh, Semnan, Sangesari, Pashto ormuri, parachi. With this type, the verb is consistent in person, number (and gender) with the logical object of the action, and the subject, if there is a declension, receives a design in the indirect case.

Languages such as Persian, Tat, Gilan, Mazandaran, Ossetian, dialects of the Semnan band, Luro-Bakhtiar, Pamir, under the influence of the nominative structure of the phrase in the presentation, lost their ergativeness in the past tense and were rebuilt to a completely nominative type. Residual phenomena of ergativity are observed in the dialects of Central Iran.

From the point of view of content typology, modern Iranian languages are divided into nominative and mixed nominative-ergative (see above).

In ancient Iranian languages, there was a largely free word order with a general tendency to place the predicate at the end of the phrase, and definitions before the determinate. In most modern Iranian languages, the word order SOV (subject - object - predicate) is fixed. an exception is the Mundzhan order SVO characteristic of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan area.

The formulation of a definition, even expressed by a noun in the form of an indirect case (in the function of a genitive), before the defined was preserved, in particular, in Pashto and Ossetian. In many Western Iranian languages (in particular in Persian, Kurdish, etc.), from the attributive constructions with the relative pronoun (* ya-), the “Iranian” izafet developed, in which the definition follows the definable, formed by the connecting vowel: pesar-e šāh “son of the king "< *puϑrah yah xšāyaϑyahyā «сын, который царя»; kuh-e boland «высокая гора» < *kaufah yah br̥źa(nt) «гора, которая высокая».

The New Iranian era is characterized by the inclusion of all Iranian languages (except for Ossetian) into the general area of Muslim culture. During this period, Arabic borrowings massively penetrated into the Iranian languages, successfully covering to one degree or another all lexical layers, especially cultural vocabulary. At the same time, there is a sharp spread and rise of the Persian language, which was already outlined in the Sassanian era, which became the language of culture, the city and the office and the courtyards of the rulers. All Iranian languages of the region have undergone a significant lexical influence of closely or distantly related Persian, as well as the Arabic lexicon that it acquired. Most speakers of minor Iranian languages remain bilingual today, so the number of Persians in such languages is practically unlimited.

Also, in the last millennium, there has been a close lexical interaction of the Iranian languages with the Turkic languages. In Persian itself, the number of Turkisms is quite significant. They cover primarily the army and everyday vocabulary. Especially many Turkisms penetrate into the speech of the Iranian-speaking inhabitants of the Turkic states (into Kurdish, Zaza, Tat, northern dialects of Tajik).

From the point of view of the preferred ways of borrowing modern international vocabulary, the Iranian languages can be divided into three zones:

Throughout history, Iranian-speaking peoples have adapted the most different types writing systems of the surrounding peoples.

For the first time, the ancient Persian language (VI, possibly VII century BC) received a systematic writing, for which a syllabic writing was developed on the basis of Akkadian cuneiform, the principle of which somewhat resembles the structure of the Indian syllabic writing of the Brahmi.

Much more widespread was the Aramaic writing, adapted for recording Iranian languages in the middle period not purposefully, but spontaneously, by saturating Aramaic texts with Iranian words and then reading Aramaic words in the form of heterograms of Alexander the Great.

With the conquest of Iran by the Arabs, experiments began to adapt the Iranian languages to Arabic writing. In addition to developing in the X century. The richest New Persian literature is also known for recordings in Arabic script in Mazendaran, Azeri, and Khorezm. Later, the first literary monuments appeared in Kurdish, Pashto, Gurani. Currently, the Arabic script is used in the following languages:

Latin in a specific form is used to write languages under Turkish-Azerbaijani influence

The spread of the Cyrillic alphabet is associated with Soviet nation-building, while all languages using the Cyrillic alphabet survived the "Latin" stage in the 1930s-1940s:

There are short or quite sporadic experiments in publishing books in Cyrillic in Yagnob, Shugnan, Kurdish, and Tat. The Hebrew square script was also used for Tat language within the community of Mountain Jews. All other Iranian languages are non-written.

Different Iranian languages are not equal in terms of the number of speakers, development of literature, official status and degree of prestige. If at one pole there will be Persian, the absolute hegemon in the Iranian-speaking space over the past millennium, the state language of a regional power with the richest literature, then at the other pole there will be Mundjan, an unwritten everyday language of several thousand Hindu Kush mountaineers who have even lost their folklore in their native language.

A number of Iranian languages have confessional significance. First of all, these are cult languages or languages of religious literature that are not used in everyday life and secular literature.

Terminology

Origin


Aryan languages
Nuristani
Ethnic groups
Indo-Aryans Iranians Dards Nuristanis
Religions
Pro-Indo-Iranian religion Vedic religion Hindu Kush religion Hinduism Buddhism Zoroastrianism
Ancient literature
Vedas Avesta

Iranian languages are descendants of an unrecorded documentary ancient Iranian (Proto-Iranian) language that existed within the 2nd millennium BC. e., which in turn stood out from the Proto-Aryan (pan-Aryan), a common ancestor with the Indo-Aryans, approximately at the end of the 3rd - the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC on the territory of Central Asia. Presumably, the Proto-Iranians inhabited the area of the Bronze Age cultures in the south of Central Asia: the late BMAK and Yaz.

Differentiation of ancient Iranian from general Aryan is characterized primarily by changes at the phonetic level, the main of which are:

History and classification

Indo-Europeans
Indo-European languages
Anatolian Albanian Armenian Baltic Venetian Germanic Illyrian Aryan: Nuristani, Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Dardic Italian (Romanesque) Celtic Paleo-Balkan Slavic Tokharian in italics dead language groups are highlighted
Indo-Europeans
Albanians Armenians Balts Veneta· Teutons · Greeks Illyrians Iranians Indo-Aryans Italics (Romance) Celts Cimmerians Slavs Tokhars Thracians · Hittites in italics highlighted nowadays non-existent communities
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language Ancestral home Religion
Indo-European Studies

Ancient Iranian languages

We have two well-documented ancient Iranian languages:

There is also data about two other ancient Iranian languages that have come down to us in a foreign language transfer of names and ancient borrowings into non-Iranian languages:

Median language- a partially reconstructed language of the Medes, the alleged ancestor of the northwestern languages or their western part.
Scythian language- demonstrating "East Iranian features" language of the Scythians, who advanced in the VIII century. through the Central Asian steppes to the Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region, it is known mainly in onomastics from Greek and Akkadian sources.

Actually Eastern Iranian features are the innovative development of closures:

initial * b-> β- (v-), * d-> δ-, * g-> γ- (not in Avestan)
in combinations: * pt> βd, * xt> γd (in Avestan only in the archaic dialect of Ghat)

Central Iranian languages

During this era, the Iranian languages continued to diverge, and while maintaining relative proximity, free mutual understanding between them was essentially lost. The area of the Iranian languages has already become more clearly divided into western and eastern zones (along the line dividing Parthia and Bactria), one can also trace the differentiation of each zone into "south" and "north". Monuments of 6 Middle Iranian languages have been preserved. There are also glosses, scanty notes, or onomastic data for other Central Iranian dialects.

Classification of new Iranian languages

The ratio of the number of speakers of Iranian languages (in millions)

The ratio of the number of speakers of the languages of the Persian-Tajik cluster (in millions)

Also, in the last millennium, there has been a close lexical interaction of the Iranian languages with the Turkic languages. In Persian itself, the number of Turkisms is quite significant. they cover primarily the army and everyday vocabulary. Especially many Turkisms penetrate into the speech of the Iranian-speaking inhabitants of the Turkic states (into Kurdish, Zaza, Tat, northern dialects of Tajik).

From the point of view of the preferred ways of borrowing modern international vocabulary, the Iranian languages can be divided into three zones:

French (languages of Iran and Turkey)
English (languages of Afghanistan and Pakistan)
Russian (languages of the CIS)

Writing

Throughout history, the Iranian-speaking peoples have adapted the most different types of scripts of the surrounding peoples to write their language.

Scripts dating back to Aramaic were systematically used to write:

middle Persian
Parthian
Sogdian
Khorezm

Also known are the records in the Aramaic script of the Bactrian language.

Based on Middle Persian writing in the 4th century. a special extended Avestan alphabet was developed for recording the sacred texts of the Avesta, which were first written. In the communities of Zoroastrians, the Avestan alphabet was also used to transliterate Middle Persian texts, and also recorded original prayers (see pasend)

The long domination of the Greeks after the conquests of Alexander the Great on the territory of Bactria of the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms left a legacy in the form of a device for writing the Bactrian language by means of the Greek alphabet. Also known are Bactrian inscriptions in Greek writing, reflecting rather the Middle Persian language. ...

In the Northern Black Sea region, Greek writing was actively used for gravestone inscriptions of persons of Sarmatian (and later Alanian) origin.

The Indian Brahmi script was used to write Buddhist texts in the Saka languages.

Persian
pashto
Kurdish (Kurmanji - in Iraq, Sorani)
baloch
Gilyan
mazenderan

Latin in a specific form is used to write languages under Turkish-Azerbaijani influence

Kurdish
zazaki

For Tat, the new Azerbaijani alphabet is sporadically used.

The spread of the Cyrillic alphabet is associated with Soviet nation-building, while all languages using the Cyrillic alphabet survived the "Latin" stage in the 1930s-1940s:

Tajik
Ossetian

Sociolinguistic situation

Different Iranian languages are not equal in terms of the number of speakers, development of literature, official status and degree of prestige. If at one pole there will be Persian, an absolute hegemon in the Iranian-speaking space over the past millennium, the state language of a regional power with the richest literature, then at the other pole there will be Mundjan, an unwritten everyday language of several thousand Hindu Kush mountaineers who have even lost their native language folklore.

The largest number of carriers are:

Language	Number of carriers	Official status	Scope of use	Writing
Persian (including Dari and Tajik)	70 million	state in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan	national language, dominates in all spheres, developed literature since the 10th century, mass media, science, interethnic communication (second language for about 90 million people)	Arabic-Persian alphabet, Cyrillic (Tajik)
Pashto	36 million	state language in Afghanistan, the language of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Tribal Areas (the status is not officially fixed)	national language, literature from the 17th century, mass media, to a lesser extent interethnic communication	arabic-persian alphabet
Kurdish	36 million	the official language of the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan	literature from the 16th century, mass media	Arabic-Persian alphabet, Latin, rarely Cyrillic
Baloch	9.5 million	the language of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan (the status is not officially fixed).	limited literature, radio, newspapers	arabic-persian alphabet
Luro-Bakhtiar dialects	4.3 million	no, scattered dialects	everyday communication, rarely on the radio
Mazenderan	4 million	No	everyday communication, bazaar, work	rarely arabic-persian alphabet
Gilyanskiy	3.5 million	No	everyday communication, bazaar, work, rarely on the radio	rarely arabic-persian alphabet
Zazaki	OK. 1.5 - 2.5 million	No	everyday communication	rarely Latin
Ossetian	500 thous.	state in the partially recognized state of South Ossetia and in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.	state, literature from the end. XVIII century, mass media	Cyrillic
Tati dialects	250 thous.	no, scattered dialects	everyday communication	No
Talysh	200 thous.	No	everyday communication	rarely Cyrillic or Latin
Tatsky (with Judeo-Tatsky)	125 thous.	No	everyday communication, rare media	rarely Cyrillic, Latin or Hebrew alphabet
Shugnansky (with other Shugnan-Rushan)	90 thous.	No	everyday communication, sporadic publications, interethnic communication among the Pamir peoples	rarely Cyrillic
Gurani	50 thous.	No	everyday communication, religious literature of the sect Ahl-e Haqq	arabic-persian alphabet

Confessional languages

A number of Iranian languages have confessional significance. First of all, these are cult languages or languages of religious literature that are not used in everyday life and secular literature.

Avestan language, the oldest recorded Iranian, still retains the meaning of the language of sacred texts and prayers for the Zoroastrians, and in this it is similar to Sanskrit, Latin and Church Slavonic.
Middle Persian for a long time remained the language of religious literature among the Zoroastrians in the New Persian era; it has now been discontinued.
Parthian language until the XIII century. was used as the religious language of the Manichean communities in Turfan.
Gurani language is the language of religious literature of the Shiite sect Ahl-ul-Haqq, founded in the 15th century, while the native languages of many members of this community are Kurdish or Turkmen.

Some languages are intra-confessional spoken adverbs:

Dari (Central Iranian dialect) (not to be confused with Afghan Dari) is the spoken language of the Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kerman.
Hebrew-Iranian languages are special spoken dialects of Jewish communities.

Iranian Wikipedia

Persian Wikipedia (fa :)
Kurdish Wikipedia (Kurmanji) in Latin and Arabic (ku :)
Tajik Wikipedia (tg :)
Gilan Wikipedia (glk :)
Ossetian Wikipedia (os :)
Zazaki Wikipedia (diq :)
Mazandaran Wikipedia (mzn :)
Sorani Wikipedia (ckb :)

Notes (edit)

Links

Modern classification of Northwest Iranian languages (Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)

Iranian group. Iranian languages. External influence and peoples with Iranian roots

origin of name

Ethnogenesis

Ambiguity of the term "Iranians"

Iranian languages

Ancient Iranians

Modern Iranian peoples

Formation history

List of modern Iranian peoples

Culture and religion

Greater Iran

Iranian culture

External influence and peoples with Iranian roots

Religions

Ossetia

see also

Notes (edit)

Links

Iranian Peoples Information About

Terminology

Origin

History and classification

Ancient Iranian languages

Central Iranian languages

Classification of new Iranian languages

Writing

Sociolinguistic situation

Confessional languages

Iranian Wikipedia

Notes (edit)

Links

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