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Various Iranian languages are discussed in this volume, including Hawrami and Kermanji, two of the major dialects of Kurdish, Medival, Classical and Modern Persian, Balochi, Taleshi and Pamir. With the exception of Persian, other Iranian languages had not received much attention in the past.
- Gerardo Barbera
- Overview
- Dialects
The six modern Iranian languages discussed above are the only ones that have an established literary tradition. They are not, however, homogeneous, each having its own dialect divisions. No definitive dialect classification has yet been made, nor indeed has any attempt at systematic classification of the whole range of Iranian languages won wide acceptance. The usual practice, followed here, is simply to list the main languages in groups of varying size, arranged on a roughly geographic basis.
There are two main dialects of Ossetic: the eastern, known as Iron, and the western, known as Digor (Digoron). Of those, Digor is the more archaic, Iron words being often a syllable shorter than their Digor counterparts—e.g., Digor madä, Iron mad “mother.” Iron is spoken by the majority of Ossetic speakers and is the basis of the literary language. Chosen in the 19th century for the translation of the Bible, it is still the official language today. Little is known of the other Ossetic dialects. A small amount of the Ossetic dialect of Tual in the south, which differs little from Iron, was published in Georgian script at the beginning of the 19th century.
Yaghnābī is still spoken by a small number of people southeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It has two main dialects, eastern and western, which differ only slightly. The characteristic difference is between a western t sound and an eastern s sound from an older θ sound (as th in English thin)—e.g., western mēt, eastern mēs “day,” beside Sogdian mēθ (Christian Sogdian myθ).
Dialects of the Shughnī group are spoken in the Pamirs. Closely related to this group is Yāzgulāmī. A period of a Yāzgulāmī-Shughnī common language (protolanguage) has been postulated by some scholars, after which it separated first into Yāzgulāmī and Common Shughnī; and then Common Shughnī gradually divided into Sarīkolī, Oroshorī-Bartangī, Roshānī-Khufī, and Bajuvī-Shughnī. Sarīkolī, the easternmost of these dialects, is spoken in northwestern China.
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Languages & Alphabets
The six modern Iranian languages discussed above are the only ones that have an established literary tradition. They are not, however, homogeneous, each having its own dialect divisions. No definitive dialect classification has yet been made, nor indeed has any attempt at systematic classification of the whole range of Iranian languages won wide acceptance. The usual practice, followed here, is simply to list the main languages in groups of varying size, arranged on a roughly geographic basis.
There are two main dialects of Ossetic: the eastern, known as Iron, and the western, known as Digor (Digoron). Of those, Digor is the more archaic, Iron words being often a syllable shorter than their Digor counterparts—e.g., Digor madä, Iron mad “mother.” Iron is spoken by the majority of Ossetic speakers and is the basis of the literary language. Chosen in the 19th century for the translation of the Bible, it is still the official language today. Little is known of the other Ossetic dialects. A small amount of the Ossetic dialect of Tual in the south, which differs little from Iron, was published in Georgian script at the beginning of the 19th century.
Yaghnābī is still spoken by a small number of people southeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It has two main dialects, eastern and western, which differ only slightly. The characteristic difference is between a western t sound and an eastern s sound from an older θ sound (as th in English thin)—e.g., western mēt, eastern mēs “day,” beside Sogdian mēθ (Christian Sogdian myθ).
Dialects of the Shughnī group are spoken in the Pamirs. Closely related to this group is Yāzgulāmī. A period of a Yāzgulāmī-Shughnī common language (protolanguage) has been postulated by some scholars, after which it separated first into Yāzgulāmī and Common Shughnī; and then Common Shughnī gradually divided into Sarīkolī, Oroshorī-Bartangī, Roshānī-Khufī, and Bajuvī-Shughnī. Sarīkolī, the easternmost of these dialects, is spoken in northwestern China.
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Languages & Alphabets
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Apr 25, 2019 · Other than Persian, and in order of the estimated number of speakers, the languages of Iran include Azeri, Kurdish, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Luri, Arabic, Balochi, and Turkmen; smaller languages such as Qashqai, Taleshi, Baadi, and numerous other local languages.
- smoradi@uoregon.edu
Abstract. This paper addresses a series of complex and unresolved issues in the historical phonol-ogy of West Iranian languages, (Persian, Kurdish, Balochi, and other languages), which display a high degree of irregular, non-Lautgesetzlich behavior.
The Iranian languages are divided into the following branches: The Western Iranian languages, subdivided into: Southwestern, of which Persian (including the Dari and Tajik dialects) and Luri are the dominant members; Northwestern, of which the Kurdish languages are the dominant members.
Iranian. languages and dialects (34; 9 languages, 25 dialects and dialect groups). 2. Relevant non-Iranian languages and dialects and language areas (19; 10 lan- guages, 9 areas). 3. Scholars, authors, works (36; 26 persons, 10 works). 4. Technical terms, genres and etymologies (12). The articles range in length from.
