The mysterious languages of the East still excite the minds of the public, especially the harmonious Persian language, in which the greatest poets of antiquity wrote their poems. The oldest Persian dialect is included in the Iranian group of languages, the number of speakers of which reaches about 200 million. Who are they, these eastern people who are part of the Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family? Details in this article!
Iranian language group
The very name "Iranian languages" dates back to the middle of the 19th century. This group of languages is associated with Iran as its own ethnic group as closely as possible, or, on the contrary, was far removed from it, retaining only some related features.
This situation applies primarily to the Persian language, which for many years was considered the leading language of the Iranian group.
Under the very concept of "Iranian" one should understand not only Persian, but also a whole complex of languagedialects, which include the already mentioned Persian language.
Origin
The Iranian group of languages was formed in antiquity (II millennium BC), when the common Proto-Aryan language dominated the territory of Central Asia, it was then that the proto-Iranian dialect arose - the progenitor of the modern "Iranian" dialect. Today, in the same New Persian, only echoes remain of him.
Standing out as a separate language from the common Aryan, Proto-Iranian acquired the following phonetic features:
- Loss of voiced consonants that were pronounced with aspiration, for example, "bx" became a simple "b", "gh" - "g", "dh" - "d", etc.
- Fricativization of the deaf, for example, "pf" turned into a long "f".
- Palatalization processes, for example, the transition from "s" to "z", "g" to "z", etc.
- Development of aspiration from "s" to "ssh".
- Processes of dissimilation of "tt" into "st", "dt" into "zd".
The Iranian group of the Indo-European language family is on a par with Albanian, Armenian, B altic, Germanic and Aryan languages. The same group as the Iranian languages also includes such dead dialects as Anatolian, Illyrian and Tocharian. The first two were the languages of the Greek countries, and the last one has Balkan roots.
History and classification
Historically, the Iranian group of languages has existed for about 3000 years. There are three periods in total: ancient, middle and new. Most of all we know about the ancient language, which preserved all Aryan traditions and inflectionalsynthetic tuning.
Middle and new periods of the Iranian group of languages have taken the path of destruction of inflection. These are the "great-grandchildren" of Aryan, which are becoming more analytical language dialects. The last type or New Iranian languages is a group of dialects that is now alive or has recently died out, as their last speakers left the world.
A clearer sequence of development can be traced to the most famous branch of the Iranian group of languages - Persian. It is also divided into Old Persian-Middle Persian and New Persian (Farsi).
Other Iranian branches either did not retain their written sources at all, or died out long before they appeared. That is why it is difficult to study the new Iranian languages, since there is a complete absence of genetic ties.
However, scientists studying Iranian languages do not lose heart, collecting more and more new facts from excavations at the sites of former settlements. It is worth telling about each period in more detail.
Old Iranian languages
This period has an approximate date from IV-III c. BC. Coverage area - speakers of the ancient Iranian group of languages lived in the southwest from Zagros to China, Altai and the Northern Black Sea region in the northwest. Such a huge space contributed to the split within the language group and served as the formation of separate languages of ancient Iran.
The following are considered documented and recorded according to the research of Orientalists:
- Old Persian language - the dialect of the Achaemenid kings, the ancestor of the entire southwesternIranian group, as well as the language of official inscriptions on monuments and historical monuments.
- Avestan is the written or bookish language of the Avesta, which was the sacred book of the Zoroastrians. This dialect was previously only oral and was associated with the ancient Iranians exclusively with the religious component of their life. It is the language of parables, prayers and Zoroastrian songs.
- The Median language is the dialect of Media, which contains particles of the Proto-Aryan language. Presumably the Median dialect is the ancestor of the western group of Iranian languages.
- The Scythian language is a dialect of the Scythians and partly of the Sarmatians, demonstrating complex aspirated diphthongs - a hallmark of all Iranian languages. Scythians and Sarmatians lived in the steppes of the Caucasus and in the Northern Black Sea region. This dialect is one of the most enigmatic and mysterious in the Iranian group; the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes are known only through Greek sources. The Slavic group also met with the Scythian language, but at that time only cuneiform existed in the future territory of Russia, which was represented by lines and "cuts" - notches. Naturally, such a primitive at that time "writing" could not reflect any striking phonetic features.
All the listed languages, and those that have been lost, can only be restored by the method of comparative historical linguistics.
Old Iranian languages were characterized by non-consonance, as well as longitude and voicing of consonants.
Middle Iranian languages
Second period, or Middle Iranian,dated IV - IX centuries BC. e. Such a chronology is a bit arbitrary, since only historical documents of the ancient Persians help to compile it. The situation of the study is further complicated by the fact that the Middle Iranian period did not leave any new Iranian "descendants". That is why this time is called the dead period in the development of the Iranian group of languages.
The inflectional features of the language are even more destroyed, and words are formed not with the help of endings, but in an analytical way.
This is interesting! In the languages of Western Iran, the inflectional system collapsed to the end, and only the verb conjugation remained.
Territory of coverage and distribution
The distribution area of Iran's languages began to have a clearer division into western and eastern groups. The dividing line ran along the border of Parthia and Bactria.
In total, orientalists, judging by the written monuments found, distinguish the following Middle Iranian languages:
- Middle Persian is the dialect of Sasanian Iran or Pahlavi. This is a well-known Zoroastrian language with a rich script - many literary monuments of that era are written in this language, which was used even on the coins of the kings of Fars.
- Parthian is a dialect of Parthia, which is a follower of Median. This is the language of the Arshakid state. This dialect was lost around the 5th century, when Old Persian became widespread.
- The Bactrian language is the dialect of the Kushans and Ephthalites with the use of Greek writing. This dialect was forced out in the 9th-10th centuries. in. New Persian.
- The Saka language is one of the most mysterious dialects of the Iranian group of languages. Saka belongs to the language group of the Khotanese dialects associated with Buddhist culture and, accordingly, with its linguistic features. Therefore, a lot of monuments of Buddhist literature have been found in this dialect. Saka was supplanted by the Turkic Uighur language.
- Sogdian is the dialect of the Sogdian colonists from Central Asia. The Sogdian dialect left many literary monuments. In the 10th century, it was supplanted by New Persian and Turkic. However, according to scientists, he left a descendant - this is the Yaghnobi language.
- The Khorezmian language is the dialect of Khorezm that did not exist for long and was supplanted by the Turkic language.
- The Sarmatian language is the dialect of the Sarmatians, which completely replaced the Scythian language throughout the Northern Black Sea region. This is the steppe dialect of the eastern tribes, who were the longest speakers of this language of the Middle Iranian period, almost until the 13th century. Later, the Sarmatian language became the progenitor of the Alanian.
New Iranian languages
The peoples of the Iranian group of the Indo-European language family today have many varieties of ancient Iranian dialects. The new Iranian period began after the conquest of Iran by the Arabs and continues its tradition at the present time.
New Iranian languages have a large dialectal practice, which is most often characterized by the absence of writing. Many dialects appear and disappear so quickly that Oriental scholars do not have time to thoroughly fixeven the source. Because of this spontaneity, many linguistic communities are deprived of their own literature, and in general they are a supradialectal form of a language with an indefinite status.
The Arabic dialect, of course, had a great influence on the new Iranian language. New Persian, the state language of Iran, comes to the fore today. On the periphery, in the mountainous regions of Greater Iran, one can also find non-Persian dialects, for example, Kurdish and Balochi. The most famous among the non-Persian dialects is the dialect of the Ossetians, who are descendants of the ancient Alans.
Modern Iranian language family
The Iranian language group includes:
- New Persian divided into daughter literary forms: Farsi, Dari and Tajik.
- Tatsky.
- Luro-Bakhtiar.
- Dialects of Fars and Lara.
- Kurdshuli.
- Kumzari.
- Kurdish, with its own dialectal forms: Kurmanji, Sorani, Feili and Laki.
- Dalemite.
- Caspian.
- Turkic.
- Semnansky.
- Baluchi.
- Pashutu and Vanetsi are dialects of Afghanistan.
- Pamir group of dialects.
- Yagnobi language.
- Ossetian.
Thus, the peoples of the Iranian language group inherit interesting dialect features. The main language of Iran today is New Persian, but on the territory of this vast state - Greater Iran - you can find many mysterious dialects and child literary forms, ranging from Farsi toOssetian.
