Iranic languages

Iranic
Iranian
RegionWestern Asia, Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia
EthnicityIranic peoples
Indo-European
  • Indo-Iranic
    • Iranic
Early form
Proto-Iranic
Standard forms
Western Iranic
  • Persian (incl. Tajik, Dari)
  • Caspian
    • Gilaki
    • Mazandarani
  • Zaza–Gorani
    • Zaza
    • Gorani
  • Kurdish
  • Tatic
    • Tat
    • Talysh
  • Balochi
  • Luri
Eastern Iranic
  • Pashtun
  • Pamiri
    • Sanglechi–Ishkashimi
    • Munji–Yidgha
    • Shughni–Yazgulami
    • Wakhi
  • Ossetian
  • Ormuri
Official status
Official language in
Iran (Official)
Afghanistan (Official)
Tajikistan (Official)
Pakistan Pakistan (Provincial)
Iraq[1] (Official)
Language codes
ISO 639-2Iranic
ISO 639-3
GlottologIranic
Linguasphere58= (phylozone)
Areas where an Iranic language is either the majority spoken language or has official recognition

The Iranic languages refers to a family of languages, meaning they are related to one another and developed from a common source.[2] They descend from a common ancestor which is identified as Proto-Iranic.[3]

The Iranic languages are also commonly identified as the Iranian languages. However, some scholars have argued that since the term Iranian is already in use for another meaning, the term Iranic languages should be used for the language family and its speakers (the Iranic peoples[4][5]), while the term Iranian should be used for anything about the country Iran.[6][7]

The Iranic languages, alongside the Indo-Aryan languages and Nuristani languages, make up the larger Indo-Iranic family of languages.[8]

Divisions

[change | change source]

Like many other language families and subfamilies, the Iranic languages are divided according to geographic origins. These include northern,[9] southern, eastern and western.[2]

Further reading

[change | change source]
  • Sokolova, V. S. "New information on the phonetics of Iranic languages." Trudy Instituta jazykoznanija NN SSR (Moskva) 1 (1952): 178-192.
  • Jügel, Thomas. "Word-order variation in Middle Iranic: Persian, Parthian, Bactrian, and Sogdian." Word order variation: Semitic, Turkic, and Indo-European languages in contact, Studia Typologica [STTYP] 31 (2022): 39–62.
Genetic division of Iranic languages

References

[change | change source]
  1. "Iraqi Constitution". (PDF). "The Arabic language and the Kurdish language are the two official languages of Iraq. The right of Iraqis to educate their children in their mother tongue, such as Turkmen, Syriac, and Armenian shall be guaranteed in government educational institutions in accordance with educational guidelines, or in any other language in private educational institutions."
  2. 2.0 2.1 Kümmel, Martin Joachim. "Areal developments in the history of Iranic: West vs. East." BOOK OF ABSTRACTS.
  3. Kontovas, Nicholas. "Reflexes of Proto-Iranic* w-as evidence for language contact."
  4. Karatay, Osman. "The Bulgars in Transoxiana: Some Inferences from Early Islamic Sources." Migracijske i etničke teme 1-2 (2009): 69-88.
  5. Faucher, Carole, and Dagikhudo Dagiev. "Introduction: Locating Pamiris in Central Asia." Identity, History and Trans-Nationality in Central Asia. Routledge, 2018. 1-8.
  6. John R. Perry Iranian Studies Vol. 31, No. 3/4, A Review of the "Encyclopaedia Iranica" (Summer - Autumn, 1998), pp. 517-525
  7. Kümmel, Martin Joachim. "Iranic vs. Iranian." Update of Mar 30 (2018).
  8. Parpola, Asko, Rojer Blench, and Matthew Spriggs. "The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European." Archaeology and language, III: artefacts, languages and texts (1999): 180-207.
  9. BORJIAN, Habib. "NORTH IRANIC PEOPLES IN THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA." NARTAMONGæ (2019): 413.

Other websites

[change | change source]
  • "Areal developments in the history of Iranic: West vs. East" (PDF). Martin Joachim Kümmel, department of Indo-European linguistics, University of Jena. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-05-09. Retrieved 2022-07-27.