Indo-Iranian languages

Indo-Iranian
Aryan
Geographic
distribution		 South, Central, Western Asia, South East Europe and the Caucasus / Total speakers = approximately 1.5 billion in 15 countries
Linguistic classification Indo-European
  • Indo-Iranian
Proto-language Proto-Indo-Iranian
Subdivisions
ISO 639-5 iir
Glottolog indo1320[1]
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The approximate present-day distribution of the Indo-European branches of Eurasia:
  Indo-Iranian

The Indo-Iranian languages or Indo-Iranic languages[2][3], or Aryan languages,[4] constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family. It has more than 1.5 billion speakers, stretching from Europe (Romani), Turkey (Kurdish and Zaza–Gorani) and the Caucasus (Ossetian) eastward to Xinjiang (Sarikoli) and Assam (Assamese), and south to Sri Lanka (Sinhalese) and the Maldives (Maldivian).

The common ancestor of all of the languages in this family is called Proto-Indo-Iranian—also known as Common Aryan—which was spoken in approximately the late 3rd millennium BC. The three branches of the modern Indo-Iranian languages are Indo-Aryan, Iranian, and Nuristani. Additionally, sometimes a fourth independent branch, Dardic, is posited, but recent scholarship in general places Dardic languages as archaic members of the Indo-Aryan branch.[5]

Languages

Chart classifying Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European language family
Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian languages consist of three groups:

Most of the largest languages (in terms of speakers) are a part of the Indo-Aryan group: Hindustani (Urdu, ~590 million[6]), Bengali (205 million[7]), Bishnupuriya (12 million)[8], Punjabi (100 million), Marathi (75 million), Gujarati (50 million), Bhojpuri (40 million), Awadhi (40 million), Maithili (35 million), Odia (35 million), Marwari (30 million), Sindhi (25 million), Assamese (24 million), Rajasthani (20 million), Chhattisgarhi (18 million), Sinhalese (19 million), Nepali (17 million), and Rangpuri (15 million). Among the Iranian branch, major languages are Persian (60 million), Pashto (ca. 50 million), Kurdish (35 million),[9] and Balochi (8 million), with a total number of native speakers of more than 1471 million. Numerous smaller languages exist.

History

The common proto-language of the Indo-Iranian languages is Proto-Indo-Iranian, which has been reconstructed.

The oldest attested Indo-Iranian languages are Vedic Sanskrit (ancient Indo-Aryan), Older and Younger Avestan and Old Persian (ancient Iranian languages). A few words from another Indo-Aryan language (see Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni) are attested in documents from the ancient Mitanni and Hittite kingdoms in the Near East.

Features

Innovations shared with other languages affected by the satem sound changes include:

  • Fronting and assibilation of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) palato-velar stops: *ḱ, *ǵʰ, *ǵ > *ĉ, *ĵʰ, *ĵ
  • The merger of the PIE labiovelar and plain velar stops: *kʷ, *gʷʰ, *gʷ > *k, *gʰ, *g
  • The Ruki sound law

Innovations shared with Greek include:

  • The vocalization of the PIE syllabic nasals *m̥, *n̥ to *a
  • Grassmann's law

Innovations unique to Indo-Iranian include:

  • The lowering of PIE *e to *a
    • *o was also lowered to *a, though this occurred in several other Indo-European languages as well.
  • Brugmann's law

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Indo-Iranian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
    2. ↑ D. D. Mahulkar (1990). Pre-Pāṇinian Linguistic Studies. Northern Book Centre. ISBN 978-81-85119-88-5.
    3. ↑ Annarita Puglielli; Mara Frascarelli (2011). Linguistic Analysis: From Data to Theory. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-022250-0.
    4. ↑ Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide, by Jadranka (EDT) Gvozdanovic, Language Arts & Disciplines,1999, Page 221. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-01-02. : "The usage of 'Aryan languages' is not to be equated with Indo-Aryan languages, rather Indo-Iranic languages of which Indo-Aryan is a subgrouping."
    5. ↑ Bashir, Elena (2007). Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George, eds. The Indo-Aryan languages. p. 905. ISBN 978-0415772945. 'Dardic' is a geographic cover term for those Northwest Indo-Aryan languages which [..] developed new characteristics different from the IA languages of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Although the Dardic and Nuristani (previously 'Kafiri') languages were formerly grouped together, Morgenstierne (1965) has established that the Dardic languages are Indo-Aryan, and that the Nuristani languages constitute a separate subgroup of Indo-Iranian.
    6. ↑ Edwards, Viv. "Urdu Today". BBC.
    7. ↑ Thompson, Irene. "Bengali". AboutWorldLanguages. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
    8. ↑ http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/statement9.htm
    9. ↑ CIA- The World Factbook: 14.7 million in Turkey (18%), 4.9–6.5 million in Iraq (15-20%), 8 million in Iran (10%)"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2011. (all for 2014), plus several million in Syria, neighboring countries, and the diaspora

    Sources

    • Chakrabarti, Byomkes (1994). A comparative study of Santali and Bengali. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co. ISBN 81-7074-128-9
    • Nicholas Sims-Williams, ed. (2002). Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples. Oxford University Press.


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