Indo-Iranian languages
Branch of the Indo-European language family
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Indo-Iranian languages are divided into three major branches: Indo-Aryan, Iranian (or Iranic), and Nuristani languages. The Badeshi language remains unclassified within the Indo-Iranian branch. The largest Indo-Iranian language is the Hindustani language (which comprises the two variants Hindi and Urdu).
The areas with Indo-Iranian languages stretch from Europe (Romani) and the Caucasus (Ossetian, Tat, Talysh), down to Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia (Kurdish, Zaza), the Levant and North Africa (Domari), and Iranian plateau, eastward to Xinjiang (Sarikoli) and Assam (Assamese), and south to Sri Lanka (Sinhala) and the Maldives (Maldivian), with branches stretching as far out as Oceania and the Caribbean for Fiji Hindi and Caribbean Hindustani respectively. Furthermore, there are large diaspora communities of Indo-Iranian speakers in Northwestern Europe, North America, Oceania, East Africa, South Africa, the Caribbean, and the Persian Gulf.
Etymology
The term Indo-Iranian languages refers to the spectrum of Indo-European languages spoken in the Southern Asian region of Eurasia, spanning from the Indian subcontinent (where the Indo-Aryan branch is spoken, also called Indic) up to the Iranian Plateau (where the Iranian branch is spoken, also called Iranic).
This branch is also known as Aryan languages, referring to the languages spoken by Aryan peoples, where the term Aryan is considered as the ethnocultural self-designation of ancient Indo-Iranians. Today, the term Aryan is generally avoided, owing to the perceived negative connotation associated with Aryanism.
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Classification
Below is an abridged classification scheme of the Indo-Iranian languages. The Badeshi language remains unclassified within the Indo-Iranian branch.
- Proto-Indo-European (reconstructed)
- Proto-Indo-Iranian (reconstructed)
- Proto-Iranian (reconstructed)
- Iranian languages (Iranic languages)
- Proto-Nuristani (reconstructed)
- Proto-Indo-Aryan (reconstructed)
- Badeshi (unclassified)
- Proto-Iranian (reconstructed)
- Proto-Indo-Iranian (reconstructed)
Origin
All Indo-Iranian languages can be traced back to a single hypothetical ancestral language: Proto-Indo-Iranian, which is the reconstructed proto-language to represent the latest point at which all modern-day Indo-Iranian languages were still unified. Proto-Indo-Iranian, in turn, is classified as belonging to the Indo-European language family, ultimately tracing back to the Proto-Indo-European language.
Historically, the Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers are thought to have originally referred to themselves using the reconstructed Proto-Indo-Iranian root *Áryas, from which it derives terms like Aryavarta (Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त, lit. 'Land of the Aryans'), Airyanem Vaejah (Avestan: 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬥𐬆𐬨⸱𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬘𐬀𐬵, lit. 'Expanse of the Arya'), Alania (*Aryāna), Iran (*Aryānām), and "Aryan".
The Proto-Indo-Iranian-speakers are generally associated with the Sintashta culture, which is thought to represent an eastward migration of peoples from the Corded Ware culture, which, in turn, is believed to represent an earlier westward migration of Yamnaya-related people from the Pontic–Caspian steppe zone into the territory of late Neolithic European cultures, possibly bringing with them the Proto-Indo-European language. However, the exact genetic relationship between the Yamnaya culture, Corded Ware culture and Sintashta culture remains unclear.
The earliest known chariots have been found in Sintashta burials, and the culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the Old World and played an important role in ancient warfare. There is almost a general consensus among scholars that the Andronovo culture, the successor of Sintasha culture, was an Indo-Iranian culture. Currently, only two sub-cultures are considered as part of Andronovo culture: Alakul and Fëdorovo cultures. The Andronovo culture is considered as an "Indo-Iranic dialect continuum", with a later split between Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages. However, according to Hiebert, an expansion of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) into Iran and the margin of the Indus Valley is "the best candidate for an archaeological correlate of the introduction of Indo-Iranian speakers to Iran and South Asia", despite the absence of the characteristic timber graves of the steppe in the Near East, or south of the region between Kopet Dag and Pamir-Karakorum. J. P. Mallory acknowledges the difficulties of making a case for expansions from Andronovo to northern India, and that attempts to link the Indo-Aryans to such sites as the Beshkent and Vakhsh cultures "only gets the Indo-Iranian to Central Asia, but not as far as the seats of the Medes, Persians or Indo-Aryans". He has developed the Kulturkugel (lit. 'the culture bullet') model that has the Indo-Iranians taking over cultural traits of BMAC, but preserving their language and religion while moving into Iran and India.