Name	Iranian
Region	Southwest Asia, Central Asia, and western South Asia
Familycolor	Indo-European
Fam2	Indo-Iranian
Protoname	Proto-Iranian
Child1	Western Iranian
Child2	Eastern Iranian
Iso2	ira
Iso5	ira }}

The Iranian languages (also called Iranic languages) form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples.

The Iranian languages are considered in three stages of Old (beginning of 2nd millennium BC–400 BCE), Middle (400 BCE – 900 CE), and New (afterwards) stages. From the Old Iranian languages the better understood and recorded ones are Old Persian (a language of Achaemenid Iran) and Avestan (the language of Zarathushtra). Middle Iranian languages included Middle Persian] (a language of Sassanid Iran) and Parthian (a language of Arsacid Iran). There are many New Iranian languages, among which are modern Persian, Pashto and Kurdish.

Today, there are an estimated 150–200 million native speakers of Iranian languages. The Ethnologue lists 87 Iranian languages. Persian has about 65 million native speakers, Pashto about 50-60 million, Kurdish about 18 million, Lurish about 2.3 million, and Baluchi about 7 million.

The term

The term ''Iranian language'' is applied to any language which is "descended from a proto-Iranian parent language". As such these proto-languages were unattested and spoken first and presumably by people/tribes in Russia sometime in the late 3rd to early 2nd millennium BCE. The area in which Iranian languages, i.e. descendants of proto-Iranian language, have been spoken stretches from western China to western Europe. The proto-Iranian language was related to, also unattested, proto-Indo-Aryan language. The proto-Indo-Aryan gave birth to various Indic languages over the time.

The collection of all Iranian languages and all Indo-Aryan languages and "perhaps separate" Nuristani languages is called the Indo-Iranian (IIr.) branch of the Indo-European language family.

The term ''Iranian'' has been introduced 1836 by Christian Lassen, followed by Wilhelm Geiger and his ''Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie'' (1895) whereas Friedrich von Spiegel in 1859 prefers the term ''Eranian''. Robert Needham Cust, however, used the term ''Irano-Aryan'' as early as 1878. Orientalists such as George Abraham Grierson and Max Müller also differentiated between ''Irano-Aryan'' and ''Indo-Aryan.'' Grierson also uses the term ''Eranian''. Recent scholarship has seen a revival of the term ''Irano-Aryan'' in analogy to ''Indo-Aryan.'' The linguist Ahmad Hasan Dani uses the term and asserts Iranian is short for Irano-Aryan. The linguist Gilbert Lazard, specialist for Persian, has been using the term consequently in his publications, whereas Mohammad Djafar suggests to establish ''Aryan'' for the branch.

Classification

Soon after the formation of Indo-European family of languages in 19th century, the Iranian languages (Avestan, Old Persian, ...) together with the Indic languages (Sanskrit, ..) were recognized by works of the linguist Rasmus Rask in 1826 as the eastern branch of Indo-European languages. The Armenian language was also considered as an Iranian language but was very soon (in 1875 effectively) established as a separate language in the Indo-European group of languages.

Iranian languages are divided into Eastern and Western subfamilies, totalling about 84 languages (SIL estimate). Of the most widely-spoken Iranian languages, Kurdish, Persian, and Balochi are all Western Iranian languages, while Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language.

Proto-Iranian and Old Iranian languages

Together with the other Indo-Iranian languages, the Iranian languages are descended from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-Iranian. The Indo-Iranian languages are thought to have originated in southern Russia to the north of the Caucasus. The Andronovo culture is the suggested candidate for the common Indo-Iranian culture ''ca''. 2000 BC.

It was situated precisely in Black Sea Region that borders present-day Russia (and present-day Ukraine). It was in relative proximity to the other satem ethno-linguistic groups of the Indo-European family, like Thracian, Balto-Slavic and others, and to common Indo-European's original homeland (more precisely, the steppes of southern Russia to the north of the Caucasus), according to the reconstructed linguistic relationships of common Indo-European.

Proto-Iranian thus dates to some time after Proto-Indo-Iranian break-up, or the early second millennium BCE, as the Old Iranian languages began to break off and evolve separately as the various Iranian tribes migrated and settled in vast areas of southeastern Europe, the Iranian plateau, and Central Asia.

Avestan, mainly attested through the Avesta, a collection of sacred texts connected to the Zoroastrian religion, is considered to belong to a central Iranian group, where only peripheral groups such as southwestern (represented by Old Persian) and northeastern Sogdian and Sakan language (Scythian) had developed. Among the less known Old Iranian languages is Median, spoken in western and central Iran, which may have had an “official” status during the Median era (ca. 700–559 BC). Apart from place and personal names, some words reported in Herodotus' Histories and some preserved forms in Achaemenid inscriptions, there are numerous non-Persian words in the Old Persian texts that are commonly considered Median. Some of the modern Western and Central Iranian dialects are also likely to be descended from Median.

Other such languages are Carduchi (the predecessor to Kurdish) and Parthian (which evolved into the language of the later empire).

Middle Iranian languages

What is known in Iranian linguistic history as the "Middle Iranian" era is thought to begin around the 4th century BCE lasting through the 9th century. Linguistically and historically one can classify these into two main families, Western and Eastern.

The Western family includes Parthian (Arsacid Pahlavi) and Middle Persian, while Bactrian, Sogdian, Khwarezmian, Saka, and Old Ossetic (Scytho-Sarmatian) fall under the Eastern category. The two languages of the western group were linguistically very close to each other, but quite distinct from their eastern counterparts. On the other hand, the Eastern group retained some similarity to Avestan. They were inscribed in various Aramaic-derived alphabets, which had evolved from the Achaemenid Imperial Aramaic.

Middle Persian (Pahlavi) was the official language of the Sassanids. It was in use from the 3rd century CE until the beginning of the 10th century. Pahlavi and Parthian were also the languages of the Manichaeans, whose texts also survive in various non-Iranian languages, from Latin to Chinese. The ''Imperial Aramaic'' script used in this era underwent significant maturing.

New Iranian languages

Following the Islamic Conquest of Persia (Iran), there were important changes in the role of the different dialects within the Persian Empire. The old prestige form of Middle Iranian, also known as Pahlavi, was replaced by a new standard dialect called Dari as the official language of the court. The name Dari comes from the word ''darbâr'' (دربار), which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished. The Saffarid dynasty in particular was the first in a line of many dynasties to officially adopt the new language in 875 CE. Dari may have been heavily influenced by regional dialects of eastern Iran, whereas the earlier Pahlavi standard was based more on western dialects. This new prestige dialect became the basis of Standard New Persian. Medieval Iranian scholars such as Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa (8th century) and Ibn al-Nadim (10th century) associated the term "Dari" with the eastern province of Khorasan, while they used the term "Pahlavi" to describe the dialects of the northwestern areas between Isfahan and Azerbaijan, and "Pârsi" ("Persian" proper) to describe the Dialects of Fars. They also noted that the unofficial language of the royalty itself was yet another dialect, "Khuzi", associated with the western province of Khuzestan.

The Islamic conquest also brought with it the adoption of Arabic script for writing Persian, Pashto and Balochi. All three were adapted to the writing by the addition of a few letters. This development probably occurred some time during the second half of the 8th century, when the old middle Persian script began dwindling in usage. The Arabic script remains in use in contemporary modern Persian. Tajik script was first Latinised in the 1920s under the then Soviet nationality policy. The script was however subsequently Cyrillicized in the 1930s by the Soviet government.

The geographical area in which Iranian languages were spoken was pushed back in several areas by newly neighbouring languages. Arabic spread into some parts of Western Iran (Khuzestan), and Turkic languages spread through much of Central Asia, displacing various Iranian languages such as Sogdian and Bactrian in parts of what is today Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Sogdian barely survives in a small area of the Zarafshan valley east of Samarkand, and Saka (as Sariqoli) in parts of southern Xinjiang as well as Ossetic in the Caucasus. Various small Iranian languages in the Pamirs survive that are derived from Eastern Iranian.

Comparison table

See also

Indo-Iranian languages

List of Iranian languages

Iranian peoples

Notes

References

Bailey, H. W. (1979). ''Dictionary of Khotan Saka''. Cambridge University Press. 1979. 1st Paperback edition 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-14250-2.

External links

Society for Iranian Linguistics

Iranian EFL Journal

Audio and video recordings for over 50 languages spoken in Iran

Category:Iranian peoples

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{{ethnic group| Geographic distribution of modern Iranian languages: Persian (green), Pashto (purple) and Kurdish (turquoise), Lurish (red), Baluchi (Yellow), as well as smaller communities of other Iranian languages. |poptime= 160 million Indigenous ethnicities and emigrant communities living in: ''Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Oman, China (Xinjiang), India, United Kingdom, Germany and United States''. |popplace= ''Iranian plateau and the Middle East, Anatolia, South Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus'' and as immigrant communities in ''North America, and Western Europe''. |langs= Iranian Languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. |rels= Predominantly Shi'a Islam and Sunni Islam. There are also some adherents of Orthodox Christianity, Nestorianism, Judaism, Bahá'í Faith, Zoroastrianism, Toshavim, Atheism, Agnosticism. }}

The Iranian peoples (sometimes also Iranic peoples) are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples. Their historical areas of settlement were on the Iranian plateau mainly in Iran, certain areas of Central Asia such as Tajikistan, most of Afghanistan, parts of Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and scattered parts of the Caucasus Mountains. Their current distribution is spread across the Iranian plateau, stretching from the Indus in the east to central Anatolia in the west, and from Central Asia and the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf - a region that is sometimes termed the Iranian cultural continent, or Greater Persia by scholars, representing the extent of the Iranian languages and influence of the Persian People, through the geopolitical reach of the Persian empire.

The Iranian group emerges from an earlier Indo-Iranian unity during the Late Bronze Age, and they enter the historical record during the Early Iron Age. The Persians formed the Achaemenid Empire by the 6th century BC, while the Scythians dominated the Eurasian steppe. With numerous artistic, scientific, architectural and philosophical achievements and numerous kingdoms and empires that bridged much of the civilized world in antiquity, the Iranian peoples were often in close contact with the Greeks, Romans, Indians, and Chinese. In addition, the various religions of the Iranian peoples, including Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and Manichaeism, are believed by some scholars to be important early philosophical influences on Christianity and Judaism. Early Iranian tribes are the ancestors of many modern Iranian peoples.

Name

The term ''Iranian'' is derived from the Old Iranian ethnical adjective ''Aryana'' which is itself a cognate of the Sanskrit word ''Arya''. The name ''Iran'' is from ''Aryānām''; lit: "[Land] of the Aryans". The old Proto-Indo-Iranian term ''Arya'', per Thieme meaning "hospitable", is believed to have been one of the self-referential terms used by the Aryans, at least in the areas populated by Aryans who migrated south from Central Asia. Another meaning for Aryan is noble. In the late part of the Avesta (Vendidad 1) one of their homelands was referred to as ''Airyanem Vaejah''. The homeland varied in its geographic range, the area around Herat (Pliny's view) and even the entire expanse of the Iranian plateau (Strabo's designation).

The academic usage of the term ''Iranian'' is distinct from the state of Iran and its various citizens (who are all Iranian by nationality and thus popularly referred to as ''Iranians'') in the same way that ''Germanic people'' is distinct from ''Germans''. Many citizens of Iran are not necessarily "Iranian people" by virtue of not being speakers of Iranian languages and may not have discernible ties to ancient Iranian tribes. Unlike the various terms connected with the Aryan arya- in Old Indian, the Old Iranian term has solely an ethnic meaning and there can be no doubt about the ethnic value of Old Iran. arya (Benveniste, 1969, I, pp. 369 f.; Szemerényi; Kellens).

The name Arya lives in the ethnic names like Alan, New Persian: Iran, Ossertian: Ir and Iron. The name Iran has been in usage since Sassanid times. Although Darius the Great called his language the Iranian language, modern scholars refer to it as Old Persian due to the fact that it is the ancestor of modern Persian language.

The Old Persian and Avestan evidence is confirmed by the Greek sources”. Herodotus in his Histories remarks about the Iranian Medes that: “These Medes were called anciently by all people Arians; “ (7.62). In Armenian sources, the Parthians, Medes and Persians are collectively referred to as Iranians. Eudemus of Rhodes apud Damascius (Dubitationes et solutiones in Platonis Parmenidem 125 bis) refers to “the Magi and all those of Iranian (áreion) lineage”; Diodorus Siculus (1.94.2) considers Zoroaster (Zathraustēs) as one of the Arianoi.

Strabo, in his "Geography", mentions the unity of Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Sogdians:

The Bactrian language (an Middle Iranian language) inscription of Kanishka the founder of the Kushan empire at Rabatak, which was discovered in 1993 in an unexcavated site in the Afghanistan province of Baghlan clearly refers to this Eastern Iranian language as Arya In the post-Islamic era one can still see a clear usage of the term Iran in the work of the 10th century historian Hamzeh Isfahani. In his famous book “the history of Prophets and Kings” writes: “Aryan which is also called Pars(Persia) is in the middle of these countries and these six countries surround it because the South East is in the hands China, the North of the Turks, the middle South is India, the middle North is Rome, and the South West and the North West is the Sudan and Berber lands”. All this evidence shows that the name arya “Iranian” was a collective definition, denoting peoples (Geiger, pp. 167 f.; Schmitt, 1978, p. 31) who were aware of belonging to the one ethnic stock, speaking a common language, and having a religious tradition that centered on the cult of Ahura Mazdā.

History and settlement

Roots

Having descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, it is widely believed that the Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans, Dards (variously considered as Indo-Iranian or within the Indo-Aryan branch), and the Nuristanis in the early 2nd millennium BCE, in Central Asia. The area between northern Afghanistan, the Aral Sea and the Urals is hypothesized to have been the region where the Proto-Iranians first emerged, following the separation of the Indo-Iranians, in the area of the previous, Indo-Iranian Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia.

By the early 1st millennium, Ancient Iranian peoples such as Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Cimmerians, Sarmatians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea. The Saka, Scythian, tribes spread as far west as the Balkans and as far east as Xinjiang. The Kushan Empire, with Bactrian roots/connections, once controlled much of Pakistan, some of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Kushan elite (who the Chinese called the Yuezhi) were either a Tocharian-speaking (another Indo-European branch) people or an Eastern Iranian language-speaking people.

The division into an "Eastern" and a "Western" group by the early 1st millennium is visible in Avestan vs. Old Persian, the two oldest known Iranian languages. The Old Avestan texts known as the Gathas are believed to have been composed by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism, with the Yaz culture (ca. 1500–1100 BCE) as a candidate for the development of Eastern Iranian culture.

Old Persian appears to have been established in written form by 519 BCE, following the creation of the Old Persian script, inspired by the cuneiform script of the Assyrians.

Western Iranic peoples

During the 1st centuries of the first millennium BCE, the ancient Persians established themselves in the western portion of the Iranian plateau and appear to have interacted considerably with the Elamites and Babylonians, while the Medes also entered in contact with the Assyrians. Remnants of the Median language and Old Persian show their common Proto-Iranian roots, emphasized in Strabo and Herodotus' description of their languages as very similar to the languages spoken by the Bactrians and Soghdians in the east. Following the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian language (referred to as "''Farsi''" in Persian) spread from Pars or Fars Province to various regions of the Empire, with the modern dialects of Iran, Afghanistan (also known as Dari) and Central-Asia (known as Tajiki) descending from Old Persian.

Old Persian is attested in the Behistun Inscription (ca. 519 BCE), recording a proclamation by Darius the Great. In southwestern Iran, the Achaemenid kings usually wrote their inscriptions in trilingual form (Elamite, Babylonian and Old Persian) while elsewhere other languages were used. The administrative languages were Elamite in the early period, and later Imperial Aramaic.

The early inhabitants of the Achaemenid Empire appear to have adopted the religion of Zoroastrianism. The Baloch who speak a west Iranian language relate an oral tradition regarding their migration from Aleppo, Syria around the year 1000 AD, whereas linguistic evidence links Balochi to Kurdish and Zazaki.

Eastern Iranic peoples

While the Iranian tribes of the south are better known through their texts and modern counterparts, the tribes which remained largely in the vast Eurasian expanse are known through the references made to them by the ancient Greeks, Persians, Indo-Aryans as well as by archaeological finds. Many ancient Sanskrit texts make references to tribes like Sakas, Paradas, Kambojas, Bahlikas, Uttaramadras, Madras, Lohas, Parama Kambojas, Rishikas, Tukharas or Tusharas etc. and locate them in the (Uttarapatha) (north-west) division, in Central Asia, around Hindukush range in northern Pakistan. The Greek chronicler, Herodotus (5th century BCE) makes references to a nomadic people, the Scythians; he describes as having dwelt in what is today southern Russia.

It is believed that these Scythians were conquered by their eastern cousins, the Sarmatians, who are mentioned by Strabo as the dominant tribe which controlled the southern Russian steppe in the 1st millennium AD. These Sarmatians were also known to the Romans, who conquered the western tribes in the Balkans and sent Sarmatian conscripts, as part of Roman legions, as far west as Roman Britain.

The Sarmatians of the east became the Alans, who also ventured far and wide, with a branch ending up in Western Europe and North Africa, as they accompanied the Germanic Vandals during their migrations. The modern Ossetians are believed to be the sole direct descendants of the Alans, as other remnants of the Alans disappeared following Germanic, Hunnic and ultimately Slavic migrations and invasions. Another group of Alans allied with Goths to defeat the Romans and ultimately settled in what is now called Catalonia (Goth-Alania). Some of the Saka-Scythian tribes in Central Asia would later move further southeast and invade the Iranian plateau, large sections of present day Pakistan/Afghanistan and finally deep into the northwestern portion of the Indian subcontinent; i.e. present day Punjab (Persian for land of five rivers) (see Indo-Scythians). Another Iranian tribe related to the Saka-Scythians were the Parni in Central Asia, and who later become indistinguishable from the Parthians, speakers of a northwest-Iranian language. Many Iranian tribes, including the Khwarazmians, Massagetae and Sogdians, were assimilated and/or displaced in Central Asia by the migrations of Turkic tribes emanating out of Xinjiang and Siberia.

The most dominant surviving Eastern Iranian peoples are represented by the Pashtuns, whose origins are generally believed to be from the Suleiman mountains in the Balochistan province of Pakistan, from which they began to spread until they reached as far west as Herat, north to areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan; and as eastward towards the Indus as well as adjacent areas of the Panjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. The Pashto language shows affinities to the Avestan and Bactrian.

The modern Sarikoli in southern Xinjiang and the Ossetians of the Caucasus are remnants of the various Saka tribes. The modern Ossetians claim to be the descendants of the Alano-Sarmatians and their claims are supported by their Northeast Iranian language, while culturally the Ossetians resemble their Caucasian neighbors, the Kabardians and Circassians. Various extinct Iranian people existed in the eastern Caucasus, including the Azaris, while some Iranian people remain in the region, including the Talysh and the Tats (including the Judeo-Tats, who have relocated to Israel), found in Azerbaijan and as far north as the Russian republic of Dagestan. A remnant of the Sogdians is found in the Yaghnobi speaking population in parts of the Zeravshan valley in Tajikistan.

Later developments

Starting with the reign of Omar in 634 CE, Muslim Arabs began a conquest of the Iranian plateau. The Arabs conquered the Sassanid Empire of the Persians and seized much of the Byzantine Empire populated by the Kurds and others. Ultimately, the various Iranian people, including the Persians, Azaries, Kurds, Baluchis and Pashtuns, converted to Islam. The Iranian people would later split along sectarian lines as the Persians (and later the Hazara) adopted the Shi'a sect. As ancient tribes and identities changed, so did the Iranian people, many of whom assimilated foreign cultures and people.

Later, during the 2nd millennium CE, the Iranian people would play a prominent role during the age of Islamic expansion and empire. Saladin, a noted adversary of the Crusaders, was an ethnic Kurd, while various empires centered in Iran (including the Safavids) re-established a modern dialect of Persian as the official language spoken throughout much of what is today Iran and adjacent parts of Central Asia. Iranian influence spread to the Ottoman Empire, where Persian was often spoken at court, as well as in the Mughal Empire, a Mongol-Turkic (Uzbek) peoples, which began in Afghanistan and shifted to South Asia encompassing various regions which now make up parts of Pakistan. All of the major Iranian people reasserted their use of Iranian languages following the decline of Arab rule, but would not begin to form modern national identities until the 19th and early 20th centuries (just as Germans and Italians were beginning to formulate national identities of their own).

The following either partially descend from Iranian people or are sometimes regarded as possible descendants of ancient Iranian people:

Turkic-speakers:

Azeris: Although Azeris speak a Turkic language (modern Azerbaijani language), they are believed to be primarily descendants of ancient Iranians. and Caucasians. Thus, due to their historical ties with various ancient Iranians, as well as their cultural ties to Persians, the Azeris are often associated with the Iranian people (see Origin of Azerbaijani people and the Iranian theory regarding the origin of the Azerbaijanis for more details).

Uzbeks: The modern Uzbek people are believed to have both Iranian and Turkic ancestry. ''"Uzbek"'' and ''"Tajik"'' are modern designations given to the culturally homogeneous, sedentary population of Central Asia. The local ancestors of both groups - the Turkic-speaking Uzbeks and the Iranian-speaking Tajiks - were known as ''"Sarts"'' (''"sedentary merchants"'') prior to the Russian conquest of Central Asia, while ''"Uzbek"'' or ''"Turk"'' were the names given to the nomadic and semi-nomadic populations of the area. Still today, modern Uzbeks and Tajiks are known as ''"Sarts"'' to their Turkic neighbours, the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz. The ancient Soghdians and Bactrians are among their ancestors. Culturally, the Uzbeks are closer to their sedentary Iranian-speaking neighbours rather than to their nomadic and semi-nomadic Turkic neighbours. Some Uzbek scholars, i.e. Ahmadov and Askarov, favour the ''Iranian origin'' theory.

*The native name of Yakuts is Sakha, very similar to the Sakkas, proposing Yakuts to be related of descendants of Scythians, specifically Sakkahs.

Slavic-speakers:

* A few linguists suggest that the names of the South Slavic people, the Serbs and Croats are of Iranian origin. Those who entertain such a connection propose that the Sarmatian ''Serboi'' and ''Horouthos'' tribes might have migrated from the Eurasian steppe lands to eastern Europe, and assimilated with the numerically superior Slavs, passing on their name. Iranian-speaking people did inhabit parts of the Balkans in late classical times, and would have been encountered by the Slavs. However, direct linguistic, historical or archaeological proof for such a theory is lacking. (See also: Theories on the origin of Serbs and Theories on the origin of Croats)

Some modern Bulgarian historians claim that the Bulgars were of Iranian origin and that they migrated to Europe from the region of today's northern Afghanistan - Hindukush mountains, from the Kingdom of Balhara. Their claims are based on medieval Armenian sources, the writings of ancient historians ("Ashharatsuyts" by Anania Shirakatsi; Agathias of Myrina, Theophylact Simocatta, Michael the Syrian) archaeological findings in modern Bulgaria, the similarities with Iranic languages (place names, people names, and Iranic words in modern Bulgarian), similarities with culture (e.g: some buildings in Pliska were built in a Zoroastrian fashion; similarities in traditional music, dancing and carpet making) and the very close similarity of the DNA of Pamirian/Iranic people with that of modern Bulgarians After their arrival on Balkans, the Bulgars subjugated and then formed an allience with the local Slavs and formed the Bulgarian nation.

Finno-Ugric speakers

*Many Volga Finns may be of part Iranian admixture due to Bulgar invasion of the Volga basin, if they (Bulgars) were Iranian people.

*Hungarians have long prided themselves as Scythians in the past, Scythians being an Iranian people, prior to the Finno-Ugric theory. It's possible they've undergone a language shift. In a Magyar folkore suggests Iranian admixture among Hungarian, when Hunor and Magor marry princesses who were Alans, another Iranian people. Jassic people of Hungary are of Ossetian origin. Szekely is pronounced "Sae-Kai" and are possibly of Iranian origin, as their name is similar to Sakka.

Demographics

There are an estimated 150 to 200 million native speakers of Iranian languages, the five major groups of Persians, Lurs, Kurds , Baloch, and Pashtuns accounting for about 90% of this number. Currently, most of these Iranian peoples live in Iran, the Caucasus (mainly Ossetia, other parts of Georgia, and Azerbaijan), Kurdish majority populated areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Due to recent migrations, there are also large communities of speakers of Iranian languages in Europe, the Americas, and Israel.

The following is a list of Iranian people with the respective groups's core areas of settlements and their estimated sizes (in millions):

! People	! region	! population
	Aymāq>Aimaqs	Hazara people>Hazara	:* Huwala	Tajik people>Tajik	:* Tats	Iran Persian speakers in- Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan	60-70
Pashtuns	:* Durrani	:* Ghilzai	:* Yusufzai	Wazir (tribe)>Waziri	Afghanistan and Pakistan	48-50
	:* Soranis.	:* Kurmanjis.	Goran Kurds>Goranis (Orami)s.	:* Kalhurs	Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Armenia,Azerbaijan, Georgia,Turkmenistan, Israel and Lebanon	23-36
	Iran, Pakistan & Afghanistan	10
Gilaki people	Iran	5-10
	Iran	6
	Iran	0.5
[[Pamiri people	:* Sariqoli	Wakhi (ethnic group)>Wakhi	:* ''"Tajiks of China"''	:* Shughni	Tajikistan, China (Xinjiang),Afghanistan	0.9
	Azerbaijan, Iran	0.5
Ossetians	Jasz people>Jasz	Digor people>Digor	Iron people>Iron	South Ossetia and Georgia,Russia (North Ossetia), Hungary	0.7
	Turkey	3-5
Parsis	Pakistan and India	0.1
		0.025
Kumzari	Oman (Musandam)	0.021

Diversity

It is largely through linguistic similarities that the Iranian people have been linked, as many non-Iranian people have adopted Iranian languages and cultures. However, other common traits have been identified as well and a stream of common historical events have often linked the southern Iranian people, including Hellenistic conquests, the various empires based in Persia, Arab Caliphates and Turkic invasions.

Culture

Like other Indo-Europeans, the early Iranians practiced ritual sacrifice, had a social hierarchy consisting of warriors, clerics and farmers and poetic hymns and sagas to recount their deeds.

Following the Iranian split from the Indo-Iranians, the Iranians developed an increasingly distinct culture. Various common traits can be discerned among the Iranian people. For example, the social event Norouz is an Iranian festival that is practiced by nearly all of the Iranian people as well as others in the region. Its origins are traced to Zoroastrianism and pre-historic times.

Some Iranian cultures exhibit traits that are unique unto themselves. The Pashtuns adhere to a code of honor and culture known as Pashtunwali, which has a similar counterpart among the Baloch, called Mayar, that is more hierarchical.

Religion

The early Iranian people worshipped various deities found throughout other cultures where Indo-European immigrants established themselves. The earliest major religion of the Iranian people was Zoroastrianism, which spread to nearly all of the Iranian people living in the Iranian plateau. Other religions that had their origins in the Iranian world were Mithraism, Manichaeism, and Mazdakism, among others. Modern speakers of Iranian languages mainly follow Islam. Some follow Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and the Bahá'í Faith, with an unknown number showing no religious affiliation. Overall the numbers of Sunni and Shia among the Iranian people are equally distributed. Most Kurds, Tajiks, Pashtuns, and Baluch are Sunni Muslims, while the remainder are mainly Twelver Shi'a, comprising mostly Persians in Iran, and Hazaras in Afghanistan. Zazas in Turkey are largely Alevi, while the Pamiri peoples in Tajikistan and China are nearly all Ismaili. The Christian community is mainly represented by the Armenian Apostolic Church, followed by the Russian Orthodox and Georgian Orthodox Ossetians followed by Nestorians. Judaism is followed mainly by Persian Jews, Kurdish Jews, Bukharian Jews (of Central Asia) and the Mountain Jews (of the Caucasus), most of whom are now found in Israel. The historical religion of the Persian Empire was Zoroastrianism and it still has a few thousand followers, mostly in Yazd and Kerman. They are known as the Parsis in the Indian subcontinent, where many of them fled in historic times following the Arab conquest of Persia, or Zoroastrians in Iran. Another ancient religion is the Yazidi faith, followed by some Kurds in northern Iraq, as well as the majority of the Kurds in Armenia.

Elements of pre-Islamic Zoroastrian and shamanistic beliefs persist among some Islamized groups today, such as the Tajiks, Pashtuns and Pamiri peoples.

Cultural assimilation

In matters relating to culture, the various Turkic-speaking minorities of Iran (notably the Azerbaijani people) and Afghanistan (Uzbeks and Turkmen) are often conversant in Iranian languages, in addition to their own Turkic languages and also have Iranian culture to the extent that the term ''Turko-Iranian'' can be applied. The usage applies to various circumstances that involve historic interaction, intermarriage, cultural assimilation, bilingualism and cultural overlap or commonalities.

Notable among this synthesis of Turko-Iranian culture are the Azeris, whose culture, religion and significant periods of history are linked to the Persians. Certain theories and genetic tests suggest that the Azeris are descendants of ancient Iranian peoples who lost their Iranian language (see Ancient Azari language) following the Turkic invasions of Azerbaijan in the 11th century CE. In fact, throughout much of the expanse of Central Asia and the Middle East, Iranian and Turkic culture has merged in many cases to form various hybrid populations and cultures, as evident from various ruling dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs and Mughals.

Iranian cultural influences have also been significant in Central Asia, where Turkic invaders are believed to have largely mixed with native Iranian people of which only the Tajik remain, in terms of language usage. The areas of the former Soviet Union adjacent to Iran (such as Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan) have gone through the prism of decades of Russian and Soviet rule that has reshaped the Turko-Iranian cultures there to some degree.

Genetics

Two Y-DNA Haplogroups are supposed to be connected with Iranic people Haplogroup J2 and R1a1

J2a:

Haplogroup J2 especially the subcadle J2a is frequently found among almost all groups of Iranic people. In comparison with the Haplogroup R1a1, J2 is not only restricted to geographically eastern and western Iranic populations, but also found among north-western and south-western Iranic populations such as the Bakhtiaris and Mazanderani, as well as geographically north-western Iranic Ossetians. Despite its supposed origin in the fertile crescent, J2a is also found among Iranic populations in the east such as the Yagnobi which are of Soghdian origin as well as the Parsis of India. Beside the relatively high percentage among the Yagnobis in Central Asia, other Iranic populations tend to have a higher frequency of J2a when compared to neighboring Turkic populations. The relatively strong presence of J2a among Ossetians as well as Yagnobis proves distant from the supposed Mesopotamian origin region of J2, are carriers of this Haplogroup.

In the Indo-Iranian context, the occurrence of J2a in South Asia is limited to caste populations, with the highest frequencies found among northern areas of South Asia. Compared with R1a1, J2a shows a more conservative distribution, stronger limited to Indo-Iranian origin groups.

R1a1:

Haplogroup M17, also known as R1a1, has been supposed to be a diagnostic Indo-Iranian marker. The highest R1a1 frequencies are detected in the Central Asian populations of Ishkashemi Tajiks (68%) and Pamiri Tajiks (64%) , both groups being remnants of the original Eastern Iranian population of the region. Apart from these two groups, high frequencies of R1a1 are also found in Pashtuns (44.8%) and eastern parts of the Iranian Highlands up to frequencies of 35%, similar to Northern India, while Western Iran based on Iranians sampled (52 Samples from the western part of the country) appears to have had little genetic influence from the supposed R1a1-carrying Indo-Iranians about 10%,to attributed to language replacement through the "elite-dominance" model in a similar manner which occurred in Europe and India. In this regard, it is likely that the Kavir and Lut deserts in the center of Iran have acted as significant barriers to gene flow.

Genetic studies conducted by Cavalli-Sforza have revealed that Iranians have weak correlation with Near Eastern groups, and are closer to surrounding Indo-Europeans speaking populations. This study is partially supported by another one, based on Y-Chromosome haplogroups.

The findings of this study reveal many common genetic markers found among the Iranian people from the Tigris river of Iraq to the Indus of Pakistan. This correlates with the Iranian languages spoken from the Caucasus to Kurdish areas in the Zagros region and eastwards to western Pakistan and Tajikistan and parts of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The extensive gene flow is perhaps an indication of the spread of Iranian-speaking people, whose languages are now spoken mainly on the Iranian plateau and adjacent regions. These results relate the relationships of Iranian people with each other, while other comparative testing reveals some varied origins for Iranian people such as the Kurds, who show genetic ties to the Caucasus at considerably higher levels than any other Iranian people except the Ossetians, as well as links to Europe and Semitic populations that live in close proximity such as the Arab and Jews.

Another recent study of the genetic landscape of Iran was completed by a team of Cambridge geneticists led by Dr. Maziar Ashrafian Bonab (an Iranian Azarbaijani). Bonab remarked that his group had done extensive DNA testing on different language groups, including Indo-European and non Indo-European speakers, in Iran. The study found that the Azerbaijanis of Iran do not have a similar FSt and other genetic markers found in Anatolian and European Turks. However, the genetic Fst and other genetic traits like MRca and mtDNA of Iranian Azeris were identical to Persians in Iran. Azaris of Iran also show very close genetic ties to Kurds.

See also

Airyanem Vaejah

Ajam (Bahrain)

Ancient Iranian peoples

Bulgars

Caspian people

Greater Iran

Indo-Iranians

Iranian Kuwaitis

Turko-Iranian

Literature and further reading

Banuazizi, Ali and Weiner, Myron (eds.). ''The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East)'', Syracuse University Press (August, 1988). ISBN 0-8156-2448-4.

Canfield, Robert (ed.). ''Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2002). ISBN 0-521-52291-9

Curzon, R. ''The Iranian People of the Caucasus''. ISBN 0-7007-0649-6.

Derakhshani, Jahanshah. ''Die Arier in den nahöstlichen Quellen des 3. und 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr.'', 2nd edition (1999). ISBN 964-90368-6-5.

Frye, Richard, ''Greater Iran'', Mazda Publishers (2005). ISBN 1-56859-177-2.

Frye, Richard. ''Persia'', Schocken Books, Zurich (1963). ASIN B0006BYXHY.

Kennedy, Hugh. ''The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates'', Longman, New York, NY (2004). ISBN 0-582-40525-4

Khoury, Philip S. & Kostiner, Joseph. ''Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East'', University of California Press (1991). ISBN 0-520-07080-1.

Littleton, C. & Malcor, L. ''From Scythia to Camelot'', Garland Publishing, New York, NY, (2000). ISBN 0-8153-3566-0.

Mallory, J.P. ''In Search of the Indo-Europeans'', Thames and Hudson, London (1991). ISBN 0-500-27616-1.

McDowall, David. ''A Modern History of the Kurds'', I.B. Tauris, 3rd Rev edition (2004). ISBN 1-85043-416-6.

Nassim, J. ''Afghanistan: A Nation of Minorities'', Minority Rights Group, London (1992). ISBN 0-946690-76-6.

Riasanovsky, Nicholas. ''A History of Russia'', Oxford University Press, Oxford (2004). ISBN 0-19-515394-4.

Sims-Williams, Nicholas. ''Indo-Iranian Languages and People'', British Academy (2003). ISBN 0-19-726285-6.

Iran Nama, (Iran Travelogue in Urdu) by Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Tibbi Academy, Aligarh, India (1998).

Saga of the Aryans, Historical novel on ancient Iranian migrations by Porus Homi Havewala, Published Mumbai, India (2005, 2010).

References

External links

Iranian

Encyclopedia Britannica: Iranian languages

People of Iran

The Changing Face of Iran a photo essay by ''Newsweek Magazine''

Maps and demographic information on all the people groups of Iran found at www.EveryTongue.com/iran

Category:Ancient peoples Category:Ethnic groups in the Middle East Category:Indo-European peoples Iranian people

ar:شعوب إيرانية az:İrandilli xalqlar bo:ཏ་ཟིག་གི་མི། bs:Iranski narodi bg:Ирански народи ca:Irànics da:Iranske folk de:Iranische Völker es:Pueblos iranios et:Iraani rahvad fa:اقوام ایرانی‌تبار fr:Peuples iraniens hr:Iranski narodi id:Bangsa Iran os:Ирайнаг адæмтæ it:Iranici ka:ირანელები lv:Irāņu tautas lt:Iraniečiai mg:Iranianina mr:इराणी mzn:ایرانی تبارون ms:Bangsa Iran nl:Iraanse volkeren pl:Ludy irańskie pt:Povos iranianos ru:Иранские народы sr:Ирански народи sh:Iranski narodi sv:Iranier tr:İranî halklar uk:Іранські народи zh:伊朗人

Aryan languages may refer to the following:

The Indo-Iranian languages as a whole

*Indo-Aryan languages, one of the two main branchs of Indo-Iranian languages

*Iranian languages, the other main branch of the Indo-Iranian languages

''Aryan languages'' is also used by 19th century linguists to refer to the Indo-European languages as a whole, but the scholarly use of use of this term in this sense ended between about 1905 and 1910 and is obsolete in modern linguistic literature; however it continued to be used in this sense in the early decades of the 20th century by authors writing for the popular mass market such H.G. Wells

Post	President
Body	Iran
Insignia	Coat of arms of Iran.svg
Insigniasize	100px
Insigniacaption	Official emblem
Incumbent	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Incumbentsince	3 August 2005
Appointer	Popularly Elected
Termlength	Four yearsrenewable once
Formation	February 04, 1980
Residence	Sa'dabad Palace
Inaugural	Abulhassan Banisadr
Formation
Website	www.president.ir }}

The President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state. According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran the president is responsible for the "functions of the executive", such as signing treaties, agreements etc. with other countries and international organizations; the national planning and budget and state employment affairs; appointing ministers, governors, and ambassadors subject to the approval of the parliament.

Unlike some other countries, for example the United States, in Iran the office of president does not bestow full control over foreign policy, the armed forces, or the nuclear policy of the Iranian state, which are ultimately under the control of the Supreme Leader.

The President of Iran is elected for a four-year term by the direct vote of the people and may not serve for more than two consecutive terms.

The current President of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since the 2005 Iranian presidential election. He was re-elected after the disputed 2009 Iranian presidential election.

Background

After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and referendum to create the Islamic Republic on March 29 and 30, the new government needed to craft a new constitution. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, ordered an election for the Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with writing the constitution. The assembly presented the constitution on October 24, 1979, and Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan approved it.

The 1979 Constitution designated the Supreme Leader as the head of state and the President and Prime Minister as the heads of government. The post of Prime Minister was abolished in 1989.

The first Iranian presidential election was held on January 25, 1980 and resulted in the election of Abulhassan Banisadr with 76% of the votes. Banisadr was impeached on June 22, 1981 by Parliament. Until the early election on July 24, 1981, the duties of the President were undertaken by the Provisional Presidential Council. Mohammad-Ali Rajai was elected President on July 24, 1981 and took office on August 2. Rajai was in office for less than one month because he and his prime minister were both assassinated. Once again a Provisional Presidential Council filled the office until October 13, 1981 when Ali Khamenei was elected president.

Ali Khamenei, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami and current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were each elected president for two terms.

Qualifications and election

The President of Iran is elected for a four year term in a national election by universal adult suffrage for everyone of at least 18 years of age. Candidates for the presidency must be approved by the 12-member Council of Guardians. Half of the Council's members are appointed by the Supreme Leader and are intended to preserve the values of the Islamic Republic. According to the constitution of Iran candidates for the presidency must possess the following qualifications:

Iranian origin;

Iranian nationality;

administrative capacity and resourcefulness;

a good past record;

trustworthiness and piety; and

convinced belief in the fundamental principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the official madhhab of the country. Within these guidelines the Council vetoes candidates who are deemed unacceptable. The approval process is considered to be a check on the president's power, and usually amounts to a small number of candidates being approved. In the 1997 election, for example, only four out of 238 presidential candidates were approved by the council. Western observers have routinely criticized the approvals process as a way for the Council and Supreme Leader to ensure that only conservative and like-minded Islamic fundamentalists can win office. However, the council rejects the criticism, citing approval of reformists in previous elections. The council rejects most of the candidates stating that they are not "a well-known political figure", a requirement by the current law. The President must be elected with a simple majority of the popular vote. A runoff election may be required to achieve this. The President serves for a term of four years and is eligible for a second term.

Presidential council

According to the Iranian constitution, when the President dies or is impeached, a special provisional ''Presidential Council'' temporarily rules in his place until an election can be held. The President automatically becomes the Head of the Council of Cultural Revolution and the Head of the Council of National Security.

Powers and responsibilities

Head of Government and Cabinet

Head of the Council of National Security

Head of the Council of Cultural Revolution

Sends and receives all foreign ambassadors

Selection of Vice Presidents

Oath of office

:''I, as the President, upon the Holy Qur'an and in the presence of the Iranian nation, do hereby swear in the name of Almighty God to safeguard the official Faith, the system of the Islamic republic and the Constitution of the country; to use all my talents and abilities in the discharge of responsibilities undertaken by me; to devote myself to the service of the people, glory of the country, promotion of religion and morality, support of right and propagation of justice; to refrain from being autocratic; to protect the freedom and dignity of individuals and the rights of the Nation recognized by the Constitution; to spare no efforts in safeguarding the frontiers and the political, economic and cultural freedoms of the country; to guard the power entrusted to me by the Nation as a sacred trust like an honest and faithful trustee, by seeking help from God and following the example of the Prophet of Islam and the sacred Imams, peace be upon them, and to entrust it to the one elected by the Nation after me.''

Last election

Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election with 62% of the votes cast, and that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had received 34% of the votes cast. The European Union, the United Kingdom the United States, and several western countries expressed concern over alleged irregularities during the vote, and many analysts and journalists from the United States, Europe and other western based media voiced doubts about the authenticity of the results. Meanwhile many OIC member states, as well as Russia, China, India, and Brazil, have congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory.

Mousavi issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this charade," and urged his supporters to fight the decision, without committing acts of violence. Protests, in favour of Mousavi and against the alleged fraud, broke out in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling his victory as a "divine assessment". Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June. On 15 June, Khamenei announced there would be an investigation into vote-rigging claims, which would take seven to ten days. On 16 June, the Guardian Council announced it will recount the votes. However, Mousavi stated that 14 million unused ballots were missing, giving a chance to manipulate the results. On 29 June, Iran's electoral board completed the partial recount, and concluded that Ahmadinejad won the election, amidst protest from the opposition.

The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct popular vote, but does not control foreign policy or the armed forces. Candidates have to be vetted by the Guardian Council, a twelve member body consisting of six clerics (selected by Iran's Supreme Leader) and six lawyers (proposed by the head of Iran's judicial system and voted in by the Parliament).

The inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was held on 5 August in Tehran amid protests held outside the Parliament.

See also

List of Presidents of Iran

Vice President of Iran

Politics of Iran

References

External links

The President's Office

Iran's Presidential Office of Scientific and Industrial Studies

Ahmadinejad's blog

Iran Electoral Archive - President

Category:Government of Iran

az:İran prezidentlərinin siyahısı ca:President de l'Iran da:Irans præsident es:Presidente de Irán fa:رئیس‌جمهور ایران fr:Présidents de la République islamique d'Iran gl:Presidente de Irán ko:이란의 대통령 hy:Իրանի Նախագահ io:Listo di prezidisti di Iran id:Daftar Presiden Iran os:Ираны президент it:Presidente dell'Iran he:נשיא איראן ka:ირანის პრეზიდენტი mk:Претседател на Иран xmf:ირანიშ პრეზიდენტი ms:Presiden Iran nl:Lijst van presidenten van Iran ja:イランの大統領 oc:Lista dels presidents d'Iran pl:Prezydenci Iranu pt:Anexo:Lista de presidentes do Irão ru:Президент Ирана simple:President of Iran sr:Председник Исламске Републике Иран fi:Iranin presidentti sv:Irans president tr:İran Devlet Başkanı vi:Tổng thống Iran zh:伊朗总统

Name	Germanic
Region	In northern, western and central Europe, Anglo-America, Oceania, southern Africa
Familycolor	Indo-European
Fam1	Indo-European
Protoname	Proto-Germanic
Child1	North Germanic
Child2	West Germanic
Child3	East Germanic (extinct)
Iso2	gem
Iso5	gem
Lingua	52- (phylozone)
Map	Germanic languages.svg
Mapcaption	}}

The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic (also known as Common Germanic), which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic peoples moving south from northern Europe in the 2nd century BC, to settle in north-central Europe.

The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English and German, with approximately 300–400 million and over 100 million native speakers respectively. The group includes other major languages, such as Dutch with 23 million and Afrikaans with over 6 million native speakers; and the North Germanic languages including Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese with a combined total of about 20 million speakers. The SIL ''Ethnologue'' lists 53 different Germanic languages.

Characteristics

Germanic languages possess several unique features, such as the following: # The leveling of the Indo-European verbal system of tense and aspect into the present tense and the past tense (also called the preterite) # A large class of verbs that use a dental suffix (/d/ or /t/) instead of vowel alternation (Indo-European ablaut) to indicate past tense; these are called the Germanic weak verbs; the remaining verbs with vowel ablaut are the Germanic strong verbs # The use of so-called strong and weak adjectives: different sets of inflectional endings for adjectives depending on the definiteness of the noun phrase (modern English adjectives do not inflect at all, except for the comparative and superlative; this was not the case in Old English, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on the type of their preceding determiner) # The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law (which continued in German in a second shift known as the High German consonant shift) # Some words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families but with variants that appear in almost all Germanic languages; ''see Germanic substrate hypothesis'' # The sound change known as Verner's Law, which left a trace of Indo-European accent variations in voicing variations in fricatives # The shifting of word stress onto word stems and later onto the first syllable of the word (though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what is added to them)

Germanic languages differ from each other to a greater degree than do some other language families such as the Romance or Slavic languages. Roughly speaking, Germanic languages differ in how conservative or how progressive each language is with respect to an overall trend toward analyticity. Some, such as Icelandic, and to a lesser extent, German, have preserved much of the complex inflectional morphology inherited from the Proto-Indo-European language. Others, such as English, Swedish, and Afrikaans, have moved toward a largely analytic type.

Another characteristic of Germanic languages is ''verb second'' (V2) word order, which is quite uncommon cross-linguistically. This feature was not inherited from Proto-Germanic, but was probably already present in latent form, and may have begun with auxiliary verbs that were treated as sentence clitics, which were generally placed second. The later parallel innovation of V2 word order in the individual languages may have been a result of the loss of noun declension, which tended to 'fix' word order into its most common form. It is now shared by all modern Germanic languages except modern English which has more or less replaced the earlier V2 structure with fixed ''Subject–verb–object'' word order.

Writing

The earliest evidence of Germanic languages comes from names recorded in the 1st century by Tacitus (especially from his work ''Germania''), but the earliest Germanic writing occurs in a single instance in the 2nd century BC on the Negau helmet. From roughly the 2nd century AD, certain speakers of early Germanic varieties developed the Elder Futhark, an early form of the Runic alphabet. Early runic inscriptions also are largely limited to personal names, and difficult to interpret. The Gothic language was written in the Gothic alphabet developed by Bishop Ulfilas for his translation of the Bible in the 4th century. Later, Christian priests and monks who spoke and read Latin in addition to their native Germanic varieties began writing the Germanic languages with slightly modified Latin letters. However, throughout the Viking Age, Runic alphabets remained in common use in Scandinavia. In addition to the standard Latin alphabet, many Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks and extra letters, including umlauts, the ß (''Eszett''), IJ, Ø, Æ, Å, Ä, Ü, Ö, Ð, , and the Latinized runes Þ and . In print, German used to be prevalently set in blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher) up until the 1940s (though see Antiqua–Fraktur dispute), whereas ''Kurrent'' and since the early 20th century ''Sütterlin'' was used for German handwriting.

History

All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by subjection to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law. These probably took place during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe from ca. 500 BC, but other common innovations separating Germanic from Proto-Indo European suggest a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the Nordic Bronze Age.

From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups: West, East, and North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify.

The 6th-century Lombardic language, for instance, may be a variety originally either Northern or Eastern, before being assimilated by West Germanic as the Lombards settled at the Elbe. The Western group would have formed in the late Jastorf culture, the Eastern group may be derived from the 1st-century variety of Gotland (see Old Gutnish), leaving southern Sweden as the original location of the Northern group. The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old Frankish (5th century), Old High German (scattered words and sentences 6th century, coherent texts 9th century) and Old English (coherent texts 10th century). North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norse, until it evolves into Old Norse by about 800.

Longer runic inscriptions survive from the 8th and 9th centuries (Eggjum stone, Rök stone), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the 12th century (Íslendingabók), and some skaldic poetry held to date back to as early as the 9th century.

[[Image:Europe germanic-languages 2.PNG|300px|thumb|right|West Germanic languages North Germanic languages ]]

By about the 10th century, the varieties had diverged enough to make inter-comprehensibility difficult. The linguistic contact of the Viking settlers of the Danelaw with the Anglo-Saxons left traces in the English language, and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of Old English grammar that resulted in Middle English from the 12th century.

The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians, Goths, and Vandals became linguistically assimilated by their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the 18th century.

During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low Saxon, with graded intermediate Central German varieties. By Early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South to Northern Low Saxon in the North and, although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties had completed the second sound shift, while the northern varieties remained unaffected by the consonant shift.

The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained more unified, with the peninsular languages largely retaining mutual intelligibility into modern times.

==Classification== Note that divisions between and among subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent varieties being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.

Diachronic

The table below shows the succession of the significant historical stages of each language (vertically), and their approximate groupings in subfamilies (horizontally). Horizontal sequence within each group does not imply a measure of greater or lesser similarity.

Contemporary

All living Germanic languages belong either to the West Germanic or to the North Germanic branch. The West Germanic group is the larger by far, further subdivided into Anglo-Frisian on one hand, and Continental West Germanic on the other. Anglo-Frisian notably includes English and all its variants, while Continental West Germanic includes German (standard register and dialects) as well as Dutch (standard register and dialects).

West Germanic languages

* High German languages (includes Standard German and its dialects)

** Central German

*** East Central German

*** West Central German

**** Luxembourgish

**** Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania)

** Upper German

***High Franconian

*** Alemannic German

*** Austro-Bavarian German

**** Mócheno language

**** Cimbrian language

**** Hutterite German

** Yiddish

* Low Franconian

** Dutch and its dialects

** Afrikaans (a separate standard language)

* Low German

** West Low German

** East Low German

*** Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German)

* Anglo-Frisian

** Frisian group

** English group

*** English and its dialects

*** Lowland Scots

*** Yola (extinct)

North Germanic

* West Scandinavian

** Norwegian (of Western branch origin, but heavily influenced by the Eastern branch)

** Icelandic

** Faroese

** Greenlandic Norse (extinct)

** Norn (extinct)

* East Scandinavian

** Danish

** Swedish

* Gutnish

Common linguistic features

Phonology

The oldest Germanic languages all share a number of features, assumed to be inherited from Proto-Germanic. Phonologically, this includes the important sound changes known as Grimm's Law and Verner's Law, which introduced a large number of fricatives; late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) had only one, /s/.

The main vowel developments are the merging (in most circumstances) of long and short /a/ and /o/, producing short /a/ and long /ō/. This likewise affected the diphthongs, with PIE /ai/ and /oi/ merging into /ai/, and PIE /au/ and /ou/ merging into /au/. PIE /ei/ developed into long /ī/. PIE long /ē/ developed into a vowel denoted as /ē₁/ (often assumed to be phonetically ), while a new, fairly uncommon long vowel /ē₂/ developed in varied and not completely understood circumstances. Proto-Germanic had no front rounded vowels, although all Germanic languages except for Gothic subsequently developed them through the process of i-umlaut.

Proto-Germanic developed a strong stress accent on the first syllable of the root (although remnants of the original free PIE accent are visible due to Verner's Law, which was sensitive to this accent). This caused a steady erosion of vowels in unstressed syllables. In Proto-Germanic this had progressed only to the point that absolutely final short vowels (other than /i/ and /u/) were lost and absolutely final long vowels were shortened, but all of the early literary languages show a more advanced state of vowel loss. This ultimately resulted in some languages (e.g. modern English) in the loss of practically all vowels following the main stress, and the consequent rise of a very large number of monosyllabic words.

Morphology

The oldest Germanic languages have the typical complex inflected morphology of old Indo-European languages, with four or five noun cases; verbs marked for person, number, tense and mood; multiple noun and verb classes; few or no articles; and rather free word order. The old Germanic languages are famous for having only two tenses (present and past), with three PIE past-tense aspects (imperfect, aorist, and perfect/stative) merged into one and no new tenses (future, pluperfect, etc.) developing. There were three moods: indicative, subjunctive (developed from the PIE optative mood) and imperative. Gothic verbs had a number of archaic features inherited from PIE that were lost in the other Germanic languages with few traces, including dual endings, an inflected passive voice (derived from the PIE mediopassive voice), and a class of verbs with reduplication in the past tense (derived from the PIE perfect). The complex tense system of modern English (e.g. ''In three months, the house will still be being built'' or ''If you had not acted so stupidly, we would never have been caught'') is almost entirely due to subsequent developments (although paralleled in many of the other Germanic languages).

Among the other innovations in Proto-Germanic (hence common to all Germanic languages) are the preterite present verbs, a special set of verbs whose present tense looks like the past tense of other verbs and which is the origin of most modal verbs in English; a past-tense ending (in the so-called "weak verbs", marked with ''-ed'' in English) that appears variously as /d/ or /t/, often assumed to be derived from the verb "to do"; and two separate sets of adjective endings, originally corresponding to a distinction between indefinite semantics ("a man", with a combination of PIE adjective and pronoun endings) and definite semantics ("the man", with endings derived from PIE ''n''-stem nouns). The two sets of adjective endings were lost in English in the late Middle English period but are still preserved (as a distinction between "strong" and "weak" endings) in most other Germanic languages.

Linguistic developments

The subgroupings of the Germanic languages are defined by shared innovations. It is important to distinguish innovations from cases of linguistic conservatism. That is, if two languages in a family share a characteristic that is not observed in a third language, that is evidence of common ancestry of the two languages ''only if'' the characteristic is an innovation compared to the family's proto-language.

The following innovations are common to the Northwest Germanic languages (all but Gothic):

The lowering of /u/ to /o/ in initial syllables before /a/ in the following syllable ("a-Umlaut", traditionally called ''Brechung'')

"Labial umlaut" in unstressed medial syllables (the conversion of /a/ to /u/ and /ō/ to /ū/ before /m/, or /u/ in the following syllable) The conversion of /ē₁/ into /ā/ (vs. Gothic /ē/) in initial syllables

The raising of final /ō/ to /u/ (Gothic lowers it to /a/)

The monophthongisation of /ai/ and /au/ to /ǣ/ and /ō/ in non-initial syllables (however, evidence for the development of /au/ in medial syllables is lacking)

The development of an intensified demonstrative ending in /s/ (reflected in English "this" compared to "the")

The use of /ē₂/ in the preterite of Class VII strong verbs in North and West Germanic, while Gothic uses reduplication (e.g. Gothic ''haihait''; ON, OE ''hēt'', preterite of the Gmc verb ''*haitan'' "to be called") as part of a comprehensive reformation of the Gmc Class VII from a reduplicating to a new ablaut pattern, which presumably started in verbs beginning with vowel or /h/ (a development which continues the general trend of de-reduplication in Gmc); there are forms (such as OE dial. ''heht'' instead of ''hēt'') which retain traces of reduplication even in West and North Germanic

The following innovations are also common to the Northwest Germanic languages, but represent areal changes:

Proto-Germanic /z/ > /r/ (e.g. Gothic ''dius''; ON ''dȳr'', OHG ''tior'', OE ''dēor'', "wild animal"); note that this is not present in Proto-Norse and must be ordered after West Germanic loss of final /z/

Germanic umlaut

The following innovations are common to the West Germanic languages:

Loss of final /z/ (except in short monosyllables)

Change of voiced dental fricative /ð/ to stop /d/

Change of voiceless dental fricative /þ/ to stop /d/ after /l/ (except when /þ/ is word-final)

West Germanic gemination of consonants, except ''r'', before /j/ in short-stemmed words (gemination of /p/, /t/, /k/ and /h/ is also observed before liquids), but not if /j/ (or a liquid) is vocalised (becomes syllabic) word-finally

The simplification of /ngw/ to /ng/

A particular type of ''umlaut'' /e-u-i/ > /i-u-i/

Loss of /j/ before /i/ and /w/ before /u/ in endings

The change of /b/ or /g/ to /w/ before nasal consonant

Changes to the 2nd person singular past-tense: Replacement of the past-singular stem vowel with the past-plural stem vowel, and substitution of the ending ''-t'' with ''-i''

Short forms (''*stān, stēn'', ''*gān, gēn'') of the verbs for "stand" and "go"; but note that Crimean Gothic also has ''gēn''

The development of a gerund

The following innovations are common to the Ingvaeonic subgroup of the West Germanic languages:

The so-called Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, which (e.g.) converted ''*munþ'' "mouth" (cf. Old High German ''mund'') into ''*mūþ'' (cf. Old English ''mūþ'').

The loss of the Germanic reflexive pronoun

The reduction of the three Germanic verbal plural forms into one form ending in ''-þ''

The development of Class III weak verbs into a relic class consisting of four verbs (''*sagjan'' "to say", ''*hugjan'' "to think", ''*habjan'' "to have", ''*libjan'' "to live")

The split of the Class II weak verb ending ''*-ō-'' into ''*-ō-/-ōja-''

Development of a plural ending *-ōs in a-stem nouns (note, Gothic also has ''-ōs'', but this is an independent development, caused by terminal devoicing of ''*-ōz''; Old Frisian has ''-ar'', which is thought to be a late borrowing from Danish)

Merger of the accusative and dative in first and second person pronouns (also shared by Old Low Franconian)

Possibly, the monophthongization of Germanic ''*ai'' to ''ē/ā'' (this may represent independent changes in Old Saxon and Anglo-Frisian)

The following innovations are common to the Anglo-Frisian subgroup of the Ingvaeonic languages:

Raising of nasalized ''a, ā'' into ''o, ō''

Anglo-Frisian brightening: Fronting of non-nasal ''a, ā'' to ''æ,ǣ'' when not followed by ''n'' or ''m''

Metathesis of ''CrV'' into ''CVr'', where ''C'' represents any consonant and ''V'' any vowel

Monophthongization of ''ai'' into ''ā''

==Vocabulary comparison== Several of the terms in the table below have had semantic drift. For example, the form ''Sterben'' and other terms for ''die'' are cognates with the English word ''starve''. There is also at least one example of a common borrowing from a non-Germanic source (''ounce'' and its cognates from Latin). {|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%" |- !width="75"|English ! Scots ! West Frisian ! Afrikaans ! Dutch ! Dutch (Limburgish) ! Low German ! Low German (Groningen) ! Middle German (Luxemburgish) ! German ! Gothic ! Icelandic ! Faroese ! Swedish ! Danish ! Norwegian (Bokmål) ! Norwegian (Nynorsk) |- |apple || aiple || apel || appel || appel || appel || Appel || Abbel || Apel || Apfel || aplus || epli || epli || äpple || æble || eple || eple |- |board || buird || board || bord || bord || bórdj/telleur || Boord || Bred || Briet || Brett || baúrd || borð || borð || bräde || bord || brett || brett |- |beech || beech || boeke || beuk || beuk || beuk || Boeoek / Böök || Beukenboom || Bich || Buche || bōka/-bagms || beyki || bók(artræ) || bok || bøg || bok || bok / bøk |- |book || beuk || boek || boek || boek || book || Book || Bouk || Buch || Buch || bōka || bók || bók || bok || bog || bok || bok |- |breast || breest ||boarst || bors || borst || boors || Bost || Bôrst || Broscht || Brust || brusts || brjóst || bróst / bringa || bröst || bryst || bryst || bryst |- |brown || broun || brún || bruin || bruin || broen || bruun || broen || brong || braun || bruns || brúnn || brúnur || brun || brun || brun || brun |- |day || day || dei || dag || dag || daag || Dag || Dag || Do || Tag || dags || dagur || dagur || dag || dag || dag || dag |- |dead || deid || dea || dood || dood || doed || doot || dood || dout || tot || dauþs || dauður || deyður || död || død || død || daud |- |die (starve) || dee || stjerre || sterf || sterven || stèrve || starven / döen || staarven || stierwen || sterben || diwan || deyja || doyggja || dö || dø || dø || døy / starva |- |enough || eneuch || genôch || genoeg || genoeg || genóg || noog || genog || genuch || genug || ganōhs || nóg || nóg/nógmikið || nog || nok || nok || nok |- |finger || finger || finger || vinger || vinger || veenger || Finger || Vinger || Fanger || Finger || figgrs || fingur || fingur || finger || finger || finger || finger |- |give || gie || jaan || gee || geven || geve || geven || geven || ginn || geben || giban || gefa || geva || ge / giva || give || gi || gje(va) |- |glass || gless || glês || glas || glas || glaas || Glas || Glas || Glas || Glas || – || glas || glas || glas || glas || glass || glas |- |gold || gowd || goud || goud || goud || goud / góldj || Gold || Gold || – || Gold || gulþ || gull || gull || guld / gull || guld || gull || gull |- |good || guid || gód || goed || goed || good || goot || goud || gutt || gut || gōþ(is) || góð(ur) / gott || góð(ur) / gott || god || god || god || god |- |hand || haund || hân || hand || hand || hand || Hand || Haand || Hand || Hand || handus || hönd || hond || hand || hånd || hånd || hand |- |head || heid || holle || hoof / kop || hoofd / kop || kop || Kopp || Heufd / Kop || Kopp || Haupt / Kopf || háubiþ || höfuð || høvd / høvur || huvud || hoved || hode || hovud |- |high || heich || heech || hoog || hoog || hoeg || hoog || hoog / höch || héich || hoch || háuh || hár || høg / ur || hög || høj || høy / høg || høg |- |home || hame || hiem || heim / tuis || heem, heim / thuis || thoes || Tohuus || Thoes || Heem || Heim || háimōþ || heim || heim || hem || hjem || hjem / heim || heim |- |hook / crook || heuk || hoek || haak || haak || haok || Haak || Hoak || Krop / Kramp || Haken || kramppa || haki / krókur || krókur / ongul || hake / krok || hage / krog || hake / krok || hake / krok |- |house || hoose || hûs || huis || huis || hoes || Huus || Hoes || Haus || Haus || hūs || hús || hús || hus || hus || hus || hus |- |many || mony || mannich / mennich || baie / menige || menig || minnig || Mennig || Ìnde || – || manch || manags || margir || mangir / nógvir || många || mange || mange || mange |- |moon || muin || moanne || maan || maan || maon || Maan || Moan || Mound || Mond || mēna || máni / tungl || máni || måne || måne || måne || måne |- |night || nicht || nacht || nag || nacht || nach || Nach / Nacht || Nacht || Nuecht || Nacht || nótt || nótt || nátt || natt || nat || natt || natt |- |no (nay) || nae || nee || nee || nee(n) || nei || nee || nee / nai || nee(n) || nee / nein / nö || nē || nei || nei || nej / nä || nej / næ || nei || nei |- |old (but: elder, eldest) || auld || âld || oud || oud || aajt (''old'') / gammel (''decayed'') || oolt / gammelig || old / olleg || aalt || alt || sineigs || gamall (but: eldri, elstur) / aldinn || gamal (but: eldri, elstur)|| gammal (but: äldre, äldst)|| gammel (but: ældre, ældst) || gammel (but: eldre, eldst) || gam(m)al (but: eldre, eldst) |- |one || ane || ien || een || een || ein || een || aine || een || eins || áins || einn || ein || en || en || en || ein |- |ounce || unce || ûns || ons || ons || óns || Ons || Onze || – || Unze || unkja || únsa || únsa || uns || unse || unse || unse / unsa |- |snow || snaw || snie || sneeu || sneeuw || sjnie || Snee || Snij / Snèj || Schlue || Schnee || snáiws || snjór || kavi / snjógvur || snö || sne || snø || snø |- |stone || stane || stien || steen || steen || stein || Steen || Stain || Steen || Stein || stáins || steinn || steinur || sten || sten || stein || stein |- |that || that || dat || daardie / dit || dat / die || dat / tot || dat / dit || dat / dij || dat || das || þata || það || tað || det || det || det || det |- |two / twain || twa || twa || twee || twee || twie || twee || twij / twèje || zoo / zwou / zwéin || zwei/zwo || twái || tveir / tvær / tvö || tveir / tvey / tvær / tvá || två || to || to || to |- |who || wha || wa || wie || wie || wee || wokeen || wel || wien || wer || Ƕas / hwas || hver || hvør || vem || hvem || hvem || kven |- |worm || wirm || wjirm || wurm || worm || weurm || Worm || Wörm || Wuerm || Wurm || maþa || maðkur / ormur || maðkur / ormur || mask / orm  || orm || makk / mark / orm   || makk/mark/orm |- !width="75"|English ! Scots ! West Frisian ! Afrikaans ! Dutch ! Dutch (Limburgish) ! Low German ! Low German (Groningen) ! Middle German (Luxemburgish) ! German ! Gothic ! Icelandic ! Faroese ! Swedish ! Danish ! Norwegian (Bokmål) ! Norwegian (Nynorsk) |}

See also

Germanic verb and its various subordinated articles

Language families and languages

Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages

List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents

Germanisation and Anglicisation

Germanic name

Germanic placenames

German name

German placename etymology

Isogloss

Germanic substrate hypothesis

Notes

External links

Germanic Lexicon Project

'Hover & Hear' pronunciations of the same Germanic words in dozens of Germanic languages and 'dialects', including English accents, and compare instantaneously side by side

''Bibliographie der Schreibsprachen'': Bibliography of medieval written forms of High and Low German and Dutch

Ethnologue Report for Germanic

Swadesh lists of Germanic basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)

Todays geographical extension, Worldmap on the German Wiki

Languages Category:Indo-European languages

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