Iranian_languages

context: The Iranian languages or Iranic languages form a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, which in turn are a branch of the Indo-European language family. The speakers of Iranian languages are known as Iranian peoples. Historical Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE), and New Iranian (since 900 CE). Of the Old Iranian languages, the better understood and recorded ones are Old Persian (a language of Achaemenid Iran) and Avestan (the language of the Avesta). Middle Iranian languages included Middle Persian (a language of Sassanid Iran), Parthian, and Bactrian.
qas: answers: Iranic languages
question: What is another term meaning Iranian languages?

answers: Indo-Iranian languages
question: What are the Iranic languages a subgroup of?

answers: Indo-European language family
question: What are Indo-Iranian languages a subset of?

answers: 400 BCE
question: When did the change from Old Iranian to Middle Iranian occur?

answers: Middle Persian
question: What is an example of a Sassanid language?

context: As of 2008, there were an estimated 150–200 million native speakers of Iranian languages. Ethnologue estimates there are 86 Iranian languages, the largest amongst them being Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, and Balochi.
qas: answers: 86
question: How many different Iranian languages exist?

context: The term Iranian is applied to any language which descends from the ancestral Proto-Iranian language. Iranian derives from the Persian and Sanskrit origin word Arya.
qas: answers: Proto-Iranian
question: Iranian languages are all said to be derived from which predecessor?

answers: Persian and Sanskrit
question: From what languages does the word Aryao come?

context: The use of the term for the Iranian language family was introduced in 1836 by Christian Lassen. Robert Needham Cust used the term Irano-Aryan in 1878, and Orientalists such as George Abraham Grierson and Max Müller contrasted Irano-Aryan (Iranian) and Indo-Aryan (Indic). Some recent scholarship, primarily in German, has revived this convention.
qas: answers: 1836
question: When was the phrase Iranian language family first used?

answers: Christian Lassen
question: Who first used the term Iranian language?

answers: Robert Needham Cust
question: Who first used the term Irano-Aryan?

answers: 1878
question: When was the phrase Irano-Aryan first used?

context: All Iranian languages are descended from a common ancestor, Proto-Iranian. In turn, and together with Proto-Indo-Aryan and the Nuristani languages, Proto-Iranian descends from a common ancestor Proto-Indo-Iranian. The Indo-Iranian languages are thought to have originated in Central Asia. The Andronovo culture is the suggested candidate for the common Indo-Iranian culture ca. 2000 BC.
qas: answers: Proto-Iranian
question: From where did Iranian languages originate?

answers: Central Asia
question: What part of the world is it theorized that Indo-Iranian languages came from?

answers: Andronovo
question: What society is a strong contender for the common culture speaking Indo-Iranian?

answers: 2000 BC
question: When did the Andronovo culture exist?

context: It was situated precisely in the western part of Central Asia that borders present-day Russia (and present-day Kazakhstan). 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.
qas: answers: Indo-European
question: What language family did Thracian and Balto-Slavic belong to?

context: 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.
qas: answers: southeastern Europe, the Iranian plateau, and Central Asia
question: Where did early Iranian people establish societies?

context: The multitude of Middle Iranian languages and peoples indicate that great linguistic diversity must have existed among the ancient speakers of Iranian languages. Of that variety of languages/dialects, direct evidence of only two have survived. These are:
qas: answers: linguistic diversity
question: What characteristic of Middle Iranian civilization is shown by the number of different languages and their speakers?

answers: two
question: How many of the Middlie Iranian tongues have remained in existence since ancient time?

context: Old Persian is the Old Iranian dialect as it was spoken in south-western Iran by the inhabitants of Parsa, who also gave their name to their region and language. Genuine Old Persian is best attested in one of the three languages of the Behistun inscription, composed circa 520 BC, and which is the last inscription (and only inscription of significant length) in which Old Persian is still grammatically correct. Later inscriptions are comparatively brief, and typically simply copies of words and phrases from earlier ones, often with grammatical errors, which suggests that by the 4th century BC the transition from Old Persian to Middle Persian was already far advanced, but efforts were still being made to retain an "old" quality for official proclamations.
qas: answers: the Behistun inscription
question: In which historical record does Old Persian appear in exemplary form?

answers: 520 BC
question: When was the Behistun inscription written?

answers: 4th century BC
question: During what century was the change from Old to Middle Persian well underway?

context: The other directly attested Old Iranian dialects are the two forms of Avestan, which take their name from their use in the Avesta, the liturgical texts of indigenous Iranian religion that now goes by the name of Zoroastrianism but in the Avesta itself is simply known as vohu daena (later: behdin). The language of the Avesta is subdivided into two dialects, conventionally known as "Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan", and "Younger Avestan". These terms, which date to the 19th century, are slightly misleading since 'Younger Avestan' is not only much younger than 'Old Avestan', but also from a different geographic region. The Old Avestan dialect is very archaic, and at roughly the same stage of development as Rigvedic Sanskrit. On the other hand, Younger Avestan is at about the same linguistic stage as Old Persian, but by virtue of its use as a sacred language retained its "old" characteristics long after the Old Iranian languages had yielded to their Middle Iranian stage. Unlike Old Persian, which has Middle Persian as its known successor, Avestan has no clearly identifiable Middle Iranian stage (the effect of Middle Iranian is indistinguishable from effects due to other causes).
qas: answers: Avestan
question: What ancient religious document exists in two versions and includes Old Iranian language?

answers: Zoroastrianism
question: What is the contemporary name of the religion which Avesta was part of?

answers: Rigvedic Sanskrit
question: What language shows a level of maturity corresponding to Old Avestan?

answers: Old Persian
question: What language shows the same level of development as Younger Avestan?

context: In addition to Old Persian and Avestan, which are the only directly attested Old Iranian languages, all Middle Iranian languages must have had a predecessor "Old Iranian" form of that language, and thus can all be said to have had an (at least hypothetical) "Old" form. Such hypothetical Old Iranian languages include Carduchi (the hypothetical predecessor to Kurdish) and Old Parthian. Additionally, the existence of unattested languages can sometimes be inferred from the impact they had on neighbouring languages. Such transfer is known to have occurred for Old Persian, which has (what is called) a "Median" substrate in some of its vocabulary. Also, foreign references to languages can also provide a hint to the existence of otherwise unattested languages, for example through toponyms/ethnonyms or in the recording of vocabulary, as Herodotus did for what he called "Scythian".
qas: answers: Kurdish
question: What language is Carduchi thought to have become?

answers: Scythian
question: What language did Herodotus invent a name for?

context: Conventionally, Iranian languages are grouped in "western" and "eastern" branches. These terms have little meaning with respect to Old Avestan as that stage of the language may predate the settling of the Iranian peoples into western and eastern groups. The geographic terms also have little meaning when applied to Younger Avestan since it isn't known where that dialect (or dialects) was spoken either. Certain is only that Avestan (all forms) and Old Persian are distinct, and since Old Persian is "western", and Avestan was not Old Persian, Avestan acquired a default assignment to "eastern". Confusing the issue is the introduction of a western Iranian substrate in later Avestan compositions and redactions undertaken at the centers of imperial power in western Iran (either in the south-west in Persia, or in the north-west in Nisa/Parthia and Ecbatana/Media).
qas: answers: western and eastern
question: What are the two main divisions of Iranian tongues?

answers: Old Persian
question: Which language is associated with the western branch of Iranian?

answers: Avestan
question: Which language is associated with the eastern branch of Iranian?

context: Two of the earliest dialectal divisions among Iranian indeed happen to not follow the later division into Western and Eastern blocks. These concern the fate of the Proto-Indo-Iranian first-series palatal consonants, *ć and *dź:
qas: answers: *ć and *dź
question: What elements of Proto-Indo-Iranian did not diverge according to the ensuing split between eastern and western variants?

answers: first-series palatal consonants
question: What type of letters are *ć and *dź?

context: As a common intermediate stage, it is possible to reconstruct depalatalized affricates: *c, *dz. (This coincides with the state of affairs in the neighboring Nuristani languages.) A further complication however concerns the consonant clusters *ćw and *dźw:
qas: answers: Nuristani languages
question: What languages share a similar situation?

answers: *ćw and *dźw
question: What other elements of early Iranian languages problematize the east-west division?

answers: consonant clusters
question: What is the linguistic categorization of *ćw and *dźw?

context: It is possible that other distinct dialect groups were already in existence during this period. Good candidates are the hypothethical ancestor languages of Alanian/Scytho-Sarmatian subgroup of Scythian in the far northwest; and the hypothetical "Old Parthian" (the Old Iranian ancestor of Parthian) in the near northwest, where original *dw > *b (paralleling the development of *ćw).
qas: answers: other distinct dialect groups
question: What may have also been in use at the time?

answers: Alanian/Scytho-Sarmatian
question: Precursors of what subset of Scythian are theorized to have existed?

answers: Old Parthian
question: What possible predecessor of Pathian is thought to have existed?

context: 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 the Middle Iranian languages are conventionally classified into two main groups, Western and Eastern.
qas: answers: 9th century
question: When did the age of Middle Iranian come to a close?

answers: Western and Eastern
question: What are the two main divisions of Middle Iranian?

context: 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 was an areal entity whose languages retained some similarity to Avestan. They were inscribed in various Aramaic-derived alphabets which had ultimately evolved from the Achaemenid Imperial Aramaic script, though Bactrian was written using an adapted Greek script.
qas: answers: Eastern
question: Bactrian, Sogdian, and Saka are examples of what type of Iranian language?

answers: Avestan
question: Which language bears a resemblance to the diversity of eastern Iranian languages?

answers: Aramaic
question: Where did the the alphabets used by eastern languages come from?

answers: Greek script
question: What did the Bactrian language use for writing?

context: Middle Persian (Pahlavi) was the official language under the Sasanian dynasty in Iran. It was in use from the 3rd century CE until the beginning of the 10th century. The script used for Middle Persian in this era underwent significant maturity. Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian were also used as literary languages by the Manichaeans, whose texts also survive in various non-Iranian languages, from Latin to Chinese. Manichaean texts were written in a script closely akin to the Syriac script.
qas: answers: Pahlavi
question: What is another term for Middle Persian?

answers: 3rd century CE
question: When did Middle Persian start being u sed?

answers: Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian
question: What are three languages employed by the Manichaeans?

answers: Syriac script
question: What was the writing of Manichaean documents similar to?

context: 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.
qas: answers: Islam
question: The proliferation of which religion had a profound effect on the development of Iranian languages?

answers: Dari
question: What language displaced Middle Iranian as the court's official tongue?

answers: Saffarid
question: What was the first dynasty to use Dari?

answers: 875 CE
question: When did the Saffarid dynasty begin using Dari?

answers: Khorasan
question: What area was the name Dari connected to by medieval Iranian thinkers?

context: The Islamic conquest also brought with it the adoption of Arabic script for writing Persian and much later, Kurdish, 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.
qas: answers: Arabic script
question: What was the new form of writing introduced by the spread of Islam?

answers: second half of the 8th century
question: When did usage of Middle Persian script fall off?

answers: Tajik script
question: What script was converted to Latin in the 1920s?

answers: the 1930s
question: When was Tajik script converted to Cyrillic?

answers: the Soviet government
question: Who catalyzed the conversion of Tajik script into Cyrillic?

context: The geographical regions in which Iranian languages were spoken were 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. In Eastern Europe, mostly comprising the territory of modern-day Ukraine, southern European Russia, and parts of the Balkans, the core region of the native Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans had been decisively been taken over as a result of absorption and assimilation (e.g. Slavicisation) by the various Proto-Slavic population of the region, by the 6th century AD. This resulted in the displacement and extinction of the once predominant Scythian languages of the region. Sogdian's close relative Yaghnobi barely survives in a small area of the Zarafshan valley east of Samarkand, and Saka as Ossetic in the Caucasus, which is the sole remnant of the once predominant Scythian languages in Eastern Europe proper and large parts of the North Caucasus. Various small Iranian languages in the Pamirs survive that are derived from Eastern Iranian.
qas: answers: Khuzestan
question: What is another term for Western Iran?

answers: Sogdian and Bactrian
question: What are two languages that were forced out by the spread of Arabic?

answers: 6th century AD
question: By what century had the area inhabited by Sarmatians been absorbed by pre-Slavic people?

answers: Zarafshan valley
question: Where can the remnants of Yaghnobi be found?

answers: Saka
question: Ossetic is a version of which Scythian language?