Luri ( lrc, لٛۏری, Łôrī, luz, لُرِی, Lorī) is a Southwestern

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

language continuum spoken by the Lur people, an Iranian people native to

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...

. The Luri dialects are descended from

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...

and are Central Luri, Bakhtiari,G. R. Fazel, 'Lur', in Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey, ed. R. V. Weekes (Westport, 1984), pp. 446–447 and Southern Luri. This language is spoken mainly by the Bakhtiari and Southern Lurs ( Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Mamasani, Sepidan,

Bandar Ganaveh Bandar or Bunder may refer to: Places * Bandar, Afghanistan * Bandar, Narayanganj, Bangladesh * Bandar, Isfahan, Iran * Bandar, Kermanshah, Iran * Bandar, Yazd, Iran * Banda Aceh, Indonesia * Bandar Lampung, Indonesia * Bandar Seri Begawan, ...

Bandar Deylam , settlement_type = City , pushpin_map = Iran , mapsize = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bushehr , subdivision_ty ...

) in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

History

Luri is the closest living language to Archaic and Middle Persian. The language descends from

(Parsig). It belongs to the ''Persid'' or ''Southern Zagros group'', and is lexically similar to modern Persian, differing mainly in phonology. According to the ''

Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encyc ...

'', "All Lori dialects closely resemble standard Persian and probably developed from a stage of Persian similar to that represented in Early New Persian texts written in Perso-Arabic script. The sole typical Lori feature not known in early New Persian or derivable from it is the inchoative marker (see below), though even this is found in Judeo-Persian texts". The

Bakhtiāri dialect Bakhtiari dialect is a distinct dialect of Southern Luri spoken by Bakhtiari people in Chaharmahal-o-Bakhtiari, Bushehr, eastern Khuzestan and parts of Isfahan and Lorestan provinces. It is closely related to the Boir-Aḥmadī, Kohgīlūy ...

may be closer to Persian. There are two distinct languages, Greater Luri (''Lor-e bozorg''), Southern Luri (including Bakhtiari dialect), and Lesser Luri (''Lor-e kuček''), Northern Luri.

Geography

Northern Luri

Luri dialects (Northern Luri (or Central Luri), Shuhani and Hinimini) are as a group the second largest language in Ilam province (around of the population), mostly spoken in villages in the southern parts of the province. Around of Hamadan province speak Northern Luri.

Bakhtiari

The Bakhtiari dialect is the main first language in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari (around ), except around Sharekord, Borujen,

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, ...

and Saman counties, where Persian, Turkic and Chaharmahali dialect predominate. Around of Isfahan province speak Bakhtiari.

Statistics

Internal classification

The language consists of Central Luri, Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri. Central Luri is spoken in northern parts of Luri communities including eastern, central and northern parts of Luristan province, southern parts of

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...

province mainly in

Malayer Malayer ( fa, ملایر, Malāyer), formerly Dowlatabad ( fa, دولت‌آباد, Doulatābād, also Romanized as Dowlatābād and Daūlatābād), is a city and capital of Malayer County, Hamadan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its populati ...

Nahavand Nahavand ( fa, نهاوند, translit=Nahāvand / Nehāvend) is a city in Hamadan Province, Iran. It is the capital of Nahavand County. At the time of the 2006 census, its population was 72,218, in 19,419 families. It is located south of the ci ...

and Tuyserkan counties, southern regions of Ilam province and southeastern parts of Markazi province. Bakhtiari is used by

Bakhtiari people The Bakhtiari (also spelled Bakhtiyari; fa, بختیاری) are a Lur tribe from Iran. They speak the Bakhtiari dialect of the Luri language. Bakhtiaris primarily inhabit Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari and eastern Khuzestan, Lorestan, Bushehr, and ...

in South Luristan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, significant regions in north and east of Khouzestan and western regions of Isfahan province. Finally, Southern Luri is spoken throughout Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, and in western and central regions in Fars province, northern and western parts of Bushehr province and southeastern regions of Khouzestan. Several Luri communities are spread sporadically across the

Iranian Plateau The Iranian plateau or Persian plateau is a geological feature in Western Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia. It comprises part of the Eurasian Plate and is wedged between the Arabian Plate and the Indian Plate; situated between the Zagros ...

e.g. Khorasan (Beyranvand and Bakhtiari Luri descendants), Kerman, Guilan and

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

provinces.

Phonology

Vowels

# // may also range to a higher // in the Northern dialect. * Vowels /, / may also be realized as more close within diphthongs or before glide sounds. * /, / can also be heard as higher [] in Southern Luri. * // can also be raised as [] or [] before semivowels.

Consonants

# // occurs in Northern Luri. # Velar fricatives /, / as equivalent to uvular fricatives /, /, occur in Northern Luri. # // occurs in Southern Luri. # // occurs in Northern Luri, as well as in words borrowed from Persian. # // can also be heard as a trill [] in Southern Luri. * // also occurs as a glide to elongate short vowels (eg. /oh/; ). * occur as allophones of a labiodental approximant //.

Vocabulary

In comparison with other

Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are groupe ...

, Luri has been less affected by foreign languages such as

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and Turkic. Nowadays, many ancient Iranian language characteristics are preserved and can be observed in Luri grammar and vocabulary. According to diverse regional and socio-ecological conditions and due to longtime social interrelations with adjacent ethnic groups especially

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...

and

Persian people The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

, different dialects of Luri, despite mainly common characteristics, have significant differences. The northern dialect tends to have more

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

loanwords inside and southern dialects ( Bakhtiari and Southern Luri) have been more exposed to

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

loanwords.

References

External links

* *
Bakhtiari tribeLori dialect
Encyclopædia Iranica
Luri language: How many languages? - By Erik John Anonby - The Royal Asiatic Society, 2003 - Printed in the UK
{{Authority control Languages of Iran Southwestern Iranian languages