Luri language

Luri (Northern Luri: لوری‎) is a Southwestern Iranian language continuum spoken by the Lur people, an Iranian people native to Western Asia. The Luri dialects are descended from Middle Persian and are Central Luri, Bakhtiari,[3][5] and Southern Luri.[3][5] This language is spoken mainly by the Bakhtiari and Southern Lurs (Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Mamasani, Sepidan, Bandar Ganaveh, Deylam)[6] in Iran.

Not to be confused with Luri language (Nigeria).
Luri
زون لوری
PronunciationIPA: [loriː]
Native toIran; a few villages in eastern Iraq.[1][2]
RegionSouthern Zagros
EthnicityLurs
Native speakers
over 4 million[3]
circa 5 million[4]
Dialects
  • Central Luri (Minjai)
  • Bakhtiari
  • Southern Luri
  • kumzari
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
lrc – Northern Luri
bqi – Bakhtiari
luz – Southern Luri
Glottologluri1252

History

Luri is the closest living language to Archaic and Middle Persian.[7] The language descend from Middle Persian (Pahlavi).[3][8] They belong to the Persid or Southern Zagros group, and are lexically similar to modern Persian, differing mainly in phonology.[9]

According to the Encyclopædia Iranica, "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".[10] The Bakhtiāri dialect may be closer to Persian.[11] There are two distinct languages, Greater Luri (Lor-e bozorg), a.k.a. Southern Luri (including Bakhtiari dialect), and Lesser Luri (Lor-e kuček), a.k.a. Northern Luri.[10]

Geography

Northern Luri

Luri dialects (Northern Luri (or Central Luri), Shuhani and Hinimini) are as a group the second largest language in Ilam Province, mostly spoken in villages in the southern parts of the province.[12]

Bakhtiari

The Bakhtiari dialect is the main first language in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, except around Shahrekord County where Turkic languages predominate.[13]

Internal classification

The language is consists of Central Luri, Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri.[2] Central Luri is spoken in northern parts of Luri communities including eastern, central and northern parts of Luristan province, southern parts of Hamadan province mainly in Malayer, Nahavand and Tuyserkan counties, southern regions of Ilam province and southeastern parts of Markazi province. Bakhtiari is used by Bakhtiari people 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 e.g. Khorasan (Beyranvand and Bakhtiari Luri descendants), Kerman, Guilan and Tehran provinces.[14][9]

Phonology

Vowels
Front Back
Close iː uː
ɪ ʊ
Mid ɛ ɔ
Open a~æ1 ɑː
  1. /a/ may also range to a higher /æ/ in the Northern dialect.

Consonants
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Palato-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Stop voiceless p t k q ʔ4
voiced b d ɡ ɢ
Affricate voiceless t͡ʃ
voiced d͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ x2 χ h
voiced (v~w) z ʒ ɣ2 ʁ3
Nasal m n ɲ1
Tap/Flap ɾ
Approximant ʋ l j
  1. /ɲ/ occurs in Northern Luri.
  2. Velar fricatives /x, ɣ/ as equivalent to uvular fricatives /χ, ʁ/, occur in Northern Luri.
  3. /ʁ/ occurs in Southern Luri.
  4. /ʔ/ occurs in Northern Luri, as well as in words borrowed from Persian.
  • /h/ mainly occurs as a glide to elongate short vowels (eg. /oh/; [ɔː]).
  • [v~w] are allophones of a labiodental approximant /ʋ/.[15][16][17]

Vocabulary

In comparison with other Iranian languages, Luri has been less affected by foreign languages such as Arabic 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 and Persian people, different dialects of Luri, despite mainly common characteristics, have significant differences. The northern dialect tends to have more Kurdish loanwords inside and southern dialects (Bakhtiari and Southern Luri) have been more exposed to Persian loanwords.[18]

See also

References
  1. Northern Luri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Dougherty, Beth K.; Ghareeb, Edmund A. (2013). Historical Dictionary of Iraq. Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East (2nd ed.). Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-8108-6845-8.
  3. Anonby, Erik John (July 2003). "Update on Luri: How many languages?" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Series 3. 13 (2): 171–197. doi:10.1017/S1356186303003067.
  4. Anonby, Erik J. (20 December 2012). "LORI LANGUAGE ii. Sociolinguistic Status". Encyclopædia Iranica. ISSN 2330-4804. Retrieved 2019-04-14. In 2003, the Lori-speaking population in Iran was estimated at 4.2 million speakers, or about 6 percent of the national figure (Anonby, 2003b, p. 173). Given the nationwide growth in population since then, the number of Lori speakers in 2012 is likely closer to 5 million.
  5. G. R. Fazel, ‘Lur’, in Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey, ed. R. V. Weekes (Westport, 1984), pp. 446–447
  6. Limbert, John (Spring 1968). "The Origin and Appearance of the Kurds in Pre-Islamic Iran". Iranian Studies. 1 (2): 41–51. doi:10.1080/00210866808701350. JSTOR 4309997.
  7. C.S. Coon, "Iran:Demography and Ethnography" in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume IV, E. J. Brill, pp 10,8.
  8. Stilo, Donald (15 December 2007). "Isfahan xxi. PROVINCIAL DIALECTS". Encyclopædia Iranica. XIV, fasc. 1. pp. 93–112. ISSN 2330-4804. Retrieved 2019-04-14. While the modern SWI languages, for instance, Persian, Lori-Baḵtiāri and others, are derived directly from Old Persian through Middle Persian/Pahlavi
  9. Digard, J.-P.; Windfuhr, G. L.; Ittig, A. (15 December 1988). "BAḴTĪĀRĪ TRIBE ii. The Baḵtīārī Dialect". Encyclopædia Iranica. III, fasc. 5. pp. 553–560. ISSN 2330-4804. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  10. MacKinnon, Colin (7 January 2011). "LORI LANGUAGE i. LORI DIALECTS". Encyclopædia Iranica. ISSN 2330-4804. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  11. Paul, Ludwig (15 December 2008). "KURDISH LANGUAGE i. HISTORY OF THE KURDISH LANGUAGE". Encyclopædia Iranica. ISSN 2330-4804. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  12. "Language distribution: Ilam Province". Iran Atlas. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  13. "Language distribution: Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari Province". Iran Atlas. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  14. Anonby, Erik J. (20 December 2012). "LORI LANGUAGE ii. Sociolinguistic Status". Encyclopædia Iranica. ISSN 2330-4804. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  15. Anonby, Erik (2014). Bakhtiari Studies: Phonology, Text, Lexicon. Uppsala University.
  16. Anonby, Erik (2002). A Phonology of Southern Luri.
  17. Amanolahi; Thackston, Sekandar, Wheeler M. (1987). Tales from Luristan. Harvard Iranian Series, 4: Harvard University Press.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: location (link)
  18. "Lur - History and Cultural Relations". everyculture.com. Retrieved 2019-04-14.

Further reading
  • Freidl, Erika. 2015. Warm Hearts and Sharp Tongues: Life in 555 Proverbs from the Zagros Mountains of Iran. Vienna: New Academic Press. ISBN 978-3-7003-1925-2
  • F. Vahman and G. Asatrian, Poetry of the Baxtiārīs: Love Poems, Wedding Songs, Lullabies, Laments, Copenhagen, 1995.
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