Proto-Indo-Iranian language

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Proto-Indo-Iranian language

Proto-Indo-Iranian, is the reconstructed

Linguistic reconstruction

Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction....
proto-language

Proto-language

A proto-language is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German language term Ursprache is used instead....
of the Indo-Iranian

Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European languages family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan languages , Iranian languages and Nuristani languages....
branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium BC, and are usually connected with the early Andronovo archaeological horizon.

Proto-Indo-Iranian was a Satem language, likely removed less than a millennium from the late Proto-Indo-European language

Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
, and in turn removed less than a millennium from the Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is an Old Indic language. It is the language of the Vedas, the oldest shruti texts of Hinduism, compiled over the period of the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BC....
of the Rigveda

Rigveda

The Rigveda is an ancient Indian subcontinent sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns dedicated to the Rigvedic deities . It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas....
.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Proto-Indo-Iranian language'

Start a new discussion about 'Proto-Indo-Iranian language'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Proto-Indo-Iranian, is the reconstructed

Linguistic reconstruction

Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction....
proto-language

Proto-language

A proto-language is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German language term Ursprache is used instead....
of the Indo-Iranian

Indo-Iranian languages

Proto-Indo-European language

Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is an Old Indic language. It is the language of the Vedas, the oldest shruti texts of Hinduism, compiled over the period of the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BC....
of the Rigveda

Rigveda

Indo-Aryan languages

The Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani language , Bangla language , Punjabi language , Marathi , Gujarati language , Nepali language , Oriya language , Sindhi language , Sinhal...
, the Iranian languages

Iranian languages

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
, the Dardic languages

Dardic languages

The Dardic languages is a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and in the Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir....
and the Nuristani languages

Nuristani languages

The Nuristani languages are a third separate group of the Indo-Iranian languages, and they are spoken primarily in eastern Afghanistan....
.

Descriptive phonology

**Proto-Indo-Iranian consonant segments**
		Labial Labial consonant Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips or with the lower lip and the upper teeth . English is a bilabial nasal consonant sonorant, and are bilabial stop consonant , and are labiodental fricative consonant....	Coronal Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical consonant , laminal consonant , domed consonant , or sub-apical consonant , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such dexterity....		Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate . Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex consonant....		Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the Soft palate)....	Laryngeal Laryngeal theory The laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of a set of three consonant sounds known as "laryngeals" that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language ....
			dental/ alveolar	post- alveolar	first	second
Plosive	voiceless	*	*		*	*	*
	voiced	*	*		*	*	*
	aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....	*	*		*	*	*
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German language , the final consonant of Bach; or the side of the tongue ag...	voiceless		*	*				*
	voiced		(*)	(*)
Nasal Nasal Nasal may refer to:Nasal consonantNasal vowelNoseNasal cavityNasal boneNasal HelmNasal hairNasal scale of reptiles...		*	*
Liquid Liquid Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....			*	* *
Semivowel Semivowel Semivowels, also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels, are vowels that form diphthongs with full syllable vowels. That is, they are vowel-like sounds that do not form the syllable nucleus of a syllable or mora ; they are not the most prominence part of the syllable....						*	*

**PII vowel segments**
High	i i u u
Low	a a

In addition to the vowels, *H, and *r̥ could function as the syllabic core.

Two Palatal series

Proto-Indo-Iranian is hypothesized to contain two series of palatal stops or affricates. The following table shows the most common reflexes and origins of the two series (Common Iranian is a hypothetical ancestor to the Iranian languages, including Avestan and Old Persian):

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Common Iranian	Avestan	Old Persian	Nuristani
*k̂	*c	s ([ç])	*ts	s	?	c ([ts]) / š
*g	*j	j ([?])	*dz	z	d	j ([dz]) / z
*g?	*j?	h ([?])	*dz	z	d	j ([dz]) / z
*k/k?	*c	c	*c	c	c	c
*g/g?	*j	j ([?])	*j	j	j	j / ž
*g?/g??	*j?	h ([?])	*j	j	j	j / ž

Laryngeal

Proto-Indo-European is usually hypothesized to have three or more laryngeal consonants, each of which could occur in either syllabic or non-syllabic position. In Proto-Indo-Iranian, the laryngeals merged together as one phoneme /*H/. Beekes suggests that some instances of this /*H/ survived into Avestan as unwritten glottal stops.

Accent

Like Proto-Indo-European and Vedic Sanskrit (and also Avestan, though it was not written down), Proto-Indo-Iranian had a pitch accent, indicated by an acute accent over the accented vowel.

Historical phonology

The main phonological change separating Proto-Indo-Iranian from Proto-Indo-European is the collapse of the ablauting vowels *e, *o, *a into a single vowel, Proto-Indo-Iranian *a (but see Brugmann's law

Brugmann's law

Brugmann's law, named for Karl Brugmann, states that Proto-Indo-European language in non-final syllables became *a in open syllables in Indo-Iranian....
). Grassmann's law

Grassmann's Law

Grassmann's law, named after its discoverer Hermann Grassmann, is a dissimilatory phonological process in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit which states that if an Aspiration d consonant is followed by another aspirated consonant in the next syllable, the first one loses the aspiration....
, Bartholomae's law

Bartholomae's law

Bartholomae's law is an early Indo-European languages sound law affecting the Proto-Indo-Iranian family, though thanks to the falling together of plain voiced and voiced aspirated stops in Iranian, its impact on the phonological history of that subgroup is unclear....
, and the Ruki sound law

Ruki sound law

Ruki or iurk is the term for a sound law in the Satem group of Indo-European languages, especially Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian, describing context in which an original /s/ phoneme changes into /?/:...
were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian.

A fuller list of some of the hypothesized sound changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Indo-Iranian follows:

The Satem shift, consisting of two sets of related changes. The PIE palatals *k̂ *g *g? are palatalized, eventually resulting in PII *c, *j, *j?, while the PIE labiovelars *k? *g? *g?? merge with the velars *k *g *g?.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*k̂m̥tóm	*catám	satám	sat?m	centum	"hundred"
*gónu	*jánu	jánu	zanu	genu	"knee"
*g?éi-mn?	*j?imá-	himá-	zima-	hiems	"winter" / "snow"
*k?ó-	*ká-	ká-	ko	quis	"who?, what?"
*g?ou-	*gau-	go	gau-	bos, bovis	"cow"
*g??ormó-	*g?armá-	gharmá-	gar?ma-	formus	"heat"

The PIE syllabic liquids *l̥, *r̥ merge as *r̥.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*wĺ̥k?o-	*wr̥ka-	*vr̥ka-	v?hrka-	lupus	"wolf"

The PIE syllabic nasals *m̥ *n̥ merge with *a.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*k̂m̥tóm	*catám	satám	sat?m	centum	"hundred"
*mn̥tó-	*matá	matá-		mens, mentis	"thinking"

Bartholomae's law
Bartholomae's law

Bartholomae's law is an early Indo-European languages sound law affecting the Proto-Indo-Iranian family, though thanks to the falling together of plain voiced and voiced aspirated stops in Iranian, its impact on the phonological history of that subgroup is unclear....
: an aspirate immediately followed by a voiceless consonant becomes voiced stop + voiced aspirate. In addition, d? + t > dzd?.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*ub?to-	*ubd?a-		ubdaena	"weaved" / "made of weaved material"
*urd?to-	*urdzd?a-	vr̥dd?á-	vrzda-	"complete/mature"
*aug?-tá-	*augd?á-	*óhate	*augda	"he said"

The Ruki
Ruki

Ruki may mean:*Ruki sound law, a phonological law in some Indo-European branchesIn popular culture*Rika Nonaka, a Digimon character*Ruki, a type of Neopets#Neopets...
rule: *s is retracted to *š when immediately following *r *r̥ *u *k or *i. Its allophone *z likewise becomes *ž.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*wers-	*warš-	var?man-		"summit"
*pr̥sto-	*pr̥šta-	pr̥??há-	paršta	"back" / "backbone"
*?eus-	*jauš-	jo?ati	zaošo	gustus	"taste"
*k?sep-	kšap- (< ksep)	k?ap	xšap	"darkness"
*wis-	*wiš-	vi?a-	viša-	virus	"poison"
*nisdo-	*nižda-	ni?a-		nidus	"nest"

Before a dental occlusive, *c becomes *š and *j becomes *ž. *j? also becomes *ž, with aspiration of the occlusive.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*h2ok̂tó	aštá (< h2octó)	a??aú	ašta	octo	"eight"
*h3mr̥gt-	mr̥žd- (< h3mr̥jd- )	mr̥?iká-	m?r?ž?ika	"wiped away" / "pardon"
*ug?tó-	užd?á- (< uj?tó-)	u?há-		"carried"

The sequence *cs was simplified to *šš.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*h2ék̂s-	ášš- (< h2écs-)	ák?a-	aši-	axis	"shoulder" / "axle"

The "second palatalization" or "law of palatals": *k *g *g? develop palatal allophones *c *j *j? before the front vowels *i, *e.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*k?e	ca (< ke)	ca	ca	"and"
*g?íh3weti	jíwati ( < gíh3weti )	jívati	jvaiti	"lives"
*g??énti	j?ánti (< g?énti)	hánti	jainti	"slays"

Brugmann's law
Brugmann's law

Brugmann's law, named for Karl Brugmann, states that Proto-Indo-European language in non-final syllables became *a in open syllables in Indo-Iranian....
: *o in an open syllable lengthens to *o.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*deh3tór-m	datáram(< deh3tór-m)	datáram	dataram	dator	"giver" (acc. sg.)

The vowels *e *o merge with *a. Similarly, *e, *o merge with *a. This has the effect of giving full phonemic status to the second palatal series *c *j *j?.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*k?e	ca (< ce)	ca	ca	"and"
*g??ormó-	*g?armá-	gharmá-	gar?ma-	"heat"
*b?réh2ter	*b?rátar	bhráta	brata	frater	"brother"
*wok?s	*wakš	vak	vaxš	vox	"voice"

In certain positions, laryngeals were vocalized to *i. This preceded the second palatalization.

Following a consonant, and preceding a consonant cluster

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*ph2trei	*pitrai	pitre	pi?rai	"father" (dative singular)

Following a consonant and word-final

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*-med?h2	*-mad?i	-mahi	-madi	(1st person plural middle ending)

The Indo-European laryngeals all merged into one phoneme *H, which may have been a glottal stop. This was probably contemporary with the merging of *e and *o with *a.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*ph2tér	*pHtá	pitá	pta	"father" (nominative singular)

According to Lubotsky's Law, *H disappeared when followed by a voiced nonaspirated stop and another consonant:

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*b?eh2g-	b?ag- ( < b?aHg- )	b?ag-	baxša	"distribute"

Subsequent sound changes

Among the sound changes from Proto-Indo-Iranian to Indo-Aryan

Indo-Aryan languages

Iranian languages

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.

Proto-Indo-Iranian	Old Iranian (OP, Av Avestan language Avestan is a Eastern Iranian language that was used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of the Zoroastrianism Avesta. Iranian languages are part of the hypothetical Indo-Iranian languages Language group.... )	Old Indic/Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit is an Old Indic language. It is the language of the Vedas, the oldest shruti texts of Hinduism, compiled over the period of the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BC....
*acwa- ("horse")	Av, OP aspa	asva
*b?ag-	OP baj- (baji; "tribute")	bhag- (bhaga Bhaga Sanskrit is a term for "lord, patron", but also for "wealth, prosperity". The cognate term in Avestan and Old Persian is ', of uncertain meaning but used in a sense in which "lord, patron" might also apply.... )
*b?ratr- ("brother")	OP bratar	bhrat?
*b?umi ("earth", "land")	OP bumi	bhumi Bhumi Bhumi can mean:* Bhumi , a non-profit organization based in Chennai* Bhumidevi, Hindu goddess of the earth* Bhumi , the ten stages a Bodhisattva advances through in the path to become a Buddha...
*martya ("mortal, "man")	OP martya	martya
*masa ("moon")	OP maha	masa
*wasara ("early")	OP vahara ("spring")	vasara ("morning")
*arta ("truth")	Av aša, OP arta	?ta
*draug?- ("falsehood")	Av druj, OP draug-	druh-
*sauma "pressed (juice)"	Av haoma Haoma Haoma is the Avestan language name of a plant and its divinity, both of which play a role in Zoroastrianism doctrine and in later Persian culture and mythology....	soma Soma Soma , or Haoma , from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic civilization and Greater Iran cultures....

Schleicher's fable

Carlos Quiles Casas of the Dnghu Group

Modern Indo-European

Modern Indo-European is a reconstruction of the late Proto-Indo-European language, presented by two students at Extremadura University, Carlos Quiles and Mar?a Teresa Batalla, in 2006....
gives a Proto-Indo-Iranian version of Schleicher's fable

Schleicher's fable

Schleicher's fable is an artificial text composed in the reconstructed language Proto-Indo-European language , published by August Schleicher in 1868....
, dating from around 2500 BCE. It will be noted that not all the phonological changes postulated for Proto-Indo-Iranian are complete: for example the syllabic nasals *m̥ and *n̥ have not yet merged with *a:

Bibliography

Alexander Lubotsky, "" in Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European, ed. Carpelan et al., Helsinki (2001).
Asko Parpola, 'The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European', in Blench and Spriggs (eds), Archaeology and Language III, London and New York (1999).

Proto-Indo-Iranian language

Descriptive phonology

Two Palatal series

Laryngeal

Accent

Historical phonology

Subsequent sound changes

Schleicher's fable

Bibliography

See also