Luri language


Luri or Lurish is a Southwestern Iranian language continuum spoken by the Lurs in Western Asia. The Luri dialects are descended from Middle Persian. Luri forms language groups known as Central Luri, Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri.
This language is spoken mainly by the Bakhtiari and Southern Lurs of Iran and beyond.

History

The Luri dialects are descended from Middle Persian. They belong to the Persid or Southern Zagros group, and are lexically similar to modern Persian, differing mainly in phonology.
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, though even this is found in Judeo-Persian texts". The Bakhtiāri dialect may be closer to Persian. There are two distinct languages, Greater Luri, Southern Luri, and Lesser Luri, Northern Luri.

Speakers

Lur peoples of Iran are mainly in provinces of Lorestan, Ilam Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Fars province, Khuzestan, Esfahan province and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and some of this people live in provinces as like as Hamadan province, Qom province, Qazvin province, Gilan province and Kerman province and Kermanshah Province.

Internal classification

The language is constitutes 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 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, Kerman, Guilan and Tehran provinces.

Phonology

Vowels

// may also range to a higher // in the Northern dialect.

Consonants

/h/ mainly occurs as a glide to elongate short vowels. are allophones of a labiodental approximant //. // occurs in Southern Luri. // as well as velar fricatives // as equivalent to uvular fricatives //, occur in Northern Luri. // occurs in Northern Luri, as well as in words borrowed from Persian.

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 have been more exposed to Persian loanwords.