Dialects

The six modern Iranian languages discussed above are the only ones that have an established literary tradition. They are not, however, homogeneous, each having its own dialect divisions. No definitive dialect classification has yet been made, nor indeed has any attempt at systematic classification of the whole range of Iranian languages won wide acceptance. The usual practice, followed here, is simply to list the main languages in groups of varying size, arranged on a roughly geographic basis.

There are two main dialects of Ossetic: the eastern, known as Iron, and the western, known as Digor (Digoron). Of those, Digor is the more archaic, Iron words being often a syllable shorter than their Digor counterparts—e.g., Digor madä, Iron mad “mother.” Iron is spoken by the majority of Ossetic speakers and is the basis of the literary language. Chosen in the 19th century for the translation of the Bible, it is still the official language today. Little is known of the other Ossetic dialects. A small amount of the Ossetic dialect of Tual in the south, which differs little from Iron, was published in Georgian script at the beginning of the 19th century.

Yaghnābī is still spoken by a small number of people southeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It has two main dialects, eastern and western, which differ only slightly. The characteristic difference is between a western t sound and an eastern s sound from an older θ sound (as th in English thin)—e.g., western mēt, eastern mēs “day,” beside Sogdian mēθ (Christian Sogdian myθ).

Dialects of the Shughnī group are spoken in the Pamirs. Closely related to this group is Yāzgulāmī. A period of a Yāzgulāmī-Shughnī common language (protolanguage) has been postulated by some scholars, after which it separated first into Yāzgulāmī and Common Shughnī; and then Common Shughnī gradually divided into Sarīkolī, Oroshorī-Bartangī, Roshānī-Khufī, and Bajuvī-Shughnī. Sarīkolī, the easternmost of these dialects, is spoken in northwestern China.

Speakers of Wakhī number more than 50,000 or so in the region of the upper Panj River. Vākhān (Wākhān), the Persian name for the region in which Wakhī is spoken, is based on the local name Wux̌, a Wakhī development of *Waxšu, the old name of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya). (An asterisk denotes a hypothetical, unattested, reconstructed form or word.) The Wakhī language is remarkably distinct from its neighbours and has many archaic features.

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Around the bend of the Amu Darya and in the valley of the Vardūj River to the southeast, a few people speak dialects of the Sanglechī-Ishkashmī group. That group is clearly distinguished from its neighbours but is closely related to the other languages of the Pamirs.

Some 11,000 people speak dialects of the Yidghā-Munjī group. Monjān is a very remote valley located in northern Afghanistan, and it is separated by a mountain pass from the Sanglechī-speaking region. Yidghā is spoken in the valley of the Lutkho River and in the nearby city of Chitrāl, a region now in Pakistan. Yidghā-Munjī is most closely related to Pashto.

The existence of two dialectal groups within Pashto has long been known. Thus, the word Pashto represents a southwestern dialect form (paštō), in contrast to a northeastern (paxtō). According to one hypothesis, Pashto literature, which exists certainly from the 17th century and possibly from the 11th, was created among the northeastern tribes. Two minor dialects, Wazīrī and Waṉētsī, have some features of special interest.

Although spoken in a few villages in Afghanistan, two languages have features closely associating them with Western Iranian. These are Parāchī, spoken in the Hindu Kush north of Kabul, and Ormurī, found in two dialects, one in the Lowgar River valley south of Kabul and the other in Kāniguram in Wazīristān.

Farther south is the wholly West Iranian language Balochi, mentioned above. Despite the vast area over which Balochi is spoken, its numerous dialects are all mutually intelligible. The most recent study of the Balochi dialects divides them into six groups: Eastern Hill dialects; Rākhshānī dialects including that of Mary; Sarawānī; Kechī; Loṭunī; and the coastal dialects. Of these, Rākhshānī is the most widely spoken and is used for broadcasting both in Pakistan and in Afghanistan, but the coastal dialects have the greatest prestige and the most extensive literature. In the southeastern corner of Iran, Balochi gradually gives way to the Bashkardī dialects.

In central Iran the influence of Modern Persian is everywhere strongly felt, and it is often difficult to distinguish between dialects of Modern Persian, Persian with dialectal traits, and closely related languages. In the cities of Yazd and Kermān the Parsis speak the old Gabrī dialect, whereas the Muslims speak Persian. Among other central dialects are Nātanzī, Sōī, Khunsārī, Gazī (near Eṣfahān), Sīvandī (northeast of Shīrāz), Vafsī, and Ashtiyānī, to name but a few.

Semnānī, spoken east of Tehrān, forms a transitional stage between the central dialects and the Caspian dialects. The latter are divided into two groups, Gīlakī and Māzandarānī (Tabarī). Also closely related is Tālishī, spoken on the west coast of the Caspian Sea on both sides of the border with Azerbaijan. To this northwestern group belong the so-called southern Tātī dialects spoken south and southwest of Qazvīn, as well as the scarcely known dialects of Harzan and Galinqaya spoken northwest of Tabriz. The name Tātī is usually applied to the dialects spoken in Russian Dagestan and northeastern Azerbaijan. They differ little from Modern Persian. Of the several dialects of Fārs province, only Larī, southeast of Shīrāz, is notably distinctive. Kumzarī in Oman and the Lur dialects of the southwest also differ little from Persian.

There are many dialects of Kurdish, the widely spoken West Iranian language that is thought to occupy a dialectal position intermediate between Balochi and Persian. Three main dialect groups can be distinguished—northern, central, and southern. A systematic study has been made of the dialects of Iraq, which include ʿAqrah (Akre), ʿAmādīyah, Dahūk, Shaykhān, and Zākhū in the northern group, and Irbīl (Arbīl), Bingird, Pishdar (Pizhdar), Sulaymānīyah (Suleimaniye), and Wārmāwah in the central group. The Central Mukrī dialect is spoken in the extreme west of Iran, south of Lake Urmia.

Gorānī is spoken in several dialects, mainly in the Zagros Mountains, and it is strongly influenced by the surrounding Kurdish dialects. The Gorānī dialect of Hawrāman, Hawrāmī, is notable for its many archaic features. Closely related to Gorānī is Zaza (Dimli), which is spoken west of Iran.