Table of Contents
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (2) In Pre-Islamic Iran
Gernot Windfuhr
Of the three known pre-Islamic languages (Urartian, Kassite, and Elamite), only Urartian and Elamite are fairly well known.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (3) Elamite
Gernot Windfuhr
Elamite was spoken in the southern Zagros regions, which correspond to the ancient cultural-political entities of Elam and Anshan, and expanded into Akkadian-speaking Susiana.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (4) Urartian
Gernot Windfuhr
Urartian was most likely the dominant vernacular around Lake Van and the upper Zab valley. It was written from the late ninth to seventh century BCE in the empire of Urartu.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (5) Kassite
Gernot Windfuhr
The Kassites, Akkadian Kaššu, were mountain tribes probably somewhere in the central Zagros who ruled Babylon from the sixteenth to the middle of the twelfth century BCE.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (6) in Islamic Iran
Gernot Windfuhr
The non-Iranian languages spoken today in Iran include members of the following language families: (1) Altaic, (2) Afro-Asiatic Semitic, (3) Indo-European, (4) Caucasian (5) Dravidian.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (7) Turkic Languages
Gernot Windfuhr
In Iran, there are two distinct branches of Turkic: Oghuz Turkic languages and dialects that represent the southwestern branch of Turkic, and Khalaj, which presents a tiny branch of its own.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (8) Semitic Languages
Gernot Windfuhr
First Aramaic and then Arabic had considerable contact with Iranian languages. Their impact differs.
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (9) Arabic
Gernot Windfuhr
Most extensive was the Arab settlement in eastern Iran and Greater Khorasan (including northwestern Afghanistan, and Central Asia, including Marv and Bukhara).
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IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (10). Aramaic
Gernot Windfuhr
Speakers of North-Eastern Aramaic have been in contact with Iranian languages in the western regions of the plateau and on the western side of the Zagros for some 3,000 years.
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IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (1) Pre-Islamic
Philip Huyse
Iranian “literature” was for a long time essentially of oral nature as far as composition, performance, and transmission are concerned.