On Certain Problems of Comparative Iranian Linguistics

Joy Edelman

Journal of Language Relationship, № 1, 2009 - p.81-94

Abstract: Languages of the Iranian family, whose speakers over the centuries have dispersed throughout various regions of Eurasia and contacted both among themselves and with speakers of other language families, have undergone significant typological changes; this presents a serious challenge for their historical comparative treatment. The present article discusses such problems as (1) areal and temporal stratification of Proto-Iranian, regarded as a dialectal continuum; (2) stages of branching of the Aryan subgroup of Indo-European which eventually led to the appearance of Iranian as an autonomous entity; (3) genetic classification of the Iranian branch; and (4) various related methodological issues of comparative linguistics.

Keywords: Iranian languages

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