Proto-Indo-Iranian language

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Proto-Indo-Iranian, is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian 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, and in turn removed less than a millennium from the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda. It is the ancestor of the Indo-Aryan languages, the Iranian languages, the Dardic languages and the Nuristani languages. 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). Grassmann's law, Bartholomae's law, and the Ruki sound law were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian.

Among the sound changes from Proto-Indo-Iranian to Indo-Aryan is the loss of the voiced sibilant *z, among those to Iranian is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.

Proto-Indo-Iranian	Old Iranian (OP, Av)	Vedic Sanskrit
*açva ("horse")	Av, OP aspa	aśva
*bhag-	OP baj- (bāji; "tribute")	bhag- (bhaga)
*bhrātr- ("brother")	OP brātar	bhrātṛ
*bhūmī ("earth", "land")	OP būmi	bhūmī
*martya ("mortal, "man")	OP martya	martya
*māsa ("moon")	OP māha	māsa
*vāsara ("early")	OP vāhara ("spring")	vāsara ("morning")
*arta ("truth")	Av aša, OP arta	ṛta
*draugh- ("falsehood")	Av druj, OP draug-	druh-
*sauma "pressed (juice)"	Av haoma	soma

Schleicher's fable

Carlos Quiles Casas of the Dnghu Group gives a Proto-Indo-Iranian version of Schleicher's fable

Avis açvasas-ka. Avis, yasmin varnā na āst, dadarça açvans, tam, garum vāgham vaghantam, tam, magham bhāram, tam manum āku bharantam. Avis açvabhyas avavakat; çard aghnutai mai vidanti manum açvans azantam. Açvāsas avavakant: çrudhi avai, kard aghnutai vividvant-svas: manus patis varnām avisāns karnauti svabhyam gharmam vastram avibhyas-ka varnā na asti. Tat çuçruvants avis azram abhugat.

References

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).
Alexander Lubotsky, " The Indo-Iranian substratum" in Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European, ed. Carpelan et al., Helsinki (2001).

Proto-Indo-Iranian language

Schleicher's fable

References

See also