| Luri | |
|---|---|
| Northern:لری Southern:لری | |
 "Luri" written in both Northern Luri and Southern Luri in thePerso-Arabic script with theNastaliq font | |
| Pronunciation | Southern Luri pronunciation:[loriː] |
| Native to | Iran; a few villages in easternIraq[1][2] |
| Region | SouthernZagros Mountains |
| Ethnicity | Lurs |
Native speakers | 4–5 million (2012)[3][4]1.3 million (2007)[5] |
Early forms | |
| Dialects |
|
| Persian alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:lrc – Northern Luribqi – Bakhtiariluz – Southern Luri |
| Glottolog | luri1252 |
Luri (Northern Luri:لری,Southern Luri:لری) is a SouthwesternIranian language continuum spoken by theLurs, anIranian people native toWest Asia. The Luri dialects are descended fromMiddle Persian and are Central Luri,Bakhtiari,[3][6] and Southern Luri.[3][6] This language is spoken mainly by theBakhtiari and the Northern and Southern Lurs (Lorestan,Ilam,Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad,Mamasani,Sepidan,Bandar Ganaveh,Bandar Deylam)[7] inIran.
TheEncyclopedia of Islam calls Luri “an aberrant form of archaic Persian.”[8] The language descends from eitherMiddle Persian orOld Persian.[3][9] It belongs to the “Perside southern Zagros group” (as opposed to Kurdish dialects of northern Zagros),[10] and is lexically similar to modern Persian, differing mainly in phonology.
According to theEncyclopædia 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 (see below), though even this is found in Judeo-Persian texts".[11] TheBakhtiāri dialect may be closer to Persian.[12] There are two distinct languages, Greater Luri (Lor-e bozorg),a.k.a. Southern Luri (including Bakhtiari dialect), and Lesser Luri (Lor-e kuček),a.k.a. Northern Luri.[11]
Anonby stated that Luri was not a single language but a Southwestern Iranian language continuum consisting of the Luristani, Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri languages, and itself was a language continuum between Kurdish and Persian.[13] Anonby stated that the differences in the Luri dialects were big enough for them to be considered different languages. MacKinnon also claimed that the Luri dialects had different origins and also claimed Shushtari and Dezfuli as languages of the Luri family despite them traditionally being considered Persian. Some linguists came to the idea that the only reason Dezfuli and Shushtari were often considered Persian dialects was that there were no Luri tribes named Dezfuli and Shushtari, and that the structure of the Luri language was based particularly on tribal divisions rather than linguistic facts. They added that since the term Lur was originally regional, "Luri" was actually ademonym, and that outsiders referred to all languages of the region as Luri, unaware of its linguistic diversity.[14] Furthermore, there was no evidence of a common proto-Lur dialect, with the shared features of the Luri dialects probably having developed separately although along parallel lines.[15]
The first major documentation of the Luri language was carried out by the Russian scholar, V. A. Zhukovski in 1883, where he transcribed 992 Bakhtiari couplets. However, he did not say the genealogical classification of Bakhtiari. After Zhukovski, the German linguist Oskar Mann published "Die Mundarten der Lur-stämme" in 1910, where he studied the Luri language and was the first linguist to claim that Luri, which was then thought to be a dialect of Kurdish, was a distinct language.[16]
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Luri dialects (Northern Luri [or Central Luri], Shuhani and Hinimini) are as a group the second largest language in theLorestan province (around25% of the population), mainly spoken in the eastern counties of the province (Khoramabad,Dorud,Borujerd). In theIlam province (around14.59% of the population) it is mostly spoken in villages in the southern parts of the province.[17] Around21.24% ofHamadan province speak Northern Luri.[18]
Southern Luri is a dialect of Luri is spoken bySouthern Lurs andLurs people mainly inKohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, northwestFars province, eastKhuzestan province and some inBushehr province.[19][6]
The Bakhtiari dialect is the main first language in the province ofChaharmahal and Bakhtiari (around61.82%), except aroundShahrekord,Borujen,Ben andSaman counties, where Persian,Turkic and Chaharmahali dialect predominate.[20] Around7.15% ofIsfahan province speak Bakhtiari.[21]
| Province[22] | Luri-speakers | % | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari | 520,000 | 61.82% | Bakhtiyari dialect |
| Gilan | 2,600 | 0.25% | |
| Hamadan | 370,000 | 21.24% | Northern Luri |
| Ilam | 78,300 | 14.59% | Hinimini, Shuhani and Northern Luri |
| Isfahan | 350,000 | 7.15% | Bakhtiyari dialect |
| Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad[23] | 510,000 | 71.54% | Southern Lori |
| Lorestan | 450,000 | 25.5% | Northern Lori |
The language consists of Central Luri,Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri.[2] Central Luri is spoken in northern parts ofLuri communities including eastern, central and northern parts ofLuristan province, southern parts ofHamadan province mainly inMalayer,Nahavand andTuyserkan counties, southern regions ofIlam province and southeastern parts ofMarkazi province. Bakhtiari is used byBakhtiari people in SouthLuristan,Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, significant regions in north and east ofKhouzestan and western regions ofIsfahan province. Finally, Southern Luri is spoken throughoutKohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, and in western and central regions inFars province, northern and western parts ofBushehr province and southeastern regions ofKhouzestan. Several Luri communities are spread sporadically across theIranian Plateau e.g.Khorasan (Beyranvand and Bakhtiari Luri descendants),Kerman,Guilan andTehran provinces.[24][10] Luri is not only spoken by Lurs, as the ethnic Persians in the Nahavand region spoke northern Luri as their native language, and while the dialects of Shushtar, Dezful, and Shahr-e-Kord were closer to Luri, the speakers identified as ethnic Persians.[25]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | iː | uː |
| ɪ | ʊ | |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a~æ1 | ɑː |
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | q | ʔ4 | |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ɢ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x2 | χ | h | |
| voiced | (v) | z | ʒ | ɣ2 | ʁ3 | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ1 | |||||
| Tap/Trill | ɾ5 | |||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | (w) | ||||
In comparison with otherIranian languages, Luri has been less affected by foreign languages such asArabic andTurkic. 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 especiallyKurds andPersians, different dialects of Luri, despite mainly common characteristics, have significant differences. The northern dialect tends to have moreKurdish loanwords inside and southern dialects (Bakhtiari and Southern Luri) have been more exposed toPersian loanwords.[29]
In 2003, the Lori-speaking population in Iran was estimated at 4.2 million speakers, or about 6 percent of the national figure (Anonby, 2003b, p. 173). Given the nationwide growth in population since then, the number of Lori speakers in 2012 is likely closer to 5 million.
While the modern SWI languages, for instance, Persian, Lori-Baḵtiāri and others, are derived directly from Old Persian through Middle Persian/Pahlavi
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