Luri language

The Encyclopedia of Islam calls Luri “an aberrant form of archaic Persian.”^[8] The language descends from either Middle Persian or Old 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 the Encyclopædia 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] The Bakhtiāri 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 a demonym, 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]

The language consists of Central Luri, Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri.^[2] Central Luri is spoken in northern parts of Luri communities including eastern, central and northern parts of Luristan province, southern parts of Hamadan province mainly in Malayer, Nahavand and Tuyserkan counties, southern regions of Ilam province and southeastern parts of Markazi province. Bakhtiari is used by Bakhtiari people in South Luristan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, significant regions in north and east of Khouzestan and western regions of Isfahan province. Finally, Southern Luri is spoken throughout Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, and in western and central regions in Fars province, northern and western parts of Bushehr province and southeastern regions of Khouzestan. Several Luri communities are spread sporadically across the Iranian Plateau e.g. Khorasan (Beyranvand and Bakhtiari Luri descendants), Kerman, Guilan and Tehran 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]

In comparison with other Iranian languages, Luri has been less affected by foreign languages such as Arabic and Turkic. 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 especially Kurds and Persians, different dialects of Luri, despite mainly common characteristics, have significant differences. The northern dialect tends to have more Kurdish loanwords inside and southern dialects (Bakhtiari and Southern Luri) have been more exposed to Persian loanwords.^[29]

• Bakhtiari dialect
• Borujerdi dialect
• Dialects of Fars