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Central Plateau languages (Iranian)

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Central Plateau languages
Central Plateau dialects (CPD)
Geographic
distribution		Central Iranian Plateau
Linguistic classificationIndo-European
Subdivisions
  • Northwest Central Plateau
  • Northeast Central Plateau (Rāji group)
  • Southeast Central Plateau
  • Southwest Central Plateau
Language codes
Glottolognucl1790

The Central Plateau languages, also called the Central Plateau Dialects (CPD), are a group of Northwestern Iranian languages spoken in cities, towns and villages of central Iran, particularly in the provinces of Isfahan Province, Markazi Province, Yazd Province and Qom Province.[1][2][3]

History

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The majority of the population of Isfahan once spoke these languages. The Central Iranian dialects appear to have had a common origin. The old dialects of Kerman and Yazd, preserved by the Zoroastrians and Jews of those cities; the former dialect of Isfahan, traces of which survive in the poetry of figures such as Owḥadi of Isfahan; and the speech of the Jewish communities along the Zayandeh River and in Gaz are all considered part of this group. This language group, sometimes referred to as the Rāji/Caspi language, was also spoken in the cities of Ray, Qom, and Hamadan.[4] According to Shams-i Qays Razi, the people of Ray and Iraq-i Ajam preferred their own local Fahlavi poetry to Persian verse. In Borujerd and Khorramabad, these dialects were spoken among Jewish communities, and some religious minority groups there have preserved elements of the old speech. The medieval scholar Ibn al-Muqaffa' reported that these dialects were known in earlier periods as Fahlavī, and in even older times as Pahlavī.[5]

The Central Iranian dialects spoken in and around Kashan are considered to represent a continuation of Median with respect to their linguistic structure. Many Central Iranian dialects have retained the grammatical gender system, based on the masculine–feminine distinction inherited from Old Iranian,[a] in these dialects, grammatical gender is preserved to varying degrees in the copula, third-person pronouns, verb endings, the numeral one, and a variety of other grammatical categories.[3]

Classification

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Glottolog provides the following detailed classification of the Central Iranian languages within the Northwestern Iranian branch of the Iranian languages:[6]

  • Iranian

Similarity to Sivandi

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Sivandi, spoken in Sivand 75 km north of Shiraz, is the only Northwestern Iranian language in southern Iran. Sivandi shares many grammatical and lexical similarities with the Central Iranian dialects.

SivandiAshtianiPersian
varfvarfabarf (snow)
esbeesbasag (dog)
varanvaranbārān (rain)
galgal-hā (plural suffix)
SivandiKhunsariPersian
giyangiyunjān (life)
esbeesbasag (dog)
varanvarunbārān (rain)
hamehamamā (we)

Notes

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  1. ↑ Old Iranian possessed three grammatical genders, masculine, feminine and neuter.

References

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Citations
  1. ↑ Windfuhr, Gernot L. (1991). "CENTRAL DIALECTS". Encyclopædia Iranica. V (3): 242–252.
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2026). "Central Iran Kermanic". Glottolog 5.3. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. 1 2 Borjian, Habib (2012). "Kashan. ix. The Median Dialects of Kashan". Encyclopædia Iranica. XVI (1): 43.
  4. ↑ Riyahi Khoyi, Mohammad Amin. "Observations on the Ancient Language of Azerbaijan". tebyan.net (in Persian). Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  5. ↑ Khaleghi Motlagh, Jalal. "The Story of the Persian Language". Iranboom (in Persian). Archived from the original on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  6. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2026). "Central Iran Kermanic". Glottolog 5.3. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Bibliography
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