Proto-Indo-Iranian language

Proto-Indo-Iranian or Proto-Indo-Iranic^[1] is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Iranic branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium BC, and are often connected with the Sintashta culture and 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, its ancestor, and in turn removed less than a millennium from the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda, its descendant. It is the ancestor of the Indo-Aryan languages, the Iranian languages, and the Nuristani languages.

Descriptive phonology

**Proto-Indo-Iranian consonant segments**
		Labial	Coronal		Palatal		Velar	Laryngeal
		Labial	dental/ alveolar	post- alveolar	first	second	Velar	Laryngeal
Plosive	voiceless	*p	*t		*ĉ	*č	*k
	voiced	*b	*d		*ĵ	*ǰ	*g
	aspirated	*bʰ	*dʰ		*ĵʰ	*ǰʰ	*gʰ
Fricative	voiceless		*s	*š				*H
Fricative	voiced		(*z)	(*ž)
Nasal		*m	*n
Liquid			*l	r r̥
Semivowel						*y	*w

**PII vowel segments**
High	i ī u ū
Low	a ā

In addition to the vowels, *H, and *r̥ could function as the syllabic core.

Two palatal series

Proto-Indo-Iranian is hypothesized to contain two series of stops or affricates in the palatal to postalveolar region.^[2] The phonetic nature of this contrast is not clear, and hence they are usually referred to as the "primary"/"first" series (*ĉ *ĵ *ĵʰ, continuing Proto-Indo-European palatovelar *ḱ *ǵ *ǵʰ) and the "second(ary)" series (*č *ǰ *ǰʰ, continuing Proto-Indo-European plain and labialized velars *k⁽ʷ⁾ *g⁽ʷ⁾ *gʰ⁽ʷ⁾ in palatalizing contexts). The following table shows the most common reflexes of the two series (Proto-Iranian is the hypothetical ancestor to the Iranian languages, including Avestan and Old Persian):^[3]^[4]

PII	Sanskrit	Proto-Iranian	Avestan	Old Persian	Nuristani
*ĉ	ś ([ɕ])	*ts	s	θ	ċ ([ts]) / š
*ĵ	j ([ɟ])	*dz	z	d	j ([dz]) / z
*ĵʰ	h ([ɦ])	*dz	z	d	j ([dz]) / z
*č	c	*č	č	č	č
*ǰ	j ([ɟ])	*ǰ	ǰ	ǰ	ǰ / ž
*ǰʰ	h ([ɦ])	*ǰ	ǰ	ǰ	ǰ / ž

Laryngeal

Proto-Indo-European is usually hypothesized to have had three to four laryngeal consonants, each of which could occur in either syllabic or non-syllabic position. In Proto-Indo-Iranian, the laryngeals merged as one phoneme /*H/. Beekes suggests that some instances of this /*H/ survived into Avestan as unwritten glottal stops.^[5]

Accent

Like Proto-Indo-European and Vedic Sanskrit (and also Avestan, though it was not written down^[6]), Proto-Indo-Iranian had a pitch accent, indicated by an acute accent over the accented vowel.

Historical phonology

The most distinctive 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.

A fuller list of some of the hypothesized sound changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Indo-Iranian follows:

The Satem shift, consisting of two sets of related changes. The PIE palatals *k̂ *ĝ *ĝʰ are fronted or affricated, eventually resulting in PII *ĉ, *ĵ, *ĵʰ, while the PIE labiovelars *kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ merge with the velars *k *g *gʰ.^[7]

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*k̂m̥tóm	*ĉatám	śatám	satəm	centum	"hundred"
*ĝónu	*ĵā́nu	jā́nu	zānu	genū	"knee"
*ĝʰéi-mn̥	*ĵʰimá-	himá-	zima-	hiems	"winter" / "snow"
*kʷó-	*ká-	ká-	kō	quis	"who?, what?"
*gʷou-	*gau-	go	gau-	bōs, bov-	"cow"
*gʷʰormó-	*gʰarmá-	gharmá-	garəma-	formus	"warmth, heat"

The PIE syllabic liquids *l̥, *r̥ merge as *r̥.^[8]

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*wĺ̥kʷo-	*wŕ̥ka-	*vŕ̥ka-	vəhrka-	lupus	"wolf"

The PIE syllabic nasals *m̥ *n̥ merge with *a.^[8]

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*k̂m̥tóm	*ĉatám	śatám	satəm	centum	"hundred"
*mn̥tó-	*matá	matá-		mēns, ment-	"thinking"

Bartholomae's law: an aspirate immediately followed by a voiceless consonant becomes voiced stop + voiced aspirate. In addition, dʰ + t > dzdʰ.^[9]

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*ubʰto-	*ubdʰa-		ubdaēna	"woven" / "made of woven material"
*urdʰto-	*urdzdʰa-	vr̥ddʰá-	vrzda-	"complete/mature"
*augʰ-tá-	*augdʰá-	*óhate	*augda	"he said"

The Ruki rule: *s is retracted to *š when immediately following *r *r̥ *u *k or *i. Its allophone *z likewise becomes *ž.^[8]

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*wers-	*warš-	varṣman-		verrūca	"summit"
*pr̥sto-	*pr̥šta-	pr̥ṣṭhá-	paršta		"back" / "backbone"
*ǵeus-	*ĵauš-	joṣati	zaošō	gustus	"taste"
*kʷsep-	kšap- (< ksep)	kṣāp	xšap		"darkness"
*wis-	*wiš-	viṣa-	viša-	vīrus	"poison"
*nisdo-	*nižda-	nīḍa-		nīdus	"nest"

Before a dental occlusive, *ĉ becomes *š and *ĵ becomes *ž. *ĵʰ also becomes *ž, with aspiration of the occlusive.^[10]

PIE	pre-PII	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*h₂ok̂tṓ	*oĉtṓ	*aštā́	aṣṭaú	ašta	octō	"eight"
*h₃mr̥ĝt-	*mr̥ĵd-	*mr̥žd-	mr̥ḍīká-	mərəžḍīka		"wiped away" / "pardon"
*uĝʰtó-	*uĵʰtó-	*uždʰá-	ūḍhá-		vectus	"carried"

The sequence *ĉs was simplified to *šš.^[11]

PIE	pre-PII	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*h₂ék̂s-	*áĉs-	*ášš-	ákṣa-	aši-	axis	"shoulder" / "axle"

The "second palatalization" or "law of palatals": *k *g *gʰ develop palatal allophones *č *ǰ *ǰʰ before the front vowels *i, *e.^[9]

PIE	pre-PII	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*kʷe	*ke	*ča	ca	ča	-que	"and"
*gʷíh₃weti	*gíh₃weti	*ǰī́wati	jī́vati	jvaiti	vīvit	"lives"
*gʷʰénti	*gʰénti	*ǰʰánti	hánti	jainti	fendit	"slays"

Brugmann's law: *o in an open syllable lengthens to *ō.^[12]

PIE	pre-PII	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*deh₃tór-m	*deh₃tṓr-m	*dātā́ram	dātā́ram	dātāram	datōrem	"giver" (acc. sg.)

The vowels *e *o merge with *a. Similarly, *ē, *ō merge with *ā. This has the effect of giving full phonemic status to the second palatal series *č *ǰ *ǰʰ.

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*kʷe	ča (< če)	ca	ča	-que	"and"
*gʷʰormó-	*gʰarmá-	gharmá-	garəma-	formus	"heat"
*bʰréh₂tēr	*bʰrā́tār	bhrā́tā	brātā	frāter	"brother"
*wōkʷs	*wākš	vāk	vāxš	vōx	"voice"

In certain positions, laryngeals were vocalized to *i. This preceded the second palatalization.^[13]^[14]
- Following a consonant, and preceding a consonant cluster

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*ph₂trei	*pitrai	pitre	piθrai	patrī	"father" (dative singular)

Following a consonant and word-final

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*-medʰh₂	*-madʰi	-mahi	-madi	(1st person plural middle ending)

The Indo-European laryngeals all merged into one phoneme *H, which may have been a glottal stop. This was probably contemporary with the merging of *e and *o with *a.^[15]

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan	Latin
*ph₂tér	*pHtā́	pitā́	ptā	pater	"father" (nominative singular)

According to Lubotsky's Law, *H disappeared when followed by a voiced nonaspirated stop and another consonant:^[16]

PIE	PII	Sanskrit	Avestan
*bʰeh₂g-	bʰag- ( < bʰaHg- )	bʰag-	baxša	"distribute"

Subsequent sound changes

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. Template:PIE-OInd-Av

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

References

^ The Global Prehistory of Human Migration by Peter Bellwood, Immanuel Ness
^ Burrow, pp. 78-79
^ Ramat, Anna Giacalone (1998). The Indo-European Languages (illustrated ed.). London ; New York: Routledge,. p. 134. ISBN 0-415-06449-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
^ Cardona, George; Dhanesh Jain (2003). The Indo-Aryan Languages. London ; New York: Routledge. p. 24. ISBN 0-7007-1130-9.
^ Beekes (1988), p. 50
^ Beekes, p. 55
^ Burrow, pp. 74-75
^ ^a ^b ^c Fortson, p. 182
^ ^a ^b Fortson, p. 181
^ Burrow, p. 91
^ Burrow, pp. 92-94
^ Fortson, p. 183
^ Beekes, pp, 85-86
^ Lubotsky, p. 53
^ get ref
^ Beekes, pp. 88-89

Bibliography

Beekes, Robert Stephen Paul (1988). A Grammar of Gatha-Avestan. Leiden; New York: Brill. ISBN 90-04-08332-4.
Burrow, T. (2001). The Sanskrit Language (1st Indian ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 81-208-1767-2.
Fortson, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (illustrated ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.
Lubotsky, A. M. (1988). The System of Nominal Accentuation in Sanskrit and Proto-Indo-European. Leiden; New York: Brill. ISBN 90-04-08835-0.
Alexander Lubotsky, "The Indo-Iranian substratum" in Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European, ed. Carpelan et al., Helsinki (2001).
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).

[1] The Global Prehistory of Human Migration by Peter Bellwood, Immanuel Ness

[2] Burrow, pp. 78-79

[3] Ramat, Anna Giacalone (1998). The Indo-European Languages (illustrated ed.). London ; New York: Routledge,. p. 134. ISBN 0-415-06449-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

[4] Cardona, George; Dhanesh Jain (2003). The Indo-Aryan Languages. London ; New York: Routledge. p. 24. ISBN 0-7007-1130-9.

[5] Beekes (1988), p. 50

[6] Beekes, p. 55

[7] Burrow, pp. 74-75

[f182-8] Fortson, p. 182

[f181-9] Fortson, p. 181

[10] Burrow, p. 91

[11] Burrow, pp. 92-94

[f183-12] Fortson, p. 183

[13] Beekes, pp, 85-86

[14] Lubotsky, p. 53

[15] t ref

[16] Beekes, pp. 88-89

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