• Indo-European languages

  / Indo-Iranian

• Indo-Iranian languages
• Anatolian languages

  / Historical background of ancient Anatolia
• history of Central Asia

  / Early western peoples
• history of Central Asia

  / Soviet rule
• ancient Iran

  / Language
• Tajikistan

  / Ethnic groups

• Slavic religion

  / Folk conceptions
• Tocharian languages

  / Linguistic characteristics
• Turkic languages

  / Language contacts

General works

An important comprehensive treatment of the Iranian languages in general is the older study by Wilhelm Geiger and Ernst Kuhn (eds.), Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, 2 vol. (1895–1904, reprinted 1974). This invaluable work is now in many respects antiquated, and it contains no account of several Middle Iranian languages that have been made known only in this century. A more recent account in less detail is provided by the Handbuch der Orientalistik, vol. 1, sect. 4, Iranistik, pt. 1, Linguistik (1958). Some useful bibliography with brief guidelines is given by D.N. Mackenzie, “Iranian Languages,” in Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics, vol. 5 (1969), pp. 450–477.

Old Iranian

A large number of Old Persian texts are given in transcription and translation in Roland Kent, Old Persian, 2nd ed. rev. (1953). Information on Old Persian linguistic problems is contained in Wilhelm Brandenstein and Manfred Mayrhofer, Handbuch des Altpersischen (1964). On the Avestan language the article by Georg Morgenstierne, “Orthography and Sound-System of the Avesta,” in Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, 12:30–82 (1942), is of great importance. A useful bibliographical guide to work on Avestan is provided by J. Duchesne-Guillemin, “L’Étude de l’iranien ancien au vingtième siècle,” Kratylos, 7:1–44 (1962).

Middle Iranian

The verbal system of Parthian is described by A. Ghilain, Essai sur la langue parthe, son système verbal d’après les textes manichéens (1939, reprinted 1966); and for Middle Persian by W. Henning, “Das Verbum des Mittelpersischen der Turfanfragmente,” Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik, 9:158–253 (1933). A Pahlavi dictionary for students is D.N. Mackenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary (1971). The grammar of Sogdian has received detailed treatment in Ilya Gershevitch, A Grammar of Manichean Sogdian (1954); and of Khotanese in R.E. Emmerick, Saka Grammatical Studies (1968). A brief sketch of Khwārezmian is given in W.B. Henning, “The Khwarezmian Language,” Zeki Velīdi Togan’a Armağan, pp. 421–436 (1955).

Modern Iranian

A work of considerable importance is Gilbert Lazard, Grammaire du persan contemporain (1957). For the early stages of Modern Persian, Lazard’s Langue des plus anciens monuments de la prose persane (1963) is invaluable. The same author has provided a comprehensive guide to the most important linguistic features of Tadzhik in “Caractères distinctifs de la langue tadjik,” Bulletin de la Société linguistique de Paris, 52:117–186 (1956). A treatment of Baluchi dialects is J.H. Elfenbein, The Baluchi Language (1966). Of the many works describing Kurdish dialects, a comprehensive modern work is D.N. Mackenzie, Kurdish Dialect Studies, 2 vol. (1961–62). For the history of the Pashto language, Georg Morgenstierne, An Etymological Vocabulary of Pashto (1927), remains standard. Morgenstierne’s Indo-Iranian Frontier Languages, 4 vol. in 6, 2nd rev. ed., with additional material (1973), is the work most frequently quoted for most of the minor languages. Ossetic has been described by a native speaker: V.I. Abaev, A Grammatical Sketch of Ossetic (1964; originally published in Russian, 1959).