Proto-Indo-Iranian language
Proto-Indo-Iranian, also called Proto-Indo-Iranic or Proto-Aryan, is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian 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 of the Eurasian Steppe and the early Andronovo archaeological horizon.
Proto-Indo-Iranian was a satem language, likely removed less than a millennium from its ancestor, the late Proto-Indo-European language, and in turn removed less than a millennium from its descendants: Vedic Sanskrit and Old Avestan.
It is the ancestor of Indo-Aryan languages, the Iranian languages, and the Nuristani languages, predominantly spoken in the Southern Asian subregion of Eurasia.
Descriptive phonology
In addition to the vowels, *H, and *r̥ could function as the syllabic core. In many reconstructions, instances of *iH and *uH occur instead of *ī and *ū.Two palatal series
Proto-Indo-Iranian is hypothesized to have contained two series of stops or affricates in the palatal to postalveolar region. The phonetic nature of this contrast is not clear, and hence they are usually referred to as the primary or first series and the second or secondary series.The following table shows the most common reflexes of the two series :
| PII | Proto-Indo-Aryan | Sanskrit | Proto-Iranian | Avestan | Old Persian | Nuristani |
| *ć | *ś | ś | *ts | s | θ | ċ |
| *ȷ́ | *ź | j | *dz | z | d | j̈ |
| *ȷ́ʰ | *źh | h | *dz | z | d | j̈ |
| *č | *c | c | *č | č | č | č |
| *ǰ | *j | j | *ǰ | ǰ | ǰ | ǰ |
| *ǰʰ | *žh | h | *ǰ | ǰ | ǰ | ǰ |
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 positions. In Proto-Indo-Iranian, the laryngeals merged as one phoneme /*H/. Beekes suggests that some instances of this /*H/ survived into Rigvedic Sanskrit and Avestan as unwritten glottal stops as evidenced by metrics.Accent
Like Proto-Indo-European and Vedic Sanskrit, Proto-Indo-Iranian had a pitch accent system similar to present-day Japanese, conventionally 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 into a single vowel, Proto-Indo-Iranian *a. 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 *ḱ *ǵ *ǵʰ are fronted or affricated, eventually resulting in PII *ć, *ȷ́, *ȷ́ʰ, while the PIE labiovelars *kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ merge with the velars *k *g *gʰ.
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| ḱm̥tóm | *ćatám | śatám | satəm | centum | hund | id | |
| ǵónu | *ȷ́ā́nu | jā́nu | zānu | Kt. SE j̈õ | genū | knee | id |
| ǵʰimós | *ȷ́ʰimás | himá | ziiā̊ | Kt. SE j̈im | hiems | 'winter' / 'snow' | |
| kʷós | *kás | kás | ka | quis | who | id | |
| gʷṓws | *gā́wš | gaus | gao | Kt. go | bōs | cow | id |
| gʷʰormós | *gʰarmás | gharmás | garəma | formus | warm | 'warmth, heat' |
- The PIE liquids l r l̥ r̥ merge as r r̥.
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| ḱléwos | *ćráwas | śrávas | srauua | clueō | 'fame, honour, word' | ||
| wĺ̥kʷos | *wŕ̥kas | vŕ̥kas | vəhrka | lupus | wolf | id | |
| gʷʰormós | *gʰarmás | gharmás | garəma | formus | warm | 'warmth, heat' |
- The PIE syllabic nasals m̥ n̥ merge with *a.
| PIE | pre-PII | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| déḱm̥ | *dáćm̥ | *dáća | dáśa | dasā | Kt. duċ | decem | ten | id |
| gʷm̥tós | *gm̥tás | *gatás | gatá | gata | Kt. gëvë́ | ventus | come | 'come, gone' |
| n̥bʰrós | *n̥bʰrás | *abʰrás | abhrá | aβra | imber | 'rain, cloud' |
- Bartholomae's law: an aspirate immediately followed by a voiceless consonant becomes voiced stop + voiced aspirate. In addition, dʰ + t > dᶻdʰ.
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | English | Glossary |
| ubʰtós | *ubdʰás | sámubdha | ubdaēna | web, weave | 'woven' / 'made of woven material' | |
| wr̥dʰtós | *wr̥dᶻdʰás | vr̥ddʰá | vərəzda | 'grown, mature' | ||
| dʰéwgʰti | *dáwgdʰi | dógdhi | *daogdi | Pr. lüšt 'daughter' | daugh | 'to milk' |
- The Ruki rule: *s is retracted to *š when immediately following a liquid, a high vowel, a PIE velar or the syllabic laryngeal *H̥. Its allophone *z likewise becomes *ž.
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| wisós | *wišás | víṣas | viša | Katë viš | vīrus | 'poison, venom' | |
| ḱeHs- | *ćH̥šam | aśiṣam | sīšā | 'teach!' | |||
| ǵéwseti | *ȷ́áwšati | jóṣati | zaošō | gustus | 'to like, taste' | ||
| kʷsép- | *kšáp- | kṣáp- | xšap- | 'darkness' | |||
| plúsis | *plúšiš | plúṣi | *fruši | pūlex | 'flea, noxious insect' | ||
| nisdós | *niždás | nīḷá/nīḍá | *nižda | nīdus | nest | 'nest' |
- Before a dental occlusive, *ć becomes *š and *ȷ́ becomes *ž. *ȷ́ʰ also becomes *ž, with aspiration of the occlusive.
| PIE | pre-PII | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| h₁oḱtṓ | *Haćtā́ | *Haštā́ | aṣṭá | ašta | octō | eight | 'eight' | |
| dr̥ḱtós | *dr̥ćtás | *dr̥štás | dr̥ṣṭá | dərəšta | 'seen, visible, apparent' | |||
| mr̥ǵt- | *mr̥ȷ́d- | *mr̥žd- | mr̥ḷ-/mr̥ḍ- | mərəžd- | 'to forgive, pardon' | |||
| uǵʰtós | *uȷ́dʰás | *uždʰás | ūḍhá | *užda | Kt. SE ṓzë 'came' | vector | weight | 'carried' |
- The sequence *ćš was simplified to *šš.
| PIE | pre-PII | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| h₂éḱs- | *Háćšas | *Háššas | ákṣa | aša | axis | axle | 'axle, shoulder' |
- The "second palatalization" or "law of palatals": *k *g *gʰ develop palatal allophones *č *ǰ *ǰʰ before the front vowels *i, *e. through an intermediate *kʲ *gʲ *gʲʰ.
| PIE | pre-PII | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| -kʷe | *-kʲa | *-ča | -ca | -ča | -que | 'and' | ||
| gʷih₃wós | *gʲiHwás | *ǰiHwás | jīvás | juuō | Kt. ǰiv- 'to be alive' | vīvus | quick | 'alive, living' |
| gʷʰénti | *gʲʰánti | *ǰʰánti | hánti | jaiṇti | Kt. SE ǰaň- | -fendit | 'slays' |
- Brugmann's law: *o or *ó in an open syllable lengthens to *ā.
| PIE | pre-PII | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | Glossary |
| deh₃tórm̥ | *daHtā́rm̥ | *daHtā́ram | dātā́ram | dātārəm | datōrem | 'giver' |
- 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 | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| dédeh₃ti | *dádaHti | dádāti | dadāiti | Kt. pře- | dat | 'to give' | |
| h₃dónts | *Hdánts | dant | dantan | Kt. dut | dēns | tooth | 'tooth' |
| bʰréh₂tēr | *bʰráHtā | bhrā́tr̥ | brātar | Kt. břo | frāter | brother | 'brother' |
| wṓkʷs | *wā́kš | vā́k | vāxš | vōx | 'voice' |
- In certain positions, laryngeals were vocalized to *i. This preceded the second palatalization.
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | Glossary |
| ph₂tréy | *pitráy | pitré | piθrē | patrī | 'father' |
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Glossary |
| -medʰh₂ | *-madʰHi | -mahi | -maidī/-maiδi |
- 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.
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Latin | English | Glossary |
| ph₂tḗr | *pHtā́ | pitā́ | ptā | pater | father | id |
- According to Lubotsky's Law, *H disappeared when followed by a voiced nonaspirated stop and another consonant:
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | Nuristani | Glossary |
| bʰéh₂geti | *bʰáǰati | bhájati | bažat̰ | 'to divide, distribute' |