Luri (Northern Luri: لری, Southern Luri: لری) is a Southwestern Iranian language continuum spoken by the Lurs, an Iranian people native to Western Asia. The Luri dialects are descended from Middle Persian and are Central Luri, Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri. This language is spoken mainly by the Bakhtiari and Southern Lurs (Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Mamasani, Sepidan, Bandar Ganaveh, Bandar Deylam) in Iran.

History

Luri is the closest living language to Archaic and Middle Persian. The language descends from Middle Persian (Parsig). It belongs to the Persid or Southern Zagros group, 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". The Bakhtiāri dialect may be closer to Persian. 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.

Geography

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Northern Luri

Luri dialects (Northern Luri (or Central Luri), Shuhani and Hinimini) are as a group the second largest language in Ilam province (around 14.59% of the population), mostly spoken in villages in the southern parts of the province. Around 21.24% of Hamadan province speak Northern Luri.

Bakhtiari

The Bakhtiari dialect is the main first language in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari (around 61.82%), except around Sharekord, Borujen, Ben and Saman counties, where Persian, Turkic and Chaharmahali dialect predominate. Around 7.15% of Isfahan province speak Bakhtiari.

Statistics

Province	Luri-speakers	%	Note
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari	520,000	61.82%	Bakhtiyari dialect
Gilan	2,600	0.25%
Hamadan	370,000	21.24%	Northern Luri
Ilam	78,300	14.59%	Hinimini, Shuhani and Northern Luri
Isfahan	350,000	7.15%	Bakhtiyari dialect

Internal classification

The language consists of Central Luri, Bakhtiari, and Southern Luri. 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.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	iː	uː
	ɪ	ʊ
Mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a~æ	ɑː

1. /a/ may also range to a higher /æ/ in the Northern dialect.

• Vowels /ɛ, ɔ/ may also be realized as more close [e, o] within diphthongs or before glide sounds.
• /ɛ, ɔ/ can also be heard as higher [ɛ̝, ɔ̝] in Southern Luri.
• /a/ can also be raised as [ə] or [ɛ] before semivowels.

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palato- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ		k	q	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ		ɡ	ɢ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ		x	χ	h
	voiced	(v)	z	ʒ		ɣ	ʁ
Nasal		m	n		ɲ
Tap/Trill			ɾ
Approximant		ʋ	l		j	(w)

1. /ɲ/ occurs in Northern Luri.
2. Velar fricatives /x, ɣ/ as equivalent to uvular fricatives /χ, ʁ/, occur in Northern Luri.
3. /ʁ/ occurs in Southern Luri.
4. /ʔ/ occurs in Northern Luri, as well as in words borrowed from Persian.
5. /ɾ/ can also be heard as a trill [r] in Southern Luri.

• /h/ also occurs as a glide to elongate short vowels (eg. /oh/; [ɔː]).
• [v, w] occur as allophones of a labiodental approximant /ʋ/.

Vocabulary

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.

See also

• Bakhtiari dialect
• Borujerdi dialect
• Dialects of Fars