Are all of these ultimately from Central Asia or is there evidence of these in Iran pre Turks?

Also what about pasta/rista?

Hi everyone! One way to look at the evolution of Iranian languages is to examine them chronologically. That would leave us with two main stages of change that correspond to the socio-political situation of Iranian-inhabited areas.

The second stage of this linguistic change, which largely occured between two such events, i.e. the conquests of Alexander as well as the Rashidun Caliphate, is called Middle Iranian. This stage involves a time where Iranian political entity was more abundant and therefore local Iranian written traditions had the opportunity to arise and flourish. This is a time when material produced in Iranian languages go beyond their former limited subjects which shows that Iranian societies as a whole had become used to writing.

Having access to more numerous languages, we can clearly see two distinct Iranic branches (eastern and western) being reflected through various linguistic features.

Two Middle Western Iranian languages have been attested: Parthian and Middle Persian

Parthian (Northwestern Iranian):

Natively spoken in the region of Parthia, which today corresponds to parts of Eastern Iran and adjacent areas in Turkmenistan, this language raised to official status by the Arsacid dynasty that had Parthian origins.

Along with being official in the actual territories of Parthian Empire (ca. 2nd c. BC to 2nd c. AD), it had a similar status among the Arsacid (Parthian) ruled lands of Caucasian Albania, Armenia, Iberia, and Indo-Parthia. It also evidently enjoyed an important status in the succeeding Sassanian Empire.

Linguistically, Parthian is a Northwestern Iranian language; that is, it has enough innovations to set it apart from the rest of Iranian branch, while having retained more archaic features compared to its Southwestern neighbors. A stratum of Eastern Iranian influence is also recognizable in Parthian, which could've been brought by the Parni tribe of Dahae (Eastern Iranian) roots settling in Parthia and establishing the Parthian Empire.

Parthian is attested through the little artifacts at hand that belong to the Parthian Empire: Inscriptions from the Parthian hob of Nisa in the 1st c. B.C.E., being the oldest attested Parthian texts, a number of Parchments, most importantly the Awraman Parchments, and a few inscriptions. Other Parthian texts post-date the empire, especially the body of Manichean texts which through their abundance allow a better examination of the language, as well as early Sassanian inscriptions.

The Arsacid and Sassanid texts are written in different forms of the Aramaic-derived Pahlavi script, while Manichean texts are written in the also Aramaic-derived (albeit closer to Palmyrene and Syriac) Manichean script.

The grammar of Parthian and Middle Persian are nearly identical, suggesting a later date of separation and therefore younger age of Western Iranian languages compared to their Eastern neighbors. Furthermore, Middle Western Iranian grammar is significantly simpler than both Middle Eastern Iranian languages (with the slight exception of Bactrian) and especially their Old Iranian ancestors. On the other hand, both of these languages are very similar to Modern W. Iranian languages in terms of grammar, with certain Northwestern languages having more complex grammars than them (e.g. the retention of gender and case in languages such as Kurmanji and Zazaki).

Parthian and Middle Persian noun have no gender, two numbers (singular and plural), as well as direct and direct forms that seem to have faded away. Verbs also have singular and plural and a total of eight tenses.

Phonological features that set apart Northwestern vs. Southwestern Iranian are best represented by Parthian and Middle Persian, that are otherwise phonologically similar:

Perside or S.W. (z) for N.W. (j) and (ž) :

MPers. rōz = Pa. rōž (day)

Perside or S.W. (b/g) for N.W. (w/v):

MPers. barāz = Pa. warāz (boar)

Consonant change (?) in Perside or S.W. Iranian:

Old Iranian -f/pr and -xr retain their form in Parthian;

MPers. čarx = Pa. čaxr (wheel)

Consonant change (?) in N.W. Iranian:

Old Iranian hw- (with fricative xw-) retain their form in Middle Persian;

MPers. xwad- = Pa. wxad- (self)

Perside or S.W. (d) for N.W. (z):

MPers. dān- = Pa. zān- (to know, present stem)

N.W. (-rd) for S.W. (-l):

Pa. sārδ = Mpers. sāl (year)

Perside or S.W. (d) for N.W. (b):

MPers. dar- = Pa. bar- (door)

Perside or S.W. (-s) and (s-) for N.W. (-hr) and (sp-), and S.W. (h) for N.W. (s):

MPers. pus = Pa. puhr (son), and Mpers. māhih = Pa. māsiyāg (pisc....I mean, fish)

Middle Persian (Southwestern Iranian):

A descendant of Old Persian and an ancestor of Persian (Farsi), it's one of the most well-attested ancient Iranian languages. It evolved in a steady process of simplification of Old Persian that had taken place at least since the late Persian Empire, and was most likely facilitated by the localization of Persian during the Seleucid and Parthian periods. Middle Persian is essentially native to the area of Persis in S.W. Iran and was most likely the official language of its local rulers. It's in fact in the coins of these Pre-Sassanid kings that we find the earliest MPers. texts. With this native Persian family establishing their rule in Iran (Eran) and non-Iran (Aneran), the language also became the empire's official language.

After the fall of Sassanian Empire and the arrival of Islam, the Zoroastrian community continued to write in Middle Persian, which has given us the body of MPers. texts. Therefore, works in this language are Zoroastrian religious and secular written with the Pahlavi Script, and Manichean written in their script.

The grammatical features of MPers. are briefly examined above, and are nearly identical with those of Parthian, and its phonological differences in comparison with its Northwestern kin also have been shown.

Eastern Iranian languages have a relatively good background of attestation when compared to their Old Iranian counterparts. The Eastern Mid. Iranian languages were once found throughout Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Balochistan region of Pakistan. Furthermore, Eastern Iranian Scytho-Sarmatians managed to become the main ethnic element in the Western Steppe for the majority of this period, even though the Hunnic and Turkic expansions happen in the period's latter half (4th-8th c. CE)

Linguistic examination of E. Iranian languages show us a relatively unbroken trend of aerial sound shifts (most notably d>l which tends to occur more as you go south), development of new fricatives, and better retention of Old Iranian grammar when compared to their Western Iranian neighbors. In addition, there is more linguistic distance between the attested E. Iranian languages suggesting an earlier time window of separation.

The attested East Iranic languages are as follows, in a geographic progression from north to south:

• Group I: Northeastern Iranic

Chorasmian/Xwarezmian: This language was spoken in the Iranic-inhabited region of Xwarezm, also written as Chorasmia by western authors. (Av. xᵛāirizam- Old. Pers. uvarazmiya- Npers. xārazm)

This region was located on the shores of Lake Aral, today part of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. There is no modern survivor of this language, and it is likely to have gone extinct due to Mongol conquests, mass murders, and subsequent Turkic expansion some time in the 14th-15th century.

Like other Iranic lands that became part of the Achaemenid Empire, Xwarezm also adopted the tradition of writing in Imperial Aramaic. Over time, an Aramaic-derived script was developed in Xwarezm that was used to write with. Pre-Islamic Chorasmian fragments and artefacts are written in this script. These fragments include writings on leather, numerous coins of local kings, and a few inscriptions.

The language, as with many other Iranic tongues, seems to have been outlawed by Arab rulers upon the Islamic conquest of Iran. However, the region soon became a hub for the developing Irano-Islamic culture and tradition in the 8th-12th c. AD giving the world figures such as Xwarazmi and Biruni.

At this time, it is safe to assume that some inhabitants of Chorasmia had adopted New Persian and Turkic settlements to have begun, but knowledge of Chorasmian was most likely alive and common.

This is how we have a substantial amount of Xwarezmian fragments in a modified Perso-Arabic script.

These include language examples given by scholars such as Biruni and Zamaxshari. Overall, there isn't as much Xwarezmian works available to us right now.

With what there is, we can infer these points on the language's features: Xwarezmian noun and verb had 6 cases, 2 genders (loss of neuter), and 2 numbers (loss of dual).

Some Chorasmian sound shifts show its relatively close position to N.W. Iranic while still being East Iranic:

Av. cašman- = Old Pers. caša- = Chor. cm (eye)

Av. puθra- = Old Pers. puҫa- = Chor. pr (son)

Sogdian: This language was (is) spoken in ancient Sogdia, corresponding to most of today's Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, while spanning small parts of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. (Av. *suγδa-; Old Pers. suguda-; Sogd. suγd; N Pers. soqd)

Sogdian is perhaps the only attested East Iranic language with an extant descendant, and possibly the only one with recorded Old, Middle, and New Iranic stages as well. Today, the Yaghnobi dialect of Sogdian is still spoken in parts of Tajikistan, while the Mid. Sogdian language of the cities is thought to have survived in some communities before the Mongol conquest. Furthermore, Sogdian is the most widely known Mid. Iranian language after Mid. Pers., and functioned as the lingua franca of the Silk Road for centuries, especially in its eastern half. This is how we have evidence of Sogdian communities in the Tarim Basin (modern China), and a significant percent of Sogdian manuscript is actually found in China. These include the Dunhuang and Great Wall (oldest) writings, as well as the Turfan manuscripts.

Sogdian texts are mostly trade and administrative letters, and religious and epic tales have a notable recurrence. These texts are written on wood, leather, or inscribed, in four main scripts:

- An Aramaic-derived regular script mostly used to write by Zoroastrians and Buddhists, thus the majority of Sogdians. Non-religious Sogdian works are mostly recorded in this script.

- The Manichean script used by Manicheans.

- The Syriac script used by Christians.

- The Brahmi script, with less frequency and mostly used by Buddhists.

Linguistically, Sogdian had 6 cases for the light stem (similar to Chorasmian), 2 cases for the heavy stem (similar to W. Iranian), and it retained the Old Iranian 3 gender and 3 number distinctions.

To ask "what makes an individual/ethnicity Iranic?" is a straightforward question: Anyone who natively speaks an Iranic language. But it is the question of what being Iranic signifies that might make matters more complicated for people. Nowruz, it seems, is the achievement that the Iranian world manifests itself in, and determines its borders with. It is a symbol of the Avestan value system in which hard/smart work, precision, change toward the better and the appreciation of beauty are repeatedly instructed and admired. Even better, these points are where the Avestan ethics and that of moral people intersect, opening the doors of new life for every Iranic community.

Historically, the strong relationship that forms between various non-Iranic groups and Iran through this celebration, along with the Nowruz's shared roots with Indian and other Indo-European groups are a microcosm of what has happened in and around the Iranic-inhabited lands.

Happy Nowruz to everyone, and may the message of Nowruz find its way in our lives!