Luri language

Not to be confused with Luri language (Nigeria).
Luri
Northern: زون لری
Southern: لری
"Luri" written in both Northern Luri and Southern Luri in the Perso-Arabic script with the Nastaliq font
PronunciationIPA: [loriː]
Native toIran; a few villages in eastern Iraq[1][2]
RegionSouthern Zagros Mountains
EthnicityLurs
Native speakers
4–5 million (2012)[3][4]
Dialects
  • Central Luri (Minjai)
  • Bakhtiari
  • Southern Luri
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
lrc – Northern Luri
bqi – Bakhtiari
luz – Southern Luri
Glottologluri1252

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,[3][5] and Southern Luri.[3][5] This language is spoken mainly by the Bakhtiari and the Northern and Southern Lurs (Lorestan, Ilam, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Mamasani, Sepidan, Bandar Ganaveh, Bandar Deylam)[6] in Iran.

  1. ^ Northern Luri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Dougherty, Beth K.; Ghareeb, Edmund A. (2013). Historical Dictionary of Iraq. Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East (2nd ed.). Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-8108-6845-8.
  3. ^ a b c Anonby, Erik John (July 2003). "Update on Luri: How many languages?" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Series 3. 13 (2): 171–197. doi:10.1017/S1356186303003067. S2CID 162293895.
  4. ^ Anonby, Erik J. (20 December 2012). "LORI LANGUAGE ii. Sociolinguistic Status". Encyclopædia Iranica. ISSN 2330-4804. Retrieved 2019-04-14. In 2003, the Lori-speaking population in Iran was estimated at 4.2 million speakers, or about 6 percent of the national figure (Anonby, 2003b, p. 173). Given the nationwide growth in population since then, the number of Lori speakers in 2012 is likely closer to 5 million.
  5. ^ a b G. R. Fazel, 'Lur', in Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey, ed. R. V. Weekes (Westport, 1984), pp. 446–447
  6. ^ Limbert, John (Spring 1968). "The Origin and Appearance of the Kurds in Pre-Islamic Iran". Iranian Studies. 1 (2): 41–51. doi:10.1080/00210866808701350. JSTOR 4309997.