Editing Indo-Iranian languages (section)

== Origin ==
{{See also|Proto-Indo-Iranian language}}

All Indo-Iranian languages can be traced back to a single hypothetical ancestral language: [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]], which is the [[Linguistic reconstruction|reconstructed]] [[proto-language]] to represent the latest point at which all modern-day Indo-Iranian languages were still unified. [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]], in turn, is classified as belonging to the [[Indo-European language family|Indo-European]] language family, ultimately tracing back to the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] language. 

Historically, the Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers are thought to have originally referred to themselves using the reconstructed [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]] root {{lang|iir-x-proto|Áryas}}, from which it derives terms like [[Āryāvarta|''Aryavarta'']] ({{Langx|sa|आर्यावर्त}}, {{Literal translation|Land of the Aryans}}), ''[[Airyanem Vaejah]]'' ({{Langx|ae|𐬀𐬫𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬥𐬆𐬨 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬘𐬀𐬵}}, {{Literal translation|Expanse of the [[Arya (Iran)|Arya]]}}), ''[[Alania]]'' ({{lang|iir-x-proto|Aryāna}}), ''[[Iran (word)|Iran]]'' ({{lang|iir-x-proto|Aryānām}}),<ref>Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 213: "Iran Alani (< *aryana) (the name of an Iranian group whose descendants are the Ossetes, one of whose subdivisions is the Iron [< *aryana-)), *aryanam (pl.) 'of the Aryans' (> MPers Iran)."</ref> and "[[Aryan]]".<ref name=":422">{{harvnb|Schmitt|1987|ps=: "The name ''Aryan'' is the self designation of the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient Iran who spoke Aryan languages, in contrast to the 'non-Aryan' peoples of those 'Aryan' countries."}}</ref>{{Sfn|Anthony|2007|p=408}} 

The [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]]-speakers are generally associated with the [[Sintashta culture]],{{sfn|Mallory|Mair|2008|p=261}}<ref name="Anthony 2007 pp. 408-411">{{Harvnb|Anthony|2007|pp=408–411}}</ref>{{sfn|Lubotsky|2023|p=259|loc="There is growing consensus among both archaeologists and linguists that the Sintashta–Petrovka culture (2100–1900 BCE) in the Southern Trans-Urals was inhabited by the speakers of Proto-Indo-Iranian"}} which is thought to represent an eastward migration of peoples from the [[Corded Ware culture]],{{sfn|Allentoft|Sikora|Sjögren|Rasmussen|2015|loc="The close affinity we observe between peoples of Corded Ware and Sintashta cultures suggests similar genetic sources of the two. [...] Although we cannot formally test whether the Sintashta derives directly from an eastward migration of Corded Ware peoples or if they share common ancestry with an earlier steppe population, the presence of European Neolithic farmer ancestry in both the Corded Ware and the Sintashta, combined with the absence of Neolithic farmer ancestry in the earlier Yamnaya, would suggest the former being more probable. [...] The enigmatic Sintashta culture near the Urals bears genetic resemblance to Corded Ware and was therefore likely to be an eastward migration into Asia. As this culture spread towards Altai it evolved into the Andronovo culture"}}{{sfn|Mathieson|2015|loc=Supplementary material: "Sintashta and Andronovo populations had an affinity to more western populations from central and northern Europe like the Corded Ware and associated cultures. [...] the Srubnaya/Sintashta/Andronovo group resembled Late Neolithic/Bronze Age populations from mainland Europe."}}{{sfn|Narasimhan|Patterson|Moorjani|Rohland|2019|loc=Supplementary Materials: "We observed a main cluster of 41 ''Sintashta'' individuals that was genetically similar to ''Srubnaya'', ''Potapovka'', and ''Andronovo'' in being well modeled as a mixture of ''Yamnaya''-related and ''Anatolia_N'' (European farmer-related) ancestry" (p.40) [...] "Additional work has documented genetic similarity of people of the Corded Ware Complex to those of both the Sintashta and Srubnaya archaeological cultures of the western Steppe" (p.243)}}{{sfn|Chintalapati|Patterson|Moorjani|2022|loc=p. 13: "[T]he CWC expanded to the east to form the archaeological complexes of Sintashta, Srubnaya, Andronovo, and the BA cultures of Kazakhstan."}} which, in turn, is believed to represent an earlier westward migration of Yamnaya-related people from the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] zone into the territory of late [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic European]] cultures, possibly bringing with them the [[Proto-Indo-European language]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kristiansen|first1=Kristian|last2=Allentoft|first2=Morten E.|last3=Frei|first3=Karin M.|last4=Iversen|first4=Rune|last5=Johannsen|first5=Niels N.|last6=Kroonen|first6=Guus|last7=Pospieszny|first7=Łukasz|last8=Price|first8=T. Douglas|last9=Rasmussen|first9=Simon|last10=Sjögren|first10=Karl-Göran|last11=Sikora|first11=Martin|date=2017|title=Re-theorising mobility and the formation of culture and language among the Corded Ware Culture in Europe|journal=Antiquity|language=en|volume=91|issue=356|pages=334–347|doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.17|s2cid=15536709|issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free|hdl=1887/70150|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Malmström|first1=Helena|last2=Günther|first2=Torsten|last3=Svensson|first3=Emma M.|last4=Juras|first4=Anna|last5=Fraser|first5=Magdalena|last6=Munters|first6=Arielle R.|last7=Pospieszny|first7=Łukasz|last8=Tõrv|first8=Mari|last9=Lindström|first9=Jonathan|last10=Götherström|first10=Anders|last11=Storå|first11=Jan|date=9 October 2019|title=The genomic ancestry of the Scandinavian Battle Axe Culture people and their relation to the broader Corded Ware horizon|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=286|issue=1912|pages=20191528|doi=10.1098/rspb.2019.1528|pmc=6790770|pmid=31594508}}</ref> However, the exact genetic relationship between the Yamnaya culture, Corded Ware culture and Sinthasta culture remains unclear.<ref>Pamjav H, Feher T, Nemeth E, Padar Z (2012). "Brief communication: new Y-chromosome binary markers improve phylogenetic resolution within haplogroup R1a1". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 149 (4): 611–615. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22167. PMID 23115110. "''However, with the discovery of the Z280 and Z93 substitutions within Phase 1 1000 Genomes Project data and subsequent genotyping of these SNPs in ~200 samples, a schism between European and Asian R1a chromosomes has emerged''" </ref><ref name=Kristiansen2023>{{cite book |last1=Kristiansen |first1=Kristian |last2=Kroonen |first2=Guus |last3=Willerslev |first3=Eske |title=The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited: Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics |date=11 May 2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-26174-6 |pages=70–71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSysEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 |language=en}} "How exactly the emergence and expansion of the Corded Ware are linked to the emergence and expansion of the Yamnaya horizon remains unclear.  However, the Y chromosome record of both groups indicates that Corded Ware cannot be derived directly from the Yamnaya or late eastern farming groups sampled thus far, and is therefore likely to constitute a parallel development in the forest steppe and temperate forest zones of Eastern Europe. Even in Central Europe, the formation of the earliest  regional Corded Ware identities was the result of local   and regional social practices that resulted in the typical Corded Ware rite of passage."</ref> 

The earliest known [[Chariot|chariots]] have been found in Sintashta burials, and the culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the [[Old World]] and played an important role in [[ancient warfare]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chechushkov |first1=I.V. |last2=Epimakhov |first2=A.V. |date=2018 |title=Eurasian Steppe Chariots and Social Complexity During the Bronze Age |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10963-018-9124-0 |journal=[[Journal of World Prehistory]] |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=435–483 |doi=10.1007/s10963-018-9124-0 |s2cid=254743380}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Raulwing |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cP9qQgAACAAJ |title=Horses, Chariots and Indo-Europeans – Foundations and Methods of Chariotry Research from the Viewpoint of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics |date=2000 |publisher=Archaeolingua Alapítvány, Budapest |isbn=9789638046260}}</ref>{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=402|loc="Eight radiocarbon dates have been obtained from five Sintashta culture graves containing the impressions of spoked wheels, including three at Sintashta (SM cemetery, gr. 5, 19, 28), one at Krivoe Ozero (k. 9, gr. 1), and one at Kammeny Ambar 5 (k. 2, gr. 8). Three of these (3760 ± 120 BP, 3740 ± 50 BP, and 3700 ± 60 BP), with probability distributions that fall predominantly before 2000 BCE, suggest that the earliest chariots probably appeared in the steppes before 2000 BCE (table 15.1 [p. 376])."}}<ref>Holm, Hans J. J. G. (2019): The Earliest Wheel Finds, their Archeology and Indo-European Terminology in Time and Space, and Early Migrations around the Caucasus. Series Minor 43. Budapest: ARCHAEOLINGUA ALAPÍTVÁNY. {{ISBN|978-615-5766-30-5}}</ref> There is almost a general consensus among scholars that the [[Andronovo culture]], the successor of Sintasha culture, was an Indo-Iranian culture.<ref name="EOIC">{{harvnb|Mallory|1997|pp=20–21}}</ref>{{sfn|Mallory|Mair|2008|p=261}} Currently, only two sub-cultures are considered as part of Andronovo culture: Alakul and Fëdorovo cultures.<ref name="Grigoriev">Grigoriev, Stanislav, (2021). [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opar-2020-0123/html "Andronovo Problem: Studies of Cultural Genesis in the Eurasian Bronze Age"], in Open Archaeology 2021 (7), '''p.3:''' "...By Andronovo cultures we may understand only Fyodorovka and Alakul cultures..."</ref> The Andronovo culture is considered as an "Indo-Iranic dialect continuum", with a later split between Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bjørn |first=Rasmus G. |date=January 2022 |title=Indo-European loanwords and exchange in Bronze Age Central and East Asia: Six new perspectives on prehistoric exchange in the Eastern Steppe Zone |journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences |language=en |volume=4 |pages=e23 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2022.16 |issn=2513-843X |pmc=10432883 |pmid=37599704}}</ref> However, according to Hiebert, an expansion of the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex]] (BMAC) into Iran and the margin of the Indus Valley is "the best candidate for an archaeological correlate of the introduction of Indo-Iranian speakers to Iran and South Asia",{{sfn|Parpola|2015|p=76}} despite the absence of the characteristic timber graves of the steppe in the Near East,{{sfn|Bryant|2001|p=206}} or south of the region between [[Kopet Dag]] and [[Pamir Mountains|Pamir]]-[[Karakorum]].<ref>Francfort, in {{Harv|Fussman et al.|2005|p=268}}; Fussman, in {{Harv|Fussman et al.|2005|p=220}}; Francfort (1989), Fouilles de Shortugai.</ref>{{Efn|Sarianidi states that "direct archaeological data from Bactria and [[Margiana]] show without any shade of doubt that Andronovo tribes penetrated to a minimum extent into Bactria and Margianian oases".{{sfn|Bryant|2001}}}} [[J. P. Mallory]] acknowledges the difficulties of making a case for expansions from Andronovo to northern India, and that attempts to link the Indo-Aryans to such sites as the Beshkent and Vakhsh cultures "only gets the [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]] to Central Asia, but not as far as the seats of the [[Medes]], [[Persians]] or Indo-Aryans". He has developed the ''Kulturkugel'' ({{Literal translation|the culture bullet}}) model that has the Indo-Iranians taking over cultural traits of BMAC, but preserving their language and religion while moving into Iran and India.{{sfn|Bryant|2001|p=216}}{{sfn|Parpola|2015|p=76}}