ABSTRACT
The Iranian language family, an Indo-European grouping, comprises several principal branches including Standard Persian (widely known by its name in Persian: Farsi), Dari, Tajik, Kurdish, Baluchi, Pamir Languages, several local languages in Iran, and Yaghnobi (neo-Sogdian). Of these varieties, the largest group is the Persian/Dari/Tajik language complex. These three varieties, recognized politically as separate languages, are mutually intelligible and historically related. Their designation as separate “languages” arise from their function respectively as the national languages of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Iranian languages reflect social hierarchies reflective of centuries of empires with hereditary rulers and an elaborate royal court system. The resulting pragmatics include social differentiation in address and discourse between social hierarchies, as well as clear differentiation between intimate and formal language - a system known as ta ’ārof. Though recent political dynamics have affected this sociolinguistic dynamic, ta ’ārof remains a hallmark of Iranian sociolinguistic structures.
