--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...>
wrote:
> What is known about substrate in Persian and other Iranian
> languages of Iran? I looked and couldn't find anything of the web.
> The only pre-IE language language I know of is Elamite. I suppose
> Sumerian, Semitic and Hurrian-Mitanni possibly could have
> overlapped the border to the west and I have no clue how far west
> Dravidian once existed.
In the 3rd mill. BCE western and central Iran must have been
inhabited by archaeologically well attested people of non-Indo-
Iranian speech. Unfortunately, their languages have left very few
remains in Iranian. Apparently, Elamian was spoken from Susa and
Ans^an up to the kingdom of Simas^ki (Kerman/Bandar Abbas area,
whithin which the remains of the ancient cities of Tepe Yahya and
Shahdad are located), while the regions to the east of this area
(known from cuneiforn sources as the lands of Aratta and Marhas^i)
apparently had other languages: indeed, according to Jean Vallat,
ancient documents would prove that "the language of Marhas^i is
different from that of the Simas^kians, and only very partially
Elamite-related" [J. Vallat, "Eléments de géographie élamite
(résumé)," _Paleorient_ 11, 1985, p. 52. Cf. Id., _Suse et Elam_,
Paris, Editions ADPF, 1980].
The kingdom of Marhas^i has been recently identified by
Assyriologist Piotr Steinkeller and Elamologist Daniel Potts with
the the Halil Rud valley civilization in Kerman province, whose
amazing metropolis, Jiroft, is currently being excavated on a large
scale.
Not much more is known, imoh.
Cheers,
Francesco