Iranian peoples
The term Iranian peoples are a group of ethnic groups who speak Iranian languages.
In the narrower sense, the term a number iranischsprachiger and mostly nomadic tribes, the BC, named after their region populated by the Iranian high plateau between 2000 BC and 1000, which was subsequently to the core area later iranischsprachiger populations. In a broader sense also groups to the Iranian peoples be expected that historically inhabited the above-mentioned region. Such a simplified mapping is done in groups where the source location makes insufficient information and their ethnicity is not definitely known.
Classification
Belonging to the " Iranian peoples " is primarily defined linguistically. As the " Iranian ethnicity " are accordingly referred companies that have inherited a language of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family or adopted and passed. By this purely linguistic classification populations are grouped according to their language, which significantly in other characteristics can differ from each other. The differentiation characteristics of Iranian ethnic groups among themselves count as different or common economic systems or mythologies as well as the varying degrees of influence of non- iranischsprachiger populations.
Etymology
The term " Iranian peoples " is derived from the name " Iran " (Persian ايران - Iran) borrowed, which even to the Middle Persian Eran and, ultimately, to the Old Iranian * Aryanam, " [ land ] of the Aryans ", goes back. * Aryanam is the genitive plural of the ethnonym Arya, as evidenced both in Achaemenid inscriptions and in the Zoroastrian traditions of the Avesta. In the form of Arya is the term in the Old Indic known and was the proper name of the earliest Indo-Iranian speakers ( " Aryan" ) languages , from which branched off the modern Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages. The classification as " Aryan " is thus basically a linguistic concept and to the close relationship of the Iranian and Indo-Iranian languages - including Nūristāni Branch - mark whose members had experienced a common linguistic and cultural development independent of other Indo-European groups in the early phase.