Talyshs
| Толишон • tolışon • Талыши • تالش | |
|---|---|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Azerbaijan: 112,000 (2009 official census) ≈500,000 Iran: 430,000 Russia: 2,548 Ukraine: 133 Estonia: 6 |
|
| Languages | |
| Talysh, Azerbaijani, Gilaki, Persian, Russian | |
| Religion | |
| Islam (Predominantly Shi'a) with minorities of Sunni, Irreligion, Christian, and Zoroastrian adherents. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Iranian peoples, Caucasian peoples |
Talysh (also Talishi, Taleshi or Talyshi) are an Iranianethnic group indigenous to a region shared between Azerbaijan and Iran which spans the South Caucasus and the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. They speak the Talysh language, one of the Northwestern Iranian languages. It is spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Northern Talysh (the part in the Republic of Azerbaijan) was historically known as Talish-i Gushtasbi. In Iran there is a Talesh County in Gilan. Anthropologically they belong to the Iranian people of the Indo-European family.
The Talishis generally identify themselves with the ancient Cadusians, who inhabited the area to the southwest of Caspian Sea, bounded on the north by Kura River, including modern provinces of Ardabil and Gilan. The name Talishi may be etymologically related to Cadusi, which has influenced the name of the Caspian and Caucasus.
Talysh has two major mutually intelligible dialects – Northern (in Azerbaijan and Iran), and Southern (in Iran). Azerbaijani is used as the literary language in Azerbaijan and Persian in Iran.
With regards to their NRY-Y-DNA haplogroups, the Talysh show salient Near-Eastern affinities, with haplogroup J2, associated with the advent and diffusion of agriculture in the neolithic Near East, found in over 25% of the sample. Another patriline, haplogroup R1, is also seen to range from 1/4 to up to 1/2, while R1a1, a marker associated with Indo-Iranian peoples of Central/South Eurasia, only reaches to under 5%, along with haplogroup G.
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