Khalih (Gulf): Indo-European (Iranian) and Semitic (Arabic)?

Subject Areas : Linguistics,dialectology,folklore,literature

BEHZAD MOEINI SAM ^{1 *}

1 -

Received: 2025-05-31 Accepted : 2025-06-16 Published : 2025-08-29

Keywords: Khalij, Iranian, Arabic, Indo-European, Semitic,

Abstract :

Ancient Iran endured a series of invasions by various nations, which devastated its rich literary heritage. The final and most transformative invasion was conducted by the Arabs, who not only supplanted the native language with Arabic but also obliterated countless texts. Tragically, only a handful of works—primarily those with religious significance—managed to survive the onslaught, leaving a profound gap in the preservation of Iran's cultural history. Before the rise of Islam and the establishment of Iranian empires, Persian words were already present in the Arabic vocabulary. Conversely, with the dominance of the Arabs, Arabic words began to be incorporated into Persian as well. Additionally, during the Islamic period, a number of Persian words were adopted into Arabic, adapting to the derivation and inflection of the Arabic language. This article aims to explore the origin of the word "Khalij," meaning "Gulf," in both the Indo-European and Semitic language families. The objective is to determine which language family the structure of this word originates from. The method involves examining the word's origin and structure in both families and identifying early examples of its usage in historical texts. Ultimately, the conclusion reached is that, based on the examined documents and their comparisons, it is more likely that the word originates from xal <*k^u̯/wel in the Indo-European (specifically Iranian) language family.

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