Medes

The Medes were an Iranian people of Indo-Iranian origin who lived in the western and north-western portion of present-day Iran. By the 6th century BC (prior to the Persian invasion) the Medes were able to establish an empire that stretched from Aran (the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan) to Central Asia and Afghanistan. Today's population of the western part of the Iranian Plateau (including many Persian-speakers, Kurds and Azeris) consider themselves to be descended from the ancient Medes.

Mede language

Strabo, in his geography, mentions the affinity of Mede with other Iranian languages:

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:"the name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but slight variations." (Geography, 15.8)

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Mede words in Old Persian are common, as these two languages were from a common origin. For example, Herodotus mentions the word Spaka (dog), still found in Iranic languages such as Kurdish and Talyshi. The following Iranian words are similarly thought to be of Mede origin: Farnah (divine glory; also appears in Avestan), Paradayda (Paradise), Vazraka (Great, as modern Kurdish Vazrak and Persian Bozorg), Vispa (All, as in Avestan), Mitra (the Indo-Iranian deity), Xshayathia (King).

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