{{Short description|Extinct Iranian language of northern Iran}} {{Infobox language | name = Razi | altname = Rhazi | nativename = | states = Iran | region = Ray | familycolor = Indo-European | era = Early Islamic period | ref = | fam2 = Indo-Iranian | fam3 = Iranian | fam4 = Western | fam5 = Northwestern | fam6 = Median | script = Persian alphabet | glotto = none | isoexception = dialect }} The '''Razi dialect''' was a northwestern Iranian language spoken in the city of Ray, located on the southern slopes of the Alborz mountain range situated near Tehran, the capital of Iran. It was most likely a continuation of the Median language. The language was seemingly very similar to the Parthian language.{{sfn|Baghbidi|2016|p=403}} The only surviving text written in Razi is by Bundar Razi (died 1010/11), a Shi'ite poet who was part of the court of Majd al-Dawla ({{reign|997|1029}}), the ''amir'' (ruler) of the Buyid branch of Ray.{{sfn|Baghbidi|2016|p=403}} As Ray was located in the historical region of Media, its local language in the pre-Islamic era, according to the modern historian Hassan Rezai Baghbidi, must have been Median.{{sfn|Baghbidi|2016|pp=404, 406}}
The oldest surviving source that refers to the Razi dialect is a book that the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi (died 991) wrote in the 10th-century;{{sfn|Baghbidi|2016|p=408}}
{{blockquote|The people of Ray change their names, instead of ʿAlī, Ḥasan and Aḥmad, they say ʿlkʾ / Alkā/, ḥskʾ /Haskā/, ḥmkʾ /Hamkā/ … in Ray they use rā, they say rʾdh /rā-dah/ “give!”, rʾkn /rā-kun/ “do!” … among the languages of the aʿājim (i. e. the Iranian people) there is no language more attractive than that of the people of Ray.}}
Some of the words used in the Tehrani dialect may derive from Razi, such as ''sūsk'' "beetle; cockroach", ''jīrjīrak'' "cricket", ''zālzālak'' "haw(thorn)", and ''vejīn'' "weeding".{{sfn|Baghbidi|2016|p=409}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== Sources == * {{cite journal|last=Baghbidi|first=Hassan Rezai|year=2016|title=The Linguistic History of Rayy up to the Early Islamic Period|journal=Der Islam|publisher=De Gruyter|volume=93|issue=2|pages=403–412|doi=10.1515/islam-2016-0034}} {{Iranian languages}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Northwestern Iranian languages Category:Extinct languages of Asia