The papers in this volume were presented at the Fifth International Conference on Iranian Linguistics (ICIL5), held 24-26 August 2013 at the Otto-Friedrich University, Bamberg, Germany. The conference was organized by Geoffrey Haig, Otto-Friedrich University, Bamberg; Carina Jahani, Uppsala University; Agnes Korn, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main; and Pollet Samvelian, Universite Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris. It involved more than 50 participants, 33 oral presentations, and eight poster presentations, as well as keynote speeches by Bernard Comrie (Max-Planck-Institut, Leipzig) and Eva Jeremias (Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest). This biennial conference attracts international scholars with diverse backgrounds and theoretical outlooks who come to share their current research on Iranian languages past and present. Like the three volumes of selected papers that precede it, this one well reflects the range of ideas and approaches that the conference consistently exhibits.