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The suffix -stan (spelled ????? in the Perso-Arabic script) is Persian for "place of", derived from the Indo-Aryan equivalent, -sthana (pronounced [st??a?na] (????? in the Devanagari script), a cognate Sanskrit suffix with a similar meaning. In Indo-Aryan languages, sthana is also used as a word to mean "place". They appear in the names of many countries and regions, especially in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, areas where ancient Indo-Iranian peoples were established; in Iranian, however, it is also used more generally, as in Persian rigestan (???????) 'place of sand, desert' and golestan (??????) 'place of roses, rose garden', Hindi/Sanskrit devasthan (place of devas, "temple"), etc. Both suffixes are of Indo-Iranian and ultimately Indo-European origin, the Proto-Indo-European root being *sta- 'stand,' which is also the source of English stand, Latin stare, and Greek histamai (?staµa?), all meaning 'stand,' as well as many other words, for instance the Russian word ???? (stan) meaning 'settlement' or 'semi-permanent camp' (used in reference to semi-nomadic settlements encountered in certain areas of Central Asia) or in other Slavic languages such as Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian where stan means 'apartment'. Also in Germanic languages the suffix has survived, for example in the words Stadt (German), stad (Dutch/Danish) and stêd (West Frisian), all meaning 'city'. The suffix -stan occurs in the following names, mostly geographical or pseudo-geographical Other proposed names include Dalitstan, Mughalstan, and other similar names that originated on the Dalitstan website.
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