Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Indo-Iranian languages

Encyclopedia : I : IN : IND : Indo-Iranian languages


Indo-European
Indo-European languages
Albanian | Anatolian | Armenian
Baltic | Celtic | Dacian | Germanic
Greek | Indo-Iranian | Italic
Slavic | Thracian | Tocharian
Indo-European peoples
Albanians | Anatolians | Armenians
Balts | Celts | Germanic peoples
Greeks | Indo-Aryans | Iranians
Italic peoples | Slavs | Thracians | Tocharians
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language | Society | Religion
Kurgan | Yamna | Corded Ware
Indo-European studies

The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Dardic. The term Aryan is also used to refer to the Indo-Iranian languages. According to most Aryan migration theories, speakers of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language, who referred to themselves as Aryans, settled east and south of the Caspian Sea in Northern India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Their expansion is believed to have been connected with the invention of the chariot.

The contemporary Indo-Iranian languages form the largest sub-branch of Indo-European, with more than one billion speakers in total, stretching from Europe (Romani) and the Caucasus (Ossetian) to South India (Marathi). SIL in a 2005 estimate counts a total of 308 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu, ca. 540 million), Bengali (ca. 200 million), Punjabi (ca. 100 million), Marathi and Persian (ca. 70 million each), Gujarati (ca. 45 million), Oriya (ca. 30 million), Kurdish and Pashto (ca. 25 million each) and Sindhi (ca. 20 million).

Subdivisions

Indo-Aryan languages:

Iranian languages: Dardic languages: Nuristani languages:

See also

Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Aryan Varieties of Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit | Angika | Assamese | Bengali | Bhojpuri | Dhivehi | Dogri | Gujarati | Hindi | Hindustani | Konkani | Magadhi | Mahl | Maithili | Marathi | Nepali | Oriya | Pāli | Prakrit | Punjabi | Romani | Sindhi | Sinhala | Urdu
Iranian languages>Iranian Avestan | Varieties of Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persion (Pahlavi) - Modern Persian (Fārsī) - Darī (Afghanistan) - Tājikī | Bactrian | Balochi | Dari (Zoroastrianism) | Gilaki | Kurdish | Mazandarani | Ossetic | Pamiri | Pashto | Saka | Scythian | Sogdian | Talysh | Tat | Yagnobi
Dardic languages>Dardic Dameli | Domaaki | Gawar-Bati | Kalasha | Kashmiri | Khowar | Kohistani | Nangalami | Pashayi | Palula | Shina | Shumashti
Nuristani languages>Nuristani Ashkun | Kamviri | Kati | Prasuni | Tregami | Waigali

 


From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: