Indo-Iranian languages

Indo-Iranian
Geographic distribution:	Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia, Central Asia, South Asia
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Indo-Iranian
Proto-language:	Proto-Indo-Iranian
Subdivisions:	Indo-Aryan Iranian Nuristani
ISO 639-5:	iir
The approximate present-day distribution of the Indo-European branches within their homelands of Europe and Asia:   Indo-Iranian

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 Nuristani. The Indo-Iranian languages occasionally go by the term "Aryan languages." The speakers of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are usually associated with the late 3rd millennium BC Andronovo and Sintashta-Petrovka cultures of Central Asia. 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) eastward to Xinjiang (Sarikoli) and Assam (Assamese) and south to Sri Lanka (Sinhalese). SIL in a 2005 estimate counts a total of 308 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu, ca. 190-330 million), Bengali (ca. 190 million), Punjabi (ca. 88 million), Marathi (ca. 70 million), Persian (ca. 70 million), Pashto (ca. 50 million), Gujarati (ca. 46 million), Bhojpuri (ca. 35 million), Awadhi (ca. 35 million), Maithili (ca. 35 million), Oriya (ca. 32 million), Marwari (ca. 31 million), Sindhi (ca. 21 million), Rajasthani (ca. 20 million), Chhattisgarhi (ca. 17 million), Assamese (ca. 17 million), Kurdish (ca. 16 million), Sinhalese (ca. 16 million), and Rangpuri (ca. 15 million).

Indo-Iranian languages were once spoken across a still wider area. The Scythians were described by Roman writer Strabo as inhabiting the lands to the north of the Black Sea in present-day Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. The river-names Don, Dnieper, Danube etc. are possibly of Indo-Iranian origin. The so-called Migration Period saw Indo-Iranian languages disappear from Eastern Europe with the arrival of the Turkic-speaking Pechenegs and others by the eighth century AD.

The oldest attested Indo-Iranian languages are Vedic Sanskrit (ancient Indian), Avestan and Old Persian (two ancient Iranian languages). But there are written instances of a fourth language in Northern Mesopotamia (see Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni) which is considered to be Indo-Aryan. It is attested in documents from the ancient empire of Mitanni and the Hittites of Anatolia.

Subdivisions

Indo-European topics
Indo-European languages (list)
Albanian · Armenian · Baltic Celtic · Germanic · Greek Indo-Iranian (Indo-Aryan, Iranian) Italic · Slavic   extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkan (Dacian, Phrygian, Thracian) · Tocharian
Proto-Indo-European language
Vocabulary · Phonology · Sound laws · Ablaut · Root · Noun · Verb
Indo-European language-speaking peoples
Europe: Balts · Slavs · Albanians · Italics · Celts · Germanic peoples · Greeks · Paleo-Balkans (Illyrians · Thracians · Dacians) · Asia: Anatolians (Hittites, Luwians)  · Armenians  · Indo-Iranians (Iranians · Indo-Aryans)  · Tocharians
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Homeland · Society · Religion
Indo-European archaeology
Abashevo culture · Afanasevo culture · Andronovo culture · Baden culture · Beaker culture · Catacomb culture · Cernavodă culture · Chasséen culture · Chernoles culture · Corded Ware culture · Cucuteni-Trypillian culture · Dnieper-Donets culture · Gumelniţa-Karanovo culture · Gushi culture · Karasuk culture · Kemi Oba culture · Khvalynsk culture · Kura-Araxes culture · Lusatian culture · Kurgan · Koban · Kura-Araxes  · Shulaveri-Shomu · Colchian · Trialeti  · Maykop culture · Leyla-Tepe culture · Jar-Burial · Khojaly-Gadabay  · Middle Dnieper culture  · Narva culture · Novotitorovka culture · Poltavka culture · Potapovka culture · Samara culture  · Seroglazovo culture  · Sredny Stog culture · Srubna culture · Terramare culture · Usatovo culture · Vučedol culture  · Yamna culture
Indo-European studies

Indo-Aryan Group:

• Vedic Sanskrit
• Sanskrit
• Pāli
• Central Zone
  • Hindustani
    • Hindi
    • Urdu
  • Romani/Romany
• Eastern Zone (Magadhan Prakrit languages)
  • Angika
  • Assamese
  • Bengali
  • Bhojpuri
  • Magahi
  • Maithili
  • Oriya
• Northern Zone (Pahari languages)
  • Nepali
• Northwestern Zone
  • Dardic languages (sometimes still classified separately as a part of Iranian or Nuristani Group):
    • Dameli
    • Domaaki
    • Gawar-Bati
    • Kalasha-mun
    • Kashmiri
    • Khowar
    • Kohistani
    • Ningalami
    • Pashayi
    • Palula
    • Shina
    • Shumashti
  • Pahari-Potohari
  • Punjabi
  • Saraiki
  • Sindhi
  • Khojki
• Western Zone
  • Gujarati
  • Kutchi
  • Rajasthani
• Southern Zone
  • Konkani
  • Marathi
  • Dakhni
  • Nawayathi

Insular Indo-Aryan

• • Dhivehi
  • Sinhala

Iranian Group:

• Gathic (Old Avestan) (extinct 2nd millennium BC - the only remaining record is the Gathas of Zarathushtra)
• Eastern Iranian
  • Northeastern
    • Avestan (extinct)
    • Scythian (extinct)
      • Sakan (extinct)
      • Ossetian
    • Sogdian (extinct)
      • Yaghnobi
    • Bactrian (extinct)
  • Southeastern
    • Pashto
    • Pamiri
      • Sarikoli
    • Ormurri-Parachi
• Western Iranian
  • Northwestern
    • Dari language of Zoroastrians
    • Balochi
    • Mazanadarani
    • Gilaki
    • Deilami
    • Talysh
    • Kurdish
    • Laki
    • Parthian (extinct)
    • Tati (Iran)
    • Zazaki

• • Southwestern ("Persid")
    • Old Persian (extinct)
      • Middle Persian (extinct)
        • New Persian (Farsi; eastern & western dialects)
          • Tajik Persian
      • Luri / Bakhtiari
      • Tati (Caucasus)

Nuristani languages:

• Ashkunu (Ashkun)
• Kamkata-viri (Bashgali)
• Vasi-vari (Prasuni)
• Tregami
• Kalasha-ala (Waigali)

See also

• Language family

Bibliography

• Chakrabarti,Byomkes (1994). A comparative study of Santali and Bengali. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co. ISBN 8170741289
• Premiumorange.com, abstract of the study of Minoan language and its link with Indo-Iranian (Hubert La Marle)
• Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples, edited by Nicholas Sims-Williams. Published 2002 for the British Academy by Oxford University Press

External links

• Swadesh lists of Indo-Iranian basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)