Knowra Iranian languages Iranian languages Iranian languages form a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, descended from Proto-Iranian and spoken chiefly across Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia.
Indo-Iranian languages : A branch of the Indo-European language family comprising the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, and Nuristani languages. Iranian languages are one of its principal branches.
Old Iranian languages : The ancient Iranian languages attested chiefly in inscriptions and religious texts. They preserve the earliest direct evidence for the branch.
Persian language : A Western Iranian language spoken chiefly in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, where it has national varieties. Persian is the branch's most widely spoken language and a major literary tradition.
Avestan : An Old Iranian language preserved in the Zoroastrian Avesta. Its religious texts are among the oldest substantial records of an Iranian language.
Indo-Aryan languages : A branch of Indo-Iranian languages that includes Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and many other South Asian languages. It is Iranian's closest major sister branch within Indo-Iranian.
Proto-Iranian language : The reconstructed ancestor from which the Iranian languages descended. It links the earliest Iranian languages to the diverse languages spoken today.
Middle Iranian languages : The historical Iranian languages spoken between the Old and New Iranian periods. Their records trace changes between the ancient and modern branches.
Kurdish languages : A group of Northwestern Iranian languages spoken mainly across parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Kurdish illustrates the branch's internal diversity and transnational distribution.
Old Persian : An Old Iranian language used in royal inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire. Its inscriptions provide direct evidence for an early Southwestern Iranian language.
Nuristani languages : A branch of Indo-Iranian languages spoken mainly in northeastern Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Their separate classification distinguishes them from both Iranian and Indo-Aryan.
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