Iranian languages

This article is about the language family. For languages spoken in the modern country of Iran, see Languages of Iran. For the official language of Iran, see Persian language.
Iranian
Iranic
Geographic
distribution		West Asia, Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia
EthnicityIranian peoples
Linguistic classificationIndo-European
Proto-languageProto-Iranian
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-2 / 5ira
Linguasphere58= (phylozone)
Glottologiran1269
Distribution of the Iranian languages in and around the Iranian plateau

The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages,[1][2] are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.

The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE) and New Iranian (since 900 CE). The two directly-attested Old Iranian languages are Old Persian (from the Achaemenid Empire) and Old Avestan (the language of the Avesta). Of the Middle Iranian languages, the better understood and recorded ones are Middle Persian (from the Sasanian Empire), Parthian (from the Parthian Empire), and Bactrian (from the Kushan and Hephthalite empires).

  1. ^ Johannes Bechert; Giuliano Bernini; Claude Buridant (1990). Toward a Typology of European Languages. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-012108-7.
  2. ^ Gernot Windfuhr (1979). Persian Grammar: History and State of Its Study. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-90-279-7774-8.