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Indo-Iranian | |
---|---|
Indo-Iranic (Aryan) | |
Geographic distribution | South, Central, West Asia and the Caucasus |
Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Proto-language | Proto-Indo-Iranian |
Subdivisions | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-5 | iir |
Glottolog | indo1320 |
Distribution of the Indo-Iranian languages |
The Indo-Iranian languages (also known as Indo-Iranic languages[2][3] or collectively the Aryan languages[4]) constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family. They include over 300 languages, spoken by around 1.5 billion speakers, predominantly in South Asia, West Asia and parts of Central Asia.
The areas with Indo-Iranian languages stretch from Europe (Romani) and the Caucasus (Ossetian, Tat and Talysh), down to Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia (Kurdish languages, Gorani, Kurmanji Dialect continuum,[5] Zaza[6][7]), the Levant (Domari)[8] and Iran (Persian), eastward to Xinjiang (Sarikoli) and Assam (Assamese), and south to Sri Lanka (Sinhala) and the Maldives (Maldivian), with branches stretching as far out as Oceania and the Caribbean for Fiji Hindi and Caribbean Hindustani respectively. Furthermore, there are large diaspora communities of Indo-Iranian speakers in northwestern Europe (the United Kingdom), North America (United States, Canada), Australia, South Africa, and the Persian Gulf Region (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia). The number of distinct languages listed in Ethnologue are 312,[9] while those recognised in Glottolog are 320.[10] The Indo-Iranian language with the largest number of native speakers is the Hindustani language (Hindi-Urdu).[11]
'Dardic' is a geographic cover term for those Northwest Indo-Aryan languages which [...] developed new characteristics different from the IA languages of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Although the Dardic and Nuristani (previously 'Kafiri') languages were formerly grouped together, Morgenstierne (1965) has established that the Dardic languages are Indo-Aryan, and that the Nuristani languages constitute a separate subgroup of Indo-Iranian.
The usage of 'Aryan languages' is not to be equated with Indo-Aryan languages, rather Indo-Iranic languages of which Indo-Aryan is a subgrouping.
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