Western Iranian languages

Western Iranian
Geographic
distribution:
Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Caucasus, and western South Asia
Linguistic classification:

Indo-European

Subdivisions:
  • Northwestern Iranian
  • Southwestern Iranian (Persian)
Glottolog: west2794[1]

The Western Iranian languages are a branch of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median.

Languages

The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a genetic group. The languages are as follows:[2][3]

Old Iranian
Middle Iranian
Neo-Iranian

An Iranian Khalaj language has been claimed but does not exist; the Khalaj speak a Turkic language.

The dialects of Central Iran are a geographic rather than genetic grouping. They are spoken mostly in Markazi and Isfahan provinces. Many of them are giving way to Persian in the younger generations.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Western Iranian". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. ↑ Gernot Windfuhr, 2009, "Dialectology and Topics", The Iranian Languages, Routledge
  3. ↑ Languages preceded by question marks, and many of the varieties of Persian, are from other sources. The dialects of the Central Plateau are from the source provided there.
  4. 1 2 Central dialects, Encyclopedia Iranica

Bibliography

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