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The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies
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Iranian
Languages & Literatures
Complied by: Shapour Suren-Pahlav Summer 2000
Iranian (Aryan) languages are spoken in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Arran (republic of Azerbaijan), Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, China, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Russia and other scattered areas of the Caucasus Mountains.
Old Iranian, which is closely related to Sanskrit is known from the Avesta (the sacred book of Zoroastrians) and from Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenid Emperors.
The Middle Iranian stage (3rd century BCE to 8th-10th century CE) was characterized by a significant simplification of the verbal system and, in some areas, by reductions in noun inflection as well. Among the most important representatives of Middle Iranian are Parthian, Pahlavi, and Sogdian.
Major modern Iranian languages are New Persian, Kordi (Kurdish) and Pashto (Persian-Pashto), an official language of Afghanistan; and Tajik (Persian-Tajik), spoken in Tajikistan.
All Iranian languages currently spoken show a simplification of the earlier sound systems and a preference for the use of auxiliary verbs in place of the complex verb conjugations of the ancient Iranian languages.
Iranian Speaking World
OLD-IRANIAN LANGUAGES
MIDDLE-IRANIAN LANGUAGES
NEW-IRANIAN LANGUAGES
Table of Aramaic to Middle-Iranian Script
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Orange:
Western-Iranian Languages 
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"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
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Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
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