Western Iranian languages

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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

Also Khalaj (incertae sedis)

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]

Sanglechi is unclassified. It is probably a variety of Persian but is not readily intelligible to speakers of standard Iranian Persian.

See also

References

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  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. 4.0 4.1 Central dialects, Encyclopedia Iranica

Bibliography

  • Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. Rüdiger Schmitt. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert Verlag, 1989; p. 99.