Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian languages, formerly also called Aryan languages, form a primary branch of Indo-European. The Indo-Iranian language family consists of the main branches

• Iranian (occasionally also: Irano-Aryan): about 130 million speakers in Central, West and South Asia.
• Nuristani: about 30,000 speakers in Afghanistan (Nuristan province) (Central Asia)
• Indo-Aryan: about one billion speakers mainly in South Asia, but also in Europe (Romani).

The Nuristani languages used to be counted among the Dardic languages; according to current majority opinion, however, they represent a separate subgroup of the Indo-Iranian language branch.

The Indo-Iranian languages share so many common innovations with respect to Ur-Indo-European that they can be grouped into a clearly defined genetic unit of their own. Accordingly, there is no language about which one has any doubt whether it belongs to this group or not. Much more problematic, however, is the internal structure of this unit. In particular, the achievement of the present tripartite division has been a lengthy scientific process; the position of the Dardic languages in particular - now included in the north-western branch of the Indo-Aryan languages - has still not been fully clarified. The Nuristani languages represent an intermediate link between the Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages, but are linguistically closer to Iranian. On the subject of the internal structure of the three subgroups, see there respectively.

The split of the Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages is to be set before the beginning of the settlement of North India by Indo-Aryans, i.e. before 1500 B.C. A common origin from the north (Central Asian steppe) is undisputed, mostly the so-called Andronovo culture is associated with the Indo-Aryans.

Interesting in this context is also the language of the Mitanni, a leading class of the Hurrians in northern Mesopotamia and Anatolia ca. 1500 BC (so-called Mitanni Empire). Above all, the preserved rulers' names identify their bearers as Indo-Aryan; furthermore, some words have been found that are almost identical to Indian Sanskrit. In connection with the Anatolian hypothesis, this is seen as evidence for the origin of Indo-European languages. Another theory is that early Indo-Aryans migrated to Anatolia from Central Asia. Ancient loan words in Uralic languages reflecting a highly archaic stage of Indo-European (partly even older than the reconstructed Urindo-European) decisively support the assumption of a northern origin of Indo-European and contradict the thesis of a (direct) origin from Anatolia.

For an overview of all Indo-Iranian languages and their genetic classification, see the weblink below.

See also

• Aryan
• Iranian
• Nuristani