Western Iranian languages

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

Western Iranian
Geographic
distribution		Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Caucasus, and western South Asia
Linguistic classificationIndo-European
Subdivisions
Glottolognort3177  (Northwestern Iranian)
sout3157  (Southwestern Iranian)

Languages
Map of modern Iranian languages. The Western Iranian languages are shaded yellow/green.

The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a genetic group. The languages are as follows:[1][2][3]

Old Iranian period

Middle Iranian period

Modern period (Neo-Iranian)

There is also a recently described, and as yet unclassified, Batu'i language that is presumably Western Iranian.[1] Extinct Deilami is sometimes classified in the Caspian branch. An Iranian Khalaj language has been claimed, but does not exist; the Khalaj speak a Turkic language.

Many of the languages and dialects spoken in Markazi and Isfahan provinces are giving way to Persian in the younger generations.[5]

It is to note that the Caspian languages (incl. Adharic), the central dialects, and the Zaza-Gorani languages are likely descended from a later form of Median with varying amounts of Parthian substrata,[7] whereas the Semnani languages were likely descended from Parthian. [8]

See also

References
  1. Erik Anonby, Mortaza Taheri-Ardali & Amos Hayes (2019) The Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI). Iranian Studies 52. A Working Classification
  2. Gernot Windfuhr, 2009, "Dialectology and Topics", The Iranian Languages, Routledge, pp. 12–15.
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Northwestern Iranian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
    Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Southwestern Iranian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Erik Anonby, Mortaza Taheri-Ardali & Amos Hayes (2019) The Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI). Iranian Studies 52. A Working Classification
  5. Central dialects, Gernot Windfuhr, Encyclopedia Iranica
  6. Borjian, Habib, “Kerman Languages”, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Volume 16, Issue 3, 2017, pp. 301-315.
  7. Borjian, Habib (2019) Journal of Persianate Studies 2, Median Succumbs to Persian after Three Millennia of Coexistence: Language Shift in the Central Iranian Plateau, p. 70
  8. Lecoq, pg. 297

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

Further reading
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