Search results
The term Indo-Iranian languages refers to the spectrum of Indo-European languages spoken in the Southern Asian region of Eurasia, spanning from the Indian subcontinent (where the Indic branch is spoken, also called Indo-Aryan) up to the Iranian Plateau (where the Iranic branch is spoken).
- Indo-EuropeanIndo-Iranian
- Overview
- Distribution
- Origins
Indo-Iranian languages, group of languages constituting the easternmost major branch of the Indo-European family of languages; only the Tocharian languages are found farther east. Scholarly consensus holds that the Indo-Iranian languages include the Iranian and Indo-Aryan (Indic) language groups. Some scholars suggest that the Nūristānī and Bangani...
In the early 21st century, Indo-Iranian languages were spoken by nearly one billion individuals, most of whom resided in a broad region of southwestern and southern Asia. Speakers of modern Iranian languages number between 150 and 200 million; Persian, Pashto, and Kurdish are the most widely spoken of these languages. Speakers of modern Indo-Aryan languages number more than 800 million persons; Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, and Urdu are the most widely spoken of these languages. Among the Indo-European languages, only Greek and Hittite possess written records older than those of Indo-Iranian.
The Indo-Iranian languages have been used in both administrative and literary contexts. Old Persian was the administrative language of the early Achaemenian dynasty, dating from the 6th century bce, and an eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialect was the language of the chancellery of the Mauryan emperor Aśoka in the Indian subcontinent in the mid-3rd century bce. The Indo-Iranian languages have also been used in the literature of some of the world’s great religions: Indo-Aryan for Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism and Iranian for Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. The oldest Zoroastrian texts are in dialects included under the name Avestan. Commerce, conquest, and religion spread the influence of these languages. Indo-Aryan languages, for example, penetrated deep into Southeast Asia; lexical borrowings in Indonesia, Thailand, and other areas and Sanskrit texts in Cambodia reflect this influence.
The original location of the Indo-Iranian group was probably to the north of modern Afghanistan, east of the Caspian Sea, in the area that is now Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, where Iranian languages are still spoken. From there, some Iranians migrated to the south and west, the Indo-Aryans to the south and east. From geographical references in the earliest Indo-Aryan literary document, the Ṛigveda (“The Veda Composed in Verses,” c. 1500 bce), it is clear that the earliest settlement of Indo-Aryans was in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent. Migration did not take place at once. It is now generally accepted that there were doubtless a series of migrations, although the now-discredited view that an Indo-Aryan invasion took place was once seriously entertained. The date of entry of the Indo-Aryans into the Indian subcontinent cannot be determined precisely, though the beginning of the 2nd millennium bce is plausible and generally accepted.
Britannica Quiz
Languages & Alphabets
There is controversy concerning the precise position of the language of the Indo-Iranian family first attested in Middle Eastern texts of about 1450–1350 bce. Some borrowed words and proper names appearing in these Hittite-Hurrian documents have been interpreted variously as belonging to Indo-Iranian, to an Indic subgroup of Indo-Iranian that had not yet fully split, or to Indo-Aryan proper. For example, the number word aika- ‘one’ has been considered to indicate that the language in question was Indo-Aryan, since the Iranian term is aiva- (Avestan aēuua-/aēuuā-) in contrast to Sanskrit eka-, although the Sanskrit particle eva ‘only, indeed,’ comparable to Avestan aēuua-/aēuuā- ‘indeed,’ can be considered to reflect the existence in earliest Indo-Aryan of both eka- and eva- for ‘one.’ Consensus has yet to be reached on this issue, although a majority of authorities hold that the language in question represents an early variety of Old Indo-Aryan, prior to changes such as the replacement of *źh by h (e.g., *źh > jh > h).
Also awaiting further research is the identification of the Harappan peoples of the Indus Valley and other sites in the subcontinent, whose writing has not yet been satisfactorily deciphered despite decades of effort. A definitive solution to this problem could possibly answer the question of whether Indo-Aryans encountered these people or whether Harappan civilization had passed by the time the Indo-Aryans arrived on the subcontinent, although scholars now generally agree that the Indus Valley civilization’s decline was not due to any Indo-Aryan invasion. Whatever may be the answers to the questions concerning the Middle Eastern texts and the Harappan peoples, the reasons for the split of the Indo-Aryans and Iranians are not known.
Exclusive academic rate for students! Save 67% on Britannica Premium.
- George Cardona
Indo-Aryan languages, subgroup of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. In the early 21st century, Indo-Aryan languages were spoken by more than 800 million people, primarily in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
- George Cardona
Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, or as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European speaking peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages to major parts of Eurasia in waves from the first part of the 2nd millennium BC onwards.
Indo-Iranian languages - Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Characteristics: The close relation between the Iranian and Indo-Aryan groups has never been doubted. They share linguistic features to such a degree that Indo-Iranian is generally described as a distinct subgroup of Indo-European.
The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE) and ...
TheIndo-Iranian languages or Indo-Iranic languages [1] [2] are the largest group of the Indo-European language family. They include the Indo-Aryan (Indic [note 1]) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Aryan languages. [3]) and Iranic (Iranian) languages. They are mostly spoken in the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau.
