Iranian Languages

The Iranian language family is a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages that itself is a member of the Indo-European language family. According to Ethnologue, there are about 86 Iranian languages, the largest among them being Persian, Pashto, Balochi and Kurdish languages. This language family consists of four major groups: Southwest (including Perisan and Lori), Northwest (including Kurdish (Kurmanji, Gorani, Sorani, Hawrami), Laki, Zazaki, Balochi, Taleshi, Mazandarani, and Vafsi), Southeast (including Pashto and Pamiri), and Northeast (including Ossetian). It is estimated that about 150-200 million people speak these languages. Iranian languages are spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and scattered areas of the Caucasus Mountains.