ABSTRACT
Iranian Languages form the western group of the larger Indo-Iranian family, which represents a major eastern branch of the Indo-European languages. With an estimated 150 to 200 million native speakers, the Iranian languages are spoken in a wide area from Turkey (with Zaza as the westernmost) to China (with Sarikoli as the easternmost Iranian language), and mainly cover the whole of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. In other words, it might be said that Iranian languages have been spoken for 3000 to 4000 years in various parts of southern Russia and the Caucasus, Central Asian republics, Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. The development of the Iranian languages may be studied within three major historical periods: Old Iranian (up to the fourth/third centuries bc), Middle Iranian (from the fourth/third centuries bc to the eighth/ninth centuries ad), and New Iranian.
