Languages of Iran

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This article deals with the languages found in Iran. The Iranian languages article deals with the linguistic branch of the Indo-European languages family

Contents 1 Introduction 2 An extensive list of languages in Iran 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Introduction

Different publications have reported different statistics for the languages of Iran however it is important to point out that these studies are not based on official census and the statistics presented by different sources vary significantly. These publications neither mention the sources used nor any indications of the methodologies used to conclude their findings.

• Britannica's estimate of Iran’s ethnic composition (2000) states “Persian 34.9%; Azerbaijani 15.9%; Kurd 13.0%; Luri 7.2%; Gilaki 5.1%; Mazandarani 5.1%; Afghan 2.8%; Arab 2.5%; other 13.5%”.

• CIA Factbook estimates the ethnic composition as “Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%”. It also estimates the breakdown of the population by Language as: Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%.

• A third source; Ethnologue; has a different statistics for the languages spoken in Iran (see Ethnologue below).

There are dozens of languages spoken in Iran. The following are the languages with the greatest number of speakers: (Data from the CIA World Factbook)

• Persian and Persian dialects 58%
• Azeri and other Turkic languages 26%
• Kurdish 9%
• Balochi 1%
• Arabic 1%
• Other language which comprise the remaining 5%, include Armenian, Assyrian and Brahui etc.

[edit] An extensive list of languages in Iran

The following list details the languages spoken in Iran and lists the total number of speakers for each language: (Data from Ethnologue)

• Aimaq 170,000
• Alviri-Vidari (unknown)
• Gulf Arabic 200,000
• Mesopotamian Arabic 1,200,000
• Armenian 170,800
• Ashtiani 21,099
• Assyrian, Neo-Aramaic 10,00 - 20,000
• Azerbaijani south 23,500,000
• Bakhtiari 1,000,000 (350,000 are monolingual)
• Balochi, southern 405,000
• Balochi, western 451,000
• Bashkardi 7,033
• Brahui 10,000
• Dari, Zoroastrian 8,000 to 15,000
• Dezfuli (unknown)
• Domari 1,338,271
• Dzhidi (unknown)
• Eshtehardi (unknown)
• Fars, northwestern (small numbers)
• Fars, southwestern (unknown)
• Persian, western 22,000,000
• Gazi 7,033
• Georgian 50,000
• Gilaki 3,265,000
• Gozarkhani (unknown)
• Harzani 28,132
• Hawrami 22,948
• Hazaragi 283,000
• Jadgali (unknown)
• Kabatei (unknown)
• Kajali (unknown)
• Karingari 17,583
• Kazakh 3,000
• Khalaj 42,107
• Kho'ini (unknown)
• Khorosani Turkish 4000,000
• Khunsari 21,099
• Khoresh e-Rostam (unknown)
• Koroshi (160-200)
• Kurdish, central 3,250,000
• Kurdish, northern 350,000
• Kurdish, southern 3,000,000
• Laki 1,000,000
• Lasgerdi (unknown)
• Luri, northern 1,500,000
• Luri, southern 875,000
• Mandaic 500
• Mazanderani 3,265,000
• Natanzi 7,033
• Nayini 7,033
• Parsi-Dari 350,000
• Pashto, southern 113,000
• Qashqa'i 1,500,000
• Razajerdi (unknown)
• Romani, Balkan (unknown)
• Rudbari (unknown)
• Salchuq (unknown)
• Sangisari (unknown)
• Semnani 21,099
• Senaya 60
• Shahmizardi (unknown)
• Shahrudi (unknown)
• Sivandi 7,033
• Soi 7,033
• Sorkhei (unknown)
• Takestani 220,000
• Talysh 112,000
• Taromi, upper (unknown)
• Tat, muslim 7,000
• Turkmen 2,000,000
• Vafsi 18,000

Important note:

• Total sum: 72,423,703^{[citation needed]}
• Population: 67,503,205^[1]
• Discrepancy: 4,920,498^{[citation needed]} The sum of the above figures is almost 5 million more than the population despite the fact that the numbers of people who speak certain languages are still “unknown” according to this list.^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] See also

• Demographics of Iran
• Iranian languages

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue report for languages of Iran
• Britannica
• CIA FactBook