Indo-Iranian languagesArticle Free Pass 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 languages belong in the Indo-Iranian group
as well. 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