Ethnologue 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). Note that these numbers add up to only 45 million, which is less than Iran's current population of 75 million.
- Aimaq 170,030
- Persian Gulf, Arabic 200,000
- Mesopotamian Arabic 1,200,000
- Armenian 170,800
- Ashtiani 21,099
- Assyrian Neo-Aramaic 10,000 - 20,000
- Azerbaijani language 11,200,000
- 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
- Domari 1,338,271
- Fars, northwestern 7,500
- Fars, southwestern 7,500
- Gazi 7,033
- Georgian 60,000
- Gilaki 1,265,000
- Harzani 28,132
- Hawrami 22,948
- Hazaragi 283,000
- Karingari 17,583
- Kazakh 3,000
- Khalaj 42,108
- Kho'ini (unknown)
- Khorosani Turkic 400,000
- Khunsari 21,099
- Koroshi 180
- Kurdish, central 3,250,000
- Kurdish, northern 350,000
- Kurdish, southern 3,000,000
- Laki 1,000,000
- 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
- Persian, western 22,500,000
- Persian, eastern 1,000,000
- Qashqa'i 1,500,000
- Semnani 21,099
- Senaya 60
- Sivandi 7,033
- Soi 7,033
- Takestani 220,000
- Talysh 112,000
- Tat, Muslim 7,000
- Turkmen 2,000,000
- Vafsi 18,000
- Extinct languages
- Avestan
- Zoroastrian
- Classical Mandaic
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. There is wide variations in the use of verbs with similar meanings in the languages and dialects of Iran even in the same subdivisions which sometimes make understanding difficult or impossible between the far or even near regions speaking linguistically the same language or dialect e.g. between northern and southern Kurdish, Talysh, etc. On the other hand, there are similarities between the languages of far places which are completely different from the standard Persian.
Read more about this topic: Languages Of Iran
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