Languages of Iran

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

Introduction

The actual population of Iran, based on a census carried out in 2006, is 70,472,846 people. [ [http://www.statoids.com/uir.html Provinces of Iran accessed March 21, 2007] ]

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 any official census and that statistics presented by different sources vary significantly. These publications provide neither the sources used nor any indications of the methodologies used to draw their conclusions.
* [http://www.britannica.com/wdpdf/Iran.pdf 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%”.

*A second source, [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_country.asp?name=IR 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 [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html#People CIA World Factbook] ):

*Persian, Luri, Gilaki and Mazandarani 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.
*Total population 71,800,000(2008 est.)

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 [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Iran Ethnologue] ) although the site is controversial due its wide variation from its 1996 edition [ [http://www.christusrex.org/www3/ethno/Iran.html Ethnologue: Iran ] ] as well as the fact that it does not provide sources for their statistics. [ [http://politic.iran-emrooz.net/index.php?/politic/more/13089/ A sample letter to ethnologue about how they arrived at their Azeri population and the response of its editor: "Dear Mazdak, Sorry we cannot help you further with this question. This information was posted by a previous editor, and it probably came from his personal communication with someone else, and was therefore not documented. Regards, Conrad Hurd" accessed March 21, 2007]

*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 language 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 22,5000,000
*Persian, Eastern 1,000,000
*Gazi 7,033
*Georgian 50,000
*Gilaki 1,265,000
*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 400,000
*Khunsari 21,099
*Khoresh e-Rostam (unknown)
*Koroshi (160-200)
*Kurdish, central 1,250,000
*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: 72,423,703Fact|date=February 2007
* Population: 67,503,205
* Discrepancy: 4,920,498Fact|date=February 2007 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.Fact|date=February 2007.

ee also

*Demographics of Iran
*Iranian languages

References

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_country.asp?name=IR Ethnologue report for languages of Iran]
* [http://www.britannica.com/wdpdf/Iran.pdf Britannica]
* [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html#People CIA FactBook]