Middle East

Farsi

The standard Persian variety spoken in Iran, with a rich literary tradition rooted in classical poetry and modern expression.

Western Balochi

also: Iranian Balochi, Makrani Balochi

The Balochi of south-eastern Iran around Zahedan and the Makran coast. Phonologically distinct from Eastern Balochi, with strong contact features from Persian.

Luri

also: Lori

A southwestern Iranian language of the Lur people in Iran's western Zagros region. Closely related to Persian but linguistically distinct, with several million speakers across Lorestan, Khuzestan, and Ilam.

Bakhtiari

A southwestern Iranian language of the Bakhtiari tribal confederation in the central Zagros mountains. Sister to Luri, with a strong oral tradition tied to the seasonal migrations of pastoral life.

Gilaki

A northwestern Iranian language spoken across Iran's Caspian province of Gilan around Rasht. Distinct from Persian in case marking and a richer verb system retaining older Iranian features.

Mazandarani

also: Tabari

A northwestern Iranian language of Iran's Caspian province of Mazandaran, around Sari and Babol. Closely related to Gilaki, with around three million speakers.

Talysh

A northwestern Iranian language straddling the Iran-Azerbaijan border in the Lankaran region. The largest northern variety is in Azerbaijan; the southern variety in Iran is more conservative.

Juhuri

also: Judeo-Tat, Judeo-Tati, Mountain Jewish, Juhuro, Juwuri

A Southwestern Iranian language of the Mountain Jews of the eastern Caucasus, historically classed as a Judeo-Tat variety. Spoken in Krasnaya Sloboda (Quba) in Azerbaijan and Derbent in Dagestan, with substantial Hebrew, Aramaic, and Azerbaijani influence. Written historically in Hebrew script, then Cyrillic from the Soviet period onward.

Ossetian

also: Iron, Digor

An eastern Iranian language of the North Caucasus, the only living descendant of the ancient Scythian-Sarmatian languages. Two main varieties: Iron (the standard) and the more divergent Digor.

Levantine Arabic

also: Shami

Spoken across Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. Known for soft consonants and a shared cultural vocabulary.

Gulf Arabic

also: Khaliji

Spoken across the Arabian Peninsula. Retains classical features alongside modern urban slang.

Iraqi Arabic

also: Mesopotamian Arabic

Spoken across Iraq and parts of eastern Syria and southwestern Iran. Carries strong Aramaic and Turkic influence and splits internally between gilit (southern) and qeltu (northern) varieties.

Yemeni Arabic

A cluster of conservative Arabic varieties across Yemen. Often cited as preserving features close to Classical Arabic that have shifted elsewhere.

Hejazi Arabic

also: Hijazi

The Arabic of western Saudi Arabia, centred on Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah. Sits between Egyptian and Najdi varieties and is widely understood across the peninsula.

Najdi Arabic

The Arabic of central Saudi Arabia around Riyadh. Closely related to Gulf Arabic but with distinct vowel and consonant features rooted in the bedouin Najd plateau.

Kurmanji

The most widely spoken Kurdish variety, used across southeast Turkey, northern Syria, and parts of Iraq and Iran.

Bahdini

also: Behdini, Badini, Behdînî, Bahdînî

A southern Kurmanji subdialect spoken in Duhok province of Iraqi Kurdistan and adjacent areas of southeastern Turkey. Mutually intelligible with northern Kurmanji but with distinct phonology and vocabulary, and traditionally written in Arabic script alongside Sorani rather than the Latin script used for Kurmanji further north.

Sorani

Spoken across Iraqi Kurdistan and western Iran. The main written language in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Hawrami

An older and distinctive Kurdish variety spoken in pockets along the Iran-Iraq border, rich in classical poetic tradition.

Zaza

Spoken in eastern Turkey. Closely related to Kurdish varieties, with its own grammar and vocabulary.

Zargari

also: Zargari Romani, Zargari Romanes, Zargar Romani

A highly endangered Romani variety spoken in and around the village of Zargar in Qazvin province of north-western Iran, west of Tehran. The community is traditionally said to have been settled in the Safavid period and is one of the easternmost Romani-speaking populations on record; the dialect retains a Romani lexical core but shows heavy contact influence from Persian and Azerbaijani Turkish in phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. Speaker numbers are small and intergenerational transmission has weakened sharply.

Istanbul Turkish

also: Standard Turkish, İstanbul Türkçesi

The Istanbul-area standard of Turkish. The basis of the modern written language and of broadcast Turkish.

Anatolian Turkish

A broad cluster of regional dialects across central and eastern Anatolia. Internally varied; many features sit at the boundary with Azerbaijani and other Oghuz Turkic varieties.

Cypriot Turkish

also: Kıbrıs Türkçesi

The Turkish of the northern half of Cyprus. Preserves Anatolian features lost in standard Turkish and shows long contact with Cypriot Greek.

North Azerbaijani

also: Azeri, Azerbaijan Turkish

The Oghuz Turkic language of Azerbaijan, centred on Baku. Closely related to Turkish; written in a Latin-based alphabet since the post-Soviet reform.

South Azerbaijani

also: Iranian Azeri, Tabrizi

The Azerbaijani of north-western Iran, centred on Tabriz. The most-spoken Azerbaijani variety; uses a Perso-Arabic script and shows long contact with Persian.

Georgian

also: Kartuli

The largest Kartvelian language and the official language of Georgia. Written in the unique Mkhedruli script, with a literary tradition dating back to the 5th century.

Mingrelian

also: Margaluri

A Kartvelian language of western Georgia around Zugdidi. Closely related to Georgian but linguistically distinct; primarily an oral language with limited written use.

Svan

also: Lushnu Nin

The most divergent Kartvelian language, spoken in the high-mountain Svaneti region of north-western Georgia. Considered to have split from Proto-Kartvelian several thousand years ago.

Chechen

also: Noxçiyn mott

A Northeast Caucasian (Nakh) language and the official language of the Chechen Republic in Russia. The largest Northeast Caucasian language, with around 1.5 million speakers.

Avar

also: Avar macʻ

A Northeast Caucasian language of Dagestan, the largest of the Daghestanian languages. Used as a regional lingua franca across many of Dagestan's small mountain communities.

Lezgian

also: Lezgi

A Northeast Caucasian language of southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan. Around 800,000 speakers; one of the most studied Daghestanian languages.

Abkhaz

also: Apswa byzshwa

A Northwest Caucasian language of Abkhazia. Famous for one of the smallest vowel inventories of any natural language (just two phonemic vowels) and a correspondingly large consonant system.

Adyghe

also: West Circassian

A Northwest Caucasian language of the Adygea Republic in Russia. Together with Kabardian, makes up the Circassian language continuum, with a large diaspora in Turkey and the Levant.

Modern Hebrew

also: Ivrit

A Northwest Semitic language, revived from a primarily liturgical use into a full living language between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. Now the official language of Israel.

Jerusalem Domari

also: Domari of Jerusalem, Nawari

The most thoroughly documented Domari variety, spoken by the Dom community of the Old City of Jerusalem. Severely endangered, with only a few hundred fluent speakers; the reference variety in Matras (2012), A Grammar of Domari.

Levantine Domari

Domari spoken by Dom communities across the wider Levant — the West Bank and Gaza beyond Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Documentation outside Jerusalem is uneven and largely lexical.

Turkish Domari

also: Abdal

Dom communities in Türkiye (also known locally as Dom or Abdal), concentrated in southeastern Anatolia, with significant contact influence from Turkish and Kurdish.

Iranian Domari

Dom communities in Iran, historically referred to by various local names. Academic documentation of their speech is sparse.