ProtoIranian
Proto-Iranian is the reconstructed ancestor of the Iranian languages, the branch of the Indo-European family that includes Avestan, Old Persian, Persian (Farsi), Dari, Kurdish, Pashto, Balochi, Ossetian, Tajik, and related tongues. It follows Proto-Indo-Iranian and precedes the diversification into Eastern and Western Iranian languages. The reconstruction rests on systematic comparison of attested Iranian languages and related Indo-Iranian branches.
Scholars place Proto-Iranian in the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age, roughly in the first millennium
Linguistically, Proto-Iranian shows innovations that distinguish Iranian from other Indo-European branches, including a characteristic arrangement of
The study of Proto-Iranian underpins understanding of the historical spread of Iranian peoples and languages across