The Emergence of the Indo-Iranians: The Indo-Iranian Languages

The development of languages is a fluid process, and the emergence of linguistic identities in Central Asia from the second millennium BC does not disguise the fact that many of these languages were originally closely related.  Modern Indian languages descend from Pakrit and Sanscrit (among other ancient languages), whilst the languages spoken in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan stem from Middle Iranian languages, including Middle Persian, Sogdian, Parthian and many others.