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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
Figure 5. Major Ethnic Groups
Iran has a heterogeneous population speaking a variety of
Indo-Iranian, Semitic, and Turkic languages. The largest language
group consists of the speakers of Indo-Iranian languages, who in
1986 comprised about 70 percent of the population. The speakers of
Indo-Iranian languages are not, however, a homogeneous group. They
include speakers of Persian, the official language of the country,
and its various dialects; speakers of Kirmanji, the term for
related dialects spoken by the Kurds who live in the cities, towns,
and villages of western Iran and adjacent areas of Iraq and Turkey;
speakers of Luri, the language of the Bakhtiaris and Lurs who live
in the Zagros; and Baluchi, the language of the seminomadic people
who live in southeastern Iran and adjacent areas of Afghanistan and
Pakistan. Approximately 28 percent of the population speaks various
dialects of Turkish. Speakers of Semitic languages include Arabs
and Assyrians
(see
fig. 5).
Data as of December 1987
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