Proto-Iranian language

Proto-Iranian, or Proto-Iranic, is the reconstructed proto-language of the Iranian languages branch of Indo-European language family and thus the ancestor of the Iranian languages such as Persian, Sogdian, Zazaki, Ossetian, Mazandarani, Kurdish and others. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the early 2nd millennium BC, and they are usually connected with the Proto-Indo-Iranians and early Andronovo archaeological horizon.

Proto-Iranian was a satem language descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranian language, which, in turn, came from the Proto-Indo-European language. It was likely removed less than a millennium from the Avestan language, and less than two millennia from Proto-Indo-European.

Skjærvø postulates that there were at least four dialects of Proto-Iranian, two of which are attested by texts: