Indo-European · ISO 639-3 tly
Talysh Language Tolışə
Talysh is an Indo-European language spoken by about 1.0 million people in 3 countries. It is written in the Cyrillic, Latin and Perso-Arabic scripts.
Where Talysh is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Talysh
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Iranian-Nuristani
- Iranian
- Central Iranian PBS
- Central Iranian PB
- Northwestern Iranian
- Adharic
- Tatic
- Central Tatic
- Talysh
Writing system
Cyrillic, Latin and Perso-Arabic scripts
Related languages
About the Talysh language
Talysh (Tolışə) is spoken by about 1.0 million people, which makes it the 458th most spoken language in the world — just behind Negeri Sembilan Malay (1.0 million) and ahead of Najdi Arabic (1.0 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Central Tatic group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Talysh spoken?
Talysh is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in Azerbaijan (1.0 million), Iran (3,000) and Russia (3,000).
Share of the population that speaks Talysh: Azerbaijan 9.8% (1.0 million), Iran <0.1% (3,000) and Russia <0.1% (3,000).
Talysh is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Talysh is written in the Cyrillic, Latin and Perso-Arabic scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Dimli, Gurani, Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, Mazanderani, Gilaki and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 tly.
Frequently asked questions about Talysh
How many people speak Talysh?
Where is Talysh spoken?
What language family does Talysh belong to?
What is Talysh called in Talysh?
Is Talysh an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.