Q
zindagizibast asked:
Can you agree that Persian came from Sanskrit? I had a Classical Persian (something on the lines of that) in my Arabic class, who was a Persian and the stereotypical Persian supremacist, who stated this... Your thoughts? You are evidently very educated in this area and I'm interested in some external opinions. Thanks!
A
So, major disclaimer here: I’m a historian, not a linguist. I just really love languages.
To answer your question, I asked naasirheydari (since he’s actually studied linguistics) (follow him if you don’t already), and he was able to help me with your question.
The two oldest Iranian languages are Old Persian and Avestan. Avestan was spoken in the eastern area of “Greater Iran” (out in Bactria/Margiana, if I’m not mistaken).
Avestan and Sanskrit are cousins. They likely have a common root, but Avestan was not derived from Sanskrit.
If you look at this language family tree, you’ll see that Sanskrit and Persian developed independently of each other:
