Asian languages - Definition and Overview

There are a wide variety of languages spoken thoughout Asia, comprising a number of families and unrelated isolate languages.

• Sino-Tibetan languages
  • Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese
• Indo-European languages are widely spoken in southern and western Asia, as well as Asian Russia:
  • Indo-Iranian languages: Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Kurdish
  • Slavic languages: Russian
• Semitic languages
• Turkic languages
• Tai-Kadai languages
• Austroasiatic languages
• The Altaic languages are a somewhat disputed grouping. Sometimes included are Korean and Japanese

See also: East Asian language