Aryan language is a term not generally used by today's linguists merely for political reasons, but is encountered often in works published in the 19th century and most of the 20th century to mean:
- The Old Persian language
- The Vedic Sanskrit language
- The Proto-Indo-Iranian language
- Any of the Indo-Iranian languages
- In works published in the late 19th century and early 20th century, this term, or the term Proto-Aryan, was sometimes used to describe the Proto-Indo-European language.
- In works published in the late 19th century and early 20th century, this term in the plural was sometimes used as a synonym for the Indo-European languages
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)