Pamir languages
Pamir languages | |
---|---|
(ethnically defined) | |
Ethnicity | Pamiris |
Geographic distribution | Pamir Mountains |
Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Glottolog | shug1237 (Shughni-Yazgulami) yidg1239 (Yidgha-Munji) sang1316 (Sanglechi-Ishkashimi) wakh1245 (Wakhi) |
The Pamir languages are an
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Pamir language family was sometimes referred to as the Ghalchah languages by western scholars.[1] The term Ghalchah is no longer used to refer to the Pamir languages or the native speakers of these languages.
One of the most prolific researchers of the Pamir languages was
Geographic distribution
The Pamirian languages are spoken primarily in the
Pamirian languages are also spoken in Xinjiang and the Pamir language Sarikoli is spoken beyond the Sarikol Range on the Afghanistan-China border and thus qualifies as the easternmost of the extant Iranian languages.
Wakhi communities are also found in the adjacent
The only other living member of the Southeastern Iranian group is
Classification
No features uniting the Pamir languages as a single subgroup of Iranian have been demonstrated.
Members of the Pamirian language area include four reliable groups: a Shughni-Yazgulyam group including
Václav Blažek (2019) suggests that the Pamir languages have a Burushaski-like substratum. Although Burushaski is today spoken in Pakistan to the south of the Pamir language area, Burushaski formerly had a much wider geographic distribution before being assimilated by Indo-Iranian languages.[5]
Subgroups
Shughni-Yazgulami branch
The
The
Most language speakers and others in Tajikistan refer to languages in this group as 'Pamirski" or 'Pamir'. (e.g. "I can speak Pamir, Ishkashem and Wakhi")
Munji-Yidgha branch
The
Sanglechi-Ishkashimi
There are about 2,500 speakers of
respectively, they are not written languages.Wakhi
There are around 58,000 speakers of the Wakhi language in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, and Russia.
Status
The vast majority of Pamir speakers in Tajikistan and Afghanistan also use
See also
Bibliography
- Payne, John, "Pamir languages" in Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. Schmitt (1989), 417–444.
References
- Avestan language Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson, The later Iranian languages, New Persian, Kurdish, Afghan, Ossetish, Baluchi, Ghalach and some minor modern dialects." Jackson, Abraham Valentine Williams (1892). An Avesta grammar in comparison with Sanskrit and The Avestan alphabet and its transcription. Stuttgart: AMS Press. p. xxx.
- ^ Antje Wendtland (2009), The position of the Pamir languages within East Iranian, Orientalia Suecana LVIII "The Pamir languages are a group of East Iranian languages which are linguistically quite diverse and cannot be traced back to a common ancestor. The term Pamir languages is based on their geographical position rather than on their genetic closeness. Exclusive features by which the Pamir languages can be distinguished from all other East Iranian languages cannot be found either."
- ^ Southeastern Iranian Family Tree. SIL International. Ethnologue: Languages of the World.
- ^ Nicholas Sims-Williams, Eastern Iranian languages, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 2010. "The Modern Eastern Iranian languages are even more numerous and varied. Most of them are classified as North-Eastern: Ossetic; Yaghnobi (which derives from a dialect closely related to Sogdian); the Shughni group (Shughni, Roshani, Khufi, Bartangi, Roshorvi, Sarikoli), with which Yazghulyami (Sokolova 1967) and the now extinct Wanji (J. Payne in Schmitt, p. 420) are closely linked; Ishkashmi, Sanglichi, and Zebaki; Wakhi; Munji and Yidgha; and Pashto."
- ^ Blažek, Václav. 2019. Toward the question of Yeniseian homeland in perspective of toponymy. 14th Annual Sergei Starostin Memorial Conference on Comparative-Historical Linguistics. Moscow: RSUH.
External links
- Ethnolinguistic map of Tajikistan
- Ishkashimi story with English translation
- Ishkashimi-English Vocabulary List, also featuring words from other Pamir languages added for comparison
- English-Ishkashimi- Zebaki-Wakhi-Yazghulami Vocabulary
- A Short List of Yazghulami Words
- Grierson G. A. Ishkashmi, Zebaki, and Yazghulami, an account of three Eranian dialects. (1920) [1] [2]