Eastern Iranian language spoken by the Wakhi people
Wakhi
زبان وخی / زبان واخانی ښیکوار زیک X̌ikwor zik, х̆икв̆ор зик
Wakhi written in Arabic script in Nastaliq style, Latin script and in Cyrillic script
Native to
Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan
Ethnicity
Wakhi
Native speakers
(20,000 in Pakistan (2016); 58,000 cited 1992–2012)[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Eastern
Wakhi
Early forms
Scythian
Saka[2][3][4]
Writing system
Perso-Arabic, Cyrillic, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3
wbl
Glottolog
wakh1245
ELP
Wakhi
Linguasphere
58-ABD-c
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Wakhi language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
Wakhi (Wakhi: وخی/В̌aхi, IPA: [waχi]) is an Indo-European language in the Eastern Iranian branch of the language family spoken today in Wakhan District, Northern Afghanistan, and also in Tajikistan, Northern Pakistan and Western China.
Due to the effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media like Urdu, Standard Punjabi, and English and the religious impact of Arabic and Persian, Wakhi, like other languages of Pakistan, continuously expands its vocabulary base with loan words.[5]
^Wakhi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Frye, R.N. (1984). The History of Ancient Iran. p. 192. ISBN 9783406093975. [T]hese western Saka he distinguishes from eastern Saka who moved south through the Kashgar-Tashkurgan-Gilgit-Swat route to the plains of the sub-continent of India. This would account for the existence of the ancient Khotanese-Saka speakers, documents of whom have been found in western Sinkiang, and the modern Wakhi language of Wakhan in Afghanistan, another modern branch of descendants of Saka speakers parallel to the Ossetes in the west.
^Bailey, H.W. (1982). The culture of the Sakas in ancient Iranian Khotan. Caravan Books. pp. 7–10. It is noteworthy that the Wakhi language of Wakhan has features, phonetics, and vocabulary the nearest of Iranian dialects to Khotan Saka.
^Carpelan, C.; Parpola, A.; Koskikallio, P. (2001). "Early Contacts Between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Considerations: Papers Presented at an International Symposium Held at the Tvärminne Research Station of the University of Helsinki, 8–10 January, 1999". Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. 242: 136. ...descendants of these languages survive now only in the Ossete language of the Caucasus and the Wakhi language of the Pamirs, the latter related to the Saka once spoken in Khotan.
^Shams, Shammim Ara (2020). "The Impact of Dominant Languages on Regional Languages: A Case Study of English, Urdu and Shina". Pakistan Social Sciences Review. 4 (III): 1092–1106. doi:10.35484/pssr.2020(4-III)79.
Wakhilanguage test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator Wakhi (Wakhi: وخی/В̌aхi, IPA: [waχi]) is an Indo-European language in the Eastern Iranian branch...
Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Wakhi people are native speakers of the Wakhilanguage, an Eastern Iranian language. The Wakhi people refer to themselves as...
Look up Wakhi in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wakhi may be: Wakhilanguage, the language of the majority of the people of Wakhan Wakhi people, an ethnic...
border and thus qualifies as the easternmost of the extant Iranian languages. Wakhi communities are also found in the adjacent Chitral District, Khyber...
242: 136. ...descendants of these languages survive now only in the Ossete language of the Caucasus and the Wakhilanguage of the Pamirs, the latter related...
by Georg Morgenstiern. Vol. II. Iranian Pamir Languages (yidgha-munji, Sanglechi-ishkashmi and Wakhi). W. Nygaard. In this video, the Pashtun... - Pashtun...
Tirich Mir. An alternative etymology derives this name from the Wakhilanguage. In Wakhi, trich means shadow or darkness and mir means king, so Tirich Mir...
Gojal (Wakhi: وادی گوجال, Kyrgyz: گۉجال ۅرۅنۇ,), also called Upper Hunza, is situated in northwestern Pakistan. It borders China at the Khunjerab Pass...
Pakhalina, publishing in Russia, used an alphabet similar to that of the Wakhilanguage in hers. The majority of Sarikoli-speakers attend schools using Uyghur...
Munji (Munjāni); and Wakhi (Wāḵi) belongs with Khotanese. Excerpt 2: New Persian, the descendant of Middle Persian and official language of Iranian states...
has furthermore been considered a part of the Pamir languages group, together with the Wakhilanguage, and of the subgroup comprising Shughni, Rushani,...
at about 10,600. Wakhi and Kyrgyz are the major ethnic groups of Wakhan. Most of its inhabitants speak the Vakhi or Wakhilanguage (x̌ik zik), and belong...
independent summit of its own subrange. Disteghil sar is a Wakhilanguage word suggested by the Wakhi people of Shimshal, meaning "above the inner ranch." The...
Shughni and Wakhilanguages. It is composed of the letter de ⟨Д⟩ with a caron. De with caron is used in the Shughni alphabet and the Wakhi alphabet where...
italics: Ҷ̣ ҷ̣) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is only used in the Wakhilanguage where it represents the voiced retroflex affricate /ɖ͡ʐ/. Џ џ: Cyrillic...
theta is also found in Cypriot Arabic and the Latin script for the Wakhilanguage. As of 2024, the Latin thetas are not separately encoded in the Unicode...
Sar, Shispare Sar, and Batura. The people are predominantly Wakhi and speak the Wakhilanguage. They are Ismaili, a sect of Shia Islam. Khuramabad "Passu...
and has an elevation of 7,200 metres (23,622 ft) above sea level. In Wakhilanguage, Lupghar Sar translates as the "top of the big rock". First Ascent:...
in Modern Greek duniya in Hausa duniyaaru in Adamawa Fulfulde duniah in Wakhi, dunia in Malay, Swahili and Indonesian donya in Javanese dünýä in Turkmen...
over 70 languages spoken as first languages. The majority of Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family...
languages, amongst which languages of the Eastern Iranian Pamir language group stand out. The languages of the Shughni-Rushani group, alongside Wakhi...
Wakhi groups is usually common, however, the Tor Uyghurs tend to take more pride in their identity and hardly ever intermarry with Sarikoli or Wakhi Tajiks...
Chinese Pamiris speak an Eastern Iranian language; the vast majority speak Sarikoli while a minority speak Wakhi. Despite the fact that the Chinese government...
named Khudija.[citation needed] The people of Shimshal are Wakhi and they speak the Wakhilanguage. They belong to the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam. The community...
Ting" فیاک ٹنگ or Tegh Sar تیغ سر (which means Sharp Head in the local WakhiLanguage).[citation needed] Shispare lies east of the Batura Wall, which is the...
Kashmiris, Chitralis, Shina, Baltis, Kohistanis, Torwalis, Hazaras, Burusho, Wakhis, Kalash, Siddis and other various minorities. Pakistan's census does not...
without further fronting. The Saka language, attested in the Middle Iranian period, and its modern relative Wakhi fail to fit into either group: in these...
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native...