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East Iranian language spoken in Tajikistan
Yaghnobi
Яғнобӣ зивок Yaghnobī zivok
Native to
Tajikistan
Region
originally from Yaghnob Valley, in 1970s relocated to Zafarobod, in 1990s some speakers returned to Yaghnob
Ethnicity
Yaghnobi people
Native speakers
12,000 (2004)[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Eastern
Northern[2]
Yaghnobi
Early form
Sogdian[3]
Dialects
Eastern Yaghnobi
Western Yaghnobi
Writing system
Cyrillic script Latin script Perso-Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3
yai
Glottolog
yagn1238
ELP
Yaghnobi
Linguasphere
58-ABC-a
Yaghnobi-speaking areas and enclaves of Yaghnobi-speakers among a Tajik majority
Yaghnobi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)[4]
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Yaghnobi[a][b] is an Eastern Iranian language spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be a direct descendant of Sogdian and has sometimes been called Neo-Sogdian in academic literature.[5] There are some 12,500 Yaghnobi speakers, divided into several communities. The principal group lives in the Zafarobod area. There are also resettlers in the Yaghnob Valley. Some communities live in the villages of Zumand and Kůkteppa and in Dushanbe or its vicinity.
Most Yaghnobi speakers are bilingual in Tajik.[6] Yaghnobi is mostly used for daily family communication, and Tajik is used by Yaghnobi-speakers for business and formal transactions. A Russian ethnographer was told by nearby Tajiks, long hostile to the Yaghnobis, who were late to adopt Islam, that the Yaghnobis used their language as a "secret" mode of communication to confuse the Tajiks. The account led to the belief by some that Yaghnobi or some derivative of it was used as a secret code.[7]
The language is taught in elementary school within the ethnic community, and Tajikistan has also enacted legislation to support education in minority languages, including Yaghnobi.[8]
There are two main dialects: a western and an eastern one. They differ primarily in phonetics. For example, historical *θ corresponds to t in the western dialects and s in the eastern: met – mes 'day' from Sogdian mēθ⟨myθ⟩. Western ay corresponds to Eastern e: wayš – weš 'grass' from Sogdian wayš or wēš⟨wyš⟩. The early Sogdian group θr (later ṣ̌) is reflected as sar in the east but tir in the west: saráy – tiráy 'three' from Sogdian θrē/θray or ṣ̌ē/ṣ̌ay⟨δry⟩. There are also some differences in verbal endings and the lexicon. In between the two main dialects is a transitional dialect that shares some features of both other dialects.
^Yaghnobi at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020)
^Gernot Windfuhr, 2009, "Dialectology and Topics", The Iranian Languages, Routledge
^Paul Bergne (15 June 2007). The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. I.B.Tauris. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-1-84511-283-7.
^"Atlas of the world's languages in danger". unesdoc.unesco.org. p. 40. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
^Bielmeier. R. Yaghnobi in Encyclopedia Iranica
^Kazakevich, Olga; Kibrik, Aleksandr (2007). "Language Endangerment in the CIS". In Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.). Language Diversity Endangered. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 238. doi:10.1515/9783110197129.233.
^See С. И. Климчицкий: Секретный язык у ягнобцев и язгулёмцев. In: Академия наук СССР – Труды Таджикистанской базы, т. IX – 1938 – История – язык – литература. Akademijaji Fanho SSSR: Asarhoji ʙazaji Toçikiston, çildi IX – Tarix – zaʙon – adaʙijot. Москва – Ленинград (: Издательство Академии наук СССР), 1940. 104–117.
^The two deportations of Yaghnob
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Yaghnobi is an Eastern Iranian language spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It...
speak the Yaghnobilanguage, a living Eastern Iranian language (the other living members being Pashto, Ossetic and the Pamir languages). Yaghnobi is spoken...
widely separated areas: the Yaghnobilanguage of northwestern Tajikistan (descended from Sogdian); and the Ossetic language of the Caucasus (descended...
grammar and morphology than Middle Persian. The modern Eastern Iranian languageYaghnobi is the descendant of a dialect of Sogdian spoken around the 8th century...
of the Sogdian and Yaghnobilanguages, although data required to test this hypothesis is presently lacking. The Scythian languages shared some features...
have been able to preserve their distinct lifestyle, culture and language, Yaghnobi, which is closely related to ancient Sogdian. Pre-Islamic beliefs...
Sarmatian language. The closest genetically related language may be the Yaghnobilanguage of Tajikistan, the only other living Northeastern Iranian language. Ossetian...
valley in Tajikistan where the Yaghnob River flows; Yaghnobilanguage, spoken in Tajikistan; Yaghnobi people of Tajikistan. This disambiguation page lists...
O'Higgins Airport, Chillán, Chile ISO 639-3 language code yai: Yaghnobilanguage, a living, East Iranian language People with the given name or surname Yai...
decimated their numbers. They speak the Yaghnobilanguage, which is the only direct descendant of the Sogdian language. Tajikistan artisans created the Dushanbe...
numerous and varied. Most of them are classified as North-Eastern: Ossetic; Yaghnobi (which derives from a dialect closely related to Sogdian); the Shughni...
and extinction of the once predominant Scythian languages of the region. Sogdian's close relative Yaghnobi barely survives in a small area of the Zarafshan...
considered separate letters in any language (notably vowels with accent marks which are sometimes used in some languages to indicate stress and/or tone)...
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...
other Pamir languages are spoken. In the northern Yaghnob valley, the Yaghnobilanguage is still spoken. Religious demographics in 2020 Sunni Islam 87.55%...
like Bactrian, Khwarezmian with only a tiny amount of Sogdian descended Yaghnobi speakers remaining among the now Persian-speaking Tajik population of Central...
an Eastern Iranian language, is no longer spoken, but a descendant of one of its dialects, Yaghnobi, is still spoken by the Yaghnobis of Tajikistan. It...
the root Murg of Amyurgio Sacae, meaning "Soma-twisting Sakas." The Yaghnobilanguage, spoken in the Yaghnob Valley, also use the verb shavati.: 128 Indo-Scythians...
Ossetic language has officially used the Cyrillic script since 1937. The Tajik alphabet is written using a Cyrillic-based alphabet. Judeo-Tat Yaghnobi Yazghulami...
The languages of the Soviet Union consist of hundreds of different languages and dialects from several different language groups. In 1922, it was decreed...
The two official languages of Tajikistan are Russian as the interethnic language and Tajik as the state language, as understood in Article 2 of the Constitution:...
Sarikoli, Wakhi, Yaghnobi and Ossetic are also spoken at various places in Central Asia. Varieties of Persian are also spoken as a major language in the region...
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