| Pamir | |
|---|---|
| Ghalchah (obsolete) | |
| (ethnically defined) | |
| Geographic distribution | Pamir Mountains |
| Ethnicity | Pamiris |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | shug1237 (Shughni-Yazghulami)yidg1239 (Yidgha-Munji) sang1316 (Sanglechi-Ishkashimi)wakh1245 (Wakhi) |
ThePamir languages are anareal group of theEastern Iranian languages, spoken by numerous people in thePamir Mountains, primarily along thePanj River and its tributaries.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Pamir language family was sometimes referred to as theGhalchah 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.
The Pamirian languages are spoken primarily in theBadakhshan Province of northeasternAfghanistan and theGorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of easternTajikistan.
Pamirian languages are also spoken in Xinjiang and the Pamir languageSarikoli is spoken beyond theSarikol Range on the Afghanistan-China border and thus qualifies as the easternmost of the extant Iranian languages.
Wakhi communities are also found in the adjacentChitral District,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and inGojal,Gilgit Baltistan inPakistan.
The only other living member of the Southeastern Iranian group isPashto.
No features uniting the Pamir languages as a single subgroup of Iranian have been demonstrated.[2] TheEthnologue lists the Pamir languages along with Pashto as Southeastern Iranian,[3] however, according toEncyclopedia Iranica, the Pamirian languages and Pashto belong to the North-Eastern Iranian branch.[4]
Members of the Pamirian language area include four reliable groups: a Shughni-Yazghulam group includingShughni,Sarikoli, andYazghulami;Munji andYidgha;Ishkashimi and related dialects; andWakhi. They have thesubject-object-verbsyntactictypology.
Václav Blažek (2019) suggests that the Pamir languages have aBurushaski-likesubstratum. AlthoughBurushaski 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]
TheShughni,Sarikoli, andYazghulami languages belong to the Shughni-Yazghulami branch. There are about 75,000 speakers of languages in this family inAfghanistan andTajikistan (including the dialects ofRushani,Bartangi,Oroshori,Khufi, andShughni). In 1982, there were about 20,000 speakers of Sarikoli in theSarikol Valley located in theTashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County inXinjiang Province,China. Shughni and Sarikoli are mutually intelligible.
As of 1994, approximately 4,000 people spokeYazghulami, primarily residing along theYazgulyam River inTajikistan. The language has no established writing system.
TheVanji language was historically spoken in theVanj river valley, located in theGorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region ofTajikistan, and was closely related to theYazghulami. In the 19th century, following the annexation of the region by theBukharan Emirate, a campaign of assimilation was carried out. By the end of the century, the Vanji language had become extinct, having been replaced byTajik Persian.[citation needed]
TheMunji andYidgha languages are closely related.[citation needed] There are about 6,000 speakers ofYidgha in UpperLotkoh Valley recorded in the formerChitral district ofPakistan, and in 2008 there were around 5,300 speakers ofMunji mainly in the Mamalgha and Munjan valleys in theKuran wa Munjan district of theBadakhshan province in northeasternAfghanistan. Munji-Yidgha shares withBactrian a development *ð >/l/, absent from the other three Pamir groups. The extinctSarghulami language ofBadakhshan is thought to be of the Munji-Yidgha branch.
There are about 2,500 speakers ofSanglechi andIshkashmi inAfghanistan andTajikistan respectively; they are not written languages.
There are around 58,000 speakers of theWakhi language inAfghanistan,Tajikistan,China,Pakistan, andRussia.
The vast majority of Pamir speakers in Tajikistan and Afghanistan also useTajik (Persian) as a literary language, which is—unlike the languages of the Pamir group—aSouthwestern Iranian tongue. The language group is endangered, with the total number of speakers roughly around 100,000 in 1990.
One of the most prolific researchers of the Pamir languages wasSovietlinguistIvan Ivanovich Zarubin. Linguist Ross Perlin is also leading a Pamir languages research and preservation project at theEndangered Language Alliance.[6]
| Official languages | ||
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