Wakhi (ښیکوار زیک, Х̆икв̆ор зик, IPA: Wakhan District, Northern Afghanistan, and neighboring areas of Tajikistan, Pakistan and China.
Classification and distribution
Wakhi is one of several languages that belong to the
Sprachbund Pamir languages. It is believed to be a descendant of the
Saka language once spoken in the Kingdom of Khotan.
The Wakhi people are occasionally called Pamiris and Guhjali. It is spoken by the inhabitants of the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan, parts of Gilgit-Baltistan (the former NAs) of Pakistan, the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, and Xinjiang in Western China. The Wakhi use the self-appellation 'X̌ik' (ethnic) and suffix it with 'wor'/'war' to denote their language as 'X̌ik-wor' themselves. The noun 'X̌ik' comes from *waxša-ī̆ka- (an inhabitant of *Waxša- 'Oxus', for Wakhan, in Wakhi 'Wux̌.' There are other equivalents for the name Wakhi (Anglicised) or Wakhani (Arabic and Persian), Vakhantsy (Russian), Gojali/Gojo (Dingrik-wor/Shina), Guyits/Guicho (Burushaski), Wakhigi/Wakhik-war (Kivi-wor/Khow-wor) and Cert (Turki).
The language belongs, as yet to be confirmed according to studies and sources, to the southern group of the Pamir languages, in the Iranian group of the Indo-European family (450) of languages, where the Ishkashmi, Shighni/...nani and Wakhi languages are included. The Wakhi live in six countries. In the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, the Wakhi people mainly live in Gojal, Ishkoman Valley, and Darkut, as well as in Chitral District's Broghil Pass. They live in parts of Wakhan in Afghanistan, Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China, Russia, and Turkey.
In Afghanistan
In the
Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan, Wakhi is spoken from Putur, near Ishkashim, to the upper reaches of the
Wakhan River.
In Tajikistan
In Tajikistan, the Wakhi and other communities that speak one of the
Pamir languages refer to themselves as
Pamiris or Badakhshani, and there has been a movement to separate their identity from that of the majority of Persian-speaking
Tajiks.
Linguistics universally refer to Wakhi as an East Iranian language independent of Tajik Persian, but many Tajik
Nationalism insist that Wakhi and other Pamir languages are dialects of Tajik Persian.
In Pakistan
In
Gilgit-Baltistan, Wakhi is spoken in the sparsely populated upper portions of five of the northernmost valleys:
Hunza Valley,
Gojal,
Ishkoman Valley,
Yasin Valley,
Gupis Tehsil, and
Yarkhun. The Hunza Valley has the largest Wakhi population in Pakistan. The Wakhis of Ishkoman lives primarily in the Karambar valley, the town of Imit, and beyond. In
Yasin Valley, they live mainly in the vicinity of Darkot, and in Yarhkun, they are found in Baroghil and a few other small villages in the high, upper portion of the valley.
In Pakistan, the central organization of the Wakhi is the Wakhi Cultural Association Pakistan (WCA). This organization is registered with the Government of Pakistan and collaborates with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Lok Virsa Pakistan. The Association is working to preserve the Wakhi language and culture and document their poetry and music.
Radio Pakistan Gilgit relays the Wakhi radio programme "Sadoyah Boomy Dunyo", the voice of the roof of the world. The Wakhi Cultural Association has arranged more than twenty programmes since 1984, which include cultural shows, musical nights, and large-scale musical festivals with the collaboration of Lok Virsa Pakistan, the Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP), and Pakistan television. In 2000, the WCA won a "Best Programme" organizer award in the Silk Road Festival from the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf. A computerized codification of the Wakhi script has been released, which will help to promote the language development program and documentation of Wakhi poetry, literature, and history.
In China
Wakhi is also spoken in the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County, in the Xinjiang province of China, mainly in the township of
Dafdar.
In Russia
There are approximately 21,000 Wakhi in
Russia, Most of them have migrated from
Tajikistan and
Afghanistan.
In Turkey
There are some Wakhi villages in
Turkey in the eastern regions, where they have migrated from Afghanistan in 1979 during the Soviet-Afghan war.
[See the book online "The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan in Turkey"]
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Orthography
Traditionally, Wakhi was not a written language. Wakhi people live in 4 countries,
Afghanistan,
Tajikistan,
Pakistan, and
China, and are in contact with speakers of various other languages. Writing systems have been developed for the language using
Arabic script,
Cyrillic script, and
Latin script, each with inspirations from neighboring languages and orthographic conventions. However, due to the pluricentric nature of Wakhi dialects, marginalization in favour of a more significant national/regional language, remoteness, and political instability, no one orthographic standard has managed to rise to the level of a singular unifying writing system.
Perso-Arabic script
The Perso-Arabic script for the Wakhi language has been derived from the
Persian alphabet used in
Dari. However, there are sounds in Wakhi that are not found in Persian. Here, two diverging conventions have emerged, one in
Afghanistan and another in
Pakistan (and Pakistani-controlled
Gilgit-Baltistan).
Pashto alphabet has inspired letters in Afghanistan to represent missing sounds in Wakhi, especially the various retroflex sounds missing in Persian.
Urdu alphabet and orthographies of other languages of
Gilgit-Baltistan have been the inspiration in
Pakistan.
[Jami, Sakhi Ahmad. (2004) Languages and Literature of the Northern Areas (Balti, Shina, Khowar, Burushaski, Wakhi) / شمالی علاقہ جات کی زبانیں و ادب (بلتی، شنا، کھوار، بروشسکی، وخی) (Urdu). Chapter The origin and evolution of the Wakhi language / وخی زبان کا آغاز و ارتقاء. Allama Iqbal Open University Access][Gurg Ali Khayrkhah. Wakhi Literacy Primer - Teacher’s Guide / ڜؤرد جاینکؤرگڤ کتاب - سک ښیک زیک - کتاب رهنمای معلمڤر (Wakhani ). AP Mersi Afghanistan Publisher [2] (
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archive)
Afghan Perso-Arabic alphabet
The below table is the Afghan version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet for the Wakhi language. The alphabet has been derived from the alphabet of
Dari (Persian), one of Afghanistan's national languages.
Pashto alphabet, the other national language of Afghanistan, has been the source of letters for phonemes that don't exist in Persian. This orthographic standard has similarities to the orthographies of other
Pamir languages, such as
Shughni language and
Munji language.
| + Wakhi Perso-Arabic Letters (Afghanistan) |
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Notes:
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Letter alef at the beginning of a word can serve two functions. First, it precedes vowel letters "" e and i, or "" u. Second, it acts as a vowel carrier for diacritics of the vowel, "" a.
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Vowel phoneme ɔ is represented with "" when at the beginning of a word, and with "" when in the middle or end of a word.
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While the letter se "" represents the phoneme θ in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari have come to be pronounced as s. Due to consistent contact with Dari, Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian, with their modified Persian pronunciation. Unlike Persian, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme θ. Some sources use the letter se "", whereas others use a new letter, te with 4 dots "" that has been introduced so that there can be distinguishment between the native sound θ and the sound s produced by the letter se "" in loanwords.
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While the letter zal "" represents the phoneme ð in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari have come to be pronounced as z. Due to consistent contact with Dari, Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian, with their modified Persian pronunciation. Unlike Persian, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme ð. Some sources use the letter zal "", whereas others use a new letter, dal with 3 dots "" that has been introduced so that there can be distinguishment between the native sound ð and the sound z produced by the letter zal "" in loanwords.
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Represents two phonemes based on context, w and u. If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant w, it will be written standalone "", if representing a vowel u, it will be preceded by alef "".
-
Represents a vowel phoneme. But even if at the beginning of a word, it is written standalone, and without a preceding alef; "".
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At the end of a word, the letter he "" can either represent a consonant sound h or a vowel sound a depending on context.
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The letter ye represents three phonemes based on context, e, i and j. If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant j, it will be written standalone "", if representing a vowel e or a vowel i, it will be preceded by alef "".
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There are two types of final ye. in At the end of a word, if representing the consonant j, the dotless final ye "" is ued. If representing the vowel i, the double dot final ye "" is used.
| +Wakhi Perso-Arabic Vowels (Afghanistan) |
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Pakistani Perso-Arabic alphabet
The below table is the Pakistani version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet for the Wakhi language.1 This alphabet has also been derived from the alphabet of
Dari (Persian). However,
Urdu alphabet, Pakistan's national language, has been the source of letters for phonemes that don't exist in Persian. The vowels are shown to reflect Urdu pronunciations and not the
Dari/
Tajik language pronunciation. Meaning that, for example, the phoneme ɔ, which is equivalent to
Iranian Persianɒː after having undergone a
chain shift, is not written with
alef "آ / ا /ا ـا", but with the letter
waw "".
[Ido, S. (2017). The Vowel System of Jewish Bukharan Tajik: With Special Reference to the Tajik Vowel Chain Shift. Journal of Jewish Languages, 5(1), 81–103. doi: 10.1163/22134638-12340078]
Stylistically, while in Afghanistan Naskh is the more common script, in Pakistan, similar with Urdu and other orthographies of Northern Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Gilgit-Baltistan, Nastaliq is the more common script.
| + Wakhi Perso-Arabic Letters (Pakistan) |
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Notes:
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Letter alef at the beginning of a word can serve two functions. First, it precedes vowel letters "" e and i, or "" ɔ. Second, it acts as a vowel carrier for diacritics of the vowel, "" ɨ.
-
Vowel phoneme a is represented with "" when at the beginning of a word, and with "" when in the middle or end of a word.
-
While the letter se "" represents the phoneme θ in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari have come to be pronounced as s. Due to consistent contact with Dari, Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian, with their modified Persian pronunciation. Unlike Persian, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme θ. Some sources use the letter se "", whereas others use a new letter, te with 4 dots "" that has been introduced so that there can be distinguishment between the native sound θ and the sound s produced by the letter se "" in loanwords.
-
While the letter zal "" represents the phoneme ð in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari and Urdu language have come to be pronounced as z. Due to consistent contact with Dari and Urdu language, Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian and Urdu, with their modified pronunciation. Unlike Persian and Urdu, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme ð. Some sources use the letter zal "", whereas others use a new letter, dal with 2 dots "" that has been introduced so that there can be distinguishment between the native sound ð and the sound z produced by the letter zal "" in loanwords.
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Represents three phonemes based on context, w, ɔ, and u. If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant w, it will be written standalone "". If representing a vowel ɔ, it will be preceded by alef "". If representing the vowel u, it will be preceded by a w consonant, carrying a zammah diacritic "".
-
At the end of a word, the letter he "" can either represent a consonant sound h or a vowel sound a depending on context.
-
The letter ye represents three phonemes based on context, e, i and j. If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant j, it will be written standalone "", if representing a vowel e or a vowel i, it will be preceded by alef "".
-
There are two types of final ye. in At the end of a word, if representing the consonant j or the vowel i, the small ye "" is used. If representing the vowel e, the big ye "" is used.
| +Wakhi Perso-Arabic Vowels (Pakistan) |
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Cyrillic script
When Wakhi is written in Cyrillic, the sounds are usually represented by these letters:
Latin script
Latin alphabet, which in some variants includes Cyrillic and Greek letters, was developed in 1953 by I.I. Zaroubine and V. S. Sokolova, and further developed by A.L Grünberg and I.M Stéblinn-Kamensky in the early 1960s:
[: Title page, passages in Roman alphabet[7], passages in Cyrillic alphabet[9]]
Vocabulary
The Wakhi lexicon exhibits significant differences with the other Pamir languages. Gawarjon's comparison of the dialects of Sarikoli and Wakhi spoken in China is reproduced below.
Publications
In Pakistan multiple books have been published since 1980s.
X̌ikwor zik by Master Haqiqat, Religious hymes by Riaz Ahmed Riaz.
Qaida e Wakhi Zaban by Ahmed Jami Sakhi.
Magazines and Parlon Wakhi by Karim Khan Saka.
"Beyoz-e-Bulbul" by Nazir Ahmad Bulbul.
A collection of old and new poems folklores compiled by Bulbulik Heritage Center, Gulmit.
Sample text
Sample text from a Bible translation published in 2001 is shown here below:
| + Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:2–4)
!Wakhi in Latin alphabet
!Wakhi in Cyrillic alphabet
!English (ESV)
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| 2Yiso yavər x̌atəy: «Sayišt ʒi dəo carəv, x̌anəv: „Ey bzыrgwor Tat ki də osmonət cəy! Ti bəzыrg nung bər olam ыmыt! Ləcər dəwroni Ti podšoyi γ̌at-ət, zəmin-ət zəmon də hыkmi taw ыmыt! | 2Йисо йавəр х̌атəй: «Сайишт ҙи дəо царəв, х̌анəв: „Ей бзыргв̌ор Тат ки дə осмонəт цəй! Ти бəзырг нунг бəр олам ымыт! Лəцəр дəв̌рони Ти подшойи г̌ат-əт, зəмин-əт зəмон дə ҳыкми тав̌ ымыт! | 2And he said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. |
| 3Spo rыsq-ət rыzi sakər nəsib car! | 3Спо рысқ-əт рызи сакəр нəсиб цар! | 3Give us each day our daily bread, |
| 4Cə spo gənoən šəxs! Sak bə kuy, ki sakər šakiγ̌ cə kərk! kыx̌tər baxṣ̌əṣ̌ carən. Cə bandi nafs-ət awasən, Cə waswasayi Iblisən saki niga δыr!“» | 4Цə спо гəноəн шəхс! Сак бə куй, ки сакəр шакиг̌ цə кəрк! Кых̌тəр бахш̣əш̣ царəн. Цə банди нафс-əт ав̌асəн, Цə в̌асв̌асайи Иблисəн саки нига д̌ыр!“» | 4and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. |
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See also
Further reading
External links
