Wakhi (, , IPA: ikwɔr zik is an

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia ( ...

in the Eastern Iranian branch of the language family spoken today in Wakhan District, Northern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, and neighboring areas of

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Classification and distribution

Wakhi is one of several languages that belong to the areal Pamir language group. It is believed to be a descendant of the Scytho-Khotanese 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 Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

(the former NAs) of Pakistan, the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, and Xinjiang in Western

. 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

, the Wakhi people mainly live in Gojal, Ishkoman, and Darkut, as well as in Chitral District's Broghol. They live in parts of Wakhan in

, Gorno-Badakhshan in

, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

In Afghanistan

In the

Wakhan Corridor The Wakhan Corridor (; ) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajiki ...

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 Pamiri or Badakhshani, and there has been a movement to separate their identity from that of the majority of Persian-speaking

Tajiks Tajiks (; ; also spelled ''Tadzhiks'' or ''Tadjiks'') is the name of various Persian-speaking Eastern Iranian groups of people native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Even though the term ''Tajik'' ...

. Linguists universally refer to Wakhi as an East Iranian language independent of Tajik Persian, but many Tajik nationalists insist that Wakhi and other Pamir languages are dialects of Tajik Persian.

In Pakistan

, Wakhi is spoken in the sparsely populated upper portions of five of the northernmost valleys: Hunza, Gojal, Ishkoman, Yasin, Gupis, 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, 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 The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...

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 Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

Radio Pakistan The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (); also known as ''Radio Pakistan'', serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate its founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in P ...

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

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 Pakistan Television Corporation (; reporting name: PTV); also known as ''Pakistan Television'', is the Pakistani state-owned broadcasting, broadcaster founded by the Government of Pakistan, operating under the Ministry of Information & Broadc ...

. In 2000, the WCA won a "Best Programme" organizer award in the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

Festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

from the

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

. 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 History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

In China

Wakhi is also spoken in the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County, in the Xinjiang province of China, mainly in the township of

Dafdar Dafdar, also spelled Daftar, is a township in the Taghdumbash Pamir located in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. The township is located near the China–Pakistan border. The sou ...

In Russia

There are approximately 21,000 Wakhi in

, Most of them have migrated from

and

In Turkey

There are some Wakhi villages in

in the eastern regions, where they have migrated from Afghanistan in 1979 during the Soviet-Afghan war.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Orthography

Traditionally, Wakhi was not a written language. Wakhi people live in 4 countries,

, and

, and are in contact with speakers of various other languages. Writing systems have been developed for the language using

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

, and Latin scripts, 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 The Persian alphabet (), also known as the Perso-Arabic script, is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Persian language. It is a variation of the Arabic script with four additional letters: (the sounds 'g', 'zh', 'ch', and 'p', respecti ...

used in

. However, there are sounds in Wakhi that are not found in Persian. Here, two diverging conventions have emerged, one in

and another in

(and Pakistani-controlled

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

has inspired letters in Afghanistan to represent missing sounds in Wakhi, especially the various retroflex sounds missing in Persian.

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and orthographies of other languages of

have been the inspiration in

.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 Universit
Access
/ref>Gurg Ali Khayrkhah. ''Wakhi Literacy Primer - Teacher’s Guide'' / ڜؤرد جاینکؤرگڤ کتاب - سک ښیک زیک - کتاب رهنمای معلمڤر (Wakhani ). AP Mersi Afghanistan Publishe
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 Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...

(Persian), one of Afghanistan's national languages.

, 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 and Munji. Notes: # Letter ''alef'' at the beginning of a word can serve two functions. First, it precedes vowel letters "" and or "" Second, it acts as a vowel carrier for diacritics of the vowel, "" # Vowel phoneme �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 �in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari (Persian) have come to be pronounced as Due to consistent contact with Dari (Persian), Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian, with their modified Persian pronunciation. Unlike Persian, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme � 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 �and the sound produced by the letter ''se'' "" in loanwords. # While the letter ''zal'' "" represents the phoneme �in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari (Persian) have come to be pronounced as Due to consistent contact with Dari (Persian), Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian, with their modified Persian pronunciation. Unlike Persian, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme � 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 �and the sound produced by the letter ''zal'' "" in loanwords. # Represents two phonemes based on context, and If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant it will be written standalone "", if representing a vowel 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''; "". # At the end of a word, the letter ''he'' "" can either represent a consonant sound or a vowel sound depending on context. # The letter ''ye'' represents three phonemes based on context, and If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant it will be written standalone "", if representing a vowel or a vowel it will be preceded by ''alef'' "". # There are two types of ''final ye''. in At the end of a word, if representing the consonant the ''dotless final ye'' "" is ued. If representing the vowel the ''double dot final ye'' "" is used.

Pakistani Perso-Arabic alphabet

The below table is the Pakistani version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet for the Wakhi language. This alphabet has also been derived from the alphabet of

(Persian). However,

, 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

/ Tajik pronunciation. Meaning that, for example, the phoneme � which is equivalent to

Iranian Persian Iranian Persian (), Western Persian or Western Farsi, natively simply known as Persian (), refers to the Variety (linguistics), varieties of the New Persian, Persian language spoken in Iran and by others in neighboring countries, as well as by ...

ɒː">Open_back_rounded_vowel.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Open back rounded vowel">ɒːafter 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. do
10.1163/22134638-12340078
/ref> Stylistically, while in Afghanistan '' Naskh'' is the more common script, in Pakistan, similar with Urdu and other orthographies of Northern Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled

, ''

Nastaliq ''Nastaliq'' (; ; ), also Romanization of Persian, romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'' or ''Nastaleeq'' (), is one of the main book hand, calligraphic hands used to write Arabic script and is used for some Indo-Iranian languages, predominantly Persi ...

'' is the more common script. Notes: # Letter ''alef'' at the beginning of a word can serve two functions. First, it precedes vowel letters "" and or "" � Second, it acts as a vowel carrier for diacritics of the vowel, "" � # Vowel phoneme 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 �in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari (Persian) have come to be pronounced as Due to consistent contact with Dari (Persian), Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian, with their modified Persian pronunciation. Unlike Persian, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme � 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 �and the sound produced by the letter ''se'' "" in loanwords. # While the letter ''zal'' "" represents the phoneme �in Arabic, this letter in Arabic loanwords that have entered Dari (Persian) and

have come to be pronounced as Due to consistent contact with Dari (Persian) and

, Arabic loanwords have entered Wakhi via Persian and Urdu, with their modified pronunciation. Unlike Persian and Urdu, Wakhi does have a separate phoneme � 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 �and the sound produced by the letter ''zal'' "" in loanwords. # Represents three phonemes based on context, � and If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant it will be written standalone "". If representing a vowel � it will be preceded by ''alef'' "". If representing the vowel it will be preceded by a consonant, carrying a '' zammah diacritic'' "". # At the end of a word, the letter ''he'' "" can either represent a consonant sound or a vowel sound depending on context. # The letter ''ye'' represents three phonemes based on context, and If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant it will be written standalone "", if representing a vowel or a vowel it will be preceded by ''alef'' "". # There are two types of ''final ye''. in At the end of a word, if representing the consonant or the vowel the ''small ye'' "" is used. If representing the vowel the ''big ye'' "" is used.

Cyrillic script

When Wakhi is written in Cyrillic, the sounds are usually represented by these letters:

Latin script

A 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 pagepassages in Roman alphabet
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/kuhl1/wakhani-rom-2.jpg]
passages in Cyrillic alphabet
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/kuhl1/wakhani-cyr-2.jpg]

Vocabulary

The Wakhi lexicon exhibits significant differences with the other Pamir languages. Gawarjon's comparison of the dialects of Sarikoli language, 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:

References

External links

Wakhi poetry

Wakhi language book by Haqiqat Ali (1985)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakhi Language Eastern Iranian languages Pamir languages Pamir languages of Afghanistan Languages of Xinjiang Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan Languages of Tajikistan Endangered Iranian languages Wakhan Endangered languages of Tajikistan Endangered languages of Asia