The Yidgha language () is an

Eastern Iranian The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from c. the 4th century BC). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. As opposed to the Middle Western Iranian dial ...

language of the Pamir group spoken in the upper Lotkoh Valley (Tehsil Lotkoh) of

Chitral Chitral ( khw, , lit=field, translit=ćhitrār; ur, , translit=ćitrāl) is situated on the Chitral River in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Chitral District and before that as the capital of Chitral ...

in the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Yidgha is similar to the

Munji language The Munji language ( fa, مونجی), also known as Munjani (), Munjhan (), and the Munjiwar language, is a Pamir language spoken in Munjan valley in Badakhshan Province in northeast Afghanistan. It is similar to the Yidgha language, which is s ...

spoken on the Afghan side of the border. The Garam Chashma area became important during the

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

because the Soviets were unable to stop the flow of arms and men back and forth across the

Dorah Pass Dorah Pass, also called ''Durah Pass'', connects Badakshan Province of Afghanistan with Chitral District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Dorah Pass is more than high. It is located along the Durand Line border and crosses the Hindu Kush mou ...

that separates Chitral from

Badakshan Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...

in Afghanistan. Almost the entire Munji-speaking population of Afghanistan fled across the border to Chitral during the War in Afghanistan.

Study

The Yidgha language has not been given serious study by linguists, except that it is mentioned by

Georg Morgenstierne Georg Valentin von Munthe af Morgenstierne (2 January 1892 – 3 March 1978) was a Norwegian professor of linguistics with the University of Oslo (UiO). He specialized in Indo-Iranian languages. Studies During the years 1923 to 1971, Morgenst ...

(1926), Kendall Decker (1992) and

Badshah Munir Bukhari Badshah or Baadshah may refer to: * Padishah, or Badshah, a superlative sovereign title of Persian origin People * Badshah (rapper) (Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia, born 1984), Indian rapper * Badshah Begum (1703–1789), first wife and chief c ...

(2005). A 280-page joint description of Yidgha and Munji (descriptive and historical phonetics and grammar, glossary with etymologies where possible) is given by Morgenstierne (1938). Norwegian linguist Georg Morgenstierne wrote that Chitral is the area of the greatest linguistic diversity in the worl

Although

Khowar Khowar () or Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in Chitral and surrounding areas in Pakistan. Khowar is the lingua franca of Chitral, and it is also spoken in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, as we ...

is the predominant language of Chitral, more than ten other languages are spoken here. These include

Kalasha-mun Kalasha (locally: ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Kalash people, in the Chitral District in Pakistan. There are an estimated 5,000 speakers of Kalasha. It is an endangered language and there is an ongoing language shift to Khowar ...

, Palula, Dameli,

Gawar-Bati Gawar-Bati or Narsati is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Chitral region of northern Pakistan, and across the border in Afghanistan. It is also known as Aranduyiwar in Chitral because it is spoken in Arandu, which is the last village in ...

, Nuristani, Yidgha,

Burushaski Burushaski (; ) is a language isolate spoken by Burusho people, who reside almost entirely in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, with a few hundred speakers in northern Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by people i ...

, Wakhi,

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people * Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

, the Madaglashti dialect of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, and

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...

. Since many of these languages have no written form, letters are usually written in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Study

See also

References

Further reading