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Yagnobi
Spoken in:	Tajikistan
Region:	originally from Yaghnob Valley, in 1970s relocated to Zafarobod, in 1990s some speakers returned back to Yaghnob
Total speakers:	12,500
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Iranian    Eastern     Northeastern      Yagnobi
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	ira
ISO 639-3:	yai

The Yaghnobi language^[1] is a living Northeastern Iranian language (the only other living member being the Ossetic), and is spoken in high valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be direct descendant of Sogdian and in academic literature has often been called Neo-Sogdian.^[2] There are between 1,500 and 2,000 Yaghnobi speakers (the speakers are divided into several communities: major group lives in Zafarobod area, than there are re-settlers in Yaghnob valley and some communities live in villages Zumand and Kukteppa and in Dushanbe).

Most Yaghnobi speakers are bilingual in Tajik. Yaghnobi is used mostly for daily family communication, while Tajik is used by Yaghnobi speakers for business and formal transactions. The fact that a single 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 has led to the belief by some (especially those reliant solely on Russian sources) that Yaghnobi or some derivative of it was used as a code for nefarious purposes.^{[citation needed]}

There are two main dialects, western and eastern, which differ primarily in phonetics. For example, to the historical *θ is t in the western dialects and in the eastern there is s, e.g. met - mes (day; from Sogdian mēθ ), and the western ay corresponds to eastern e, i.e. wayš - weš (grass; Sogdian wayš or wēš ); early-Sogdian group θr (later š) is reflected as sar in the east but as tir in the west - i.e. saráy - tiráy (three; Sogdian θrē/θray or šē/šay <δry>). Not only ay/e and t/s are recognised as relevant features to distinguish those two dialects, there are also some differences in verbal endings or in lexicon. In between those two main dialects there is a transitional dialect, that shares some features from the western language and some other from the eastern.

Contents 1 Writing 2 Sounds 2.1 Vowels 2.2 Consonants 3 Grammar 3.1 Noun 3.2 Pronouns 3.3 Verb 4 Lexicon 5 Sample text 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

Yaghnobi was a scriptless language until 1990s^[3], but according to some ethnographers the Yaghnobis used a modified form of the Arabic alphabet. Nowadays the language is transcribed by scholars using a modified Latin alphabet, with the following symbols:

a (á), ā (ā́), b, č, d, e (é), f, g, γ, h, ẖ, i (í), ī (ī́), ǰ, k, q, l, m (m̃), n (ñ), o (ó), p, r, s, š, t, u (ú), ū (ū́), ʏ (ʏ́), v, w (u̯), x, x°, y, z, ž, ع

In recent times Sayfiddīn Mīrzozoda form the Tajik Academy of Sciences uses a modified Tajik alphabet for writing Yaghnobi. This alphabet is quite unsuitable for Yaghnobi - it does not distinguish short and long vowels, the difference v/w or does not mark stress etc. Yaghnobi alphabet follows with Latin equivalents given in parenthesis:

А а (a) Б б (b) В в (v, w) Г г (g) Ғ ғ (γ) Д д (d) Е е (e) Ё ё (yo) Ж ж (ž) З з (z) И и (i, ī) Ӣ ӣ (i, ī) й (y) К к (k) Қ қ (q) Л л (l) М м (m) Н н (n) О о (o) П п (p) Р р (r) С с (s) Т т (t) У у (u, ū, ʏ) Ӯ ӯ (u, ū, ʏ) Ф ф (f) Х х (x) Хв хв (x°) Ҳ ҳ (h, ẖ) Ч ч (č) Ҷ ҷ (ǰ) Ш ш (š) Ю ю (yu, yū, yʏ) Я я (ya) ’ (ع)

Notes to the Cyrillic alphabet:

1) Letter й doos not have capital form, it never appears at the beginning of a word. Words beginning with ya-, yo- and yu-/yū-/yʏ- are written as я-, ё- and ю-; in a similar way are these combinations written in the middle of the word, f.ex. viyóra is виёра [vɪ̆ˈjɔ:ra].

2) The usage of letters ӣ and ӯ is not exactly known, it appears, that those letters can be used to distinguish two similar sounding words by orthography (f.ex. иранка and ӣранка, рупак and рӯпак). Maybe letter ӣ is also used as a stress marker as it is also in Tajik. Letter ӯ can also be used in Tajik loanwords to indicate a Tajik vowel /ů/ [ʊː], but it can have some other usage that is not known yet.

3) In comparison to Tajik, Yaghnobi does not use letters ъ and Э э - instead of Tajik ъ is used Yaghnobi letter ’ and Yaghnobi е covers both Tajik е and э for value /e/.

4) Letter combinations /ye/ and /yi/ are written as йе and йи, but those combinations appear rarely in Yaghnobi (mostly йе is rare). Yaghnobi letters е and и never have a value /ye/, /yi/ as they can have in Tajik.

5) Russian letters Ц ц, Щ щ, Ы ы and Ь ь, that can be used in Tajik loans from Russian are not used in Yaghnobi - the Russian words are written as they are pronounced by the Yaghnobi speakers, not as they are written originally in Russian (f.ex. aeroplane is самолет/самолёт in Russian, written самолёт in Tajik and pronounced [səmʌˈʎot] in Russian and similar in Tajik, in Yaghnobi it is written as самалиёт respecting Yaghnobi pronunciation [samalɪˈjo:tʰ] or [samajlˈo:tʰ]; word concert is borrowed to Yaghnobi from Russian концерт [kʌnˈʦe̠rt] in form кансерт [kʰanˈse:rtʰ]).

Yaghnobi includes 9 vowels - 3 short, 6 long - and 27 consonants.

short: i [i-ɪ-e], a [a(-æ)], u [(y-)u-ʊ-o] (all short vowels might be reduced approximately to [ə] in pretonic positions)

long: ī [i:], e [ɛ:(-e:)], ā [a:], o [(ɒ:-)ɔ:(-o:-u:)], ū [u:], ʏ [(u:-)y:(-i:)]

diphthongs: ay [ai̯] (ay in native words appears only in the western dialects, in the eastern it changes to e, ay can also appear in the eastern dialect, but by different etymology), oy [ɔ:i̯], uy [ʊi̯], ūy [u:i̯], ʏy [y:i̯], iy [ɪi̯]; ow [ɔ:u̯], aw [au̯]

Notes:

1) Please note that long e, o and ʏ are conventionally not written with the lengthening sign.

2) Long ā is recognised, but it appears only as a result of secondary lengthening (f.ex. ǰām < ǰaعm < ǰamع).

3) In recent borrowings from Tajik and/or Uzbek also ů [o:-ø:-ʊ:] can appear, but it's pronunciation usually merges with ū)

4) Vowel ʏ is recognised by some authorities, by some other not. It seams that it is an allophone of ū. The origin of ʏ comes from historical stressed *ū, but historical *ō, changed in Yaghnobi to ū, remains unchanged. It seams, that the status of ʏ is unstable and it is not recorded in all varieties of Yaghnobi, while ʏ is often realised as ū, ūy/ū^y, uy/u^y or ʏ. In summary: *ū (under stress) > ū/ūy/uy/ʏ or ū, *ō > ū (f.ex. vʏz/vūz, goat; Tajik buz, Avestan buza-). By some authorities ʏ can be transcribed as ü.

5) Vowel o can change to ū in front of a nasal (cf. Toǰīkistón × Toǰīkistū́n).

stops: p, b, t, d, k, ɡ, q (k and ɡ can be palatalised to k’ and ɡ’ respectively before a front vowel or after a front vowel at the end of a word)

fricatives: f, v, s, z, ʃ <š>, ʒ <ž>, χ , ʁ <γ>, χʷ , h, ħ <ẖ>, ʕ <ع>

affricates: ʧ <č>, ʤ <ǰ>

nasals: m, n (also ŋ and ɱ can occur as allophones of m and/or n before k/g or f/v)

trill: r

lateral: l

approximant: β̞ , j

Place of articulation →	Bilabial	Labio‐ dental	Alveolar	Post‐ alveolar or Palatal	Ve­lar	Uvu­lar		Pha­ryn‐ geal		Glottal
Manner of articulation ↓
Nasal	m		n
Plosive	p b		t d		k ɡ	q
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h
Approx­imant	β̞			j
Trill			r
Lateral Approx­imant			l

All voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless at the end of the word, in speech when after an unvoiced consonant comes a voiced one, the unoviced is voiced by assimilation.

Note: Sounds b, g, h, ẖ, ǰ, q, l and ع appear mostly in loan-words, native words with those sounds are rare, mostly onomatopoeic.

Note: In following sections symbols W, E and Tr. refer to the western, eastern or transitional dialect.

Case endings:

Case	Stem ending is consonant	Stem ending is vowel other than -a	Stem ending is -a
Sg. Direct (Nominative)	-	-	-a
Sg. Oblique	-i	-y	-ay (W), -e (E)
Pl. Direct (Nominative)	-t	-t	-ot
Pl. Oblique	-ti	-ti	-oti

Examples:

• kat : obl.sg. káti, pl. katt, obl.pl. kátti
• mayn (W) / men (E) : obl.sg. máyni/méni, pl. maynt/ment, obl.pl. máynti/ménti
• póda : obl.sg. póday/póde, pl. pódot, obl.pl. pódoti
• čalló : obl.sg. čallóy, pl. čallót, obl.pl. čallóti
• zindagī́ : obl.sg. zindagī́y, pl. zindagī́t, obl.pl. zindagī́ti
• mórti : obl.sg. mórtiy, pl. mórtit, obl.pl. mórtiti

• Also the izofat construction is used in Yaghnobi, it appears in phrases and constructions adopted form Tajik, or with words of Tajik origin.

Forms of the personal pronouns:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	man	mox
2nd	tu	šumóx
3rd	ax, iš	áxtit, íštit

The 2nd person plural, šumóx also finds use as the polite form of the 2nd person.

Oblique case:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	man	mox
2nd	taw	šumóx
3rd	áwi, it	áwtiti, ítiti

Pronominal enclitics:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	-(i)m	-(i)mox
2nd	-(i)t	-šint
3rd	-(i)š	-šint

Personal endings - present:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	-omišt	-imišt
2nd	-išt	-tišt (W, Tr.), -sišt (E)
3rd	-tišt (W), -či (E, Tr.)	-ošt

Personal endings - preterite (with augment a-):

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	a- -im	a- -om (W), a- -im (E, Tr.)
2nd	a- -i	a- -ti (W, Tr.), a- -si (E)
3rd	a- -	a- -or

By adding the ending -išt to the preterite a durative preterite is formed.

Participle: Present participle is formed by adding -na to the verbal stem. Past participle (or perfect participle) is formed by addition of -ta to the stem.

Infinitive is formed by addition of ending -ak to the verbal stem.

Negation is formed by prefix na-, in combination with augment in preterite it changes to ni-.

Copula - Present:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	īm	om
2nd	išt	ot (W, Tr.), os (E)
3rd	ast, -x, xast, ásti, xásti	or

Present knowledge of Yaghnobi lexicon comes from three main works - from a Yaghnobi-Russian dictionary presented in Yaghnobi texts by Andreyev and Peščereva and than from a supplementary wordlist presented in Yaghnobi grammar by Xromov. The last work is Yaghnobi-Tajik dictionary compiled by Xromov's student Sayfiddīn Mīrzozoda. What is now known, in Yaghnobi Tajik words represent the majority of lexicum (some 60%), than come words of Turkic origin (up to 5%, mainly from Uzbek) and few Russian words (approx. 2%; note that through Russian language also many international words came to Yaghnobi). So only about one third of the lexicon is Eastern-Iranian origin, those words can be easily comparable to those known from Sogdian, Ossetian, Pamir languages or Pashto.

"Fálγar-at Yáγnob asosí láf-šin ī-x gumū́n, néki áxtit toǰīkī́-pi wóvošt, mox yaγnobī́-pi. 'Mʏ́štif' wóvomišt, áxtit 'Muždív' wóvošt." [ˈfalʁæratʰ ˈjæʁnɔːb asɔːˈsiː ˈlafʆin ˈiːχ gʊˈmuːn ˈneːce ˈæχtɪtʰ tʰɔːʤiːˈciːpe ˈβ̞ɔːɔːʆtʰ moːʁ jæʁnɔːˈbiːpe ˈmyːʆtɪf ˈβ̞ɔːɔːmɪʆtʰ ˈæχtɪtʰ mʊʒˈdɪv ˈβ̞ɔːɔːʃtʰ]

"In Falghar and in Yaghnob is certainly one basic language, but they speak Tajik and we speak Yaghnobi. We say 'Müštif', they say 'Muždiv'."

(In Cyrillic orthography it could have been written this way: "Фалғарат Яғноб асоси лафшин их гумун, неки ахтит тоҷикӣпи воошт, мох яғнобӣпи. 'Муштиф' воомишт, ахтит 'Муждив' воошт.")

1. ^ Also transcribed as: Yaghnabi, Yagnobi or Yagnabi. - yaγnobī́ zivók (in Tajik variant of cyrillic script яғнобӣ зивок [jæʁnɔ:'bi: zɪ̆'vo:kʰ], Russian ягнобский язык /jagnobskij jazyk/, Tajik забони яғнобӣ /zabon-i yaġnobî/, Persian زبان یغنابى /zæbān-e yæġnābī/, Ossetic ягнобаг æвзаг /jagnobag ævzag/, German Jaghnobisch, Czech jaghnóbština, Slovak jagnóbčina, Ukrainian ягнобська мова /jahnobs’ka mova/, Polish jagnobski język; linguistic abbreviation: YAGH
2. ^ Bielmeier. R. Yaghnobi in Encyclopedia Iranica [1]
3. ^ The Cyrillic Tajik alphabet-based writing were invented by Sayfiddīn Mīrzozoda in 1990s. (Russian) Ягнобцы - Форум «Центральноазиатского исторического сервера»

• М. С. Андреев, Е. М. Пещерева, Ягнобские тексты с приложением ягнобско-русского словаря, Москва - Ленинград 1957.

(M. S. Andrejev, Je. M. Peščereva, Jagnobskije teksty s priloženijem jagnobsko-russkogo slovarja, Moskva - Leningrad 1957) (in Russian)

• М. Н. Боголюбов, Ягнобский (новосогдийский) язык. Исследование и материалы. Автореферат на соискание ученой степени доктора филологических наук, Ленинград 1956

(M. N.Bogoljubov, Jagnobskij /novosogdijskij/ jazyk. Issledovanija i materialy. Avtoreferat na soiskanije učenoj stepeni doktora filologičeskix nauk, Leningrad 1956) (in Russian)

• С. Мирзозода, Яғнобӣ зивок, Душанбе 1998.

(S. Mirzozoda, Yaġnobī zivok, Dušanbe 1998) (in Tajik)

• С. Мирзозода, Луғати яғнобӣ - тоҷикӣ, Душанбе 2002.

(S. Mirzozoda, Luġat-i yaġnobī - tojikī, Dušanbe 2002) (in Tajik)

• А. Л. Хромов, Ягнобский язык, Москва 1972.

(A. L. Xromov, Jagnobskij jazyk, Moskva 1972) (in Russian)

• http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/yaghnabis.shtml
• http://www.iles.umn.edu/faculty/bashiri/Tajling%20folder/yaghnob.html
• Yaghnobi blog & online Yaghnobi-Tajik-English lexicon

v • d • e Iranian languages
Old	Western: Median · Old Persian Eastern: Avestan† · Old Scythian†
Middle	Western: Parthian† · Middle Persian Eastern: Bactrian† · Khwarezmian† · Ossetic · Saka (Sacian) · Scythian · Sogdian
Modern	Western: Alviri (Vidâri) · Ashtiani · Old Azari† · Baluchi · Bashkardi · Central Iran · Persian Dari · Dari (Zoroastrian) · Gilaki · Gorani · Harzani · Judeo-Persian · Kurmanji · Laki · Luri · Bakhtiari Lori · Mazandarani · Ormuri · Sangsari · Parachi · New Persian · Sorani · Tajiki · Taleshi · Tat · Tati · Vafsi · Zazaki Eastern: Bartangi · Hindukush Group · Ishkashmi · Karakoram Group · Khufi · Munji · Oroshori · New Ossetic · Parachi · Pashto · Roshani (Roshni) · Sanglechi · Sarikoli · Shughni · Wakhi · Vanji† · Waziri · Yaghnobi · Yidgha · Yazgulami · Zebaki
Legend: † Extinct language (no surviving native speakers and no spoken descendant)