Yaghnobi is an Eastern Iranian language spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be a direct descendant of Sogdian or closely related to it and has sometimes been called Neo-Sogdian in academic literature.Bielmeier. R. Yaghnobi in Encyclopedia Iranica There are some 12,500 Yaghnobi speakers, divided into several communities. The principal group lives in the Zafarobod area. There are also resettlers in the Yaghnob Valley. Some communities live in the villages of Zumand and Kůkteppa and in Dushanbe or its vicinity.
Most Yaghnobi speakers are bilingual in Tajik, a dialect of Persian. Yaghnobi is mostly used for daily family communication, and Tajik is used by Yaghnobi-speakers for business and formal transactions. A 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. The account led to the assumption by some that Yaghnobi or some derivative of it was used as a secret code.See С. И. Климчицкий: Секретный язык у ягнобцев и язгулёмцев. In: Академия наук СССР – Труды Таджикистанской базы, т. IX – 1938 – История – язык – литература. Akademijaji Fanho SSSR: Asarhoji ʙazaji Toçikiston, çildi IX – Tarix – zaʙon – adaʙijot. Москва – Ленинград (: Издательство Академии наук СССР), 1940. 104–117.
The language is taught in elementary school within the ethnic community, and Tajikistan has also enacted legislation to support education in minority languages, including Yaghnobi.The two deportations of Yaghnob Dialects There are two main dialects: a western and an eastern one. They differ primarily in phonetics. For example, historical *θ corresponds to t in the western dialects and s in the eastern: met – mes 'day' from Sogdian mēθ . Western ay corresponds to Eastern e: wayš – weš 'grass' from Sogdian wayš or wēš . The early Sogdian group θr (later ṣ̌) is reflected as sar in the east but tir in the west: saráy – tiráy 'three' from Sogdian θrē/θray or ṣ̌ē/ṣ̌ay . There are also some differences in verbal endings and the lexicon. In between the two main dialects is a transitional dialect that shares some features of both other dialects.
Writing Yaghnobi was mostly unwritten until recent times, but according to Andreyev, some of the Yaghnobi scholars used the Persian script for writing the language before 1928, mainly when they needed to hide some information from the Tajiks.М. С. Андреев, Материалы по этнографии Ягноба, Душанбе (Дониш) 1970, pp. 38–39
Nowadays, the language is largely transcribed by scholars using a modified Latin alphabet, with the following symbols: +a (á)bčde (é)fgɣhḥi (í)ī (ī́)ǰkqlm (m̃)n (ñ)o (ó)prsštu (ú)ū (ū́)ʏ (ʏ́)vw (u̯)xx°yzž In the 1990s, Sayfiddin Mirzozoda of the Tajik Academy of Sciences introduced a modified Tajik alphabet for writing Yaghnobi, in addition to several textbooks intended to for elementary school students. The shared orthography between Tajik and Yaghnobi transliterated according to Mirzozoda’s scheme offered the promise of improved literacy among Tajik-literate Yaghnobi youth, but since 2006 the Tajik government has stopped providing funding for the printing of Yaghnobi textbooks and the hiring of teachers of Yaghnobi, and so these efforts have largely stagnated. Additionally, Mirzozoda's method of transliteration presents a few notable drawbacks in that it does not distinguish between the short and long forms of every vowel, it does not distinguish between and , and it has no inherent markings for the indication of stress, as can be seen in Mirzozoda's alphabet, reproduced with its IPA correspondences in this table below. +А а (, )Б б ()В в (, )Г г ()Ғ ғ ()Д д ()Е е (, )Ё ё (, )Ж ж ()З з ()И и ()Ӣ ӣ ()й ()К к ()Қ қ ()Л л ()М м ()Н н ()О о (, )П п ()Р р ()С с ()Т т ()У у ()Ӯ ӯ ()Ф ф ()Х х ()Ҳ ҳ ()Ч ч ()Ҷ ҷ ()Ш ш ()Ю ю (, )Я я ()Ъ ъ ()
Cyrillic script The Yaghnobi Alphabet was same as Tajik but with Ԝ. А а Б б В в Ԝ ԝ Г г Ғ ғ Д д Е е Ё ё Ж ж З з И и Ӣ ӣ Й й К к Қ қ Л л М м Н н О о П п Р р С с Т т У у Ӯ ӯ Ф ф Х х Ҳ ҳ Ч ч Ҷ ҷ Ш ш Ъ ъ Э э Ю ю Я я Notes to Cyrillic: The letter й never appears at the beginning of a word. Words beginning with ya-, yo- and yu-/yū-/yʏ are written as я-, ё- and ю-, and the combinations are written in the middle of the word: viyóra is виёра . Use of ӣ and ӯ is uncertain, but they seem to distinguish two similar-sounding words: and , and . Perhaps ӣ is also used as a stress marker as it is also in Tajik, and ӯ can also be used in Tajik loanwords to indicate a Tajik vowel , but it can have some other unknown use. In older texts, the alphabet did not use letters Ъ ъ and Э э. Instead of Tajik ъ, Yaghnobi ’ and е covered both Tajik е and э for . Later, the letters were integrated into the alphabet so the older was changed into to represent the pronunciation (and not ). Older was changed to . and are written е and и. Yaghnobi и can be after a vowel like in Tajik, and ӣ after a vowel is . Also, е has two values: word-initially and after a vowel, it is pronounced , but after a consonant, it is . is rare in Yaghnobi and is only in Tajik or Russian loans, the only example for is , a Russian loanword. Russian letters Ц ц, Щ щ, Ы ы and Ь ь, which can be used in Tajik loans from Russian, are not used in Yaghnobi. They are written as they are pronounced by the Yaghnobi speakers, not as they are written originally in Russian: aeroplane is in Russian, written in Tajik and pronounced in Russian and in Tajik. In Yaghnobi, it is written as and follows the Yaghnobi pronunciation or . The word concert is borrowed from Russian in the form ). Compare with Tajik .
Phonology Yaghnobi includes 9 monophthongs (3 short, 6 long), 8 diphthongs, and 27 consonants.
Vowels FrontBackCloseи и/ӣ у/ӯ у у/ӯ Midе/э о Openа а The diphthongs in Yaghnobi are . only appears in native words in the western dialects, eastern dialects have in its place, except in loanwords.
The monophthongs have these allophonic variants:
was the result of compensatory lengthening (). In recent loans from Tajik and/or Uzbek can also appear, but its pronunciation usually merges to . is only recognised by some authorities. It seems that it is an allophone of , originating from historical stressed *ū, but historical *ō, changed in Yaghnobi to ū, remains unchanged. It seems that is unstable, and it is not recorded in all varieties of Yaghnobi. It is often realised as , as well as . By summary: *ū́ (under stress) > ū/ūy/uy/ʏ or ū, *ō > ū ( "goat"; , ). Before a nasal, can change to , e.g. "Tajikistan", "name". is considered as a long vowel, however before , its pronunciation is somewhat shorter, and is realised as a half-short (or even short) vowel. Etymologically, the "short" e before comes from older *i (there is an alternation e/i before ) if the historical cluster *ih or *iع appears in a closed syllable, and *i changes to e. In open syllables, the change did not take place (that is similar to Tajik). The change can be seen in the verb dih-/deh-: infinitive vs. 3rd sg. present . In Yaghnobi dialects, there can be seen a different development of historical svarabhakti vowel: in the Western and Transitional dialects, it is rendered as (or under certain circumstances), but in the Eastern dialects it changes to (but also or ): *θray > *θəráy > W./Tr. tiráy vs. E. saráy but *βrāt > *vərāt > W./Tr./E. virót.When the second vowel is a back vowel, *ə usually changes to in Western or Transitional dialects: *(čə)θβār > *tfār > *təfór > W./Tr. tufór (but also tifór) vs. E. tafór, *pδūfs- > *bədū́fs > W./Tr./E. budū́fs-. The later change appears also in morphology: verb tifárak (the form is same in all three dialects) has form in 3rd sg. present tufórči < *təfár- < *tfar- < *θβar-. The alternation can be seen also in Tajik loans where an unstressed vowel can undergo this change: W./Tr. širī́k vs. E. šarī́k < Tajik /šarīk/ "partner", W./Tr. xipár vs. E. xapár < Tajik /xabar/ "news". The former svarabhakti vowels are often ultra-short or reduced in pronunciation, and they can even disappear in fast speech: xišáp /xišáp vs. xⁱšáp vs. xšap/ < *xəšáp < *xšap. The changes to in verbal stems of type -Car- if an ending containing historic *θ or *t is added: tifár-, infinitive tifárak, 1st sg. present tifarómišt but 3rd sg. present tufórči (ending -či comes from older -tišt), 2nd pl. present W./Tr. tufórtišt E. tufórsišt, x°ar-: x°árak : x°arómišt : xórči : xórtišt/xórsišt (when changes to after , loses its labilisation). The change takes place with all verbs of Yaghnobi origin and also with older loans from Tajik. For new loans, a remains unchanged.: gudár(ak) : gudórči vs. pár(ak) : párči: the first verb is an old loan from Tajik guzaštan < guδaštan, the later a recent loan from parrīdan.
Consonants LabialAlveolarPost‐alveolarVelarUvularPharyngealGlottalplainlab.Nasalм н Stopvoicelessп т к қ voicedб д г Affricatevoicelessч voicedҷ Fricativevoicelessф с ш х хԝ ҳ ҳ voicedв з ж ғ ъ Approximantԝ л й Trillр and are palatalised to and respectively before a front vowel or after a front vowel word-finally. appears as an allophone of between vowels or voiced consonants. , both have allophones and before and , respectively All voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless at the end of the word when after an unvoiced consonant comes a voiced one. Likewise, unvoiced consonants become voiced by assimilation. In voicing q, the voiced opposition is , not . The consonants , , , , , , , appear mostly in loanwords. Native words with those sounds are rare and mostly onomatopoeic.
Morphology W, E and Tr. refer to the Western, Eastern and Transitional dialects.
Noun 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 izofa construction is used in Yaghnobi and appears in phrases and constructions adopted from Tajik or with words of Tajik origin.
Pronouns Person Nominative Singular Oblique Singular Enclitic Singular Nominative Plural Oblique Plural Enclitic Plural 1st man man -(i)m mox mox -(i)mox 2nd tu taw -(i)t šumóx šumóx -šint 3rd ax, iš áwi, (aw), íti, (īd) -(i)š áxtit, íštit áwtiti, ítiti -šint
The second person plural, šumóx is also used as the polite form of the second person pronoun.
Numerals Eastern Yaghnobi Western Yaghnobi Tajik loan 1 ī ī yak, yag, ya 2 dūRonald Emmerick, Iranian, in Indo-European Numerals (1992, →ISBN, edited by Jadranka Gvozdanovic), page 312 dʏ du 3 saráy tiráy se, say 4 tufór, tafór tufór, tifór čor 5 panč panč panǰ 6 uxš uxš šiš, šaš 7 avd, aft aft haft 8 ašt ašt hašt 9 nau̯ nau̯ nu(h) 10 das das daʰ 11 das ī das ī yozdáʰ 12 das dū das dʏ duwozdáʰ 13 das saráy das tiráy senzdáʰ 14 das tufór / tafór das tufór / tifór čordáʰ 15 das panč das panč ponzdáʰ 16 das uxš das uxš šonzdáʰ 17 das avd / aft das aft habdáʰ, havdáʰ 18 das ašt das ašt haždáʰ 19 das nau̯ das nau̯ nūzdáʰ 20 bīstRonald Emmerick, Iranian, in Indo-European Numerals (1992, →ISBN, edited by Jadranka Gvozdanovic), page 312. 30 bī́st-at das bī́st-at das sī 40 dū bīst dʏ bīst čil 50 dū nī́ma bīst dʏ nī́ma bīst pinǰóʰ, panǰóʰ 60 saráy bīst tiráy bīst šast 70 saráy nī́ma bīst tiráy nī́ma bīst, tiráy bī́st-u das haftód 80 tufór / tafór bīst tufór / tifór bīst haštód 90 tufór / tafór nī́ma bīst tufór / tifór nī́ma bīst navád 100 (sat) (sat) sad 1000 hazór
Verb Personal endings – present: