This article or section should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used.See why.(July 2021)
Most Yaghnobi speakers are bilingual in Tajik.[6] 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 belief by some that Yaghnobi or some derivative of it was used as a secret code.[7]
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.[8]
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⟨myθ⟩. Western ay corresponds to Eastern e: wayš – weš 'grass' from Sogdian wayš or wēš⟨wyš⟩. 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⟨δry⟩. 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 mullahs used the Arabic script for writing the language before 1928, mainly when they needed to hide some information from the Tajiks.[9]
Nowadays, the language is largely transcribed by scholars using a modified Latin alphabet, with the following symbols: a (á), ā (ā́), b, č, d, e (é), f, g, ɣ, h, ḥ, 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
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.[10]:23 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.[10]:8–9 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 [v] and [β], 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 the list below.[10]:24
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[vɪ̆ˈjoːra].
Use of ӣ and ӯ is uncertain, but they seem to distinguish two similar-sounding words: иранка and ӣранка, рупак and рӯпак. 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 ⟨ů⟩[ɵː], but it can have some other unknown use.[citation needed]
In older texts, the alphabet did not use letters Ъ ъ and Э э. Instead of Tajik ъ, Yaghnobi ’ and е covered both Tajikе and э for /e/. Later, the letters were integrated into the alphabet so the older етк was changed into этк to represent the pronunciation [ˈeːtkʰ] (and not *[ˈjeːtkʰ]). Older ша’мак was changed to шаъмак[ʃʲɑʕˈmak].
/je/ and /ji/ are written е and и. Yaghnobi и can be */ji/ after a vowel like in Tajik, and ӣ after a vowel is */jiː/. Also, е has two values: word-initially and after a vowel, it is pronounced [jeː], but after a consonant, it is [eː]. /je/ is rare in Yaghnobi and is only in Tajik or Russian loans, the only example for /je/ is Европа[ˈjeːvrɔpa], 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 самолет/самолёт in Russian, written самолёт in Tajik and pronounced [səmɐˈlʲɵt] in Russian and in Tajik. In Yaghnobi, it is written as самалиёт and follows the Yaghnobi pronunciation [samalɪˈjoːtʰ] or [samajˈloːtʰ]. The word concert is borrowed from Russianконцерт[kɐnˈtsɛrt] in the form кансерт[kʰanˈseːrtʰ]). Compare with Tajik консерт.
Phonology
Yaghnobi includes 9 monophthongs (3 short, 6 long), 8 diphthongs, and 27 consonants.
The diphthongs in Yaghnobi are /ai̯,ɔːi̯,ʊi̯,uːi̯,yːi̯,ɪi̯,ɔːu̯,au̯/. /ai̯/ only appears in native words in the western dialects, eastern dialects have /eː/ in its place, except in loanwords.
/ɑː/ was the result of compensatory lengthening (/dʒɑːm<dʒaʕm<dʒamʕ/).
In recent loans from Tajik [ɵː] and/or Uzbek[ɵ, ø] can also appear, but its pronunciation usually merges to /uː/.
/yː/ is only recognised by some authorities. It seems that it is an allophone of /uː/, originating from historical stressed *ū, but historical *ō, changed in Yaghnobi to ū, remains unchanged. It seems that /yː/ is unstable, and it is not recorded in all varieties of Yaghnobi. It is often realised as [uː(j),uːʲ,ʊj,ʊʲ], as well as /yː/. By summary: *ū́(under stress) > ū/ūy/uy/ʏ or ū, *ō > ū (вуз[vyːz~vuːz] "goat"; Tajik: буз, Avestan: 𐬠𐬏𐬰𐬀).
Before a nasal, /ɔː/ can change to /uː/, e.g. Тоҷикистун[tɔːdʒɪkɪsˈtɔːn~tɔːdʒɪkɪsˈtuːn] "Tajikistan", нум[nɔːm~nuːm] "name".
/eː/ is considered as a long vowel, however before /h,ʕ/, its pronunciation is somewhat shorter, and is realised as a half-short (or even short) vowel. Etymologically, the "short" e before /h,ʕ/ comes from older *i (there is an alternation e/i before /h,ʕ/) 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 [ˈdɪhak] vs. 3rd sg. present [ˈdɛ(ˑ)htʃɪ].
In Yaghnobi dialects, there can be seen a different development of historical svarabhakti vowel: in the Western and Transitional dialects, it is rendered as /ɪ/ (or /ʊ/ under certain circumstances), but in the Eastern dialects it changes to /a/ (but also /ɪ/ or /ʊ/): *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 /ʊ/ 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 /ɪ~a/ can be seen also in Tajik loans where an unstressed vowel can undergo this change: W./Tr. širī́k vs. E. šarī́k < Tajik шарик/šarīk/ "partner", W./Tr. xipár vs. E. xapár < Tajik хабар/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 /a/ changes to /ɔː/ 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 /a/ changes to /ɔː/ after /χʷ/, /χ/ 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.
/k/ and /ɡ/ are palatalised to [c] and [ɟ] respectively before a front vowel or after a front vowel word-finally.
[ɦ] appears as an allophone[of what?] between vowels or voiced consonants.
/m/, /n/ both have allophones [ŋ] and [ɱ] before /k,ɡ/ and /f,v/, 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 [ɣ], not [ɢ].
The consonants /b/, /ɡ/, /h/, /ħ/, /dʒ/, /q/, /l/, /ʕ/ 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.
Knowledge of Yaghnobi lexicon comes from three main works: from a Yaghnobi-Russian dictionary presented in Yaghnobi Texts by Andreyev and Peščereva and then from a supplementary word list presented in Yaghnobi Grammar by Xromov. The last work is Yaghnobi-Tajik Dictionary compiled by Xromov's student, Sayfiddīn Mīrzozoda, himself a Yaghnobi native speaker. Yaghnobi Tajik words represent the majority of the lexicon (some 60%), followed by words of Turkic origin (up to 5%, mainly from Uzbek) and a few Russian words (about 2%; through the Russian language, also many international words came to Yaghnobi). Only a third of the lexicon is of Eastern-Iranian origin and can be easily comparable to those known from Sogdian, Ossetian, the Pamir languages or Pashto.[citation needed]
A Yaghnobi-Czech dictionary was published in 2010 by the Charles University Faculty of Arts.[14]
Sample texts
A group of Yaghnobi-speaking schoolchildren from Tajikistan
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↑ Kazakevich, Olga; Kibrik, Aleksandr (2007). "Language Endangerment in the CIS". In Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.). Language Diversity Endangered. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. p.238. doi:10.1515/9783110197129.233.
↑ 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.
(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)
(M. N. Bogoljubov: Jagnobskij jazyk. In: V. V. Vinogradov (ed.): Jazyki narodov SSSR. Tom pervyj: Indojevropejskije jazyki. Moskva, 1966, p.342–361) (in Russian)
С. Мирзозода, Яғнобӣ зивок, Душанбе 1998.
(S. Mirzozoda, Yaɣnobī zivok, Dušanbe 1998) (in Tajik)
С. Мирзозода, Луғати яғнобӣ – тоҷикӣ, Душанбе 2002.
(S. Mirzozoda, Luɣat-i yaɣnobī – tojikī, Dušanbe 2002) (in Tajik)
(A. L. Xromov, Jagnobskij jazyk. In. V. S. Rastorgujeva (ed.): Osnovy iranskogo jazykoznanija. Novoiranskije jazyki II. – Vostočnaja gruppa. Moskva 1987, p.644–701.) (in Russian)
Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.
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