Ishkashimi language

The name Ishkashimi (natively called Škošmi) may be borrowed from an Indo-Aryan form *śaka-kṣamā, meaning "land of the Saka".{{cite thesis |last=Novák |first=Ľubomír |date=2013 |title=Problem of Archaism and Innovation in the Eastern Iranian Languages |type=none |chapter= |publisher=Charles University |docket= |oclc= |url=https://www.academia.edu/4896441 |access-date=14 November 2023 }}

The Ishkashimi language has approximately 2500 speakers, of which 1500 speakers are in the Ishkashim and Wakhan districts and a variety of villages in the Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan, and 1000 speakers are in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan, particularly in Ishkoshim town and neighboring Ryn and Sumjin villages.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/isk|title=Ishkashimi|website=Ethnologue}}{{cite book |last1=Ahn |first1=E. S. |last2=Smagulova |first2=J. |title=Language Change in Central Asia |date=15 Jan 2016 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter}}

Ishkashimi is an Iranian language of the Indo-European family. Originally Ishkashimi was considered to belong to the Sanglechi-Ishkashimi family of Eastern Iranian languages. But recent research showed that such a combination was inappropriate for these dialects due to the significant linguistic differences between them. And on January 18, 2010 the parent language had retired and been split into what are now Sanglechi and Ishkashimi dialects. This subfamily has furthermore been considered a part of the Pamir languages group, together with the Wakhi language, and of the subgroup comprising Shughni, Rushani, Sarikoli, Yazgulyam, etc. However, this is an areal rather than genetic grouping.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7au4-y3Q-AC&pg=PP2|title=The Iranian Languages|last=Windfuhr|first=Gernot|date=2013-05-13|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135797034|language=en}}

Ishkashimi is a threatened language that does not have a status of official language in the regions of its use.

The Ishkashimi language vitality, despite the positive attitudes towards the language, is declining due to increasing use by native speakers of other languages like Dari in Afghanistan and Tajik in Tajikistan in a variety of domains, such as education, religious, private domain and others.Beck, Simone. [http://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/1/article/399?htmlOnce=yes#2.2 The Effect of Accessibility on Language Vitality: The Ishkashimi and the Sanglechi Speech Varieties in Afghanistan]. (2007) For example, due to Dari being the language of the education system, almost all Ishkashimi speakers, and especially the younger ones, have high Dari proficiency. Education can get complicated with the use of two languages, therefore schools prefer to use Dari. Instructions are solely in Dari, but rarely will teachers speak Ishkashimi to students for explanations. Similar to schools, religion is widely practiced with Dari especially for preaching and prayers, and when it comes to mass media and the government, Dari is exclusively used. Meanwhile, in the private and community domains both Dari and Ishkashimi languages are used equally. In Tajikistan areas Ishkashimi is a first choice for communication between family members and in private conversations between friends and coworkers, however the use of Tajik and Wakhi languages in other domains leads to decline in Ishkashimi use. There is an understanding in the Ishkashimi speaking community that the language can face a possible extinction because of its limited use .

There is an Afghan and Tajik Ishkashimi varieties of Ishkashimi language, and they are considered to be mutually comprehensible, as some sociolinguistic questionnaires demonstrated.

There are seven vowel phonemes: a, e, i, o, u, u, and ə

There are thirty two consonant phonemes:{{cite web |title=PHOIBLE 2.0 |url=https://phoible.org/inventories/view/2270 |website=phoible.org |access-date=27 July 2021}}

The use of the consonant [h] in the language is optional.

There are many exceptions, but as a rule stress falls on the last syllable in a word with multiple syllables. Sometimes, as a result of the rhythm in the phrase, the stress will freely move to syllables other than the last syllable.

• Grammatical gender is not used.
• There is no variation between adjectives and no distinction in number.
• The expression of comparatives and superlatives is done through syntax and adverbial modifiers, while pre- and postpositions and suffixes are used for case relations.

The word order in Ishkashimi is SOV (Subject–object–verb), however the order can be influenced by the varieties of the information structure in the sentences.{{Cite journal|last=Karvovskaya|first=Elena|date=2015|title='Also' in Ishkashimi: additive particle and sentence connector.|url=https://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/sl.39.3.07kar/details|journal=Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure|volume=17|pages=77}}

A significant part of Ishkashimi vocabulary contains words and syntactic structures that were borrowed from other languages, the reason behind it is a regular and close contact of Ishkashimi speakers with other languages.

Taboo words were formed and added into Ishkashimi language as a result of use of ancient epithets and of derivation of the words from other languages, often followed by the change of their meaning and pronunciation. Some of the taboo Ishkashimi words, which are also similarly seen as taboo in other Pamir languages, are:{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_WhLdCr3UEC&q=language+in+time+and+space+bauer&pg=PP1|title=Language in Time and Space: A Festschrift for Werner Winter on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday|last1=Bauer|first1=Brigitte L. M.|last2=Pinault|first2=Georges-Jean|date=2003-01-01|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783110897722|language=en}}

• Xirs - for bear
• Sabilik - for wolf
• Urvesok - for fox
• Si - for hare
• Purk - for mouse/rat

Ishkashimi is a non-written language that does not have a writing system or literature, and in the previous centuries the Persian language, which dominated the region, was used to write down some of the traditional folklore. There were, however, some efforts made at the end of the twentieth century to implement a writing system based on Cyrillic alphabet.

The first attempts by linguists to collect and organize data about the Ishkashimi language were made around the beginning of the 19th century, and were later continued by Russian and Ishkashimi linguists, like T. Pakhalina.{{cite web|last1=Tiessen, C., Abbess, E., Müller, K., Paul, D., Tiessen, G.|title=Ishkashimi: a father's language|url=https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/9082|website=Sil.org|access-date=10 February 2017|location=Tajikistan|page=3|format=Survey report|date=2010}} Before any systematic description and documentation of Ishkashimi language, the researchers collected some random vocabulary examples and mentioned the language in the works about Iranian languages. Only in the end of the twentieth century linguists created a more comprehensive description of Ishkashimi language.

Table of correspondence between Ishkashimi alphabets:

One of the current versions of the Ishkashimi alphabet:

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• Bauer, B. L., & Pinault, G. J. (Eds.). (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=q_WhLdCr3UEC&q=Language+in+time+and+space+bauer&pg=PR9 Language in time and space: a festschrift for Werner Winter on the occasion of his 80th birthday]. Mouton De Gruyter.
• Beck, S. (2012). The effect of accessibility on language vitality: the Ishkashimi and the Sanglechi speech varieties in Afghanistan. Linguistic Discovery, 10(2), pp. 196–234. [https://www.academia.edu/2471720/Dodykhudoeva_L.R._Ivanov_V.B._Language_immersion_in_endangered_Pamiri_communities_History_and_Language_interrelations_in_Endangered_languages_and_history_proceedings_of_the_conference_FEL_XIII_24-26_September_2009_Khorog_Tajikistan Data Elicitation in Endangered Pamiri communities: Interdependence of Language and History]. p. 3.
• Grierson, G. A. (1921). Specimens of Languages of the Eranian Family: Compiled and Edited by George Abraham Grierson. Superintendent Government Printing, India. pp. 505–508.
• Ishkashimi. [http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/sang1316 Glottolog].
• Ishkashimi. [https://www.ethnologue.com/language/isk Ethnologue].
• Tiessen, C., Abbess, E., Müller, K., Paul, D., Tiessen, G., (2010). "[https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/9082 Ishkashimi: a father's language]" (Survey report). Sil.org. Tajikistan. p. 3.
• Windfuhr, G. (2013). "The Iranian Languages". Routledge. {{ISBN|9781135797034}}, pp. 773–777.

{{refend}}

{{Incubator|isk}}

• [https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Tajling/Tajling.html The Languages of Tajikistan in Perspective] by Iraj Bashiri
• [https://www.angelfire.com/sd/tajikistanupdate/ishstory.html Ishkashimi story with English translation recorded] by George Abraham Grierson (1920)
• [https://www.angelfire.com/sd/tajikistanupdate/isheng.html Ishkashimi-English Vocabulary List]
• [https://www.angelfire.com/sd/tajikistanupdate/engpamirlanguages.html English-Ishkashimi- Zebaki-Wakhi-Yazghulami Vocabulary]
• Grierson G. A. Ishkashmi, Zebaki, and Yazghulami, an account of three Eranian dialects. (1920) [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026915441] [https://archive.org/details/ishkashmizebakiy00grieuoft]
• [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/lsi.php?volume=10&pages=567#page/1/mode/1up Grierson G. A. Specimens of Languages of the Eranian Family. Vol X. Linguistic Survey of India. (1968)]

{{Languages of Tajikistan}}

{{Languages of Afghanistan}}

{{Iranian languages}}

Category:Pamir languages

Category:Languages of Tajikistan

Category:Eastern Iranian languages

Category:Pamir languages of Afghanistan

Category:Endangered Iranian languages