KHOROG, July 24, 2009, Asia-Plus — A scientific conference to discuss ways and methods of promoting development of the Yaghnobi and Pamir languages was held in Khorog on July 22.
The conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the designation of Tajik as the state language in 1989 brought together researchers from the Khorog Institute of Humanities, State Khorog University, Tajik Writers’ Union, as well as local authorities and media.
The conference participants discussed issues related to ways and methods to raise the status of the Tajik language through formation of scientifically founded concept of the country’s language policy.
Speaking at the conference, Director of the Khorog Institute of Humanities, Dr. Shodikhon Yusufbekov, noted that the new state language gave the Yaghnobi and Pamir languages a special status allowing not only using them but also promoting further development of them.
“The other question is how to use these languages and how to develop them,” said Dr. Yusufbekov, “No appropriate laws have been worked out so far and no methods have been defined to study and teach them, you know.”
According to him, organization of special radio and TV programs, pages in these languages in local newspapers as well as various cultural and educational events could promote development of the languages. “Besides, it would also be good to introduce in primary classes a program of a comparative study of the Tajik language through the study of the Pamiri and Yaghnobi languages,” Dr. Yusufbekov said.
The Pamir languages are a subgroup of the Eastern Iranian languages, spoken by Pamiri people in the Pamir Mountains, primarily along the Panj River and its tributaries. This includes the Badakhshan Province of northeastern Afghanistan and the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan. Smaller communities can be found in the adjacent areas of Pakistan where many have settled in recent decades. Sarikoli, one of the languages of the Pamir group, is spoken beyond the Sarikoli ridge on the Afghanistan-China border, and thus qualifies as the eastern-most of the extant Iranian languages.
Members of the Pamir language group include Shughni, Sarikoli, Yazgulyami, Munji, Sanglechi-Ishkashimi, Wakhi, and Yidha. These are Southeastern Iranian languages.
The Yaghnobi language is also a living East Iranian language. Yaghnobi is spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshon area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be a direct descendant of Sogdian and has often been called Neo-Sogdian in academic literature.
