KHOROG, October 21, 2009, Asia-Plus — The firs tissue of a newspaper in the Pamir languages,
Lozar
, has been brought out in Khorog.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the
Lozar
editor Khoushomad Alidodov said that the newspaper was published on an initiative of a group of local journalists with support from the Khorog-based public association, Dod Chid.
“The first issue contains materials abut the necessity of preservation of the Pamir languages, verses and short stories by young talented authors, as well as information about the cultural life of Gorno Badakhshan,” said Alidodov, “The main objective of our newspaper is in promoting preservation of the Pamir languages and further development of them.”
According to him, there are some 10 languages and dialects in Gorno Badakhshan and the newspaper tries to publish articles and stories in all languages spoken by Pamiri people.
Lozar now has a circulation of a 99 and it is distributed free of charge.
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.
