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Shughni

Xuǧnoni

With approximately 95,000 speakers, Shughni (sometimes locally known as "Pamiri") is the largest of the minority languages spoken in the Pamir mountains, sometimes serving as a lingua franca between different groups and heard in the regional center of Khorog.
The devil tempts six brothers - Shughni
Khurshed Alidudov - Shughni
The Bird and the Rose - Shughni
Pamiri Dance
Traditional Pamiri Dishes
On Hunting - Shughni
Private video
A Changing Climate - Shughni
Two Poems: Please Don't Ignore Me, Unsmiling - Shughni
Developing Our Language - Shughni
Private video
A Song by Lidush Habib - Shughni
The Snow Leopard - Shughni
How We Actually Make Things - Shughni
Lalajik (Lullaby) - Shughni/Tajik
My Life, My Work, and the Birds of My Homeland - Shughni
Private video
Private video
Private video
Making Cartoons in Shughni - Shughni
Adventure of a Shughni Intellectual - Shughni
Traditional Wedding (Part 2) - Shughni
Traditional Weddings (Part 1) - Shughni
Dirge - Shughni
About Shirinsho Shotemur - Shughni
Adventures of a Shughni Intellectual - Shughni
Over 60 Years of Marriage - Shughni
Lalajik (Lullaby) - Shughni
Lullabies and Language, From Khorog to New York - Shughni
Lalajik (Lullaby) - Shughni
The Story of Nasir Khusraw (Part 2) - Shughni
The Story of Nasir Khusraw (Part 1) - Shughni
Uz qalandari zamonum (I am a qalandar of these times) - Shughni
Bade mam dawre dʒudoe (Since the Separation) - Shughni
Poem - Shughni

With approximately 95,000 speakers, Shughni (sometimes locally known as “Pamiri”) is the largest of the minority languages spoken in the Pamir mountains, sometimes serving as a lingua franca between different groups and heard in the regional center of Khorog. Approximately 75,000 speakers are reported to live in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan, with a significant community (approximately 20,000) also across the border in Afghanistan’s adjacent Badakhshan Province. Until the 1930s Shughni was not a written language, although Shughni speakers participated in the Persian-language high culture of the region and today some are literate in Tajik and/or Russian.

Affiliation

Shughni is a Pamir language, part of the Southeastern Iranian group within the Indo-European language family. Spoken across the Pamir range, its closest relatives include Yazgulyam in Tajikistan, Sarikoli in China, Munji and Sanglechi-Ishkashimi in Afghanistan, Yidgha in Pakistan; and Wakhi, spoken in both Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Linguists have identified a variety itself called Shughni, Oroshor (Roshorvi), Roshani, Bartangi, and Khufi as closely related dialects, although the latter two are often considered distinct enough to be considered separate languages.

Endangerment

Compared to other Pamiri languages, Shughni remains comparatively vital, with a significant speaker base and many younger speakers. Several different orthographies have been proposed or developed since the 1930s, usually with Cyrillic or Roman letters, but none is in wide use. The Tajik Civil War and an influx of outsiders into the Pamir area have started having some effect on Shughni, although not to the extent as on other, smaller languages. The last two generations–first under Soviet rule and later with Tajik independence–have seen some shift to Russian and Tajik, especially among urbanized speakers.