Shughni language


Shughni is one of the Pamir languages of the Southeastern Iranian language group. Its distribution is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan, Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan, Chitral district in Pakistan and Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in China.
Shughni-Rushani tends towards SOV word order, distinguishes a masculine and feminine gender in nouns and some adjectives, as well as the 3rd person singular of verbs. Shughni distinguishes between an absolutive and an oblique case in its system of pronouns. Rushani is noted for a typologically unusual 'double-oblique' construction, also called a 'transitive case', in the past tense. Normally Soviet school scientists consider Rushani as a close but independent language to Shughni, while Western school scientists codes Rushani as a dialect of Shughni due to Afghanistan Rushani speakers living in the Sheghnan district of Badakhshan Province.

Dialects

Rushani, Bartangi, Oroshori, Khufi and Shughni proper are considered to be dialects. However, Bartangi and Khufi are quite distinct and may be separate languages.

Phonology

Vowels

The following are the vowels of Shughni:
Long vowels occur as /,, /.

Consonants

The following are the consonants of Shughni:
  • /r/ can be realised as a trill or a tap .
  • Velar sounds /x, ɣ/ can also be realised as more fronted palatal sounds .

Orthography

Shughni people live in both Afghanistan and Tajikistan. For the past 100 years, each country has had diverging literary traditions and orthographic standards. On either side of the border, Shughni literaturists, being previously an unwritten language, has relied heavily on the existing orthographic standards and conventions in coming up with an orthography for Shughni language.
In Tajikistan, Persian alphabet was discarded in 1928, being replaced by Latin alphabet, and 11 years afterwards in 1939, Latin alphabet being replaced by Cyrillic alphabet. Tajik Cyrillic alphabet is of course based on Russian orthography, and similar to that of Uzbek language in neighboring Uzbekistan. Thus, the alphabets developed in Tajikistan for Shughni language, have been Cyrillic and Latin.
In Afghanistan, Dari, with the well-established Persian script, is the literary language of the nation. Pashto language too, with its own alphabet, derived from Persian, but with unique features and conventions, is the co-official language of Afghanistan. Thus, the Shughni orthography being developed by literaturists in Afghanistan has been derived from Persian, and borrowing letters from Pashto as needed.

Historical development

The question of whether the Shughni people possessed an ancient writing system is disputed. The only recorded mention of a possible ancient Shughni script comes from the Chinese traveler Xuanzang in the 7th century CE. In his work Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, he mentions a country called Shiqini, which researchers identify with Shughnan. According to Xuanzang, the writing system of Shiqini was similar to that of the Tocharians, probably referring to the Bactrian alphabet.
From the second half of the 19th century, attempts were made to adapt the Arabic script for Shughni. Some poetry and medical or historical works were written in it, but the practice never became widespread.
During the same period, Shughni began to attract scholarly attention. The first Shughni grammar was compiled by the English researcher Robert Shaw in 1877, using a Latin-based transcription with diacritics. In 1883, the Russian scholar D. L. Ivanov produced the first Shughni dictionary; his manuscripts used Cyrillic with additional Latin letters, while the published version employed the Anders Johan Sjögren's Cyrillic alphabet. In the early 20th century, further publications on Shughni appeared, though the language itself remained largely unwritten.

Latin alphabet

The Latin-based writing system used for the Shughni language comprises 39 letters, combining standard Latin characters with diacritical marks and several letters adopted from the Greek alphabet. Although this alphabet has never been officially standardized, it has been widely employed in books, academic articles, and linguistic studies devoted to the Shughni language and related Pamir languages:

Persian alphabet

The process of compiling a Persian derived alphabet for Shughni has been a long and iterative one, over a period starting from 2004, with the publication of the first book on phonology and orthography of Shughni language by Khair Mohammad Haidari.
This was followed by a 2011 publication by Dr. Nur Ali Dost from Montreal-based "Sohravardi Foundation for Iranian Studies"., a 2011 compilation by Mazhab Shah Zahoori and two other by Alishah Sabbar and Calgary-based Dr. Khush Nazar Parmerzad.
This led to controversy, correspondence, and collaboration between Shughni literaturists and academics, who over the following years, agreed upon specific set of consonants, and a specific standardized way of representing vowels.
The Afghan government has officially adopted Shughni orthography as well, and the Ministry of Education has created textbooks to be used in Badakhshan Province.

Letters

Below table demonstrates the 44-letter Persian-derived Shughni alphabet.

Vowels

Shughni language consists of 10 vowels. There are 3 short vowels, which have 3 corresponding long vowels, and there are 4 additional long vowels. One of the topics of controversy in the process of compiling and standardizing Shughni orthography, was how to express all 9 of the vowels. In this process, letters from Pashto and Urdu have been borrowed, a new letter has been created and due to a lack of the sound, the letter he has been repurposed from a consonant grapheme to a vowel one.
Below tables demonstrate how vowels are to be written in different positions within a word. Note that some vowels don't occur in specific positions in Shughni phonology. Also note that diacritics are generally dropped in writing. Also note that there exists free variation between the short vowels in colloquial Shughni.

Sample Text

Below is a sample text, the first few passages from translations of a British nursery rhyme, The Old Woman and Her Pig.
Persian Script
Cyrillic ScriptЙи кампӣр г̌никик хӯ чӣд зидӣдов̌анд вадт йи ҙуликик ҷукчин шаш пӯли йи вирӯд. Йа йи лу̊д иди: «В̌уз кӯ ми ҙуликик шаш пӯли қти чӣз зӗм?» —«В̌уз бозор са̄м хӯ йи хӯгбуц харӣтум.» Йа тар бозор сат хӯ йи хӯгбуци харӣт чӯд.
Latin ScriptYi kampīr ɣ̌inikik xu čīd zidīdowand vad at yi ʒulikik jukčin xoɣ̌ pūli virūd. Yāyi bād lůd idi: «Wuz ku mi ʒulikik xoɣ̌ pūl qati čīz zȇm?» —«Wuz tar bozor sām xu yi xūgbuc xarītum.» Yā tar bozor sat xu yi xūgbuci xarīt čūd.
Persian Translationپیرزنی در حال جارو کردن خانه‌اش بود و یک سکه خورد و کج شده شش پنسی را پیدا کرد. او به خودش گفت که: «با این سکه خورد شش پنسی چه کنم؟»—«من به بازار می روم و یک خوکچه را می خرم.» پیرزن به بازار رفت و یک خوکچه را خرید.
Persian Translation Пиразан хонаашро руфта истода буд, ки сиккаи шикастаи шаш пенсӣро ёфт. Худ ба худ гуфт: «Ин сиккаи шикастаи шаш пенсӣро чӣ кунам?» — «Ба бозор рафта, як хукча мехарам.» Пиразан ба бозор рафта, хукча харид.
Pashto Translationیوه بوډۍ ښځه په خپل کور کې جاړو کوله کله چې هغې د شپږو پیسو ټوټه وموندله. له ځان سره يې وويل: "زه د دې موندلې شوي شپږ پیسو سره څه وکړم؟" - "زه به بازار ته لاړه شم او يو سور به واخلم." بوډۍ بازار ته لاړه او یو خنزیر یې واخیست.

Literature

  • Edelman, D. I. and Leila R. Dodykhudoeva. "Shughni." In: Gernot Windfuhr, The Iranian Languages, 787-824. London & New York: Routledge.
  • Olson, Karen. Shughni Phonology Statement. SIL International.
  • Zarubin, I. I.. Shugnanskie teksty i slovar. Moskva: Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR.