Yaghnobi language

Writing

Cyrillic script

1. The letter й never appears at the beginning of a word. Words beginning with ya-, yo- and yu-/yū-/yʏ are written as я-, ё- and ю-, and the combinations are written in the middle of the word: viyóra is виёра.
2. Use of ӣ and ӯ is uncertain, but they seem to distinguish two similar-sounding words: иранка and ӣранка, рупак and рӯпак. Perhaps ӣ is also used as a stress marker as it is also in Tajik, and ӯ can also be used in Tajik loanwords to indicate a Tajik vowel, but it can have some other unknown use.
3. In older texts, the alphabet did not use letters Ъ ъ and Э э. Instead of Tajik ъ, Yaghnobi ’ and е covered both Tajik е and э for. Later, the letters were integrated into the alphabet so the older етк was changed into этк to represent the pronunciation . Older ша’мак was changed to шаъмак.
4. and are written е and и. Yaghnobi и can be after a vowel like in Tajik, and ӣ after a vowel is. Also, е has two values: word-initially and after a vowel, it is pronounced, but after a consonant, it is. is rare in Yaghnobi and is only in Tajik or Russian loans, the only example for is Европа, a Russian loanword.
5. Russian letters Ц ц, Щ щ, Ы ы and Ь ь, which can be used in Tajik loans from Russian, are not used in Yaghnobi. They are written as they are pronounced by the Yaghnobi speakers, not as they are written originally in Russian: aeroplane is самолет/самолёт in Russian, written самолёт in Tajik and pronounced in Russian and in Tajik. In Yaghnobi, it is written as самалиёт and follows the Yaghnobi pronunciation or. The word concert is borrowed from Russian концерт in the form кансерт ). Compare with Tajik консерт.

Phonology

Vowels

• The monophthongs have these allophonic variants:
• * :
• * :
• * :
• * :
• * :
• * :
• * :
• * :
• * :
• was the result of compensatory lengthening.
• In recent loans from Tajik and/or Uzbek can also appear, but its pronunciation usually merges to.
• is only recognised by some authorities. It seems that it is an allophone of, originating from historical stressed *ū, but historical *ō, changed in Yaghnobi to ū, remains unchanged. It seems that is unstable, and it is not recorded in all varieties of Yaghnobi. It is often realised as, as well as. By summary: *ū́ '''' > ū/ūy/uy/ʏ or ū, *ō > ū.
• Before a nasal, can change to, e.g. Тоҷикистун "Tajikistan", нум "name".
• is considered as a long vowel, however before, its pronunciation is somewhat shorter, and is realised as a half-short vowel. Etymologically, the "short" e before comes from older *i if the historical cluster *ih or *iع appears in a closed syllable, and *i changes to e. In open syllables, the change did not take place. The change can be seen in the verb dih-/deh-: infinitive vs. 3rd sg. present.
• In Yaghnobi dialects, there can be seen a different development of historical svarabhakti vowel: in the Western and Transitional dialects, it is rendered as, but in the Eastern dialects it changes to : *θray > *θəráy > W./Tr. tiráy vs. E. saráy but *βrāt > *vərāt > W./Tr./E. virót.

• The changes to in verbal stems of type -Car- if an ending containing historic *θ or *t is added: tifár-, infinitive tifárak, 1st sg. present tifarómišt but 3rd sg. present tufórči, 2nd pl. present W./Tr. tufórtišt E. tufórsišt, x°ar-: x°árak : x°arómišt : xórči : xórtišt/xórsišt. The change takes place with all verbs of Yaghnobi origin and also with older loans from Tajik. For new loans, a remains unchanged.: gudár : gudórči vs. pár : párči: the first verb is an old loan from Tajik guzaštan < guδaštan, the later a recent loan from parrīdan.

Consonants

• and are palatalised to and respectively before a front vowel or after a front vowel word-finally.
• appears as an allophone of between vowels or voiced consonants.
• , both have allophones and before and, respectively
• All voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless at the end of the word when after an unvoiced consonant comes a voiced one. Likewise, unvoiced consonants become voiced by assimilation. In voicing q, the voiced opposition is, not.
• The consonants,,,,,,, appear mostly in loanwords. Native words with those sounds are rare and mostly onomatopoeic.

Morphology

Noun

• Also, the izofa construction is used in Yaghnobi and appears in phrases and constructions adopted from Tajik or with words of Tajik origin.

Pronouns

Verb

Lexicon

Sample texts