The Sarikoli language (also Sariqoli, Selekur, Sarikul, Sariqul, Sariköli) is a member of the Pamir subgroup of the Southeastern Iranian languages spoken by the Pamiris in Xinjiang, China and Chitral, Pakistan. It is officially referred to as "the Tajik language" in China, although it is an Eastern Iranian language and thus different from Tajik spoken in Tajikistan, which is a variety of Persian, a Western Iranian language. The language is linguistically closely related to Shughni and Yazghulami.

Nomenclature Sarikoli is officially referred to as Tajik (, Tǎjíkèyǔ) in China.A wide variety of varied transcriptions of the name "Sarikoli" are used in linguistic discussions, such as , Sàlǐkùěryǔ, , Sàléikuòlèyǔ, , Sèlèkùěryǔ or , Sǎlǐkēlǐyǔ. Sarikoli is only distantly related to Tajik, a variety of Persian, as Sarikoli belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch and is more closely related to the other Pamir languages of Badakhshan, whereas Persian belongs to the Western Iranian branch, with the Tajik variety of Persian being spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is also referred to as Tashkorghani, after the ancient capital of the Sarikoli kingdom—now the Tashkurgan (or Taxkorgan) Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang, China. However, the usage of the term Tashkorghani is not widespread among scholars.

The earliest written accounts in English are from the 1870s which generally use the name Sarikoli to refer to the language, but some written accounts since that time may use a different pronunciation derived from transcribing Chinese phonetics of the term into English as "Selekur(i)". Modern Chinese researchers often mention Sarikoli and Tajik names in their papers.

Distribution of speakers

The number of speakers is around 16,000 (as of 2000), most of whom reside in the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in Southern Xinjiang, China, and the Upper Chitral District of Pakistan, specifically the Broghil Valley. The Chinese name for the Sarikoli language, as well as the usage of Sarikol as a toponym, is Sàléikuòlèyǔ (). Speakers in China typically use Chinese and Uyghur to communicate with people of other ethnic groups in the area.

Writing system The language has no official written form. Linguist Gao Erqiang, publishing in China, used IPA to transcribe the sounds of Sarikoli in his book and dictionary, while Tatiana N. Pakhalina, publishing in Russia, used an alphabet similar to that of the Wakhi language in hers. The majority of Sarikoli-speakers attend schools using Uyghur as the medium of instruction.

Uyghur alphabet In recent years, Sarikoli speakers in China have used a modified version of the Uyghur alphabet (itself a modified version of the Persian alphabet) to spell out their language.

+Sarikoli AlphabetNo.LetterIPA Latin Eq.No.LetterIPA Latin Eq.1 O o20 Gh gh2/ A a21 Gc gc3 B b22 F f4 P p23 V v5 T t24 Kh kh6 Ss ss25/ K k7 J j26/ G g8 Q q27 Ng ng9 H h28 L l10 C c29 M m11 Ts ts30 N n12 Dz dz31 Hy hy13 D d32 U u14 Zz zz33 Ü ü15 R r34 W w16 Z z35 E e17 Zy zy36 I i18 S s37 Y y19 X x

Letter Latin Eq. Oi oi Ou ou Ei ei Eu eu Ui ui Üi üi Üu üu Iu iu

Latin alphabet variants Gao Erqiang Sarikoli Latin alphabet In 1958, linguist Gao Erqiang studied Sarikoli in collaboration with Tajik linguists, using 37 symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of the language. In the 1996 Sarikoli–Han dictionary, Gao uses an alphabet of 26 letters and 8 digraphs based on Pinyin.

+ Sarikoli alphabet (Gao 1996) UppercaseABCDDZEFGGCGHHHYIJKKHLM Lowercaseabcddzefggcghhhyijkkhlm Pronunciation UppercaseNOPQRSSSTTSUÜVWXYZZYZZ Lowercasenopqrsssttsuüvwxyzzyzz Pronunciation

Pakhalina Sarikoli Latin alphabet In the Sarikoli Latin alphabet version by linguist Tatiana N. Pakhalina, the sounds are represented by these letters:

LetterА аB bC cČ čD d δE eƐ εƏ əF fG gƔ ɣƔ̆ ɣ̆I iƷ ʒJ̌ ǰK k L lМ мIPA[a][b][t͡s][ʈ͡ʂ][d][ð][e][ɛ][ə][f][ɡ][ʁ][ɣ][i][d͡z][ɖ͡ʐ][k][l][m]LetterN nO oP pQ qR rS sŠ šT t U uÜ üV vW wХ хХ̌ х̌У уZ zŽ žЫ ыIPA[n][o][p][q][r][s][ʂ][t][θ][u][uː][v][w][χ][x][j][z][ʐ][ɯ]

Phonology

Vowels FrontCentralBackHigh Near-high High-mid Low-mid () Low

// may also be heard as [, ].

Sarikoli vowel / is an allophone with Uyghur vowel . Sarikoli vowel is an allophone with Uyghur vowel . Sarikoli vowels have undergone the same Eastern Iranian chain shift as Tajik Persian, Persian-influenced Uzbek, and other Eastern Iranian Pamir languages. The vowel chain shift looks like the following:Ido, S. (2017). The Vowel System of Jewish Bukharan Tajik: With Special Reference to the Tajik Vowel Chain Shift. Journal of Jewish Languages, 5(1), 81–103. doi:10.1163/22134638-12340078 → / → → → /

Sarikoli vowels as used in Russian works (IPA values in brackets):

In some dialects also long variants of those vowels can appear: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ы̄, ǝ̄. (citation?)

Consonants Sarikoli has 30 consonants:

Sarikoli consonants according to Russian Iranologist transcription (IPA values in slashes): p , b , t , d , k , g , q , c , ʒ , č , ǰ , s , z , x̌ , γ̌ , f , v , θ , δ , x , γ , š , ž , h , w , y , m , n , l , r

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar UvularGlottal Nasal () Plosive ~ ~ Affricate Fricative Approximant Rhotic

Stress Most words receive stress on the last syllable; however, a minority receive stress on their first syllable. Also, several noun declensions and verb inflections regularly place stress on their first syllable, including the imperative and interrogative.

Vocabulary Although to a large extent the Sarikoli lexicon is quite close to those of other Eastern Iranian languages, there are a large number of words unique to Sarikoli and the closely related Shughni that are not found in other Eastern Iranian languages such as Wakhi, Pashto or Avestan.

+ Lexical comparison of eight Iranian languages together with an English translation English gloss Persian (Iranian) Persian (Tajik) Wakhi Pashto Shughni SarikoliOssetic Avestan one (یک) (‍як) (يو) iw (иу) aēuua- meat (گوشت) (гушт) (غوښه) zizä (дзидза) gao- (N. gāuš) son (پسر) ) (زوی) fɪ̈rt (фырт) puθra- fire (آتش) (оташ) (اور) ärt (арт) ātar- water (اب) (об) (اوبه) don (дон) ap- hand (دست) (даѕт) (لاس) kʼuχ (къух) zasta- foot (پا) (по) (پښه) fäd (фад)paδa-, pāδa- tooth (دندان) (дандон) (غاښ) dəndäg (дӕндаг) daṇtān- eye (چشم) (чашм) (سترګه) səʃt (цæст) dōiθra-; caṣ̌man- horse (اسب) (асп) (آس) bəχ (бӕх) aspa- cloud (ابر) (абр) (اوريځ) əvräʁ (æврагъ) / miʁ (мигъ) abda-; aβra-, aβrā-; maēγa- wheat (گندم) (гандум) (غنم) mənəw (мæнæу) gaṇtuma- many (بسيار) (бисёр) (ډېر، پوره) fyr (фыр) paoiri- high (بلند) (баланд) (لوړ) bərʒond (бӕрзoнд)bərəzaṇt- far (دور) (дур) (لرې) därd (дард) dūra- good (خوب) (хуб) (ښه) χorʒ (хорз) vaŋha- small (کوچک)) (хурд) (لږ) gɪ̈ssɪ̈ɫ (гыццыл) kasu- to say (گفت) (гуфт) (ويل) zurɪ̈n (дзурын) vac-; aoj-; mrū-; saŋh- to do (کرد) (кард) (کول) kənɪ̈n (кæнын) kar- to see (ديد) (дид) (وينم) wɪ̈nɪ̈n (уынын) dī-, viŋ-

Sample text

The following text is a paragraph from Gao Erqiang's "Tajik-Chinese Dictionary" (1996), talking about the significance of the development of a writing system for the language of Tajiks of Xinjiang, both in Chinese and Sarikoli. The Sarikoli text is written in the "Pinyin" developed by Gao Erqiang for use in the dictionary. Below, the text is also transcribed in an equivalent Persian alphabet.

Latin script Awal birinqi masala qi ter gap kayan. Tujik milat hüyan ziv yost. Yad ziv optunum noya ar doira khulanmix soud. Janubi Xinjongan Yurkond, Puskom, KHarghalegh, Pixan khatorlekh juiefan wi Tujik heil uhxox na yozzin, Di juienj Tujik heil asos az jat hü ziv khulanmix kayin, Hü milatan wi ziv khulanmix qeig wa a wi tarakhi qeig Asosi KHonün zzujenj hyukhukh. Agar i milatan ghov ziv vid, kitubi ziv tsa na vid, di rang zivan wi rafond wa tarakhiyot qaklimari diqur hird. M dos qeig levd alo k yü milat Asosi KHonün zzujenj az hyukhukh tulukh bahyrimand na sezzjenj soud. Yizekh levjenj a ziv hotirlamix qeigiquz balgü, yani i mi khati münosibatlig vezzjenj pinyin sestimo qi qer wezzd khati hyusil sezzjenj, dian hyiq rang sir nist, Pinyin loyayan wi tüzülüx mofekh tsa soud, hyiq rang alukat mas peidu na soud. Vizekhan at ziv mazzon vezzjenj zidiyat mas ubiktip hyolda i taraf set khati ter sawiya khati birligir yozzd. Müstakhil tarakhi qogcjenj i zivan Kyamon wiri mos yetiquz i yizekh vid karak. Ilim wa rafond az nuhto zoct alo yad douliri uighun qer. Persian alphabet Chinese English Let's talk about the first question first. The Tajiks have their own language. This language is commonly used in the autonomous county and cannot be replaced by other languages. Unlike the Tajiks in Yarkant, Poskam, Kargilik and other places in southern Xinjiang, many Tajiks here exclusively or largely exclusively use their own language. The use and development of the ethnic language is a right conferred by the constitution. If an ethnicity only has a spoken language but no written language, the use and development of this language will actually be restricted, and it will not be able to reasonably enjoy the rights granted by the constitution. Writing is a set of symbols that record language, and a related pinyin system is used. There is nothing mysterious about it, and a well-designed pinyin scheme will not cause any complications. Possible contradictions between text and language will be treated objectively and wisely to achieve a large degree of consistency. A language that develops independently must have a set of characters that are suitable for it. This is a matter of course from an academic or practical point of view.

References

Further reading

External links

The Tajik Ethnic Group in China