Wakhi Language

Wakhi language is derived from the dialect of the very earliest wave of Iranian settlers in these regions, and that it has developed in relative isolation for a considerable period. Wakhi is mostly spoken in the Wakhan district of Badakhshan province of Afghanistan and in Chitral of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. There are no reports of the earliest movement of the Wakhi into Chitral. However, Lorimer (1958:7-10) and Schomberg (1935:288-289) have documented the immigration of the Wakhi into other valleys in northern Pakistan from about 1860 to 1935.

Wakhi is an archaic Iranian language in the Indo-European family. It is in fact distinct from its neighboring Iranian languages, showing isolated development and little borrowingof words. It is placed in a group of languages which are called Pamir languages; this group was called Ghalchah by Shaw (1876) and Grierson (LSI X).

Both Morgenstierne (1938:442) and Lorimer (1958:3) presume that there is some dialectal difference between the widely distant Wakhi locations. Both state that there is still too little known to make much of a comparison. Words which Lorimer(1958:3) read to his informants in Hunza from Shaw’s earlier work were identified as being Sarikoli, which is in the Pamir region. Morgenstierne (1938:441-2) notes that the words shared between Wakhi and Khowar are of an interesting nature. These words give evidence that a large population of Khowar speakers were previously in frequent contact with Wakhi speakers.

Morgenstierne suggests that this was probably by way of Baroghil Pass. However, Israr-ud-Din (1990:10) notes that long ago there were passes between the Mulkhow and Torkhow Valleys, and the Wakhan Corridor. Morgenstierne (1932:68) noted that the speech of several of his language helpers wasvery mixed with other neighboring Pamir languages. The Wakhi are reported to use Tajik Persian as their literary language in the former Soviet Union (Akiner 1983:379). There were no reports regarding the Khowar proficiency of the Wakhi in the Yarkhun Valley.

In Chitral, Wakhi is spoken by a small group living in the far northeastern end of the Yarkhun Valley. Elsewhere in Pakistan it is spoken in the Shimshal Valley to the east of the Gojal area north of Hunza. There is a population concentration in Gojal and in the valleys to the north extending to the Pakistan border. There are also Wakhi speakers in the northern Yasin and Ishkoman Valleys west of Gilgit. It was traditionally spoken in the Wakhan area of Afghanistan, but since the war in Afghanistan, there are reports (Nyrop 1986:106) that the entire local population left that area. Possibly the largest group of Wakhi speakers are located in the Gorno-Badakhshan region in the former Soviet Union and along the far western border of the Xinkiang Province of China from Pakistan to Kashgar.