Pamir is a mountainous range at the heat of Central Asia where two other great Himalayan and Tibetan mountainous ranges intersect and together constitutes one of the largest mountainous regions on earth. Despite its unfavourable climatic and geographic landscape, Pamir has been a homeland for many tribes and ancient nations whose descendants are still residing in the deep and narrow valleys of the Pamir on the bank of river Panj which serves as border line separating Tajikistan from Afghanistan. Some of these tribes are also settled in Northern Pakistan and Western China.
The inhabitants of Pamir preserved unique languages, known as Pamiri languages such as Shugni, Rushani, Bartangi, Ishkashimi, Wakhi, Yazgulyami etc. The number of speakers for each language varies from 2 thousand speakers of the Ishkashimi language to 70 thousand of Shugni speakers in the Badakhshan Region of Tajikistan. The Pamiri languages are attributed to the Eastern Iranian group of the Indo European languages and have been of tremendous interest for the scholars of ethno-linguistics for over a century, especially in Russia and Tajikistan. However, the interest in these languages has been on a scholarly level and there hasn’t been a discourse on the endangerment of these languages and their social and cultural significance. Despite having critical mass of speakers, the Pamiri languages have no official status and have not been promoted for educational purposes in their homeland.
The national policies of the countries which became the home for the Pamiri people pursued the policies of national identity where promotion of multilingualism appeared as detrimental for the national unity, in particular in Tajikistan. The intensification of process of globalisation and the identification of language acquisition with the economic prosperity fostered the position of Tajik, Russian and subsequently English language in the region and exerted further pressure on the vitality of the Pamiri languages and their revitalisation.
The paper will explore in detail the processes which characterize the vitality potential of the Pamiri languages in the current social, political and economic conditions of Tajikistan and identify the internal and external challenges which mark the prospect of the revitalisation of the endangered Pamiri languages in the country.
Hakim Elnazarov
Coordinator,
Central Asian Studies
The Institute of Ismaili Studies
42-44 Grosvenor Gardens
SW1W 0EB,
London, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7881 6033
Mobile: +44(0)7723353965
E-mail: aelnazar@iis.ac.uk, hakimelnazar@yahoo.com |
