Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		Yagnob, Yaghnob, Yagnobi, Yaghnabi, yaγnobīˊ zivók
CLASSIFICATION		Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern Iranian
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		yai
VARIANTS & DIALECTS		Eastern Yagnobi Western Yagnobi
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search

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Information from: “The Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Yaghnobi” . Daniel Paul and Elisabeth Abbess and Katja Müller and Calvin Tiessen and Gabriela Tiessen (2010)

Vulnerable

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
~13,500
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"The current ethnolinguistic vitality of the Yaghnobi language seems strong."

DATE OF INFO: 2003-2004

DOMAINS OF USE

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

"Amongst the families [in Dughoba] where at least some Yaghnobi is spoken (the Yaghnobi and Yaghnobi/Tajik- speaking families), it is almost exclusively the younger generation who are now speaking Tajik, and the middle-aged and older generations who continue to speak Yaghnobi. More specifically, in 66 percent of them (35 of 53) the younger generation are now speaking Tajik in the home where their parents or grandparents speak or spoke Yaghnobi... [however,] transmission is overwhelmingly by parents to children as the first language of both. Only in Dughoba are there numerous instances of Yaghnobi-speaking parents whose children consider Tajik their first language."

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Tajik

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"We found a strong sense of ethnolinguistic identity in most villages in the Yaghnob Valley... Attitudes to literature in the vernacular are overwhelmingly positive... Proficiency in Tajik among Yaghnobi is generally very high, especially for men... Tajik is the sole medium of communication [in schools]."

PLACES: Tajikistan

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "Five major locations in Tajikistan. The first two locations are the Yaghnob River Valley and Zafarabad... The third location is the Upper Varzob. There are four Yaghnobi communities in the upper Varzob, three in the Tagob Valley area and one just south of the Anzob Pass... The communities of the Lower Varzob, including the Hisor Valley, the fourth location where Yaghnobi speakers are living, are not homogenously Yaghnobi. Most of these communities are linguistically diverse, with Yaghnobi speakers forming a minority... There are also four or five communities, including the village of Isanboi, in the fifth location in southern Tajikistan... Finally, a number of Yaghnobi live in Dushanbe and the nearby village of Dughoba."

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
20,000
Native speakers worldwide

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
12,000
Native speakers worldwide

PLACES: Tajikistan;

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
2,400
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
According to A. Khromov, in 1972 the situation was as follows: 1,509 native speakers in the Yaghnob valley and about 900 elsewhere.

More on Orthography: The Yaghnabis do not have their own written language. However, it is known (M. Kordeyev's observations in the 1920s) that the Yaghnabi mullahs sometimes made notes in the Yaghnabi language using the Arabic script.

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: They live in 22 villages on the banks of the River Yaghnob, in the middle of Tadzhikistan, and on the upper reaches of the River Zheravshan.

Vulnerable

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
12,500
Native speakers worldwide

DOMAINS OF USE

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

"The overwhelming majority of children are learning Yaghnobi as a first language... It was apparent that the form of language passed on from parents to their children contains more borrowed Tajik words and sometimes borrowed Tajik grammatical constructions... the language is in danger of losing more and more of its distinctiveness. If this trend continues, Yaghnobi will one day become mutually intelligible with Tajik."

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Decreasing

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Tajik

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"The government is not providing funding for printing Yaghnobi text books or hiring Yaghnobi teachers. As a result, Yaghnobi classes were no longer being taught as of the school year of 2006... Yaghnobi communities are maintaining a strong positive sense of self identity, contact with the majority (Tajik) community remains fairly low, and very few people are fully fluent in Tajik. Most importantly, Tajik is only being used in domains where it is required for communication with non-Yaghnobi speakers. "

PLACES: Tajikistan

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "The Yaghnobi [have] inhabited the high mountain valley of Yaghnob in west-central Tajikistan for centuries... In the 17th century a significant number of Yaghnobis migrated to the Varzob valley, [and] a sizable Yaghnobi population remains there in half a dozen villages today... About 6,500 Yaghnobis remain in Zafarabod, the largest Yaghnobi population center."

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

DOMAINS OF USE

MORE ON VITALITY

"[Yaghnobi] is not a written language, but is used for daily family communication."

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

Tajik Academy of Science

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"The Tajik Academy of Science was asked to support the preservation of the Yaghnobi language."

Scripts (Writing system)

None

PLACES: Tajikistan

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "When the language was discovered in the 19th century, it was spoken in the central part of the remote high valley of the Yaghnob river. This valley is situated in Tajikistan, about 100 km north of Dushanbe... There were about 2,500 speakers in the 1960s; 1,500 of these native speakers were living in 22 settlements within the Yaghnob valley, and roughly 900 resided outside of the valley... In 1970, however, the Soviet authorities forced the whole population of about 3,000 people to leave the Yaghnob valley. Five hundred families migrated to Zafarobod in northern Tajikistan, 200 families to the area surrounding Dushanbe. Only about 300 people were living in the Yaghnob valley in 1990, when the Dushanbe-based Council of Ministers passed the decision to re-establish all villages whose populations had been resettled."

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
2,000
Native speakers worldwide

		2010	The Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Yaghnobi					SIL International		http://www-01.sil.org/silesr/2010/silesr2010-017.pdf	Daniel Paul and Elisabeth Abbess and Katja Müller and Calvin Tiessen and Gabriela Tiessen	Daniel Paul, Elisabeth Abbess, Katja Müller, Calvin Tiessen and Gabriela Tiessen. 2010. "The Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Yaghnobi." Online: http://www-01.sil.org/silesr/2010/silesr2010-017.pdf.		~13,500	2003-2004	10000-99999	"The current ethnolinguistic vitality of the Yaghnobi language seems strong."	Travel outside Yaghnobi-speaking areas, school, government, radio, TV	Tajik		"We found a strong sense of ethnolinguistic identity in most villages in the Yaghnob Valley... Attitudes to literature in the vernacular are overwhelmingly positive... Proficiency in Tajik among Yaghnobi is generally very high, especially for men... Tajik is the sole medium of communication [in schools]."		Many	Vulnerable (100 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	10	"Amongst the families [in Dughoba] where at least some Yaghnobi is spoken (the Yaghnobi and Yaghnobi/Tajik- speaking families), it is almost exclusively the younger generation who are now speaking Tajik, and the middle-aged and older generations who continue to speak Yaghnobi. More specifically, in 66 percent of them (35 of 53) the younger generation are now speaking Tajik in the home where their parents or grandparents speak or spoke Yaghnobi... [however,] transmission is overwhelmingly by parents to children as the first language of both. Only in Dughoba are there numerous instances of Yaghnobi-speaking parents whose children consider Tajik their first language."	12	12	Tajikistan	"Five major locations in Tajikistan. The first two locations are the Yaghnob River Valley and Zafarabad... The third location is the Upper Varzob. There are four Yaghnobi communities in the upper Varzob, three in the Tagob Valley area and one just south of the Anzob Pass... The communities of the Lower Varzob, including the Hisor Valley, the fourth location where Yaghnobi speakers are living, are not homogenously Yaghnobi. Most of these communities are linguistically diverse, with Yaghnobi speakers forming a minority... There are also four or five communities, including the village of Isanboi, in the fifth location in southern Tajikistan... Finally, a number of Yaghnobi live in Dushanbe and the nearby village of Dughoba."	39.159349, 68.822765; 40.162083, 68.879929; 38.772287,68.820362
0199255911		2005	The World Atlas of Language Structures		Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer	Oxford University Press	New York					2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.																			39.0,69.0
	16	2009	Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)		M. Paul Lewis	SIL International	Dallas, TX			http://www.ethnologue.com/		Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)	ll_pub	12,000		10000-99999								Vulnerable (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)					Tajikistan;
	3rd	2010	Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger			UNESCO Publishing	Paris			http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas	Christopher Moseley (ed.)	Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)	ll_pub	20,000		10000-99999								Vulnerable (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)							38.5632,68.4475
			World Oral Literature Project							http://www.oralliterature.org		"World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.		2,000		1000-9999								Threatened (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
		2007	Aspects of Yaghnobi Grammar						University of Oregon		Brian Arnett Bird	Brian Arnett Bird. Aspects of Yaghnobi Grammar. Master thesis, University of Oregon, 2007.		12,500		10000-99999		Non-Yaghobi speakers	Tajik	Decreasing	"The government is not providing funding for printing Yaghnobi text books or hiring Yaghnobi teachers. As a result, Yaghnobi classes were no longer being taught as of the school year of 2006... Yaghnobi communities are maintaining a strong positive sense of self identity, contact with the majority (Tajik) community remains fairly low, and very few people are fully fluent in Tajik. Most importantly, Tajik is only being used in domains where it is required for communication with non-Yaghnobi speakers. "		Few	Vulnerable (80 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	10	"The overwhelming majority of children are learning Yaghnobi as a first language... It was apparent that the form of language passed on from parents to their children contains more borrowed Tajik words and sometimes borrowed Tajik grammatical constructions... the language is in danger of losing more and more of its distinctiveness. If this trend continues, Yaghnobi will one day become mutually intelligible with Tajik."	12		Tajikistan	"The Yaghnobi [have] inhabited the high mountain valley of Yaghnob in west-central Tajikistan for centuries... In the 17th century a significant number of Yaghnobis migrated to the Varzob valley, [and] a sizable Yaghnobi population remains there in half a dozen villages today... About 6,500 Yaghnobis remain in Zafarabod, the largest Yaghnobi population center."
		2006	Yaghnobi	Encyclopaedia Iranica						http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yaghnobi	Roland Bielmeier	Roland Bielmeier. 2006. "Yaghnobi." In Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yaghnobi.									"The Tajik Academy of Science was asked to support the preservation of the Yaghnobi language."	Tajik Academy of Science		Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)		"[Yaghnobi] is not a written language, but is used for daily family communication."	13		Tajikistan	"When the language was discovered in the 19th century, it was spoken in the central part of the remote high valley of the Yaghnob river. This valley is situated in Tajikistan, about 100 km north of Dushanbe... There were about 2,500 speakers in the 1960s; 1,500 of these native speakers were living in 22 settlements within the Yaghnob valley, and roughly 900 resided outside of the valley... In 1970, however, the Soviet authorities forced the whole population of about 3,000 people to leave the Yaghnob valley. Five hundred families migrated to Zafarobod in northern Tajikistan, 200 families to the area surrounding Dushanbe. Only about 300 people were living in the Yaghnob valley in 1990, when the Dushanbe-based Council of Ministers passed the decision to re-establish all villages whose populations had been resettled."
9985-936922		1993	The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire		Andrew Humphreys and Krista Mits					http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook		"The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire." edited by Andrew Humphreys and Krista Mits. Online: http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook.		2,400		1000-9999	According to A. Khromov, in 1972 the situation was as follows: 1,509 native speakers in the Yaghnob valley and about 900 elsewhere.							Threatened (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)						They live in 22 villages on the banks of the River Yaghnob, in the middle of Tadzhikistan, and on the upper reaches of the River Zheravshan.

Yaghnobi

Language metadata

Language information by source

Vulnerable

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

~13,500

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20,000

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12,000

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

2,400

Vulnerable

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12,500

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

2,000

Discussion

Yaghnobi

Language metadata

Language information by source

Vulnerable

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

~13,500

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20,000

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12,000

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

2,400

Vulnerable

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12,500

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

2,000

Discussion

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