Also Known As:
Ishkashmi, Ishkashim, Eshkashimi, Eškāšmī
Dialects & Varieties
- Ishkashmi
- Zebak
- Sanglechi
EŠKĀŠ(E)MĪ (Ishkashmi)
I. M. Steblin-Kamensky. 1998. "EŠKĀŠ(E)MĪ (Ishkashmi)." In Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, Online: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eskasemi-language.
Threatened
20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
~2,000
Native Speakers Worldwide
Speakers
Native or fluent speakers:
No results found.
Second-language speakers and learners
No results found.
Semi-speakers or rememberers
No results found.
Children:
No results found.
Young adults
No results found.
Older adults
No results found.
Elders
No results found.
Ethnic or community population
No results found.
Year information was gathered
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Comments on speakers
No results found.
Location and Context
Countries
Tajikistan; Afghanistan
Location Description
On the right bank Eškāšmī is spoken by about one thousand people, mainly in the village Ryn (Ran in Wāḵī) in the former Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast of Tajikistan. There are also some Eškāsmī-speaking families in the neighboring villages of Nūd (Nad), Sumǰin, Mulvoǰ, and Namatgut. On the left bank, in the northeastern Afghan province of Badaḵšān (q.v.), there may be more than a thousand Eškāšmī speakers, but their exact distribution is not known.
Government Support
No results found.
Institutional Support
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Speakers' Attitude
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Other Languages Used By The Community
None
Number of Other Language Speakers:
None
Domains of Other Languages:
None
Writing Systems
Standard orthography:
No results found.
Writing system:
Cyrillic-based
Other writing systems used:
No results text.
Comments on writing systems:
Like other Pamir languages it was not written until recently. For centuries the sole literary language in the region has been Persian, in which works by Ismaʿilis, the predominant religious group there, and some folk tales have been written. In the early 1990s attempts were made to introduce a script for Eškāšmī based on the same Cyrillic alphabet adopted for Tajik.
Recent Resources
Comparative study of the vitatlity of Ishkashimi and Sangelchi languages and its speakers.
Tenth volume in series, Linguistic Survey of India, a comprehensive survey of hundreds of languages
Abstract (taken from paper) *
This paper presents the results of sociolinguistic research conducted