TIED Home | Verbix Main Site
Pamir languages
 
Spoken in Tajikistan, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, in other words, in a little region where all these countries have their borders - in Pamir mountains. I'll try to give just a short list of them for you to know that no one can count all them:
Wakhani, Ishkashimi, Yazguliami, Shugnani, Rushani, Khufi, Bartangi, Oroshori, Sarykoli, Wandji, Sarguliami. Etc. I can also name Munjani and Yidga, but first try to remember at least four of them.

Pamir phonetics is variable in different tongues, but everywhere has more long vowels (u, o, i, e) than short (u, i). As for consonants, Pamir languages lack laryngeals and faryngeals. Some of the languages developed a system of three lines of stops: normal (k), labiovelar (kw) and palatal (k') just as it was in the Proto-Indo-European language.

Only several Pamir languages decline their nouns; some of them have definite article which can be declined, or have postfixes and prepositions to mark the case and the number. Some of Pamir tongues also keep the gender. The pronouns preserved many Indo-European traits, personal pronouns exist only for the 1st and the 2nd person, demonstrative pronouns have 3 grades (this - that - that far). Pamir verbs have 2 types of stems: present and past, some forms are inflectional, some - enclytical.

Even now Pamir languages do not have writing, nor literature, and even the exact number of them is under discussion.

 
Indo-European Tree