The Sarikoli language (also Sariqoli, Selekur, Sarikul, Sariqul, Sariköli) is a member of the Pamir subgroup of the Southeastern Iranian languages spoken by the Pamiris of Xinjiang, China. It is officially referred to in China as the "Tajik language", although it is different from the related Iranian language spoken in Tajikistan, which is a dialect of Persian.

Nomenclature

Sarikoli is officially referred to as "Tajik" (塔吉克语, Tǎjíkèyǔ) in China. However, it is distantly related to Tajik (a form of Persian) as spoken in Tajikistan because Sarikoli is an Eastern Iranian language, closely related to other Pamir languages largely spoken in the Badakshan regions of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, whereas Persian is a Western Iranian language and the official language of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, having historically been the most dominant Iranian language. It is also referred to as Tashkorghani, after the ancient capital of the Sarikoli kingdom—now the Tashkurgan (or Taxkorgan) Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang, China. However, the usage of the term Tashkorghani is not widespread among scholars. The earliest written accounts in English are from the 1870s which generally use the name "Sarikoli" to refer to the language, but some written accounts since that time may use a different pronunciation derived from transcribing Chinese phonetics of the term into English as "Selekur(i)". Modern Chinese researchers often mention Sarikoli and Tajik names in their papers.

Distribution of speakers

The number of speakers is around 35,000; most reside in the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in Southern Xinjiang Province, China. The Chinese name for the Sarikoli language, as well as the usage of Sarikol as a toponym, is Sàléikuòlèyǔ (萨雷阔勒语). Speakers in China typically use Chinese and Uyghur to communicate with people of other ethnic groups in the area. The rest are found in parts of the Pakistani-administered Kashmir, closely touching the Pakistan-Chinese international borders in the north east.

Writing system

The language has no official written form. Linguist Gao Erqiang, publishing in China, used IPA to transcribe the sounds of Sarikoli in his book and dictionary, while Tatiana N. Pakhalina, publishing in Russia, used an alphabet similar to that of the Wakhi language in hers. The majority of Sarikoli-speakers attend schools using Uyghur as the medium of instruction.

Uyghur alphabet

In recent years, Sarikoli speakers in China have used Uyghur Arabic alphabet to spell out their language.

Latin alphabet variants

Gao Erqiang Sarikoli latin alphabet

In 1958, linguist Gao Erqiang studied Sarikoli in collaboration with Tajik linguists, using 37 symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of the language. In the 1996 Sarikoli–Han dictionary, Gao uses an alphabet of 26 letters and 8 digraphs based on Pinyin.

Pakhalina Sarikoli latin alphabet

In the Sarikoli latin alphabet version by linguist Tatiana N. Pakhalina, the sounds are represented by these letters:

Phonology

Vowels

Sarikoli vowel / is an allophone with Uyghur vowel. Sarikoli vowel is an allophone with Uyghur vowel. Sarikoli vowels have undergone the same chain shift as Tajik, Uzbek, and other Central Asian Pamir languages. The vowel chain shift looks like the following: Sarikoli vowels as used in Russian works (IPA values in brackets): In some dialects also long variants of those vowels can appear: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ы̄, ǝ̄. (citation?)

Consonants

Sarikoli has 30 consonants: Sarikoli con****sonants ac****cor****din****g to Rus****sian Iranologis****t t****ransc****rip****tion (IPA values in s****las****hes): p, b , t , d , k , g , q , c , ʒ , č , ǰ , s , z , ****x̌ , ****γ̌ , f , v , θ , δ , x , γ , š , ž , h , w , y , m , n , l , r

Stress

Most words receive stress on the last syllable; however, a minority receive stress on their first syllable. Also, several noun declensions and verb inflections regularly place stress on their first syllable, including the imperative and interrogative.

Vocabulary

Although to a large extent the Sarikoli lexicon is quite close to those of other Eastern Iranian languages, there are a large number are words unique to Sarikoli and the closely related Shughni that are not found in other Eastern Iranian languages like Wakhi, Pashto or Avestan.

Sample Text

The following text is a paragraph from Gao Erqiang's "Tajik-Chinese Dictionary" (1996), talking about the significance of the development of a writing system for the language of Tajiks of Xinjiang, both in Chinese and Sarikoli. The Sarikoli text is written in the "Pinyin" developed by Gao Erqiang for use in the dictionary. Below, the text is also transcribed in an equivalent Persian alphabet.