Bartangi language
The Bartangi language is a Pamir language spoken along the Bartang River from Yemtz to Nikbist, in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. It is typically classified as a dialect of Shughni, but is quite distinct. Within Bartangi, there are two (sub)dialects, Basid and Sipandzh, which are named after the villages in which they are spoken. It is not written.
| Bartangi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region |
| Ethnicity | 3,000 Bartangi people (1990) |
Indo-European
| |
| None | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | (included in Shughni [sgh]) |
| Glottolog | bart1238 |
| ELP | Bartangi |
As of 1990, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 speakers of Bartangi. While the population continues to grow, civil war and Soviet efforts to assimilate the Bartangi or move them to cities have caused the language to dwindle. In addition, the popularity of Tajik and Russian as the languages of education and modernization have contributed to the decline of Bartangi.
Bartangi is most similar to Rushani and Oroshori, two neighboring Shughni dialects. Features that distinguish them include the form of the second person, a tu tense in Bartangi, and the Bartangi plural suffix -en.
Ethnologue classifies Bartangi as a dialect of Shughni but adds that it may be a separate language.