Sogdian language
The Sogdian language was an Eastern Iranian language spoken mainly in the Central Asian region of Sogdia (capital: Samarkand; other chief cities: Panjakent, Fergana, Khujand, and Bukhara), located in modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan; it was also spoken by some Sogdian immigrant communities in ancient China. Sogdian is one of the most important Middle Iranian languages, along with Bactrian, Khotanese Saka, Middle Persian, and Parthian. It possesses a large literary corpus.
| Sogdian | |
|---|---|
| *s{əγ}ʷδī́k ᵊzβā́k, *s{əγ}ʷδyā́u̯, 𐼑𐼇𐼄𐼌𐼊𐼋 [*𐼀𐼈𐼂𐼀𐼋] swγδyk [*ʾzβʾk] 𐼼𐼴𐼶𐼹𐼷𐼸 (𐼰𐼵𐼱𐼰𐼸) swγδyk (ʾzβʾk) 𐼼𐼲𐼴𐼹𐼷𐼰𐼴 sγwδyʾw 𐫘𐫇𐫄𐫔𐫏𐫀𐫇 swγδyʾw | |
| Native to | Sogdia |
| Region | Central Asia, China |
| Era | 1st millennium BCE – 1000 CE developed into modern Yaghnobi |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | sog |
| ISO 639-3 | sog |
| Glottolog | sogd1245 |
The Sogdian language is usually assigned to a Northeastern group of the Iranian languages. No direct evidence of an earlier version of the language ("Old Sogdian") has been found, although mention of the area in the Old Persian inscriptions means that a separate and recognisable Sogdia existed at least since the Achaemenid Empire (559–323 BCE).
Like Khotanese, Sogdian may have possessed a more conservative grammar and morphology than Middle Persian. The modern Eastern Iranian language Yaghnobi is the descendant of a dialect of Sogdian spoken around the 8th century in Osrushana, a region to the south of Sogdia.