Sogdian language

Spoken in

• Indo-European languages Indo-Iranian languages Iranian languages Sogdian language

Suction

Suction

Sogdian was an old widespread Middle Iranian language. In the wake of the Turkish conquest of Central Asia, the Sogdian was replaced along with other languages ​​of the East Iranian language family by Turkic languages ​​. The urban population took over the Persian language. Except for the Jaghnobi, which is currently still spoken by the inhabitants of the mountain Jaghnobtals, the Sogdian language is extinct.

Distribution area

She is the most famous and richest testified ostiranische language of the Middle Iranian period. It was spoken in Sogdiana ( Old Persian Sugda, Sogdian Suγd ) with Samarkand as its center. Many newly established trading colonies Sogdian merchants along the Silk Road led to the Sogdian general lingua franca of East Turkestan was. Despite the widespread use of Sogdian texts from the mother country between the Oxus ( Amu Darya ) and Jaxartes ( Syr Darya ) up to Turfan and Dunhuang hardly dialect differences, but more than chronological, orthographic or soziolektische differences were discernible.

Importance

Sogdian was one of the most important Middle Iranian language with an extensive literature, which is to be on a par with the Middle Persian and Parthian. It was once the language of commerce throughout Central Asia ( Transoxiana ) and the lingua franca of Chinese and Iranian merchants. The language part of the northeastern branch of the Iranian languages ​​. So far no evidence of a previous language level (* Proto-/Alt-Sogdisch ) were found. However, since the area is mentioned in the Old Persian inscriptions, to assume that a separate and identifiable as such Sogdian least since the dynasty of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550-323 BC) existed. Sogdian has a more conservative grammar and morphology as a means Persian.

The economic and political importance of the Sogdian language was the guarantor of their survival in the centuries after the conquest of Sogdia by the Muslims in the eighth century AD. Since the earliest texts of the New Persian were written on sogdischem territory under the Samanids, found many Sogdian words input into the modern Persian language.

Font

An early Sogdian script was found in Sogdiana. This font is based on the Aramaic alphabet. Most of the text corpus (religious writings, letters, literature and administrative correspondence) is, however, preserved in a later Sogdian script, which is also based on the Aramaic alphabet and how the Middle Persian script ( Pahlavi script) many hetero -grams has. Various Sogdian texts, almost exclusively religious writings Manichaean and Christian authors, were also found in the corpus of Turfan. The Sogdian script is the direct precursor of the Uighur script, from which in turn developed the Mongolian script.

Sogdian text ( transliteration): MN sγwδy -k MLK ' ∂ y - w'šty -c' t x'xsrc xwβw ' pšwnw δrwth γ - rβ nm'cyw

Word -for-word translation: From Sogdia King Dywashtic to Khakhsar 's Khuv Afshun, ( good ) health (and ) many homages