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. 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. File:British Museum stamp-seal (Registration number 1870,1210.3).jpg|Seal with two facing busts and Sogdian inscription "Indamic, Queen of Zacanta", [[Kushano-Sasanian]] period, 300-350 CE. British Museum 119999.{{cite web |title=Stamp-seal; bezel British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1870-1210-3 |website=The British Museum |language=en}} File:Sogdian text Manichaean letter.jpg|Sogdian text from a Manichaean [[creditor]] letter from around 9th to 13th century File:Manicheans.jpg|[[Manichaeism|Manichaean]] priests ([[Yugur|Uyghur]] Turks) writing Sogdian manuscripts, in [[Gaochang|Khocho]], [[Tarim Basin]], {{c.|8th/9th century AD}} During the period of the Chinese Tang dynasty (ca. 7th century CE), Sogdian was the lingua franca in Central Asia of the Silk Road, along which it amassed a rich vocabulary of loanwords such as tym ("hotel") from the Middle Chinese /tem/ ().

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Related concepts (20)

Iranian languages

The Iranian languages, also called Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE) and New Iranian (since 900 CE). The two directly-attested Old Iranian languages are Old Persian (from the Achaemenid Empire) and Old Avestan (the language of the Avesta).

Khujand

Khujand (Khujand; Uzbek: Хўжанд, romanized: Хo'jand; Khojand), sometimes spelled Khodjent and known as Leninabad (Leninabad; Leninobod; Leninâbâd) from 1936 to 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan and the capital of Tajikistan's northernmost Sughd province. Khujand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, dating back about 2,500 years to the Persian Empire. Situated on the Syr Darya river at the mouth of the Fergana Valley, Khujand was a major city along the ancient Silk Road.

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (əˈkiːmənᵻd; 𐎧𐏁𐏂, Xšāça, ) was the ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC, also known as the First Persian Empire. Based in Western Asia, it was the largest empire the world had ever seen at its time, spanning a total of from the Balkans and Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians.