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Concept
Sogdian language
Summary
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/ ().
Official source
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