Nazir

Wakhi Gulmit, Pakistan

Wakhi is an Iranic language spoken by approximately 40,000 people in the remote mountainous Pamir region where Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and China come together. It is part of a highly multilingual area where Indo-European languages come together with Turkic languages as well as Burushaski, a language with no known relative. Due to its unusual location, Wakhi is both a very local language and a highly international one; it crosses many borders but has no official status in any country. As time passes, the language is further pulled in different national directions. In Tajikistan, it is influenced by Tajik and Russian. In Pakistan, it is influenced by Urdu, and in the Xinjiang province, we see the beginnings of Chinese influence.

Over the last seven years, Nazir Abbas and Husniya Khujamyorova have worked with ELA to document their own varieties of Wakhi, among other Pamiri languages. Husniya is now producing children’s books in several of these languages. Pictured is Nazir Abbas with his mother, both from the town of Gulmit in Northeast Pakistan.