Wakhi language in the context of "Ishkoman Valley"

The Scythian languages (/ˈsɪθiən/ or /ˈsɪðiən/ or /ˈskɪθiən/) are a group of Eastern Iranic languages of the classical and late antique period (the Middle Iranic period), spoken in a vast region of Eurasia by the populations belonging to the Scythian cultures and their descendants. The dominant ethnic groups among the Scythian-speakers were nomadic pastoralists of Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe. Fragments of their speech known from inscriptions and words quoted in ancient authors as well as analysis of their names indicate that it was an Indo-European language, more specifically from the Iranic group of Indo-Iranic languages.

Most of the Scythian languages eventually became extinct, except for modern Ossetian (which descends from the Alanic dialect of Scytho-Sarmatian) and Wakhi (which descends from the Khotanese and Tumshuqese forms of Scytho-Khotanese). Alexander Lubotsky summarizes the known linguistic landscape as follows:

Badeshi is an unclassified Indo-Iranian language spoken in northern Pakistan. The language is critically endangered and considered at risk of extinction. In 2018, the BBC found three men who could still speak the language.

Muhammad Zaman Sagar, a field linguist connected to the Forum for Language Initiative, has worked on this language. But as a result of his research during two years, he collected only about one hundred words. In July 2007, he visited the Bishigram Valley again and spent some days with the people there. There are efforts to retain a record of the language by linguist Zubair Torwali among others. Torwali has posited that it may be related to Yidgha or Wakhi.

The Pamiris are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group, native to Central Asia, living primarily in Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan), Afghanistan (Badakhshan), Siachen, Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan) and China (Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County). They speak a variety of different languages, amongst which languages of the Eastern Iranian Pamir language group stand out. The languages of the Shughni-Rushani group, alongside Wakhi, are the most widely spoken Pamiri languages.

The Wakhi people, also locally referred to as the Wokhik, are an Iranian ethnic group native to Central and South Asia. They are found in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and China—primarily situated in and around Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, the northernmost part of Pakistan's Gilgit−Baltistan and Chitral, Tajikistan's Gorno−Badakhshan Autonomous Region and the southwestern areas of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Wakhi people are native speakers of the Wakhi language, an Eastern Iranian language.

Ve (ڤ) is a letter of the Arabic-based Comoro, Kurdish, Luri, Swahili, and Wakhi alphabets. It is derived from the Arabic letter fāʾ (ف) with two additional dots. It represents the sound /v/ in the aforementioned uses. On the other hand, the letter Pa (ڤ) represents the sound /p/ in the Jawi (used for Malay) and Pegon (used for Javanese) alphabets.

Ve originated as one of the new letters added for the Perso-Arabic alphabet to write New Persian, and it was used for the sound /β/. This letter is no longer used in Persian, as the [β]-sound changed to [b], e.g. archaic زڤان /zaβɑn/ > زبان /zæbɒn/ 'language'

The Little Pamir (Wakhi: Wuch Pamir; Kyrgyz: Kichik Pamir; Persian: پامیر خرد, romanized: Pāmīr-e Khord) is a broad U-shaped grassy valley or pamir in the eastern part of the Wakhan in north-eastern Afghanistan. The valley is 100 km long and 10 km wide, and is bounded to the north by the Nicholas Range, a subrange of the Pamir Mountains.

Chaqmaqtin Lake (17 km by 3 km) lies towards the western end of the valley while the Tegerman Su valley lies at its easternmost end. The Aksu or Murghab River flows east from the lake through the Little Pamir to enter Tajikistan at the eastern end of the valley. The Bozai Darya (also known as the Little Pamir River) rises a short distance west of the lake, and flows 15 km west to join the Wakhjir River and form the Wakhan River near the settlement of Bozai Gumbaz.

Gojal (Wakhi: وادی گوجال, Kyrgyz: گۉجال ۅرۅنۇ,), also called Upper Hunza, is situated in northwestern Pakistan. It borders China at the Khunjerab Pass and the Shimshal valley, and Afghanistan at the Chapursan valley. In 2019, Gojal Valley became the second Karachukar sub-division within the Hunza District. It is geographically the largest subdivision of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Gojal or Upper Hunza is composed of a number of large and small valleys sharing borders with Central Hunza to the south, China in the northeast, and Afghanistan in the northwest. Ainabad is the first village of Gojal. Except for the Shimshal, Misgar, and Chapursan valleys, all the villages of Gojal can be seen from the Karakoram Highway (KKH), which passes through the tehsil and enters China at the Khunjerab Pass. The Gojal region has 20,000 Ismaili residents. Gojal is predominantly populated by the Wakhi people.