Khwarezmian language

Not to be confused with Khorezmian Turkic.

Khwārezmian
Chorasmian
𐾸𐾲𐾰𐾻 𐾰𐾺 𐾹𐾶𐾰𐿂𐾺𐾸𐾽 زڨاك ای خوارزم
Native toKhwarezm
RegionCentral Asia
Era550 BCE – 1200 CE[1]
Khwarezmian script, Aramaic alphabet, Sogdian alphabet, Pahlavi script, Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3xco
xco
Glottologkhwa1238

Khwārezmian (Khwarezmian: زڨاک‌ای خوارزم zβ'k 'y xw'rzm;[2] also transliterated Khwarazmian, Chorasmian, Khorezmian) is an extinct Eastern Iranian language[3][4][5][6] closely related to Sogdian. The language was spoken in the area of Khwarezm (Chorasmia), centered in the lower Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea (the northern part of the modern Republic of Uzbekistan and the adjacent areas of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan).

Knowledge of Khwarezmian is limited to its Middle Iranian stage and, as with Sogdian, little is known of its ancient form. Based on the writings of Khwarezmian scholars Al-Biruni and Zamakhshari, the language was in use at least until the 13th century, when it was gradually replaced by Persian for the most part, as well as several dialects of Turkic.[7]

Sources of Khwarezmian include astronomical terms used by al-Biruni, Zamakhshari's Arabic–Persian–Khwarezmian dictionary and several legal texts that use Khwarezmian terms and quotations to explain certain legal concepts, most notably the Qunyat al-Munya of Mukhtār al-Zāhidī al-Ghazmīnī (d. 1259/60).[7][8]

The noted scholar W.B. Henning was preparing a dictionary of Khwarezmian when he died, leaving it unfinished. A fragment of this dictionary was published posthumously by D.N. MacKenzie in 1971.[9]

  1. ^ Khwārezmian at MultiTree on the Linguist List
  2. ^ Chwarezmischer Wortindex. pp. 686, 711.
  3. ^ D. N. Mackenzie. "The Chorasmian Language" In: Encyclopedia Iranica. Online access at June, 2011.
  4. ^ Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages, Columbia University Press, 2004, pg 278.
  5. ^ MacKenzie, D. N. "Khwarazmian Language and Literature," in E. Yarshater ed. Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. III, Part 2, Cambridge 1983, pp. 1244–1249.
  6. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, "Iranian languages" (Retrieved 29 December 2008)
  7. ^ a b CHORASMIA iii. The Chorasmian Language
  8. ^ MacKenzie, D. N. (1990). The Khwarezmian Element in the Qunyat Al-munya. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780728601611.
  9. ^ Henning, Walter Bruno; MacKenzie, D. N. (1971). A fragment of a Khwarezmian dictionary. Lund Humphries. ISBN 9780853312925.