Amazing! Thank you for providing such a comprehensive collection of that lost language. I saw a lot of similarities with my language. Great job! Greetings from a Pamiri Iranic 🇹🇯
The people of Khotan were often referred to as the greatest painters and the most beautiful people on earth in classical Persian literature. They were known as a great, civilized people worthy of respect and admiration.
I didn’t think we had a substantial corpus of khotanese, at least not enough for a word list this extensive. This is fucking insane and now I want to learn more
It is amazing, I could relate many words to similar Kurdish ones with a difference in pronunciation. but these ones caught my intention, shin which is blue in Kurdish, or hamania which is similar to hamin or hawin in Kurdish meaning summer.
As a Sri Lankan I could only understand the numbers and a few words like my name, far, no, woman, father, mother daughter, horse, blue. Some others were close to old Sinhala though. I Wonder if Pasthun speakers can understand this since both are Eastern Iranic languages
the sakas aren't "indigenous" either, they are descended from scythian nomads themselves. I do hope east turkestan is freed so that all these people can live without chinese oppression.
If you're talking about the Persian empire yes, however east Speaking Iranians were also considered as the enemies who worshiped Daiva and killed Zoroaster and Cyrus the great.
if you think on the words you can easily find the Persian cognates , such as bissa meaning all its cognate to old Persian vispa/visa , puls meaning to ask cognate with Persian purs , sve cognate with Avestan spaka and Old Persian spaka/saka and New Persian isbah/sag , rruvasa meaning fox is rawpatha in Old Persian and robah in new persian and so on
Interesting in modern persian one says " vassé " meaning " for " cognate with " vaska " in khotanese , in classic Persian " fara " meaning further over there , cognate with " vara = there" in khotanese, " daq " in persian cognate with " dai " in khotanese, , " meh " in Persian , "myau " in khotanese and many many more ....
Excellent! Khotan was likely founded by the Gandharan migrants from Kashmir and other parts of Greater Buddhist Gandhara, who migrated to Central Asia, to spread Buddhism, Khotan was conquered likely by the Scythians. The Scythian and Gandharan languages fused and created Khotanese. This is likely how this language was born.
Unbelievable! as an Iranian I can understand most of this language. It was surprising that I didn't know about this wonderful saka language. Thank you for introducing this unique language.🦁☀️👑♥️🤍💚
100%. I’ve suggested that a speaker of current-living Indo-Iranian ought to be saying words and phrases.My guess is that it would sound closer to original Khotanese. The speaker here seems to pronounce in a Vedic coloration.
@ Wakhi is a descendant of a saka language which could be similar or even same to khotanese saka due to their geographical positions. But today's Wakhi is structured differently from khotanese
Almost all eastern Iranian languages sound like Avestan. Did they origin from Avestan which is the oldest eastern Iranian language close to old Persian and Vedic Sanskrit?
They are both languages that diverged very early on from proto indo Iranian, and so have been able to preserve certain aspects not found in other languages, this is why avestan sounds like sanskrit even though they aren't very related
This site needs to have current Indo-Iranian-Farsi-Dari- Tajiki- speakers to pronounce and speak this ancient language.Many Khotanese words and phrases are the same or similar to living Iranic languages. Also the person saying words and phrases may be a Russian speaker so when reading the “short text” the rhythm is Russian not Indo-Iranic.
No, here words have a Khotan rhythm, because accents in this language were placed at the beginning and in the middle of words, there is a book by H.W. Bailey on this, but the so-called "Indo-Iranians" will use rhythm at the end of words.
@@ScythianSnake Actually It is difficult to know exactly what Khotanese sounded like. There is a good chance that every town and village had its own dialect. But the rhythms may have been similar to current Indo-Iranic languages. My sense is we are working in the dark. Languages are tricky. Meaning there are ways of saying things that one can only learn by speaking, hearing and having cultural references. Meaning language is a living thing. It doesn’t work well in a lab. So we will never know what a dead language really sounds like.
@depasrik we will not be able to reconstruct a complete picture of those dialects, but one specific one is quite possible depending on the amount of information
As someone who speaks Persian I could find connection between 30% of the vocabulary and my language. Wakhi which has derived from this language has more lexical similarities w Persian
According to the archeological excavation in the Henan Province, there are many Caucasian people were used as human sacrificial purposes that derived from Xinjiang area. Very It is likely that the Chinese people from the Xia, Shang and Zhou Era engaging the ancestors of the Khotanese people in many battles, the Zhou state often helped the Shang State to capture the POWs including the Caucasian peoples from Xinjiang area.
The person reading mispronounced alot of things. For example, the word for "many" isn't pronounced "Para" it is pronounced "Fara". I know this because the Kurdish word for "many" is "ferä"
you can't reconstruct an east iranian language with kurdish, as kurdish didn't exist up until the 13th-14th century and is not an east iranian language.
Because it begins with an f in Kurdish doesn’t mean it should begin with F in Khotanese. They are two different languages after all. What if Khotanese lost the F sound because it turned into P?
@@ikhebdieishetnietgoeddathe4057 yes, this is exactly what happened with the Saka language at the beginning of our era, for example, Pashto is a descendant of the Indo-Saka language of the same period as Khotanese and it also lacks the sound F
@dalivincibey8817 OK, let's think you're right. What about Persian? Persian as a language is atleast 2500 years old, right? Well, in Persian, the word for "many" is "Farâvân", not "Parâvan"
There's a lot of linguistic and cultural similarities between balto-slavs and indo-iranians, according to one theory, most of these similarities originated from a brief contact between balto-slavs and proto-indo-iranians, when they still lived in eastern European steppes.. before migrated further east into central asia.
you do know that sakas invaded the tarim basin and killed off the tocharians who also invaded and killed off the tarim mummy civilization prior, right?
@dalivincibey8817 The difference is that the Khotanese were a great and civilized people, unlike those who preceded and succeeded them. Their great culture and civilization was lost on the Uyghurs.
Despite the relation being mentioned often, there is actually little evidence for Khotanese actually being the language of the Eastern Scythians 1. The Khotanese never described as Saka or Saka descendants by their contemporaries, and they also didn't identify themselves as Saka 2. One feature that Khotanese has is the development of Proto-Iranian '*ćw' into 'ss' while it developed into 'sp' in most other Old Iranian varieties; among the Indo-Saka, we do have a few names with 'sp' and there appears to be none that have the Khotanese 'ss' Some more argument against their relationship are in: Peyrot, M. (2018). Tocharian B etswe ‘mule’ and Eastern East Iranian And additionally, this issue is also covered in the Musaem Scythia blog post "Did the Saka migrate to the Tarim Basin and founded the Kingdom of Khotan?" But um, we do have a living Scythian language, Ossetian, and even if we include Khotanese in anyway it does have a close living relative, Wakhi
@Nastya_07 The blog contains incorrect pseudo-information, it's definitely not a scientific source. there is substantial evidence or strong indications that khotanese was a Saka language. However, self-identification is a separate issue. Subbranches of a language do not necessarily undergo the same linguistic developments. For example, Wakhi has preserved many archaic features that do not exist in Khotanese or other Saka dialects.
@Nastya_07 Why do you argue that Wakhi is a close relative of Khotanese, while at the same time using the *ćw > śś development as evidence that Khotanese is not a Saka language? Wakhi itself has preserved many archaic features that differ from Khotanese. Therefore, this argument cannot be used as definitive evidence.
@Nastya_07 Arguing that they are not Sakas simply because they do not identify as such is like claiming that the Sogdians were not Iranic just because they did not explicitly state it. The classification of Khotanese as a Saka language is based on extensive research, drawing from various reports, sources, and linguistic evidence.
Amazing! Thank you for providing such a comprehensive collection of that lost language. I saw a lot of similarities with my language. Great job!
Greetings from a Pamiri Iranic 🇹🇯
Wow, you here!
Yes!!! Please more ancient/less discovered languages like this!!!
tajik of xinjiang
The people of Khotan were often referred to as the greatest painters and the most beautiful people on earth in classical Persian literature. They were known as a great, civilized people worthy of respect and admiration.
And then Turkic happened! Pretty much the story of every territory invaded by the Turks.
they are today good turkic uyghurs😂
@@etherospike3936 except for Persia
@ Except what ?
I didn’t think we had a substantial corpus of khotanese, at least not enough for a word list this extensive. This is fucking insane and now I want to learn more
oh it's quite well attested
@@dionysus1394 of course, but this "corpus" which in video is only 1% words of all language, look dictionary H.W.Bailey Saka language
There’s even a dictionary (old one, from 19 cent I believe)
It is amazing, I could relate many words to similar Kurdish ones with a difference in pronunciation. but these ones caught my intention, shin which is blue in Kurdish, or hamania which is similar to hamin or hawin in Kurdish meaning summer.
tajik of xinjiang still exist today
both are iranian languages so it's to be expected
As a Sri Lankan I could only understand the numbers and a few words like my name, far, no, woman, father, mother daughter, horse, blue. Some others were close to old Sinhala though. I Wonder if Pasthun speakers can understand this since both are Eastern Iranic languages
funny and sad that so many people think turkic uyghurs are indigenous and dont know the sakas and tocharians
Exactly , but they're probably mixed
the sakas aren't "indigenous" either, they are descended from scythian nomads themselves.
I do hope east turkestan is freed so that all these people can live without chinese oppression.
Nice great deep dive.
I love ancient Iranian languages
tajik of xinjiang still exist today
south tarim basin was an extension of greater iran in the old days
If you're talking about the Persian empire yes, however east Speaking Iranians were also considered as the enemies who worshiped Daiva and killed Zoroaster and Cyrus the great.
vaska video stavū!
if you think on the words you can easily find the Persian cognates , such as bissa meaning all its cognate to old Persian vispa/visa , puls meaning to ask cognate with Persian purs , sve cognate with Avestan spaka and Old Persian spaka/saka and New Persian isbah/sag , rruvasa meaning fox is rawpatha in Old Persian and robah in new persian and so on
KHOTANESE had a great influenec upon both vocabulary and grammar of Turkic langauges in central Asia and West Asia.
It sounds like a mixture of Sanskrit, Russian and Portuguese
Interesting in modern persian one says " vassé " meaning " for " cognate with " vaska " in khotanese , in classic Persian " fara " meaning further over there , cognate with " vara = there" in khotanese, " daq " in persian cognate with " dai " in khotanese, , " meh " in Persian , "myau " in khotanese and many many more ....
Excellent! Khotan was likely founded by the Gandharan migrants from Kashmir and other parts of Greater Buddhist Gandhara, who migrated to Central Asia, to spread Buddhism, Khotan was conquered likely by the Scythians. The Scythian and Gandharan languages fused and created Khotanese. This is likely how this language was born.
well not really fused but more like scythians adopted lots of words from the native indian people while keeping their own language
It sounds like Pashto 😭
Amazingly as an Indian I could find cognates of 50-70% of the words though it is difficult to find for few but you will surely find one
As a Kurd I understand more than 70% of the words
Unbelievable! as an Iranian I can understand most of this language. It was surprising that I didn't know about this wonderful saka language. Thank you for introducing this unique language.🦁☀️👑♥️🤍💚
100%. I’ve suggested that a speaker of current-living Indo-Iranian ought to be saying words and phrases.My guess is that it would sound closer to original Khotanese. The speaker here seems to pronounce in a Vedic coloration.
you may also understand tajik of xinjiang language
@@太守苏定交趾 We Persians understand 100% of the language of Xinjiang Tajiks. They speak our own language, just with their own unique accent.
Is it possible to make for Bactrian and Avestan?
Hey Andy, could you make about Aryan Wushun and Tocharic Yuezhi languages, please?
5:34 Tvaṣṭa was also name of a Rigvedic God mostly associated as the divine architect
I want to revive this language!
I support
Is this the proto Wakhi or proto Sarikoli language?
Alas, but this very similar language
as close as we have to it
Wakhi yes
@choco1994 Wakhi can't will descendant of Khotanese, Wakhi more archaic than Khotanese
@ Wakhi is a descendant of a saka language which could be similar or even same to khotanese saka due to their geographical positions. But today's Wakhi is structured differently from khotanese
I'd never think that a language existed that's a hybrid of Iranian and Chinese
Hui language
@@KaungkhantZaw-h2l this dead language, and Chinese words here few
It is not a mixture of Chinese and Iranian. It is rather influenced by Indian languages and Buddhist culture. 😁
@rarearyantroops you're right, the speakers just inhabited a region located in modern day China
Chinese is not only an language they are some dialects if you say chinese then you mean mandarin because it belongs to sinitic language family
Almost all eastern Iranian languages sound like Avestan. Did they origin from Avestan which is the oldest eastern Iranian language close to old Persian and Vedic Sanskrit?
They are both languages that diverged very early on from proto indo Iranian, and so have been able to preserve certain aspects not found in other languages, this is why avestan sounds like sanskrit even though they aren't very related
This site needs to have current Indo-Iranian-Farsi-Dari- Tajiki- speakers to pronounce and speak this ancient language.Many Khotanese words and phrases are the same or similar to living Iranic languages.
Also the person saying words and phrases may be a Russian speaker so when reading the “short text” the rhythm is Russian not Indo-Iranic.
No, here words have a Khotan rhythm, because accents in this language were placed at the beginning and in the middle of words, there is a book by H.W. Bailey on this, but the so-called "Indo-Iranians" will use rhythm at the end of words.
@@ScythianSnake Actually It is difficult to know exactly what Khotanese sounded like. There is a good chance that every town and village had its own dialect. But the rhythms may have been similar to current Indo-Iranic languages. My sense is we are working in the dark. Languages are tricky. Meaning there are ways of saying things that one can only learn by speaking, hearing and having cultural references. Meaning language is a living thing. It doesn’t work well in a lab. So we will never know what a dead language really sounds like.
@depasrik we will not be able to reconstruct a complete picture of those dialects, but one specific one is quite possible depending on the amount of information
As someone who speaks Persian I could find connection between 30% of the vocabulary and my language. Wakhi which has derived from this language has more lexical similarities w Persian
Wakhi is more of a close relative of Khotanese rather than a descendant
yey
Eastern Iranian language is Avesta or old Pashto and this language Pashto because some of this word is still useful 🎉
Pashto and Khotanese have a common origin from the Saka language of the period of the conquest of Bactria
It’s really close to modern persian language i understand 30% to 40% of the vocabulary
Understood a lot as Gujarati and hindi speaker
3:35 triple t ?!?!
Here a little error
*ttäña
it's stopped giving me notifications :(
Very similar to persia in aspect of vocab and numbers
100% Pashto language 🎉🎉
According to the archeological excavation in the Henan Province, there are many Caucasian people were used as human sacrificial purposes that derived from Xinjiang area. Very It is likely that the Chinese people from the Xia, Shang and Zhou Era engaging the ancestors of the Khotanese people in many battles, the Zhou state often helped the Shang State to capture the POWs including the Caucasian peoples from Xinjiang area.
Sounds a lot like Pashto.
As eastern iranian language speaker (pushto) more than 80% words and PRONOUNCIATION are exactly similar !!
契丹文吗
As a kurdish speaker i would say It looks like pashtu language
Yeah i speak this language
rraṣṭa?
Ah, tta thu si?
@@ScythianSnakeSam
Some words are the same as in Slavic languages.
Because it's Indo European language
It has Sanskrit and Dari words!
💚🤍❤️
Wusun language please
There are some similarities with slavic languages
Some word same kurdish word
The person reading mispronounced alot of things. For example, the word for "many" isn't pronounced "Para" it is pronounced "Fara". I know this because the Kurdish word for "many" is "ferä"
you can't reconstruct an east iranian language with kurdish, as kurdish didn't exist up until the 13th-14th century and is not an east iranian language.
Because it begins with an f in Kurdish doesn’t mean it should begin with F in Khotanese. They are two different languages after all. What if Khotanese lost the F sound because it turned into P?
@@ikhebdieishetnietgoeddathe4057 yes, this is exactly what happened with the Saka language at the beginning of our era, for example, Pashto is a descendant of the Indo-Saka language of the same period as Khotanese and it also lacks the sound F
@dalivincibey8817 OK, let's think you're right. What about Persian? Persian as a language is atleast 2500 years old, right? Well, in Persian, the word for "many" is "Farâvân", not "Parâvan"
@@ScythianSnakeI suppose that makes sense.
Khotanese vs Wakhi
This one looks like Russian
It's Vaugely slavic but it's an Iranic language. I'd assume it's because of it being frozen in time
Maybe since it's a Satem language.
@@Sonilotos you right.
There's a lot of linguistic and cultural similarities between balto-slavs and indo-iranians, according to one theory, most of these similarities originated from a brief contact between balto-slavs and proto-indo-iranians, when they still lived in eastern European steppes.. before migrated further east into central asia.
It's Eastran Iranian Language
The Uyghurs made this language extinct !!!
you do know that sakas invaded the tarim basin and killed off the tocharians who also invaded and killed off the tarim mummy civilization prior, right?
@dalivincibey8817 The difference is that the Khotanese were a great and civilized people, unlike those who preceded and succeeded them. Their great culture and civilization was lost on the Uyghurs.
and people today think turkic uyghurs are indigenous😂
there's no such place as xinjiang, china. it's east turkestan.
Cry louder Turko
that was also west turkestan. east and west turkestan was separated by altai mountains. However, east turkestan was occupied by Mongols todday.
There is Nothing Such as East Turkistan!
It's Xinjiang !!!
Saka are yuezhi
The last branch of Scythian, that was obliterated by Uyghur barbarians coming from Mongolia.
tajik of xinjiang still exist today
Despite the relation being mentioned often, there is actually little evidence for Khotanese actually being the language of the Eastern Scythians
1. The Khotanese never described as Saka or Saka descendants by their contemporaries, and they also didn't identify themselves as Saka
2. One feature that Khotanese has is the development of Proto-Iranian '*ćw' into 'ss' while it developed into 'sp' in most other Old Iranian varieties; among the Indo-Saka, we do have a few names with 'sp' and there appears to be none that have the Khotanese 'ss'
Some more argument against their relationship are in:
Peyrot, M. (2018). Tocharian B etswe ‘mule’ and Eastern East Iranian
And additionally, this issue is also covered in the Musaem Scythia blog post "Did the Saka migrate to the Tarim Basin and founded the Kingdom of Khotan?"
But um, we do have a living Scythian language, Ossetian, and even if we include Khotanese in anyway it does have a close living relative, Wakhi
@Nastya_07
The blog contains incorrect pseudo-information, it's definitely not a scientific source. there is substantial evidence or strong indications that khotanese was a Saka language. However, self-identification is a separate issue. Subbranches of a language do not necessarily undergo the same linguistic developments. For example, Wakhi has preserved many archaic features that do not exist in Khotanese or other Saka dialects.
@Nastya_07
Why do you argue that Wakhi is a close relative of Khotanese, while at the same time using the *ćw > śś development as evidence that Khotanese is not a Saka language? Wakhi itself has preserved many archaic features that differ from Khotanese. Therefore, this argument cannot be used as definitive evidence.
@Nastya_07
Arguing that they are not Sakas simply because they do not identify as such is like claiming that the Sogdians were not Iranic just because they did not explicitly state it. The classification of Khotanese as a Saka language is based on extensive research, drawing from various reports, sources, and linguistic evidence.