Editing Pamir languages (section)

== Classification ==
No features uniting the Pamir languages as a single subgroup of Iranian have been demonstrated.<ref name="AW09">Antje Wendtland (2009), ''The position of the Pamir languages within East Iranian'', [http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:305485 Orientalia Suecana LVIII] "The Pamir languages are a group of East Iranian languages which are linguistically quite diverse and
cannot be traced back to a common ancestor. The term Pamir languages is based on their geographical position rather than on their genetic closeness. Exclusive features by which the Pamir languages can be distinguished from all other East Iranian languages cannot be found either."</ref> The [[Ethnologue]] lists the Pamir languages along with Pashto as Southeastern Iranian,<ref>[[ethnologuefamily:12-16|Southeastern Iranian Family Tree]]. SIL International. Ethnologue: Languages of the World.</ref> however, according to [[Encyclopedia Iranica]], the Pamirian languages and Pashto belong to the North-Eastern Iranian branch.<ref name="Iranica">[[Nicholas Sims-Williams]], [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eastern-iranian-languages Eastern Iranian languages], in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 2010. ''"The Modern Eastern Iranian languages are even more numerous and varied. Most of them are classified as North-Eastern: Ossetic; Yaghnobi (which derives from a dialect closely related to Sogdian); the Shughni group (Shughni, Roshani, Khufi, Bartangi, Roshorvi, Sarikoli), with which Yazghulyami (Sokolova 1967) and the now extinct Wanji (J. Payne in Schmitt, p. 420) are closely linked; Ishkashmi, Sanglichi, and Zebaki; Wakhi; Munji and Yidgha; and Pashto."''</ref>

Members of the Pamirian language area include four reliable groups: a Shughni-Yazgulyam group including [[Shughni language|Shughni]], [[Sarikoli language|Sarikoli]], and [[Yazgulyam language|Yazgulyam]]; [[Munji language|Munji]] and [[Yidgha language|Yidgha]]; [[Ishkashimi language|Ishkashimi]] and related dialects; and [[Wakhi language|Wakhi]]. They have the [[subject-object-verb]] [[syntactic]] [[Linguistic typology|typology]].

[[Václav Blažek]] (2019) suggests that the Pamir languages have a [[Burushaski]]-like [[stratum (linguistics)|substratum]]. Although [[Burushaski]] is today spoken in Pakistan to the south of the Pamir language area, Burushaski formerly had a much wider geographic distribution before being assimilated by Indo-Iranian languages.<ref>Blažek, Václav. 2019. ''[https://starling.rinet.ru/confer/Blazhek-2019.pdf Toward the question of Yeniseian homeland in perspective of toponymy]''. 14th Annual Sergei Starostin Memorial Conference on Comparative-Historical Linguistics. Moscow: RSUH.</ref>