This summer, with support from a National Geographic Explorer grant, a team from ELA is traveling across the Pamir region of Tajikistan and an adjacent area of western China, interviewing over 70 speakers and singers in a dozen different languages — primarily under-documented, endangered Iranic languages of the Pamiri subgroup such as Wakhi and Shughni, which have been a focus of ELA’s research since 2010. Here ELA’s team interviews Rushani speaker Guldasta Karimova on her topchan, an outdoor platform for receiving guests that is an integral part of many traditional Pamiri homes.
