Sorkhei language

Sorkhei
Sorkhei-Aftari
RegionIran
Native speakers
12,000 (2021)[1]
Dialects
  • Sorkhei
  • Aftari
Language codes
ISO 639-3sqo
Glottologsork1239
ELPSorkhei

Sorkhei is a Western Iranian language. It is spoken in the village of Sorkheh in Semnan Province in northwestern Iran.[2]

Usage

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During the Iran-Iraq War, radio operators from Sorkheh used the language as a form of cryptography for tactical communications of the Iranian Armed Forces.[3]

During the Iran nuclear negotiations, the language was used in conversations between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Hossein Fereydoun, his brother and aide traveling with the negotiating team. This was done to eliminate or reduce comprehensibility of the conversation by any potential eavesdroppers.[4]

Notes

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  1. ^ Sorkhei at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Lecoq, pg. 297
  3. ^ Mehr (in Persian)
  4. ^ Tabnak (in Persian)

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Pierre Lecoq. 1989. "Les dialectes caspiens et les dialectes du nord-ouest de l'Iran," Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Ed. Rüdiger Schmitt. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. Pages 296-314.
  • Habib Borjian. 2008. “The Komisenian Dialect of Aftar,” Archiv Orientální 76: 379-416.