the 19th century, the region was forcibly annexed to the Bukharan Emirate and a violent assimilation campaign was undertaken. By the end of the 19th century the Vanji language had disappeared, displaced by Tajik Persian. Most language speakers and others in Tajikistan refer to languages in this group as 'Pamirski" or 'Pamir'. (e.g. "I can speak Pamir, Ishkashem and Wakhi") Munji-Yidgha branch The Munji and Yidgha languages are closely related. There are about 6,000 speakers of Yidgha in Upper Lotkoh Valley, Chitral District, Pakistan, and in 1992 there were around 2,500 speakers of Munji in the Munjan and Mamalgha Valleys of Badakhshan Province, northeastern Afghanistan. Munji-Yidgha shares with Bactrian a development *ð > , absent from the other three Pamir groups. The extinct Sarghulami language of Badakhshan is thought to be of the Munji-Yidgha branch. Sanglechi-Ishkashimi There are about 2,500 speakers of Sanglechi and Ishkashmi in Afghanistan and Tajikistan respectively, they are not written languages. Wakhi There are around 58,000 speakers of the Wakhi language in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, and Russia. Status The vast majority of Pamir speakers in Tajikistan and Afghanistan also use Tajik (Persian) as a literary language, which is—unlike the languages of the Pamir group—a Southwestern Iranian tongue. The language group is endangered, with the total number of speakers roughly around 100,000 in 1990. See also Wakhan Bibliography Payne, John, "Pamir languages" in Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. Schmitt (1989), 417–444. References External links Ethnolinguistic map of Tajikistan Ishkashimi story with English translation Ishkashimi-English Vocabulary List, also featuring words from other Pamir languages added for comparison English-Ishkashimi- Zebaki-Wakhi-Yazghulami Vocabulary A Short List of Yazghulami Words Grierson G. A. Ishkashmi, Zebaki, and Yazghulami, an account of three Eranian dialects. (1920) Eastern Iranian languages Endangered Iranian languages