Department of Religions and Philosophies

Iskandar Ding

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Key information

Roles: School of History, Religions and Philosophies PhD Research Student
Department: Department of Religions and Philosophies
Thesis title: Syntax of the Yaghnobi Verb: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives
Internal Supervisors: Professor Lutz Marten & Professor Almut Hintze

Biography

Iskandar Ding holds a BA in Modern Languages and Linguistics from the University of Oxford, an MA in Iranian Studies from SOAS, and is currently writing his PhD on Yaghnobi linguistics and culture at SOAS.

His main academic lies in the languages and literature of the eastern Persianate world and its surrounding areas. He is particularly interested in the transition of the Turco-Iranian linguistic landscape from pre-Islamic to Islamic Central Asia.

His research includes not only Yaghnobi language and linguistics, but also Persian (Tajik) dialects of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and their contact with Turkic. He pays specific attention to the linguistic material reflected by the oral tradition of these linguistic communities.

After the completion of his PhD, Iskandar intends to build a digital corpus for Yaghnobi oral texts as well as one for Tajik dialects for future research. He also aims to expand his thesis on Yaghnobi syntax to a complete, contemporary grammar of the language.

Research interests

Eastern Iranian languages -
Iranian linguistics, especially ergativity, evidentiality, and case-marking
Linguistic, cultural, and religious contact in the Iranian Persianate sphere
Language shift in pre-Islamic to early Islamic Central Asia
Persian dialectology, especially Central Asian Tajik dialects, Sino-Persian, and Hazaragi
Language documentation of endangered Iranian and Persianate languages