| Group | Iranian (with Persian, Kurdish etc.), Southeast Iranian (with Bactrian, Khwaresmian, Pashto etc.) |
| Geography & History | Linguists usually treat it as Eastern Iranian, though it is still subject to arguments. In 6th - 10th centuries Sacian was spoken in East Turkestan, in the Khotan oasis. Besides Khotanese, Sacian includes several minor dialectal groups which are represented by a very poor number of sources. They were spoken in Kashgar, Tumshuk and other East Turkestan oasises. Later Sacian was assimilated by Turkish languages. |
| Morphology | Sacian is distinguished from other Iranian tongues by its archaic grammar. Seven noun cases were seldom at this time among the tongues of the group, as well as two verb voices: active and medium. The past tense also had two different types of conjugating the verb. |
| Lexicon | Sacian vocabulary borrowed many words and terms from Buddhist Sanskrit terminology. In texts two dialects can be distincted: a more archaic and a more analytic ones, with the later reducing of inflections. |
| Writing | Sacian texts were written in a variant of late Brahmi and date back to 9th and 10th centuries. |
| Close Contacts | Sacian shows traits quite similar to Pashto and Wakha, one of the Pamir languages. |
| Sample | balysūñavūysānu
pracīya-sam.buddhānu s.āvānu aysu bäsīvrās.ā ham.khīysgya hastamä dāks.in.yānu hvatämä s.ā kho tcāramīskyajä nyāttara-ks.īrei rre ku tcārīmu vätä āste rre hvīnde ... cakkravarttä rre ttiña |
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