Fun with Wikipedia

So i've been bored and uncreative. I've been reading non-fiction and other such informative typed things. Heres something I found Link-hopping in wikipedia and thought I'd post it cause it was interesting:

The Sogdian language is an extinct Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana (Zarafshan River Valley), located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (chief cities: Samarkand, Panjakent, Fergana).

Sogdian is one of the most important Middle Iranian languages with a large literary corpus, standing next to Middle Persian and Parthian. The language belongs to the Northeastern branch of Iranian languages. No evidence of an earlier version of the language (*Old Sogdian) have been found, although the mention of the area in Old Persian inscriptions means that a separate and recognisable Sogdiana existed since at least the Achaemenid era (ca. 550-323 BCE). Sogdian possesses a more conservative grammar and morphology than Middle Persian.

The economic and political importance of the language guaranteed its survival in the first few centuries after the conquest of Sogdiana by the Muslims in the early eighth century CE. The fact that the earliest texts of Modern Persian have been written in the territory of Sogdiana under the patronage of Samanid Kings means that many Sogdian words have entered Modern Persian as well. Only a dialect of Sogdian, called Yaghnobi language, has survived into the 21st century and is spoken by the mountain dwellers of the Yaghnob valley.