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The Whispering Road: How Sogdian Became the Lingua Franca of the Silk Road
Long before English dominated global trade, the language of the Sogdians, an Iranian people from Central Asia, connected the great empires of the East and West. This is the story of how their language and its unique script became the unsung lingua franca of the Silk Road, facilitating centuries of trade in silk, spices, and ideas. Discover the ‘whispering road’ and the merchant people who built it, and learn why their influential language eventually vanished from the world.
