Wakhi is an Eastern Iranian language spoken by approximately 50,000 people across parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and China. Historically a strictly oral language, its cultural heritage has traditionally been preserved and transmitted entirely via oral traditions, such as poetry and song. Because its speakers are divided by international borders, Wakhi lacks a single, globally unified writing system; instead, it is currently written using four distinct scripts across three different alphabets: the Latin alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet in Tajikistan, an Urdu-based Arabic alphabet variant in Pakistan, and a Dari-based Arabic alphabet variant in Afghanistan. Due to declining numbers of younger speakers learning the language at home, Wakhi is officially classified as "Definitely Endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.