The East Iranic Shughni/Shughnani people 
In their own language, the autonym (ethnic name) for a Shughni person is xuǧni (хуғнӣ) for a male, xuǧnůn (хуғнӯн) for the people collectively.
The Shughni (or Shughani) are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group and a primary subgroup of the Pamiri peoples. They inhabit the rugged Pamir Mountains along the Panj River, a natural border that divides their historic homeland of Shughnan between the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan and the Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan.
They speak the Shughni language, a member of the Pamir subgroup of the Eastern Iranian language family. As the most widely spoken language in the Pamirs, Shughni serves as the vital regional lingua franca that connects various neighboring mountain communities.
The name Shughni carries deep historical roots, first recorded by Chinese travelers in the 7th century as Shiqini. Linguists trace the etymology of the name back to the ancient mountain Saka(Scythian) tribes (also known as Pamiri Sakas) who originally settled the region, evolving over centuries from Old Iranian roots associated with the upper Oxus River valley.
