Dictionary:

Sogdian

  (sŏg'dē-ən)

Of or relating to an ancient Iranian people whose homeland was in the area around Samarqand and who had established settlements throughout Chinese Turkistan before the advent of Islam.

1. A member of this people.
2. The extinct Middle Iranian language of this people, known chiefly from texts and inscriptions dating from the second to the ninth centuries A.D.

[Latin Sogdiānus, from Greek Sogdoi, Sogdians, from Old Persian Sug(u)da-.]