[6] It is also referred to as Tashkorghani,[7] after the ancient capital of the Sarikoli kingdom—now the Tashkurgan (or Taxkorgan) Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang, China.

[9][3] The number of speakers is around 35,000; most reside in the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in Southern Xinjiang Province, China.

The rest are found in parts of the Pakistani-administered Kashmir, closely touching the Pakistan-Chinese international borders in the north east.

[citation needed] In recent years, Sarikoli speakers in China have used Uyghur Arabic alphabet to spell out their language.

Sarikoli has 30 consonants:[13] Sarikoli consonants according to Russian Iranologist transcription (IPA values in slashes): p /p/, b /b/, t /t/, d /d/, k /k ~ c/, g /ɡ ~ ɟ/, q /q/, c /ts/, ʒ /dz/, č /tɕ/, ǰ /dʑ/, s /s/, z /z/, x̌ /x/, γ̌ /ɣ/, f /f/, v /v/, θ /θ/, δ /ð/, x /χ/, γ /ʁ/, š /ɕ/, ž /ʑ/, h /h/, w /w/, y /j/, m /m/, n /n, ŋ/, l /l/, r /r/ Most words receive stress on the last syllable; however, a minority receive stress on their first syllable.

The following text is a paragraph from Gao Erqiang's "Tajik-Chinese Dictionary" (1996), talking about the significance of the development of a writing system for the language of Tajiks of Xinjiang, both in Chinese and Sarikoli.