Tajik language

Tajik Language

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Tajik language

The Tajik language, or Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, (sometimes written Tadjik or Tadzhik; , , ) is a modern variety of the Persian language

Persian language

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
language

Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
of the Iranian

Iranian languages

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
language group, most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east....
and Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Tajikistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
and Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, as a result of political borders, geographical isolation, the standardisation process, and the influence of Russian

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
and neighbouring Turkic languages.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Tajik language'

Start a new discussion about 'Tajik language'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The Tajik language, or Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, (sometimes written Tadjik or Tadzhik; , , ) is a modern variety of the Persian language

Persian language

Indo-European languages

Language

Iranian languages

Tajikistan

Uzbekistan

Tajikistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
and Iran

Iran

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
and neighbouring Turkic languages. The standard language is based on the north-western dialects of Tajik (region of old major city of Samarkand

Samarkand

Samarkand , is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province.The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study....
), which have been somewhat influenced by the neighbouring Uzbek language

Uzbek language

Uzbek is a Turkic languages and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia....
as a result of geographical proximity. Tajik also retains numerous archaic elements in its vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar that have been lost elsewhere in the Persophone world, in part due to its relative isolation in the mountains of Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
.

Geographical distribution

The most important historically Tajik/Persian-speaking cities of Central Asia, Samarqand and Bukhara

Bukhara

Bukhara , also spelled as Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian ?uxarak , is the Capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900 ....
, are in present-day Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
. In Uzbekistan the Tajik are the largest part of the population of the ancient cities of Bukhara and Samarqand, and are found in large numbers in the Surxondaryo Province

Surxondaryo Province

Surxondaryo Province , old spelling Surkhandarya Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan, located in the extreme south-east of the country. Established on March 6, 1941, it borders on Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan and Qashqadaryo Province....
in the south and along Uzbekistan's eastern border with Tajikistan.

Official statistics in Uzbekistan state that the Tajik community comprises 5% of the nation's total population. However, these numbers do not include ethnic Tajiks who, for a variety of reasons, choose to identify themselves as Uzbeks in population census forms. During the Soviet "Uzbekization" supervised by Sharof Rashidov, the head of the Uzbek Communist Party, Tajiks had to choose either stay in Uzbekistan and get registered as Uzbek in their passports or leave the republic for the less developed agricultural and mountainous Tajikistan. Subjective expert estimates suggest that Tajiks may make up 15 to 25 percent of Uzbekistan's population.

Tajiks constitute 80% of Tajikistan's population, and Persian language dominates in most parts of the country. Some Tajiks in Badakhshan

Badakhshan

Badakhshan is a region comprising parts of northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan. Badakhshan Province is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan....
in southeastern Tajikistan, where the Pamiri

Pamiri

Pamiri could refer to:*Pamiri languages spoken in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and China*Pamiri people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan...
languages are the native languages of most residents, are bilingual-speakers. Tajiks are the dominant ethnic group in Northern Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
as well, and are also the majority group in scattered pockets elsewhere in the country, particularly urban areas such as Kabul

Kabul

Kabul is the Capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of approximately three million. It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 foot above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River....
, Mazar

Mazar

Mazar is a tomb or Mausoleum. The Sufi mausoleum are pilgramage sites for Muslims. Mazari Sharif city in Afghanistan is also a pilgramage site....
, Kunduz

Kunduz

Kunduz also known as Kund?z, Qonduz, Qond?z, Konduz, Kond?z, Kondoz, or Qhunduz is a city in northern Afghanistan, the capital of Kunduz Province....
, Ghazni

Ghazni

Ghazni City is a city in central Afghanistan, with an approximate population of 141,000 people. It is the capital of Ghazni Province, situated on a plateau at 7,280 feet above sea level....
and Herat

Herat

Dari

Dari may refer to:* Dari , a historical literary language and the Persian language variant of Afghanistan* Dari , an ethnolect of the Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kerman...
, along with the Persian dialects of other groups in Afghanistan such as the Hazara and Aimaq

Aimaq

Aimaq is an alternative spelling for:* A collection of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of different origins living in the west and north-west of Afghanistan....
. 50% of the Afghan citizens are native speakers of Dari. A large Tajik-speaking diaspora exists due to the instability that has plagued Central Asia in recent years, with significant numbers of Tajiks found in Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
, and beyond.

Dialects

Tajik dialects can be approximately split into the following groups:

Northern dialects (Northern Tajikistan, southern parts of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan).
Central dialects (dialects of Mastjoh, Aini, Hissor and, parts of Varzob
Varzob

Varzob is a settlement which located 25 km from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in the Region of Republican Subordination, Varzob district. Varzob is a capital of the Varzob district....
).
Southern dialects (dialects of Qarotegin, Kulob
Kulob

Kulob , also Kulab or Kulyab , is a city in Kulob district, Khatlon, Tajikistan. Located 203 km south-east of the capital Dushanbe on the Yakhsu River , it is one of the largest cities in the country ....
, dialects of Badakhshan
Badakhshan

Badakhshan is a region comprising parts of northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan. Badakhshan Province is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan....
, etc.)
Southeastern dialects (dialects of Panj
Panj

Panj is a city in southern Tajikistan, situated on the Afghanistan border some 252 km south of the capital Dushanbe on the eponymous Panj River....
and Darvoz).

The dialects used among the native Bukharian Jews of Central Asia are known as Bukhori, and belong to the northern dialect grouping. They are chiefly distinguished by the inclusion of Hebrew terms, principally religious vocabulary, and a historical use of the Hebrew alphabet. Despite these differences, Bukhori is readily intelligible to other Tajik-speakers, particularly speakers of northern dialects.

Phonology

Vowels

The table below illustrates the vowels in standard, literary Tajik. Local dialects frequently have more than the six seen below.

Tajik vowels
	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant....	Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel....	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant....
Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant....
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel....			¹
Open Open vowel An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth....			¹

The open back vowel has varyingly been described as (actually mid-back), and

Consonants

	Bilabial/Labio-dental Labial consonant Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips or with the lower lip and the upper teeth . English is a bilabial nasal consonant sonorant, and are bilabial stop consonant , and are labiodental fricative consonant....	Dental Dental consonant In linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages.... / Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the Dental alveolus of the superior teeth....	Post- alveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate ....	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate . Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex consonant....	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the Soft palate)....	Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the Palatine uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants....	Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider them to be consonants at all....
nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered soft palate in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the tongue....
plosive
fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German language , the final consonant of Bach; or the side of the tongue ag...
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricate consonants begin as stop consonants but release as a fricative consonant rather than directly into the following vowel....
trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr > as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular trill....
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and "typical" consonants. In the articulation of approximants, articulatory organs produce a narrowing of the vocal tract, but leave enough space for air to flow without much audible turbulence....

Word stress

Word stress generally falls on the ultimate syllable. Examples of where stress does not fall on the last syllable are: ???? (meaning "yes") and ???? (meaning "because"). Stress also does not fall on enclitics, nor on the marker of the direct object.

Grammar

The word order of Tajiki Persian is Subject-Object-Verb.

Nouns

Nouns are not marked for grammatical gender

Grammatical gender

In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
, although they are marked for number. Gender is usually distinguished by a change of word, as in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, e.g. ???? (murgh) 'fowl' and ????? (khurus) 'rooster'. Alternatively the modifiers '???' (nar) for male or '????' (moda) for female can be pre or post-posed to the noun, e.g. ???? ??? (xari nar) 'male donkey' and ???? ???? (xari moda) 'female donkey'.

Two forms of number exist in Tajik, singular and plural. The plural is marked by either the suffix -?? or -??, although Arabic loan words may use Arabic forms. There is no definite article, but the indefinite article exists in the form of number one '??' (yak) and '-?' (-e), the first positioned before the noun and the second joining the noun as a suffix, although the direct object is marked by the suffix '-??' (-ro), e.g. ???????? ????? (Rustamro zadam), 'I hit Rustam.'

Prepositions

Simple prepositions
Tajik	English
??	from, through, across
??	with
???	on, upon, onto
??	to
??	without
???	at, in
???	like, as
??	up to, as far as, until

Vocabulary

Tajiki is conservative in its vocabulary, retaining numerous terms that have long since fallen into disuse in Iran and Afghanistan, such as ????? (arziz), meaning 'tin,' and ?????? (farbeh), meaning 'fat.' Most modern loan words in Tajik come from Russian

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
as a result of the position of Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. Vocabulary also comes from the geographically close Uzbek language

Uzbek language

Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
ic countries, from Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
. Since the late 1980s, an effort has been made to replace loanwords with native equivalents, using either old terms that had fallen out of use, or coined terminology. Many of the coined terms for modern items such as ????????? (garmkunak), meaning 'heater' and ????????? (changkashak), meaning 'vacuum cleaner' differ from their Afghan and Iranian equivalents, adding to the difficulty in intelligibility between Tajiki and other forms of Persian

Persian language

Persian language

Iran

Dari

Dari may refer to:* Dari , a historical literary language and the Persian language variant of Afghanistan* Dari , an ethnolect of the Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kerman...
Persian of Afghanistan. Another Iranian language, Pashto, has also been included for comparative purposes.

Tajik	??? (moh)	??? (nau?)	????? (modar)	????? (x?ohar)	??? (šab)	???? (bini)	?? (se)	???? (siyoh)	???? (surx)	???? (zard)	???? (sabz)	???? (gurg)
Other Indo-European languages
Persian Persian language name=Persian\|nativename=\|pronunciation=[f??r'si]\|image=\|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script \|states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....	mah	nou?	madar	x?ahar	šab	bini	se	siyah	sorx	zard	sabz	gorg
Urdu	mah / maheena	naya	ma / walda	behn	rat	nak	tin	siah / kala	surkh / lal	pila	sabz / hara	bheyrya
Pashto Pashto language Pashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the East Iranian languages branch of the Indo-Iranian languages language family....	myasht	n?vay	mor	khor	shpa	poza	dre	tor	sur	zha?	shin	lewa
Hindi	mas	naya	mata	bahin	rat	nak	tin	kala / shyam	lal	pila	hara	bik
English English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...	month	new	mother	sister	night	nose	three	black	red	yellow	green	wolf
German German language German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....	Monat	neu	Mutter	Schwester	Nacht	Nase	drei	schwarz	rot	gelb	grün	Wolf
Norwegian (Bokmål) Norwegian language Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....	måne	ny	mor	søster	natt	nese	tre	svart	rød	gul	grønn	ulv
Irish Irish language Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people....	mhí	nua	máthair	deirfiúr	oiche	srón	trí	dubh	dearg	buí	glas	mac tíre, faolchú
Welsh Welsh language Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....	mis	newydd	mam	chwaer	nos	trwyn	tri	du (/di/)	coch, rhudd	melyn	gwyrdd, glas	blaidd
Latin	mensis	novus	mater	soror	nox	nasus	tres	ater, niger	ruber	flavus, gilvus	viridis	lupus
French French language French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....	mois	nouveau	mère	sœur	nuit	nez	trois	noir	rouge	jaune	vert	loup
Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....	mese	nuovo	madre	sorella	notte	naso	tre	nero	rosso	giallo	verde	lupo
Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....	mês	novo	mãe	irmã	noite	nariz	três	negro	vermelho	amarelo	verde	lobo
Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....	mes	nuevo	madre	hermana	noche	nariz	tres	negro	rojo	amarillo	verde	lobo
Catalan Catalan language Catalan is a Romance languages, the national language and official language of Andorra, and a official language in the Autonomous Communities of Spain of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community and in the city of Alghero in the Italy List of islands in the Mediterranean of Sardinia....	mes	nou	mare	germana	nit	nas	tres	negre	roig / vermell	groc	verd	llop
Romanian Romanian language Romanian or Daco-Romanian ; self-designation: limba rom?na, ) is a Romance languages spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova....	luna	nou/noi	mama	sora	noapte	nas	trei	negru	rosu	galben	verde	lup
Greek Greek language Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....	µ??a? minas	???? neos	µ?t??a mitera	ade?f? adhelfi	???ta nihta	µ?t? miti	t??a tria	µa???? mavros	???????? kokkinos	??t????? kitrinos	p??ss???? prassinos	????? likos
Latvian Latvian language Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. Alternative names include Lettish and Lettisch. There are about 1.5 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad....	menesis	jauns	mate	masa	nakts	deguns	tris	melns	sarkans	dzeltens	zalš	vilks
Lithuanian Lithuanian language Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad....	menuo	naujas	motina	sesuo	naktis	nosis	trys	juoda	raudona	geltona	žalias	vilkas
Polish Polish language Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....	miesiac	nowy	matka	siostra	noc	nos	trzy	czarny	czerwony	zólty	zielony	wilk
Ukrainian Ukrainian language Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic languages of the Slavic languages. It is the official language of Ukraine. In some areas of Russia there are dialects, Balachka or Surzhyk, which are the Ukrainianized versions of the Russian language....	?????? misjats	????? novyj	???? maty	?????? sestra	??? nich	??? nis	??? try	?????? chornyj	???????? chervonyj	?????? zhovtyj	??????? zelenyj	???? vovk
Czech Czech language Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czech people worldwide....	mesíc	nové	matka	sestra	noc	nos	tri	cerné	cervené	žluté	zelené	vlk
Bulgarian Bulgarian language Bulgarian is an Indo-European languages, a member of the Slavic languages linguistic group.Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except Macedonian language, such as the elimination of grammatical case, the development of a suffixed definite article , the lack of a verb infin...	????? mesets	??? nov	????? maika	?????? sestra	??? nosht	??? nos	??? tri	????? cheren	?????? cherven	???? zhalt	????? zelen	???? valk
Russian Russian language Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....	????? mesyats	????? novyi	???? mat'	?????? sestra	???? noch'	??? nos	??? tri	?????? chyornyi	??????? krasnyi	?????? zhyoltyi	??????? zelyonyi	???? volk
Serbian Serbian language name=Serbian\|nativename=\|pronunciation=['sr?pski?]\|familycolor=Indo-European\|map=\|states=See below under "Official status", besides that in Croatia and as an immigrant's language spread over Central Europe and Western Europe, as well as Northern America...	????? mesec	???? novi	????? majka	?????? sestra	??? noc	??? nos	??? tri	???? crni	?????? crveni	???? žuti	?????? zeleni	??? vuk

Writing system

In Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
and Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, Tajik is written using the Persian script. In Tajikistan and other countries of the former Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
, Tajik is currently written in the Cyrillic alphabet

Cyrillic alphabet

The Cyrillic alphabet is a family of alphabets, subsets of which are used by five Slavic languages national languages as well as non-Slavic . It is also used by many other languages of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Siberia and other languages in the past....
, although it was written in both the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
and the Persian alphabet in certain parts of its history. In the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, the use of the Latin script began in 1928, and was later replaced in the 1930s by the Cyrillic script. In an interview to Iranian news media in May 2008, Tajikistan's deputy culture minister said Tajikistan would study the issue of switching its Tajik alphabet

Tajik alphabet

The Tajik language has been written in three writing systems over the course of its history: a version of the Arabic script, a version of the Latin alphabet, and a version of the Cyrillic alphabet....
from Cyrillic to Persian

Perso-Arabic script

The Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the demands of being a writing system for the Persian language, adding four letters: ? , ? , ? , and ? ....
script used in Iran and Afghanistan when the government feels that "the Tajik people became familiar with the Persian alphabet".

History

According to many scholars, the New Persian language (which subsequently evolved into the Persian forms spoken in Iran

Iran

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
and Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Transoxiana

Transoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and southwest Kazakhstan....
and Khorasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan is a modern term for a geographic region spanning north-eastern Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and north-western Afghanistan....
, in what are today parts of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
and Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Middle Persian

Middle Persian is the Iranian languages language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well....
, it also incorporated substantial elements of other Iranian languages of ancient Central Asia, such as Sogdian

Sogdian

Sogdian may refer to* anything pertaining to Sogdiana, an ancient civilization of Iranian peoplesand in particular to* the Sogdian language...
.

Following the Arab

Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
conquest of Iran and most of Central Asia in the 8th century AD, Arabic for a time became the court language, and Persian

Persian language

Samanid

The Samanid dynasty or Samanids was an Iranian Persian empire in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan, named after its founder Saman Khuda who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrianism theocratic nobility....
s, whose state covered much of Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
, Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
and northeastern Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
and was centered around the cities of Bukhoro (Bukhara

Bukhara

Herat

Herat , classically called the Aria, is a city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herat province. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, Afghanistan, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan....
, New Persian emerged as the court language and swiftly displaced Arabic. Arabic influence continued to show itself in the form of the Perso-Arabic script used to write the language (replaced in Tajik by Latin and then Cyrillic in the 20th century) and a large number of Arabic loanwords.

New Persian became the lingua franca of Central Asia for centuries, although it eventually lost ground to the Chaghatai language in much of its former domains as a growing number of Turkic

Turkic

Turkic may refer to:* Turkic languages** Turkic alphabets* Turkic peoples** Turkic migration** Turkic nationalism* Turkic European* Turkic Federalist Party...
tribes moved into the region from the east. Since the 16th century AD, Tajiki has come under increasing pressure from neighboring Turkic

Turkic

Turkic may refer to:* Turkic languages** Turkic alphabets* Turkic peoples** Turkic migration** Turkic nationalism* Turkic European* Turkic Federalist Party...
languages, particularly Uzbek

Uzbek

Uzbek and Uzbekistani may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Uzbekistan, a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
, which has largely replaced it in most areas of what is now Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is a Turkic peoples country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic ....
, such as Merv

Merv

Merv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary, Turkmenistan in Turkmenistan....
, Tajik is today virtually non-existent in that country. Nevertheless, Tajik persisted in pockets of what is now Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Surxondaryo Province

Tajikistan

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
in 1929 helped to safeguard the future of Tajik, as it became an official language of the republic alongside Russian

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
. Still, substantial numbers of Tajik-speakers remained outside the borders of the republic, mostly in the neighboring Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, which created a source of tension between Tajiks

Tajiks

Tajik is a general designation for a wide range of mostly Persian language peoples of Iranian peoples, with traditional homelands in present-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, southern Uzbekistan, north west Pakistan and western China....
and Uzbeks

Uzbeks

The Uzbeks are a Turkic peoples people of Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China....
. Neither Samarqand nor Bukhoro was included in the nascent Tajik S.S.R., despite their immense historical importance in Tajik history. After the creation of the Tajik S.S.R., a large number of ethnic Tajiks from the Uzbek S.S.R. migrated there, particularly to the region of the capital, Dushanbe

Dushanbe

Dushanbe , population 679,400 people , is the Capital and largest city of Tajikistan. Dushanbe means "Monday" in Tajik language, and the name reflects the fact that the city grew on the site of a village that originally was a popular Monday marketplace....
, exercising a substantial influence in the republic's political, cultural and economic life. The influence of this influx of ethnic Tajik immigrants from the Uzbek S.S.R. is most prominently manifested in the fact that literary Tajik is based on their northwestern dialects of the language, rather than the central dialects that are spoken by the natives in the Dushanbe region and adjacent areas.

After the fall of the Soviet Union and Tajikistan's independence in 1991, the government of Tajikistan has made substantial efforts to promote the use of Tajik in all spheres of public and private life. Tajik is gaining ground among the once-Russified upper classes, and continues its role as the vernacular of the majority of the country's population. There has been a rise in the number of Tajik publications. Increasing contact with media from Iran

Iran

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, after decades of isolation under the Soviets, is also having an effect on the development of the language.

As a main program, Iran

Iran

Hamid Hassani

Hamid Hassani or Hamid Hasani is an Iranian scholar and teacher, an expert on Persian, Arabic, and Kurdish language prosody .Graduated from The University of Tehran, 1992, he has published 6 books and 35 papers on Persian language, Arabic, and Kurdish language language and Literature....
, is supposed to prepare a Tajik Language Corpus, consisting of one-million words.

Tajik language

Geographical distribution

Dialects

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Word stress

Grammar

Nouns

Prepositions

Vocabulary

Writing system

History

See also

External links