Tajik language information

Tajik
Tajik
Tajiki Persian
Тоҷикӣ (Tojikī)
	"Tojikī" written in Cyrillic script and Perso-Arabic script (Nastaʿlīq calligraphy)
Native to	Tajikistan; Uzbekistan;
Region	Central Asia
Ethnicity	8.0 million Tajiks in Tajikistan (2020)
Native speakers	10.0 million for all countries (8.0 million in Tajikistan 2020)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Southwestern Iranian Persian Tajik; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Bukharian;
Writing system	Cyrillic (Tajik alphabet); Historically:; Arabic (Persian alphabet); Latin (Yañalif-based); ; Hebrew (by Bukharan Jews); Tajik Braille;
Official status
Official language in	Tajikistan
Recognised minority; language in	Uzbekistan; Russia
Regulated by	Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tg
ISO 639-2	tgk
ISO 639-3	tgk
Glottolog	taji1245
Linguasphere	58-AAC-ci
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Tajik,^[2]^[a] also called Tajiki Persian^[b] or Tajiki, is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by Tajiks. It is closely related to neighbouring Dari of Afghanistan with which it forms a continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of the Persian language. Several scholars consider Tajik as a dialectal variety of Persian rather than a language on its own.^[3]^[4]^[5] The popularity of this conception of Tajik as a variety of Persian was such that, during the period in which Tajik intellectuals were trying to establish Tajik as a language separate from Persian, prominent intellectual Sadriddin Ayni counterargued that Tajik was not a "bastardised dialect" of Persian.^[6] The issue of whether Tajik and Persian are to be considered two dialects of a single language or two discrete languages^[7] has political sides to it.^[6]

By way of Early New Persian, Tajik, like Iranian Persian and Dari Persian, is a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenids (550–330 BC).^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Tajiki is one of the two official languages of Tajikistan, the other being Russian^[12]^[13] as the official interethnic language. In Afghanistan (where the Tajik minority forms the principal part of the wider Persophone population), this language is less influenced by Turkic languages, is regarded as a form of Dari, and as such, has co-official language status. The Tajik of Tajikistan has diverged from Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and Iran due to political borders, geographical isolation, the standardisation process and the influence of Russian and neighbouring Turkic languages. The standard language is based on the northwestern dialects of Tajik (region of the old major city of Samarqand), which have been somewhat influenced by the neighbouring Uzbek language 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.

^ ^a ^b Tajik at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ "Tajik".
^ Lazard, G. 1989
^ Halimov 1974: 30–31
^ Oafforov 1979: 33
^ ^a ^b Shinji ldo. Tajik. Published by UN COM GmbH 2005 (LINCOM EUROPA)
^ Studies pertaining to the association between Tajik and Persian include Amanova (1991), Kozlov (1949), Lazard (1970), Rozenfel'd (1961) and Wei-Mintz (1962). The following papers/presentations focus on specific aspects of Tajik and their historical modern Persian counterparts: Cejpek (1956), Jilraev (1962), Lorenz (1961, 1964), Murav'eva (1956), Murav'eva and Rubinl!ik (1959), Ostrovskij (1973) and Sadeghi (1991).
^ Lazard, Gilbert (1975), The Rise of the New Persian Language.
^ in Frye, R. N., The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, pp. 595–632, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^ Frye, R. N., "Darī", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brill Publications, CD version
^ Richard Foltz, A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East, London: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2023, pp. 2–5.
^ "The status of the Russian language in Tajikistan remains unchanged – Rahmon". RIA – RIA.ru. 22 October 2009. Archived from the original on 2 October 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
^ "В Таджикистане русскому языку вернули прежний статус". Lenta.ru. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[e27-1] Tajik at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)

[2] "Tajik".

[5] Lazard, G. 1989

[6] Halimov 1974: 30–31

[7] Oafforov 1979: 33

[Ido-8] Shinji ldo. Tajik. Published by UN COM GmbH 2005 (LINCOM EUROPA)

[9] Studies pertaining to the association between Tajik and Persian include Amanova (1991), Kozlov (1949), Lazard (1970), Rozenfel'd (1961) and Wei-Mintz (1962). The following papers/presentations focus on specific aspects of Tajik and their historical modern Persian counterparts: Cejpek (1956), Jilraev (1962), Lorenz (1961, 1964), Murav'eva (1956), Murav'eva and Rubinl!ik (1959), Ostrovskij (1973) and Sadeghi (1991).

[10] Lazard, Gilbert (1975), The Rise of the New Persian Language.

[11] Frye, R. N., The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, pp. 595–632, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[EI-12] Frye, R. N., "Darī", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brill Publications, CD version

[13] Richard Foltz, A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East, London: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2023, pp. 2–5.

[RIA-RU-14] "The status of the Russian language in Tajikistan remains unchanged – Rahmon". RIA – RIA.ru. 22 October 2009. Archived from the original on 2 October 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.

[lenta.ru/news/2011/06/09-15] "В Таджикистане русскому языку вернули прежний статус". Lenta.ru. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.

Tajik language information

and 28 Related for: Tajik language information

Tajik language

Tajiks

Tajik alphabet

Tajik

Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic

Languages of Tajikistan

Persian language

Yaghnobi language

Sarikoli language

Tajikistan

Iranian Persian

Pamiris

Tajik Air

Tajik cuisine

Tajikistani Civil War

Wakhi language

United Tajik Opposition

Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan

Parya language

IETF language tag

Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature

Yazghulami language

Tajik Ground Forces

Dushanbe

Flag of Tajikistan

Shughni language

Russian Sign Language

Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Tajik
Tajiki Persian
Тоҷикӣ (Tojikī)
"Tojikī" written in Cyrillic script and Perso-Arabic script (Nastaʿlīq calligraphy)
Native to	Tajikistan Uzbekistan
Region	Central Asia
Ethnicity	8.0 million Tajiks in Tajikistan (2020)^[1]
Native speakers	10.0 million for all countries (8.0 million in Tajikistan 2020)^[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Southwestern Iranian Persian Tajik
Dialects	Bukharian
Writing system	Cyrillic (Tajik alphabet) Historically: Arabic (Persian alphabet) Latin (Yañalif-based) Hebrew (by Bukharan Jews) Tajik Braille
Official status
Official language in	Tajikistan
Recognised minority language in	Uzbekistan Russia
Regulated by	Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`tg`
ISO 639-2	`tgk`
ISO 639-3	`tgk`
Glottolog	`taji1245`
Linguasphere	`58-AAC-ci`

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Tajiks
Part of a series on
History and culture
Language Culture Art Sart
Population
Afghanistan Canada Pakistan Tajikistan United States Uzbekistan
v t e