Tajik , Tajik Persian , Tajiki Persian , also called 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. 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. The issue of whether Tajik and Persian are to be considered two dialects of a single language or two discrete languages has political aspects to it.
28-874: The Yaghnob ( Tajik : Яғноб ) is a river in Ayni District of Sughd Region , Tajikistan . Together with the Iskander Darya , it forms the Fan Darya , a major left tributary of the Zeravshan . The source of the Yaghnob is in the Matcha Mountains, where the Zarafshan and the Gissar Ranges merge. The Yaghnob is mainly fed by glaciers and snow fields. The river flows from the east to
56-662: A continuation of Old Persian , the language of the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC). Tajiki is one of the two official languages of Tajikistan, the other being Russian as the official interethnic language. In Afghanistan , this language is less influenced by Turkic languages and is regarded as a form of Dari , which has co-official language status. The Tajiki Persian of Tajikistan has diverged from Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and even more from that of Iran due to political borders, geographical isolation,
84-581: A gradual reintroduction of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. In 1999, the word Farsi was removed from the state language law. Two major cities of Central Asia , Samarkand and Bukhara , are in present-day Uzbekistan , but are defined by a prominent native usage of Tajik language. Today, virtually all Tajik speakers in Bukhara are bilingual in Tajik and Uzbek. This Tajik–Uzbek bilingualism has had
112-415: A letter.' In Iranian Persian, the present progressive form consists of the verb دار, dār , 'to have' followed by a conjugated verb in either the simple present tense, the habitual past tense or the habitual past perfect tense. من man I دارم dār-am have کار kār work میکنم Surxondaryo Region Surxondaryo Region is a region ( viloyat ) of Uzbekistan , located in
140-682: A strong influence on the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Bukharan Tajik. Tajiks are also found in large numbers in the Surxondaryo Region in the south and along Uzbekistan's eastern border with Tajikistan. Tajiki is still spoken by the majority of the population in Samarkand and Bukhara today although, as Richard Foltz has noted, their spoken dialects diverge considerably from the standard literary language and most cannot read it. Official statistics in Uzbekistan state that
168-928: A well-developed transport infrastructure, with 300 km of railways and 2,700 km of surfaced roads. Central Asia 's only river port is located at Termez on the Amudarya River. Bitter debates accompanied the Soviet allocation of Surkhandarya Region to the Uzbek SSR rather than the Tajik SSR in 1929, as that region, as well as the areas of Bukhara and Samarkand , had sizable, if not dominant, Tajik populations. The Surxondaryo Region consists of 14 districts (listed below) and one district-level city: Termez . There are 8 cities ( Termez , Boysun , Denov , Jarqoʻrgʻon , Qumqoʻrgʻon , Shargʻun , Sherobod , Shoʻrchi ) and 112 urban-type settlements in
196-472: Is also an important part of the regional economy, particularly in the production of consumer goods . Agriculture is based primarily on cotton and cereals , supplemented with horticulture and viticulture . Surxondaryo is the country's largest supplier of long-fiber cotton. Livestock accounts for 40% of regional agricultural product. The climatic conditions of this region also make it possible to cultivate subtropical crops such as sugarcane . The region has
224-473: Is the construction of the present progressive tense in each language. In Tajik, the present progressive form consists of a present progressive participle, from the verb истодан, istodan , 'to stand' and a cliticised form of the verb -acт, -ast , 'to be'. Ман man I мактуб maktub letter навишта navišta write истода-ам istoda-am be Ман мактуб навишта истода-ам man maktub navišta istoda-am I letter write be 'I am writing
252-685: The Hazaragi and Aimaq dialects . Approximately 48%-58% of 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 , Kazakhstan , and beyond. This Tajik diaspora is also the result of the poor state of the economy of Tajikistan and each year approximately one million men leave Tajikistan to gain employment in Russia. Tajik dialects can be approximately split into
280-471: The Zarafshon dialect, earlier /u/ has shifted to / y / or / ʊ / , however /u/ from earlier /ɵ/ remained (possibly due to influence from Yaghnobi ). The open back vowel has varyingly been described as mid-back [o̞] , [ɒ] , [ɔ] and [ɔː] . It is analogous to standard Persian â (long a ). However, it is standardly not a back vowel. The vowel ⟨Ӣ ӣ⟩ usually represents a stressed /i/ at
308-591: The 20th century, its name was rendered in the Russian spelling of Tadzhik . In 1989, with the growth in Tajik nationalism, a law was enacted declaring Tajik the state (national) language , with Russian being the official language (as throughout the Union ). In addition, the law officially equated Tajik with Persian , placing the word Farsi (the endonym for the Persian language) after Tajik. The law also called for
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#1732776182757336-612: The Fan Darya. Before the Soviets blasted a road through, the upper valley was protected by an almost impenetrable gorge, which accounts for the historical isolation of its population. Tajik language By way of Early New Persian, Tajik, like Iranian Persian and Dari Persian , is a continuation of Middle Persian , the official administrative, religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself
364-489: The Persophone world, in part due to its relative isolation in the mountains of Central Asia . Up to and including the nineteenth century, speakers in Afghanistan and Central Asia had no separate name for the language and simply regarded themselves as speaking Farsi , which is the endonym for the Persian language. The term Tajik derives from Persian, although it has been adopted by the speakers themselves. For most of
392-595: The Region and also of Uzbekistan is Khazrati Sulton peak reaching 4,643 m/15,233 ft in Gissar Range. The regional capital is Termez with a population of 122,900 (2021), and the second largest city is Denov ( Denau ) with 78,300 inhabitants (data for 2016). Other towns include Boysun , Jarqoʻrgʻon , Qumqoʻrgʻon , Shargʻun , Sherobod , Shoʻrchi , and Sariosiyo . The climate is continental , with mild wet winters and hot dry summers. The southern part of
420-473: The Tajik Cyrillic alphabet are given first, followed by IPA transcription. At least in the dialect of Bukhara , ⟨Ч ч⟩ and ⟨Ҷ ҷ⟩ are pronounced / tɕ / and / dʑ / respectively, with ⟨Ш ш⟩ and ⟨Ж ж⟩ also being / ɕ / and / ʑ / . Word stress generally falls on the first syllable in finite verb forms and on the last syllable in nouns and noun-like words. Examples of where stress does not fall on
448-508: 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 " Uzbekisation " supervised by Sharof Rashidov , the head of the Uzbek Communist Party, Tajiks had to choose either to stay in Uzbekistan and get registered as Uzbek in their passports or leave
476-546: The development of the contemporary Tajik, especially of the spoken language, is the tendency in changing its dialectal orientation. The dialects of Northern Tajikistan were the foundation of the prevalent standard Tajik, while the Southern dialects did not enjoy either popularity or prestige. Now all politicians and public officials make their speeches in the Kulob dialect, which is also used in broadcasting. The table below lists
504-453: The end of a word. However, not all instances of ⟨Ӣ ӣ⟩ are stressed, as can be seen with the second person singular suffix -ӣ remaining unstressed. The vowels /i/, /u/ and /a/ may be reduced to [ə] in unstressed syllables. The Tajik language contains 24 consonants, 16 of which form contrastive pairs by voicing: [б/п] [в/ф] [д/т] [з/с] [ж/ш] [ҷ/ч] [г/к] [ғ/х]. The table below lists the consonant phonemes in standard, literary Tajik. Letters from
532-467: The extreme south-east of the country. Established on 6 March 1941, it borders on Qashqadaryo Region internally, and Turkmenistan , Afghanistan and Tajikistan externally, going anticlockwise from the north. It takes its name from the river Surxondaryo , that flows through the region. It covers an area of 20,100 km². The population is estimated at 2,743,201 (beginning of 2022 data), with 80% living in rural areas. According to official data, 83% of
560-629: The following groups: The dialect used by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia is known as the Bukhori dialect and belongs to the northern dialect grouping. It is chiefly distinguished by the inclusion of Hebrew terms, principally religious vocabulary, and historical use of the Hebrew alphabet . Despite these differences, Bukhori is readily intelligible to other Tajik speakers, particularly speakers of northern dialects. A very important moment in
588-463: The last syllable are adverbs like: бале ( bale , meaning "yes") and зеро ( zero , meaning "because"). Stress also does not fall on enclitics , nor on the marker of the direct object. The word order of Tajiki Persian is subject–object–verb . Tajik Persian grammar is similar to the classical Persian grammar (and the grammar of modern varieties such as Iranian Persian). The most notable difference between classical Persian grammar and Tajik Persian grammar
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#1732776182757616-474: The majority group in scattered pockets elsewhere in the country, particularly urban areas such as Kabul , Mazar-i-Sharif , Kunduz , Ghazni , and Herat . Tajiks constitute between 25% and 35% of the total population of the country. In Afghanistan, the dialects spoken by ethnic Tajiks are written using the Persian alphabet and referred to as Dari , along with the dialects of other groups in Afghanistan such as
644-618: The population are Uzbeks and 12,5% Tajiks , but several sources argue that the Tajik population might be significantly higher in this region (bitter debates accompanied the Soviet allocation of Surkhandarya Region to the Uzbek SSR rather than the Tajik SSR in 1929, as that region, as well as the areas of Bukhara and Samarkand, had sizable, if not dominant, Tajik populations), as well as in Samarkand and Bukhara . The highest point of
672-556: The region is in the Badkhiz-Karabil semi-desert ecoregion (PA0808), characterized by a savanna of pistachio and desert sedge. The northern portion is characterized by open woodlands (Gissaro-Alai open woodlands ecoregion, PA1306), with characteristic plants being pistachio, almond, walnut, apple, and juniper. Sagebrush is common at lower elevations Natural resources include petroleum , natural gas , and coal . Light industry , mainly cotton ginning and food processing ,
700-654: The republic for the less-developed agricultural and mountainous Tajikistan. The "Uzbekisation" movement ended in 1924. In Tajikistan Tajiks constitute 80% of the population and the language dominates in most parts of the country. Some Tajiks in Gorno-Badakhshan in southeastern Tajikistan, where the Pamir languages are the native languages of most residents, are bilingual. Tajiks are the dominant ethnic group in Northern Afghanistan as well and are also
728-415: The six vowel phonemes in standard, literary Tajik. Letters from the Tajik Cyrillic alphabet are given first, followed by IPA transcription. Local dialects frequently have more than the six seen below. In northern and Uzbek dialects, classical / o̞ / has chain shifted forward in the mouth to / ɵ̞ / . In central and southern dialects, classical / o̞ / has chain shifted upward and merged into / u / . In
756-445: 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
784-584: The west, south of and parallel to the upper Zeravshan River, through the Yaghnob Valley , a remote location populated by the Yaghnobi people speaking the eponymous Yaghnobi language . The main village in the valley is Anzob . It joins the east-flowing Iskander Darya to form the Fan Darya which flows north to join the Zeravshan at Ayni . The main road north from Dushanbe follows the lower Yaghnob and
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