Tajik language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tajik
тоҷикӣ, تاجیکی‎, tojikī
Spoken in: Tajikistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia (Asia), Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan
Total speakers: approximately 4,380,000 (1991)
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Iranian
   Western Iranian
    Southwestern Iranian
     Persian
      Tajik 
Writing system: Cyrillic, Latin, Perso-Arabic 
Official status
Official language of: Tajikistan
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: tg
ISO 639-2: tgk
ISO 639-3: tgk

 

Persian language

History
Dialects

Writing systems

The Tajik language or Tajiki (sometimes written Tadjik or Tadzhik; тоҷикӣ, تاجیکی‎, tojikí [tɔːdʒɪˈkiː]) is a variant of Persian, spoken in Central Asia. An Indo-European language of the Iranian language group, most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Tajiki is the official language of Tajikistan.

The language has diverged from Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, as a result of political borders, the standardisation process, and the influence of Russian and neighbouring Turkic languages. The standard language is based on the north-western dialects of Tajik, which have been influenced by the neighbouring Uzbek language as a result of geographical proximity.

Contents

[edit] Geographical distribution

The most important Tajik-speaking cities of Central Asia, Samarkand and Bukhara, are in present-day Uzbekistan. In western Pakistan there are between 500,000 and upwards of a million ethnic Tajiks, most of whom are Afghan refugees in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. There are also many thousands who are native to the Northern Areas, Pakistan region such as Chitral (near Jalalabad, Afghanistan) and Hunza overall (specifically there is a large population of native Wakhi who are often called "Mountain Tajiks" who inhabit the area as well.

[edit] Dialects

The dialects of Tajik can be approximately split into the following groups:

  1. Northern dialects (Northern Tajikistan, southern parts of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan).
  2. Central dialects (dialects of Mastchah, Aini, Hissar and, parts of Varzab).
  3. Southern dialects (dialects of Karategin, Kulab, Tajik dialects of Badakhshan, etc.)
  4. South-eastern dialects (dialects of Pianj and Darvaz).

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

Tajik vowels
Front Central Back
High [i] [u]
Mid [e] []
Low [a] [ɒ]

[edit] Consonants

Bilabial Dental/
Alveolar
Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
nasal м
/m/
н
/n/
plosive п б
/p/ /b/
т д
/t/ /d/
к г
/k/ /g/
қ
/q/
ъ
/ʔ/
fricative ф в
/f/ /v/
с з
/s/ /z/
ш ж
/ʃ/ /ʒ/
х ғ
/χ/ /ʁ/
ҳ
/h/
Affricate ч ҷ
/tʃ/ /dʒ/
trill р
/r/
Approximant л
/l/
й
/j/

[edit] Word stress

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

[edit] Grammar

Main article: Tajik grammar

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

[edit] Nouns

Nouns are not marked for grammatical gender, although they are marked for number. Gender is usually distinguished by a change of word, as in English, e.g. мурғ 'fowl' and xurus 'rooster'. Alternatively the modifiers 'нар' for male or 'мода' for female can be pre or post-posed to the noun, e.g. хар-и нар 'male donkey' and хар-и мода 'female donkey'.

Two forms of number exist in Tajik, singular and plural. The plural is marked by either the suffix -ҳо or -он, although Arabic loan words may use Arabic forms. There is no definite article, but indefinite article exists in the form of number one 'як', "yak" and '-е', "-e", the first positioned before the noun and the second joining the noun as a suffix, although the direct object is marked by a suffix.

[edit] Prepositions

Simple prepositions
Tajik English
аз from, through, across
бо with
бар on, upon, onto
ба to
бе without
дар at, in
чун like, as
то up to, as far as, until

[edit] Vocabulary

Most modern loan words in Tajik come from Russian as a result of the position of Tajikistan within the Soviet Union. Vocabulary also comes from the geographically close Uzbek language and, as is usual in Islamic countries, from Arabic.

Tajik моҳ
(moh)
нав
(nav)
модар
(modar)
хоҳар
(khohar)
шаб
(shab)
бинӣ
(binī)
се
(se)
сиёҳ
(siyoh)
сурх
(surkh)
зард
(zard)
сабз
(sabz)
гург
(gurg)
Other Indo-European languages
English month new mother sister night nose three black red yellow green wolf
Latin mēnsis novus māter soror nox nasus trēs āter, niger ruber flāvus, gilvus viridis lupus
Italian mese nuovo madre sorella notte naso tre nero rosso giallo verde lupo
German Monat neu Mutter Schwester Nacht Nase drei schwarz rot gelb grün Wolf
Portuguese mês novo mãe irmã noite nariz três negro vermelho amarelo verde lobo
Spanish mes nuevo madre hermana noche nariz tres negro rojo amarillo verde lobo
Romanian luna nou/noi mamă soră noapte nas trei negru roşu galben verde lup
Welsh mis newydd mam chwaer nos trwyn tri du (/di/) coch, rhudd melyn gwyrdd, glas blaidd
Polish miesiąc nowy matka siostra noc nos trzy czarny czerwony żółty zielony wilk
Latvian mēnesis jauns māte māsa nakts deguns trīs melns sarkans dzeltens zaļš vilks
Lithuanian mėnuo naujas motina sesuo naktis nosis trys juoda raudona geltona žalias vilkas
Bulgarian месец
mesets
нов
nov
майка
maika
сестра
sestra
нощ
nosht
нос
nos
три
tri
черен
cheren
червен
cherven
жълт
zhălt
зелен
zelen
вълк
vălk
Russian месяц
mesăts
новый
novyi
мать
mat'
сестра
sestra
ночь
noch
нос
nos
три
tri
чёрный
chornyi
красный
krasnyi
жёлтый
zholtyi
зелёный
zelonyi
волк
volk

[edit] Writing system

Main article: Tajik alphabet

Tajiki Persian is currently for the most part written in the Cyrillic alphabet, although has been written in both the Latin alphabet 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 Afghanistan, Tajiks continued to use the Persian script.

[edit] History

According to many scholars, the New Persian language developed in Transoxiana and Khorasan, mainly in Bactrian regions i.e. Balkh. The early poets of Persian language lived in the north of Amu Darya.

[edit] Examples

[edit] Political aspects

[edit] See also

Wikipedia
Tajik language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikibooks
Wikibooks has more about this subject:

[edit] External links


Iranian Languages
Eastern Iranian
Old Iranian Avestan † | Scythian (including Saka)† | Sogdian†
Middle Iranian Bactrian† | Khwarezmian† | Khotanese† (possibly a Saka dialect) | Ossetic | Sacian†
Modern Iranian Bartangi | Hidukush Group | Ishkashmi | Karakoram Group | Khufi | Munji | Oroshori | New Ossetic | Parachi | Pashto | Roshani (Roshni) | Sanglechi | Sarikoli | Shughni | Wakhi | Vanji † | Waziri | Yaghnobi | Yidgha | Yazgulami | Zebaki
Western Iranian
Old Iranian Median† | Old Persian (Aryan)†
Middle Iranian Parthian Pahlavi† | Sasanian Pahlavi†
Modern Iranian Alviri (Vidâri) | Ashtiani | Azari† | Baluchi | Bashkardi | Central Iran | Persian Dari | Dari (Zoroastrian) | Gilaki | Gorani | Harzani | Judeo-Persian | Kurdish Kurmanji | Laki | Luri | Bakhtiari Lori | Mazandarani | Ormuri | Sangsari | Parachi | New-Persian | Sorani (Kurdish) | Tajik | Taleshi | Tat | Tati | Vafsi | Zazaki
Extinct †