Talk:Tajik language

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[edit] Language

Tajiki is a dialect of Persian. Tajiki is not a seperate language. I speak Persian, (Iranian) and I understand "Tajiki" perfectly.Dariush4444 20:49, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Interesting if true. - Francis Tyers · 22:19, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
About the mutual intelligibility, it is true. As far as I can recall, nobody argues about the mutual intelligibility of Tajiki and other variants of Persian (even illiterate Iranians can understand Tajik songs and vice versa). However, some sources (such as Ethnologue) don't use the mutual intelligibility criterion in the clasification of languages and dialects. Jahangard 04:54, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Mutual intelligibility is a tricky thing, as it changes dependent on geographical location (dialect continuum), I'm not aware of any sources that use this to define language / dialect. The most widely used criterion is the self-identification of the speakers of the language, which is why we have Serbian language, Croatian language, Bosnian language, and possibly Montenegrin language. You might say "But Serbian is just Croatian", or "Serbian and Croatian are dialects of Serbo-Croatian", but really it doesn't matter. What the speakers themselves think is what matters. - Francis Tyers · 08:32, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Tajik people themselves call their language, "Farsi" (Persian). That is the same as in Iran, Afghanistan, other parts of Central Asia, The Caucauses, and the Persian Gulf. We all understand each other because we speak the SAME language. The name, "Tajik" is more of a national term referring to the country not their culture or language. Dariush4444 18:37, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm Iranian, I think "Farsi" subject is best choose to explain these languages, many subject should be joined. "Iranian Language" should explain Iran aria, and "Tajik language" for Tajik aria but "Farsi(persian language)" must be include all of them. —The preceding (مهدی 21:52, 2 April 2007 (UTC))


As a Tajik, I grew up learning that we are part of the larger umbrella of the Dari/Parsi language, but that Tajiki was distinct. My entire extended family and all of my Tajik friends refer to our language as Tajiki first, although sometimes calling it Porsii Tojiki (Tajiki Persian). When communicating with Iranian Farsi speakers, I have to significantly slow down my speech and change a lot of words and even grammatical constructions to be understood. Even then, with certain technical terms or even household objects (the term for "rolling pin", for example), we have to switch to English to understand each other. As other users have acknowledged, the definition of language vs. dialect is subject to much debate, but I think that Tajiki is separate enough to merit its own article. Siyovush (talk) 19:02, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Macedonian language

Futher to, and in support of the Iranians who lived in Tajikistan, just below me, I want to make a comment on the so-caled 'Macedonian' language. I am Bulgarian and can say the same about the Macedonian language. Namely, it is a Serbianized Bulgarian dialect which was created on a single date, in 1945, and given an official status in Tito's multi-ethnic Yugoslav communist federation, which was designed to follow the model of the 'Big Brother', the USSR. Since then, the (previously ethnic Bulgarian) population in the new People's Republic of Macedonia, was declared 'Macedonian', those who opposed the denationalization were sent to 'correction' labour camps, until the goal of creating a separate 'Macedonian' national identity was more or less achieved. Its primary target was to make Bulgaria weaker and to prevent it from controlling the strategically important road Belgrade - Thessaloniki. The BIG Brother, or USSR, itself was the place of a number of such national experiments, and a series of artificial languages were created for political reasons: Moldavian, a Romanian dialect, Karelian, a Finnish dialect, Tajik, a Persian dialect, Buryatian, a Mongol dialect, and even Belarusian or White Russian, which is a Russian dialect, although with a different historical development (This was an anti-Russian move taken by Lenin and the Bolsheviks in 1918, let's not forget that they feared and hated the Great Russian imperialism and the memory of Great Russia just as much as any foreign imperialism). Georgi Stojchev, Sofia

[edit] Iranian

I as an Iranian have lived in Tajikistan. They speak exactly the same language as ours in Iran with a little dialectical differences, not as different as some other Persian dialects inside Iran. Tajiks locally call their language Persian too. To give that dialect a separate name was a Russian fabrication. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.234.145.72 (talk • contribs) 15:29, 19 August 2004

Most of Iranians ethnic language is not so-called Persian, which in fact should be named Tajik or Dari. Their language is Turkish, Kurdish, Gilish( Gileki), Balochi, Arabic, Turkmen,Talish,Luri,etc.

This is very interesting. Unfortunately i don't know Persian, but i would like to ask a question, if anyone who knows Persian reads this: The language of Tajikistan is written with Cyrillic letters. Did you try to read it? Can you understand it when you read it? It seems to me that this alphabet suits this language better than Arabic, because its grammar is Indo-European and not Semitic. Also, literacy in Tajikistan is almost 100% and only 80% in Iran - according to CIA World Factbook). Now i think that the Latin alphabet (like UniPers) would be best, but even Cyrillic seems better suited for Persian than the Arabic. I'd like to hear an opinion of someone who really knows Persian on this matter.--Amir E. Aharoni 21:54, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
I'm an Iranian and a native persian speaker. As to your first question: yes, I've tried to read some Tajik websites and they were pretty well understandable to me. But as you may probably know, persian speakers in Afghanistan and Tajikistan have a markedly different pronunciation from persian speakers in Iran, namely what Afghans and Tajiks pronounce like "ee" as in "deed", Iranians pronounce like 'e' as in "bed". Tajik alphabet is basically a transliteration of Tajiks' pronunciation with Cyrillic alphabet and so Tajiki texts would read somehow unusual to an Iranian speaker who has learned Cyrillic in the context of Russian. With respect to your second question, I think Arabic script doesn't even suit Arabic language itself. It is cursive and worse yet, it omits short vowels altogether. But IMO Latin alphabet is better suited for persian because a large percent of speakers, at least in Iran, are familiar with it in the context of English, while a tiny percent of Iranians know Russian and hence Cyrillic script. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.98.186.40 (talk • contribs) 19:58, 24 November 2005
I'm Iranian I don't think it is good idea because if we forget this alphabet it is more likely we forget 1300 year scripts and culture. I think some changes are necessary but this is big step. (مهدی 22:09, 2 April 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Persian

I am from Tajikistan living in US. I listen to Persian news from Iran and I will tell you this " Tajik is not a language it's a Persian dialect same as Irish English and American English". All of us Iranians, Tajiks and Afghans may have different dialects but all of us can communicate in formal Persian. (Language of Shahnoma). By the way in constitution of Tajikistan it states that official language is Tajik and in prentices it has (Farsi).—Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.197.224.14 (talk • contribs) 12:50, 12 March 2006

Please sign your comments. Bidabadi 20:19, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mutual intelligibility

however, a transcribed Tajik text can in general easily be read and understood by an Afghan or Iranian Persian speaker, and vice versa. The common origin of the two languages is underscored by the Tajiks' claim to such famous writers as Omar Khayyám, Firdausi, and Alisher Navoi.

Although I believe it, we could do with a source for that. - FrancisTyers 18:18, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Table of basic words

Can someone please fill the first row in this table with Tajik words instead of Albanian?--Nixer 15:05, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

done! Tājik 18:29, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
Persian māh now mādar xwāhar shab damāgh sēh sīāh/tārīk surx zard sabz 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
  • I think it would make some sense to fill in some Persian words, too, since Tajik is closely related. 84.202.199.101 19:21, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Three (seh) as number sample is not suitable but look at six (shesh). (مهدی 22:19, 2 April 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Pamir Languages and Tajik

This article identifies several Pamir languages as dialects of Tajik. This is an opinion held by Tajik nationalists, but not by the Pamiri people of Gorno-Badakhshan or by linguists. I'm going to make changes to reflect this.—Preceding unsigned comment added by David Straub (talk • contribs)

Hit it! :) - FrancisTyers · 10:44, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Italics in Cyrillics

A guideline on whether or not to italicize Cyrillics (and all scripts other than Latin) is being debated at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (text formatting)#Italics in Cyrillic and Greek characters. - - Evv 16:21, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

* so-called Persian language is not related to the Persian Tribe who established the Persian Empire by the aid of some other tribes,

particularly Medians,eventually demolished by Alexander the Great. And also the Geographical origion of this language is not the residence area of Persians, situated in the South of "Iran" and locally named "FARS". The geographical origion of this language is the "Central Asia". That is why all pioneer poets of this language are from this area, mainly situated in Afghanistan, Uzbakistan and Tajikistan. The original speakers of this language,that speak it more perfectly than "Iranians", are called TAJIK. Therefore, "Persian" or "Farsi" is a wrong name for this language.

[edit] Vowels

Tajik vowels
Front Central Back
High и [i] ӣ [i] у [u], ю [ju]
Mid э [e], е [je] ӯ [o]
Low а [a], я [ja] о [ɒ] ё [jɒ]


"In the Tajik language, three vowel positions are distinguished: front — и, э, а; back — у, о, and a vowel of indeterminate position — ӯ. Among the front vowels, и — high, э — mid, а — low. Among the back vowels, у — is high, о — mid. The central vowel ӯ is also mid in tongue-height, like о, only more close; i.e. during its articulation the tongue is raised a bit higher than with о. All the front vowels are unrounded, all the back and central vowels are rounded." (Rastougeva 1954)

Perry (2005) gives the following vowel table:

Tajik vowels
Front Central Back
High и [i] у [u]
Mid э [e] ӯ [u̇] о [o]
Low а [a]

Windfuhr in Comrie, B (ed.) The World's Major Languages gives the following table:

Tajik      i  e    u  ů   a o
          ┌↑┐ ↑   ┌↑┐ ↑   ↑ ↑
Early NP  i ī ē   u ū ō   a ā
          ↓ ↓ ↓   ↓ ↓ ↓   ↓ ↓
Afghan    e i ē   o u ō   a ā
          ↓ └↓┘   ↓ └↓┘   ↓ ↓
Iranian   e  ī    o  ū    a ā

Needless to say, I don't believe that giving ӯ as /o/ and о as /ɒ/ is correct, as these are identical with Modern Iranian Persian. I will change the table back to the table as given in Perry (2005), and await further comment. - Francis Tyers · 23:49, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

My info was from the Writing Systems of the World. It includes the Tajik alphabet with each phoneme in Tajik in IPA. Your Comrie table is not in IPA, so the exact phonetic transcription is unknown. I will revert your edit because the table lists the Tajik phonemes with relation to the writing system. For example, Persian 4 is [tʃæhɒr] while in Tajik it is [tʃɒr] not [tʃor]. Remember too the Tajik alphabet is in Cyrillic and it uses Cyrillic conventions. Does your article have it in IPA? I will have to go to the library and take some more looks. I took a look at the German wikipedia which has references: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadschikische_Sprache I am not sure that the fricatives are uvular that I have written down, but I do as I said before need to read through more sources again. lol Azalea_pomp
The Perry reference (Tajik Persian Reference Grammar) has it in IPA, and all references I have agree (Rastorgueva, 1954; Perry, 2005; Windfuhr, 1987; Lazard, 1956) that о is mid and not low. I'll leave your edit for now, but if you could provide further sources to back up your claim I'd be grateful.
  • Lazard, G. (1956) "Charactères distinctifs de la language Tadjik". Bulletin de la Societe Linguistique de Paris. 52. pp. 117--186
  • Windfuhr, G. (1987) in Comrie, B. (ed.) "Persian". The World's Major Languages. pp. 523--546
  • Perry, J. R. (2005) A Tajik Persian Reference Grammar (Boston : Brill) ISBN 90-04-14323-8
  • Rastorgueva, V. (1963) A Short Sketch of Tajik Grammar (Netherlands : Mouton) ISBN 0-933070-28-4
Sorry that some of the references aren't complete, but you should be able to find them with the information I've given. It is very regretful that Windfuhr, Lazard and Rastorgueva do not use IPA, in this case it would have been cleared up much sooner. - Francis Tyers · 10:18, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
I've removed the orthography from the vowel table. This may or may not be a temporary situation. I believe that Writing Systems of the World may gloss over the situation with Cyrillic that, although in languages like Russian the iotating vowels have a unique function, in other (non slavic) languages, these are generally extra letters that could just as easily be replaced by й+V where V is any of the other six vowels. Even if Tajik did have such diphthongs, the general convention is to not put diphthongs in the table like that but separate.
I could also remove the orthography from the consonant table, but I believe that the grapheme-to-phoneme ratio is pretty much 1:1. I hope this doesn't complicate the other issue regarding Tajik vowels. Ƶ§œš¹ [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi] 20:20, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
The orthography for vowels can be explained separately without much problem, although I don't see a problem with leaving the main six, without the iotated versions. Agree with the consonant table. - Francis Tyers · 20:54, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
I am curious what would be [u̇] be in IPA? Azalea_pomp
I am too, any suggestions? - Francis Tyers · 04:24, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I will scour the sources at the library this week and see if I can find an answer. Azalea_pomp
Cool thanks. I'll see if I can dig up anything too. - Francis Tyers · 22:39, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] About the vowels

Based on what I hear on Tajik mass media (both governmental, such as Tajik TV, and nongovermental such as ozodi.org), I think the vowels are as this:

Tajik vowels
Front Central Back
High и [i,ɪ] ӣ [iː] у [u], ю [ju]
Mid э [eː], е [eː] ӯ [oː,ʊː]
Low а [a,æ], я [ja,jæ], о [ɒː] ё [jɒː]

"и", "у", "а" are short vowels and "е", "э", "о", "ӯ", "ӣ" are long vowels ("е" and "э" are essentially the same, "э" is used at the begining of the word and "е" is used elsewhere). I don't put this table in the article, because it's somehow original research, and it partially contradicts the tables given by Perry and Windfuhr. However, I wonder if they really have listened to the native speakers, or they have just used the written sources. I know that Windfuhr is an expert in the history of Persian language and also has done many works on the Persian dialects inside Iran, but I think on the Tajik phonology, he has used second-hand sources. Jahangard 05:18, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Your vowel table matches the one used in The Writing Systems of the World which is an academic sources and it uses IPA. I will look at more sources this week and hopefully have something. Azalea_pomp

I should mention that this table is not valid for Russian loanwords, or Russion parts of a word. For example, most of Tajik last names end with "ов" (under the influence of Russion), which is pronounced as "ov" (not "ɒːv"). As an example, for Davlatmand Kholov, his last name, Xолов, is pronounced as [χɒːlov]. Jahangard 08:43, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the information. That is very interesting. I am surprised it wasn't spelled: Холӯв. Azalea_pomp
For Russian loanwords and Russian parts of words, they use Russian spelling. Jahangard 04:29, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The vowel o and ӯ according to Perry and Baizoyev/Hayward

I quote from Perry (2005). "o is lower (more open) than Russian o, somewhat as in English "awful". Baizoyev and Hayward have o = o in "hot" or in "taught". From what I read o in Tajik is [ɒ]. For ӯ Perry (2005) has this: lies phonetically between u and y halfway to the Umlaut, a little lower than Lowland Scottish English "good", but higher than French "peu". B and H have it like "girl" or "first". LOL, not sure what to make of this vowel... Maybe [ʉ] or a bit lower? azalea_pomp

For "o", I think awful is a good example (almost [ɒː]). Also for ӯ, I think Perry's description is better than B/H. Can you give an example for [ʉ]? Jahangard 05:57, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Is that American "awful" or English "awful" ? The sounds can be quite different. - Francis Tyers · 08:42, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
I just see English awful. I think for standard American and British English it is [ɔ], although he says somewhat? BH has both [ɒ] and [ɔ] due to hot and taught! The Writing Systems of the world does have [ɒ]. I think that Perry lists the vowel as always long although it is not phonemic. He does says it becomes a nasal before /n/. azalea_pomp
Isn't it (awful) [ɒː] in American English (the same sound as "au" in "Austria", and "Australia")? About /n/, when there isn't any vowel after it, the vowel before it is pronounced as a short vowel (it's a famous rule in finding the rhythm of classic Persian poems). That's why you don't see "ӯн " in Tajik texts. So, for example "Тоҷикистон" is pronounced as [tɒːdʒikistɒn] ([ɒ] instead of [ɒː] in this case). Jahangard 21:16, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lazard (1956)

Vocalisme — Pour le vocalisme, persan et tadjik presentent des divergences massives. Le vocalisme du persian ancient, continuant celui du moyen-perse, comportait huit phonemes, trois voyelles breves, a, i, u et cinq longues, ā, ī, ē, ū, ō. Le tadjik comme le persan a modifie serieusement ce systeme, de deux facons. D'une part le nombre des phonemes est un peu reduit. D'autre part, les oppositions de quantite sont supprimer ou du moins tres transformees: aux oppositions de breves et longues se sont substituees en tadjik comme en persan des oppositions de voyelles "stables" et de voyelles "instables". La ligne generale d'evolution est donc la meme de part et d'autre, mais dans ce cadre, des differences considerables se sont developpees.

En tadjik, a est bien conserve comme un a anterieur, voyelle d'aperture maxima dont le timbre est en debit normal toujours celui d'un a franc. L'ancient ā s'est ferme en un o ouvert. ē est conserve. ō est continue par ů (en tadjik litteraire, orthographie ū), voyelle un peu moins fermee que u et articulee un peu plus en avant. Les ancient ĭ et ī d'une part , ŭ et ū d'autre part sont confondus respectivement en i et u. Les huit phonemes originaux sont donc reduits a six: i, e, a, o, ů et u. Ces six voyelles se divisent en dux groupes: o, e, ů s'opposent comme voyelles stables a a, i, u, voyelles instables. Ces designations expriment le fair, etabli par les recherches de phonetique experimentale, que les voyelles du premier groupe restent en toute position (accentuees ou non, en syllabe ouverte ou fermee), de duree approximativement constant (elles ne subissent d'abregement notable qu'en syllabe fermee inaccentuee: encore cette reduction est-elle toujours nettement inferieure a la moitie de leur duree et sont meme susceptibles, en debit rapide et dans un entourage consonantique favorable, de se reduire a un simple point vocalique; dans toutes les autres positions, leur duree est sensiblement egale a celle des voyelles du premier groupe. En d'autres termes, l'opposition de quantite subsiste, en tadjik, dans une seule position: en syllabe ouverte inaccentuee. On voit que les voyelles stables continuent exclusivement d'ancieenes longues, mais que d'autre part, les anciennes longues ī et ū, qui se sont confondues avec les breves correspondantes, sont representees par des voyelles instables. Autrement dit, en syllabe ouverte inaccentuee, les voyelles, i et u sont reduites de la meme maniere, qu'elles continuent d'ancient ī et ū, ou d'anciens ĭ et ŭ: didor "vue", dirůz "hier", sina "poitrine" (<dīdār, dīrōz, sīna) sont traites exactement comme jigar "foie", girift "a pris", šinos "reconnais" (<jigar, girift, šinās); budan "etre", surat "figure", guna "maniere" (<būdan, sūrat, gūna) sont traites commes gudoz "fusion", surud "chant", gunoh "peche" (<gudāz, surūd, gunāh). On peut schematiser l'evolution de la maniere suivante (les voyelles stables sont en gras):

i  ī    ē    a    ā    ō    ū  u
|__|    |    |    |    |    |__|
  |     |    |    |    |      |
  i     e    a    o    ů      u

From Lazard, G. (1956) "Charactères distinctifs de la language Tadjik". Bulletin de la Societe Linguistique de Paris. 52. pp. 117--186

This is the first page or so of the 7 page section on vowels. If anyone wants the rest I'll type it up tonight. - Francis Tyers · 10:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

It seems that Windfuhr has used Lazard's article for the Tajik part of his Persian phonology. Jahangard 21:20, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Lazard's paper is written in a time that for listening to a wide range of Tajik accents, you needed to be in Tajikistan. Fortunately, in the age of Internet, there are several other alternatives to learn about Tajik phonology. For example you can listen to the Tajik reporters of Radio Ozodi (www.ozodi.org) to hear the typical standard Tajik accent (common in Dushanbe and in the mass media). For the Sughdi accent (which is the most influenced by Uzbek, and the most distant from the Dari accent), you can listen to the songs by Jurabek Murodov (a famous Tajik singer):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=589QfNjZvoE (It starts with "Ёри хушгилам, Зулайхо! Азизи дилам, Зулайхо!")

For the southern accents (which are closer to the Dari accent), Avesto Group is a good example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jULdA7DyEVc (It starts with "Бевафоӣ макун ай нигорам"). Jahangard 22:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Also for "ӯ" you can listen to this song by Afzalsho Shodiev (who has a Sughdi accent):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiszNAQ4Jd8 (It starts with "Чи хабар зи ҷангу даъво? Ту мапурсу ман нагӯям.") Jahangard 22:31, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Nice quotes and links everyone. Too bad I don't have a spectograph to put the Tajik audio samples in. Perry and Lazard are almost talking about the same pronuciation of the ů vowel , just from a different starting point. It seems to be a rounded near-close central vowel. azalea_pomp

Another source:

"the local name for the language is written забони тоҷикӣ, [zaˈbɔːnɪ tɔdʒɪ'ki]—and that the sound in Persian often transcribed <aa> in the Roman alphabet has become [ɔː], the vowel of English ‘bawl.’ The everyday greeting салом [salɔːm] is thus the Tajik rendering of the Persian and Arabic [salɑːm], ‘peace.’" [1]

- Francis Tyers · 14:22, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Who is the author and what is its source? Jahangard 17:09, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
According to his CV, his knowledge of Tajiki is rudimentary at best.
I assume that his source is this book. The rest of the site seems to be an exercise in transliterating the examples in that book from Latin to Cyrillic. - Francis Tyers · 07:40, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tajik ethnicity vs. Tajik language

This article seems confused on this subject. As I understand it, the ethnic Persians of Afghanistan are generally called "Tajiks." But the form of Persian they speak is closer to the Persian of Iran than it it is to the form spoken in the former Soviet Union. If so, we should be clear about this - Tajik is spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbek, Dari Persian is spoken by Tajiks in Afghanistan (and Pakistan, too?). The whole issue is confusing, but certainly this is true of the written languages - Tajik is written with Cyrillic, and Dari is written in Persian characters. We really shouldn't confuse this stuff. john k 19:08, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tajik Scouting

Can someone render Tayar Osay (Be Prepared), the Scout Motto, into Tajik? Thanks! Chris 06:46, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure that is the motto? It could be "Таяр Осай", but that gets no Google results, so don't take my word on it. Can you tell me where you found that? (The rendering in latin script). - Francis Tyers · 14:12, 11 August 2007 (UTC)


The above phrase "Tayar Osay" is not Tajiki or any Persian dialect, it is Pashto. The translation of "Be Prepared" in Tajiki would be "Tayyor boshed", written in Cyrillic as Тайёр бошед. Note that in Tajiki, the rules of capitalization are different, so to capitalize the second word would appear strange. Siyovush (talk) 19:07, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Vocabulary table

It seems a bit silly to list all the comparisons between Tajik and various other Indo-European languages, but not include Persian! Many of the differences will be shared by Persian; what would be interesting is to see what divergences exist from Persian.

It might also be helpful to mention when the political situation changed such that the ancestors of the Tajik language and the Persian language became separated. Was this the Persian-Russian wars of the 18th-19th centuries? --Saforrest 23:10, 28 August 2007 (UTC)