TAJIKI SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN TAJIKI FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD ассалому алейкум. LEARN MORE ABOUT TAJIKIS AND [ˌasːaˈlɔmu aˈlɛɪkum] /asah-lomu ah-lay-koom./ THEIR LANGUAGE Hello! 1. Tajiki is spoken as a first or second language by over 8 million people worldwide, but the Hоми шумо? highest population of speakers is located in [ˈnɔmi ʃuˈmɔ] Tajikistan, with significant populations in other /No-mee shoo-moh?/ Central Eurasian countries such as Afghanistan, What is your name? Uzbekistan, and Russia. Номи ман… 2. Tajiki is a member of the Western Iranian branch [ˈnɔmi man …] of the Indo-Iranian languages, and shares many structural similarities to other Persian languages /No-mee man.../ such as Dari and Farsi. My name is… 3. Few people in America can speak or use the Tajiki Шумо чи xeл? Нағз, рахмат. version of Persian. Given the different script and [ʃuˈmɔ ʧi χɛl naʁz ɾaχˈmat] dialectal differences, simply knowing Farsi is not /shoo-moh-chee-khel? Naghz, rah-mat./ enough to fully understand Tajiki. Those who How are you? I’m fine, thank you. study Tajiki can find careers in a variety of fields including translation and interpreting, consulting, Aз вохуриамон шод ҳастам. and foreign service and intelligence. NGOs [az vɔχuˈɾiamɔn ʃɔd χaˈstam] and other enterprises that deal with Tajikistan /Az vo-khu-ri-amon shod has-tam./ desperately need specialists who speak Tajiki. Nice to meet you. 4. The Pamir Mountains which have an elevation Лутфан. / Рахмат. of 23,000 feet are known locally as the “Roof of [lutˈfan] / [ɾaχˈmat] the World”. Mountains make up more than 90 /Loot-fan./ /Rah-mat./ percent of Tajikistan’s territory. Please. / Thank you. 5. Learning Tajiki is fun! Yes, learning Tajiki can be Саломат бошед. challenging, but there are numerous resources in [ˌsalɔˈmat bɔˈʃɛd] print and on the web to help you learn. Most of /Salomat boshed./ all, learning Tajiki will bring you in contact with You’re welcome. the warm and hospitable people of Tajikistan. Meбaxшeд. ABOUT US [ˌmɛbaχˈʃɛd] The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region /Mebakhshed/ (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials Excuse me. for learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian languages. For more information, go to www.iub. Хайр! edu/~celcar. [χaɪɾ] 718 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, /Khayr!/ Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Good-bye. Phone: (812) 856-1230 Fax: (812) 856-1206 Center for Languages of the E-mail : [email protected] Special thanks goes to Sukhrob Karimov Web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar for his contributions to this pamphlet. Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE TAJIKS AND Tajiki is the official language of Tajikistan, and Crimea in the west. historically Tajiks called their language zaboni forsi Around the 8th century, Sogdians began converting (Persian language); the term zaboni tojiki (Tajik to Islam and around that WHERE DO THEY LIVE? language) was introduced in the 20th century by the same time, most Sogdians Tajiks are one of the most Soviets. began to switch from ancient ethnic groups in There are also a number of small communities in their native Sogdian Central Asia. Tajiks mostly the mountains of the Pamirs, Badakhshan, and language (a branch live in Tajikistan, a Tokharistan that speak languages belonging to the of the North Iranian country that share borders Eastern branch of Iranian languages, such as Wakhi, family) to the West with Uzbekistan, Shughni, Rushan, Yazghulemi, and Ishkashemi, but Iranian language of Farsi Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, these languages differ significantly from Tajiki. (Persian) that is ancestral and China. But many to what they speak today. But Tajiks also live in WHAT ALPHABET DO TAJIKS USE? the importance of merchants based in Bukhara and Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, and Samarqand for the steppe empires of the Silk Road there are smaller populations of Tajiks in Kyrgyzstan, The Tajik language has been written in three writing continued into the 18th century. Kazakhstan and China. The most famous cities of systems over the course of its history. As the language of an Islamic people, Tajiki was written in the Perso-Arabic Today, a majority of ethnic Tajiks identify themselves Central Asia, Bukhara and Samarqand, are as Sunni Muslims. However, the Pamiri people historically Tajiki-speaking, although today they are script as early as 8th century and up until the early 1920s. Until this time, the language was actually not thought of of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Uzbekistan. Even today, Tajiks are the majority in overwhelmingly follow the Shia Ismaili branch of these ancient cities. Tajiks are the dominant ethnic as separate from Persian. The Soviets began simplifying Tajiki’s Perso-Arabic script in 1923, before moving to a Islam. Isolated in the highest parts of the Pamir group in Northern Afghanistan as well, and are local Mountains, they have preserved many ancient majorities elsewhere in the country, particularly Latin based system in 1927. Then in the late 1930s, the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced cultural traditions and folk arts that largely have been urban areas such as Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, lost elsewhere in the country. Moreover, the Yaghnobi Ghazni and Herat. in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, replacing the Latin people in the mountains of northern Tajikistan still alphabet. In fact, after 1939, speak a direct modern descendant of the ancient WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS TAJIKI? materials published in Persian Sogdian language. Tajiki (also called Tajik or Tajik Persian) is a in the Perso-Arabic script were Traditionally, Tajiks are a family- and community- modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. banned from the country. Today oriented society. Each individual is usually Tajiki belongs to the Iranian group of the Indo- Tajik people who live in Tajikistan identified within his or her family circle. The Tajik European languages. Together with Dari and Farsi, and in other post-Soviet states use neighborhoods are usually divided into several Tajiki makes up the West Iranian branch of Iranian the Cyrillic alphabet while those who live in Afghanistan mahalla, primary sources of social services for languages. Tajiki has diverged from Farsi (Persian) employ the Perso-Arabic alphabet used with Dari. community residents, traditionally centered on a as spoken in Iran as a result of political borders, mosque. Members of a mahalla call on each other for geographical isolation, the standardization process, WHAT IS TAJIK CULTURE LIKE? help, and together organize traditional cultural events and the influence of Russian and neighboring and ceremonies. For many centuries, Central Asia has been a crossroad Turkic languages. Standard Tajiki today also differs The applied arts of somewhat from Dari, the standard language of of numerous empires and cultures. Thus the local people and their traditions have been influenced Tajiks feature a wealth Afghanistan, but these two are much closer to each of variety when it comes other than to Iranian Farsi, and speakers find it easy by civilizations from Greece to China, and from Middle East to Siberia for over millennia. Before the to style, materials and to communicate with each other. Due to its relative ornamentation. Silk, isolation in the mountains of Central Asia, Tajiki Arab conquest, the people of Tajikistan were called Sogdians. Sogdians from Bukhara, Samarqand, and ceramics, cotton weaving, retains numerous “old-fashioned” elements in its stone and wood carving, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar that have other cities were bankers and political advisors to all the great steppe empires as well as being the leading metal engraving, leather been lost elsewhere in the Persian-speaking world. stamping, calligraphy, and Standard Tajiki is based on the north-western dialects traders along the fabled “Silk Road,” establishing merchant colonies from Inner Mongolia in the east to miniature painting are just some of the genres passed of Tajiki as spoken in the historic city of Samarqand. down from ancient times.