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.
30-637: The Border Troops Academy ( Tajik : Академияи Қӯшунҳои сарҳадӣ ) or Tajik Frontier Institute , officially known as the Higher Border Institute of the State Committee for National Security ( Tajik : Донишкадаи олии сарҳадии Қӯшунҳои сарҳадии Кумитаи давлатии амнияти миллии Тоҷикистон ), is a higher education college for training of officers for the Tajik Border Troops , located in Dushanbe ,
60-494: A ). However, it is standardly not a back vowel. The vowel ⟨Ӣ ӣ⟩ usually represents a stressed /i/ at 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
90-568: A depth of knowledge of traditions as diverse and covering such a wide historical span". Apart from his work on Iranian history and civilization, Foltz has played a formative role in the emergence of a new subfield of religious studies known as religion and ecology , having edited three seminal works in this area, including two collections devoted to Islam. While sympathetic to attempts by Hossein Nasr , Fazlun Khalid and others to derive an environmental ethic from Islamic principles, Foltz has questioned
120-500: 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 Richard Foltz Richard Foltz is a Canadian historian who specializes in the history of Iranian civilization — sometimes referred to as " Greater Iran ". He has also been active in
150-570: 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 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
180-594: A vital role to play in ecosystems. Foltz has been deeply critical of global capitalism , seconding scholars such as David Loy and Harvey Cox who argue that the dominant faith system in the world today should properly be referred to as the "Religion of the Market". Foltz has also published ground-breaking work in the related field of religion and animal rights . He is the author of the first scholarly book on Muslim attitudes towards animals , in which he re-assesses traditional Muslim views on such topics as vegetarianism and
210-556: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , the official administrative, religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself 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
240-639: 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 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
270-544: Is his The Ossetes: Modern-Day Scythians of the Caucasus . Foltz's approach is syncretic, bringing together, in the words of Omid Safi , "many different bodies of scholarship which have rarely been placed side by side". Commenting on the broad sweep of Foltz's attention to Iranian civilization, a reviewer writes in The Muslim World that "No scholar, save perhaps such giants as Ehsan Yarshater and Richard Frye , can claim
300-468: 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, 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
330-473: 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
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#1732872636092360-758: The Baháʼí Faith , Foltz's work highlights the influence of Iranian ideas on Judaism , Buddhism and Christianity . His focus encompasses Iranian civilization in the broadest sense, ranging from the Ossetes and the Kurds in the West to the Tajiks in the East. His book A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East is the first monograph on the subject to be written in any Western language, as
390-457: The Hebrew alphabet . Despite these differences, Bukhori is readily intelligible to other Tajik speakers, particularly speakers of northern dialects. A very important moment in 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
420-522: The University of Utah . He has taught at Kuwait University , Brown University , Columbia University , and the University of Florida . Prior to entering academia he worked for several years in Europe as a musician, film critic, and travel writer. The author of twelve books and over one hundred scholarly articles, his work has appeared in more than a dozen languages. Foltz has emphasized the role of Iranians in
450-613: 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 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
480-652: 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 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
510-593: 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 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
540-450: The West today, Iranian civilization continues to occupy a foundational role in the identity of many Asian peoples, analogous to the importance of Classical civilization for the West: "Most of the cultures of Asia identify with Iran on some level, much as Westerners do with Greece and Rome." In addition to religions commonly associated with Iran such as Zoroastrianism , Manichaeism , Islam and
570-687: The areas of environmental ethics and animal rights . Foltz is a full professor in the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University in Montreal , Quebec , and an affiliate professor at the Centre d'études du religieux contemporain, Université de Sherbrooke . He holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Harvard University and degrees in Persian literature and applied linguistics from
600-599: The capital of Tajikistan . It is a state institution. The Border Troops Academy was established in 2001 (23 years ago) ( 2001 ) , with the first 28 border officers graduating from it in 2004. Graduates are commissioned as lieutenants in the border troops. As of 2016, it has trained more than 700 officers. Special courses are held here, overseen by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe . Tajik language By way of Early New Persian, Tajik, like Iranian Persian and Dari Persian ,
630-474: The consonant phonemes in standard, literary Tajik. Letters from 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
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#1732872636092660-611: 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 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
690-422: The environmental credentials of contemporary Muslim societies, citing fatalism and strongly pro- natalist attitudes as obstacles to an environmental ethic. He has also challenged claims by Zoroastrians such as Farhang Mehr that Zoroastrianism is "the world's original environmentalist religion," noting that its cosmic dualism is at odds with contemporary ecological understanding which sees all species as having
720-486: 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 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
750-463: 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
780-536: 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 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
810-489: The mouth to / ɵ̞ / . In central and southern dialects, classical / o̞ / has chain shifted upward and merged into / u / . In 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
840-532: 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 . Up to and including the nineteenth century, speakers in Afghanistan and Central Asia had no separate name for
870-486: The spread of culture in world history, particularly in the domain of religions. In contrast to widespread notions associating the Silk Road with China , he sees the premodern trans-Asian trade networks as having been driven by the activities of traders who were mostly of Iranian background, principally Sogdians but also Parthians and Persians . Foltz has moreover argued that, contrary to its mostly negative portrayals in
900-637: 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 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
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