Tajik language

Tajik or Tadjik (тоҷикӣ in Tajik) is an Indo-European language, more specifically part of the Iranian language group. Speakers of Tajik live mostly in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, though approximately 30,000 live near the Tajikistan border in China. It is the official language of Tajikistan.

Tajik is an offspring of the Persian language, so close that some consider it a dialect of Persian. Historically, it is the Persian language of the Central Asia that started to be written in the Cyrillic script during the Soviet Union era and was renamed to Tajik. The language has diverged a little from the Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, because of political borders and the influence of Russian.

The most important Tajik/Persian-speaking cities of Central Asia, namely Samarkand and Bukhara, are in present-day Uzbekistan. There have been claims that the speakers of the language have been oppressed by the Uzbekistan's government, and were forced to speak in Uzbek in public, or otherwise would be fined.

In China, Tajik has no official written form. Most Chinese Tajik speakers speak the Sariqul (or Sariköli) dialect and use Uyghur and Chinese to communicate with people of other nationalities in the area.

See also: Tajiks (ethnic group), Languages of China.

This language's article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by [ expanding it].