Tajik language

Template:Short description {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other Template:Main other Template:Tajiks Tajik,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn Tajik Persian, Tajiki Persian,Template:Efn 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.<ref>Lazard, G. 1989</ref><ref>Halimov 1974: 30–31</ref><ref>Oafforov 1979: 33</ref> 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.<ref name=Ido>Template:Cite book</ref> The issue of whether Tajik and Persian are to be considered two dialects of a single language or two discrete languages<ref>Studies pertaining to the association between Tajik and Persian include Amanova (1991), Kozlov (1949), Lazard (1970), Rozenfel'd (1961) and Wei-Mintz (1962). The following papers/presentations focus on specific aspects of Tajik and their historical modern Persian counterparts: Cejpek (1956), Jilraev (1962), Lorenz (1961, 1964), Murav'eva (1956), Murav'eva and Rubinl!ik (1959), Ostrovskij (1973) and Sadeghi (1991).</ref> has political aspects to it.<ref name=Ido />

By way of Early New Persian, Tajik, like Iranian Persian and Dari Persian, 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).<ref>Lazard, Gilbert (1975), The Rise of the New Persian Language.</ref><ref>in Frye, R. N., The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, pp. 595–632, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref><ref name="EI">Frye, R. N., "Darī", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brill Publications, CD version</ref><ref>Richard Foltz, A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East, London: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2023, pp. 2–5.</ref>

Tajiki is one of the two official languages of Tajikistan, the other being Russian<ref name="RIA-RU">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="lenta.ru/news/2011/06/09">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as the official interethnic language. In Afghanistan, this language is less influenced by Turkic languages and is regarded as a form of Dari, which has co-official language status.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 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.

NameEdit

Up to and including the nineteenth century, speakers in Afghanistan and Central Asia had no separate name for 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.<ref>Ben Walter, Gendering Human Security in Afghanistan in a Time of Western Intervention (Routledge 2017), p. 51: for more details, see the article on Tajik people.</ref> For most of the 20th century, its name was rendered in the Russian spelling of Tadzhik.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1989, with the growth in Tajik nationalism, a law was enacted declaring Tajik the state (national) language, with Russian being the official language (as throughout the Union).<ref>In 1990 the Russian language was declared as the official language of USSR and the constituent republics had rights to declare additional state languages within their jurisdictions. See Article 4 of the Law on Languages of Nations of USSR. Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref> 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.<ref>ed. Ehteshami 2002, p. 219.</ref><ref>ed. Malik 1996, p. 274.</ref><ref>Banuazizi & Weiner 1994, p. 33.</ref>

In 1999, the word Farsi was removed from the state language law.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Geographical distributionEdit

Two major cities of Central Asia, Samarkand and Bukhara, are in present-day Uzbekistan, but are defined by a prominent native usage of Tajik language.<ref name="diss">B. Rezvani: "Ethno-territorial conflict and coexistence in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Fereydan. Appendix 4: Tajik population in Uzbekistan" ([1]). Dissertation. Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam. 2013</ref>Template:Better source needed<ref name="PB">Paul Bergne: The Birth of Tajikistan. National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. International Library of Central Asia Studies. I.B. Tauris. 2007. Pg. 106</ref> Today, virtually all Tajik speakers in Bukhara are bilingual in Tajik and Uzbek.Template:Citation needed This Tajik–Uzbek bilingualism has had a strong influence on the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Bukharan Tajik.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Official statistics in Uzbekistan state that the Tajik community comprises 5% of the nation's total population.<ref>Uzbekistan. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency (December 13, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-26.</ref> However, these numbers do not include ethnic Tajiks who, for a variety of reasons, choose to identify themselves as Uzbeks in population census forms.<ref>See for example the Country report on Uzbekistan, released by the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor here.</ref>

During 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.<ref>Rahim Masov, The History of the Clumsy Delimitation, Irfon Publ. House, Dushanbe, 1991 Template:In lang. English translation: The History of a National Catastrophe, transl. Iraj Bashiri, 1996.</ref> The "Uzbekisation" movement ended in 1924.<ref>Rahim Masov. (1996)The History of a National Catastrophe Bashiri Working Papers on Central Asia and Iran</ref>

In Tajikistan Tajiks constitute 80% of the population and the language dominates in most parts of 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 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.<ref name="AFGHANISTAN v. Languages">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DialectsEdit

Tajik dialects can be approximately split into the following groups:

Northern dialects (Northern Tajikistan, Bukhara, Samarkand, Kyrgyzstan, and the Varzob valley region of Dushanbe).<ref name="Windfuhr, Gernot 2009">Windfuhr, Gernot. "Persian and Tajik." The Iranian Languages. New York, NY: Routledge, 2009. 421</ref>
Central dialects (dialects of the upper Zarafshan Valley)<ref name="Windfuhr, Gernot 2009"/>
Southern dialects (South and East of Dushanbe, Kulob, and the Rasht region of Tajikistan)<ref name="Windfuhr, Gernot 2009"/>
Southeastern dialects (dialects of the Darvoz region and the Amu Darya near Rushon)<ref name="Windfuhr, Gernot 2009"/>

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 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 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.<ref>E.K. Sobirov (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences). On learning the vocabulary of the Tajik language in modern times, p. 115.</ref>

PhonologyEdit

VowelsEdit

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.

Tajik vowels<ref name="Khojayori, Nasrullo 2009">Khojayori, Nasrullo, and Mikael Thompson. Tajiki Reference Grammar for Beginners. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2009.</ref>
	Front	Central	Back
Close	lang}} {{#invoke:Lang\|lang}} Template:IPAslink		lang}} Template:IPAslink
Mid	lang}} Template:IPAslink	{{#invoke:Lang\|lang}} Template:IPAslink (Template:IPAslink)
Open	{{#invoke:Lang\|lang}} Template:IPAslink		lang}} Template:IPAslink

In northern and Uzbek dialects, classical Template:IPAslink has chain shifted forward in the mouth to Template:IPAslink. In central and southern dialects, classical Template:IPAslink has chain shifted upward and merged into Template:IPAslink.<ref>A Beginners' Guide to Tajiki by Azim Baizoyev and John Hayward, Routledge, London and New York, 2003, p. 3</ref> In the Zarafshon dialect, earlier {{#invoke:IPA|main}} has shifted to Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink, however {{#invoke:IPA|main}} from earlier {{#invoke:IPA|main}} remained (possibly due to influence from Yaghnobi).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The open back vowel has varyingly been described as mid-back {{#invoke:IPA|main}},<ref>Lazard, G. 1956</ref><ref>Perry, J. R. (2005)</ref> {{#invoke:IPA|main}},<ref>Nakanishi, Akira, Writing Systems of the World</ref> {{#invoke:IPA|main}}<ref name=Ido /> and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>Korotkow, M. (2004)</ref> It is analogous to standard Persian â (long a). However, it is standardly not a back vowel.<ref>Standard Tajik phonology by Shinji Ido, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 2023</ref>

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.

ConsonantsEdit

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].<ref name="Khojayori, Nasrullo 2009"/> The table below lists the consonant phonemes in standard, literary Tajik. Letters from the Tajik Cyrillic alphabet are given first, followed by IPA transcription.

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		м Template:IPAslink	н Template:IPAslink
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	п Template:IPAslink	т Template:IPAslink	ч Template:IPAslink	к Template:IPAslink	қ Template:IPAslink	ъ Template:IPAslink
Stop/ Affricate	voiced	б Template:IPAslink	д Template:IPAslink	ҷ Template:IPAslink	г Template:IPAslink
Fricative	voiceless	ф Template:IPAslink	с Template:IPAslink	ш Template:IPAslink		х Template:IPAslink	ҳ Template:IPAslink
Fricative	voiced	в Template:IPAslink	з Template:IPAslink	ж Template:IPAslink		ғ Template:IPAslink
Approximant			л Template:IPAslink	й Template:IPAslink
Trill			р Template:IPAslink

At least in the dialect of Bukhara, ⟨Ч ч⟩ and ⟨Ҷ ҷ⟩ are pronounced Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink respectively, with ⟨Ш ш⟩ and ⟨Ж ж⟩ also being Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink.<ref>Ido, Shinji. 2014. Illustrations of the IPA: Bukharan Tajik. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 44. 87–102. Cambridge University Press.</ref>

Word stressEdit

Word stress generally falls on the first syllable in finite verb forms and on the last syllable in nouns and noun-like words.<ref name="Khojayori, Nasrullo 2009"/> Examples of where stress does not fall on 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.

GrammarEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} 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).<ref>Perry, J. R. 2005</ref> The most notable difference between classical Persian grammar and Tajik Persian grammar 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'.<ref name=Ido />

Template:Fs interlinear

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.<ref>Windfuhr, Gernot. Persian Grammar: History and State of Its Study. De Gruyter, 1979. Trends in Linguistics. State-Of-The-Art Reports.</ref>

Template:Fs interlinear

NounsEdit

Nouns are not marked for grammatical gender, although they are marked for number.

Two forms of number exist in Tajik, singular and plural. The plural is marked by either the suffix {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration (with contextual variants {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration), although Arabic loan words may use Arabic forms. There is no definite article, but the indefinite article exists in the form of the number "one" {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, the first positioned before the noun and the second joining the noun as a suffix. When a noun is used as a direct object, it is marked by the suffix {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, e.g., {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss. This direct object suffix is added to the word after any plural suffixes. The form {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} can be literary or formal. In older forms of the Persian language, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} could indicate both direct and indirect objects and some phrases used in modern Persian and Tajik have maintained this suffix on indirect objects, as seen in the following example: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss). Modern Persian does not use the direct object marker as a suffix on the noun, but rather, as a stand-alone morpheme.<ref name="Khojayori, Nasrullo 2009"/>

PrepositionsEdit

Simple prepositions
Tajik	English
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	from, through, across
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	to
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	on, upon, onto
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	without
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	with
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	at, in
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	up to, as far as, until
lang}} (Template:Transliteration)	like, as

VocabularyEdit

Tajik is conservative in its vocabulary, retaining numerous terms that have long since fallen into disuse in Iran and Afghanistan, such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss. Most modern loan words in Tajik come from Russian as a result of the position of Tajikistan within the Soviet Union. The vast majority of these Russian loanwords which have entered the Tajik language through the fields of socioeconomics, technology and government, where most of the concepts and vocabulary of these fields have been borrowed from the Russian language. The introduction of Russian loanwords into the Tajik language was largely justified under the Soviet policy of modernisation and the necessary subordination of all languages to Russian for the achievement of a Communist state.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:Page needed</ref> Vocabulary also comes from the geographically close Uzbek language and, as is usual in Islamic countries, from Arabic. Since the late 1980s, an effort has been made to replace loanwords with native equivalents, using either old terms that had fallen out of use or coined terminology (including from Iranian Persian). Many of the coined terms for modern items such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss differ from their Afghan and Iranian equivalents, adding to the difficulty in intelligibility between Tajik and other forms of Persian.

In the table below, Persian refers to the standard language of Iran, which differs somewhat from the Dari Persian of Afghanistan. Two other Iranian languages, Pashto and Kurdish (Kurmanji), have also been included for comparative purposes.

Tajik	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration
Other Iranian languages
Persian	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration
Pashto	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration
Kurdish (Kurmanji)	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}
Kurdish (Sorani)	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}	lang}}
Other Indo-European languages
English	month	new	mother	sister	night	nose	three	black	red	yellow	green	wolf
Armenian	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration
Sanskrit	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration
Russian	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration	lang}} Template:Transliteration

Writing systemEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Coat of Arms of Tajik ASSR.gif

lang}}, Current script: Ҷумҳурият Иҷтимоӣ Шӯравӣ Мухтор Тоҷикистон

In Tajikistan and other countries of the former Soviet Union, Tajik Persian is currently written in the Cyrillic script, although it was written in the Latin script beginning in 1928 and the Arabic alphabet prior to 1928. In the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, the use of the Latin script was later replaced in 1939 by the Cyrillic script.<ref>Windfuhr, Gernot. "Persian and Tajik." The Iranian Languages. New York, NY: Routledge, 2009. 420.</ref> The Tajik alphabet added six additional letters to the Cyrillic script inventory and these additional letters are distinguished in the Tajik orthography by the use of diacritics.<ref>Windfuhr, Gernot. "Persian and Tajik." The Iranian Languages. New York, NY: Routledge, 2009. 423.</ref>

HistoryEdit

According to many scholars, the New Persian language (which subsequently evolved into the Persian forms spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan) developed in Transoxiana and Khorasan, in what are today parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. While the New Persian language was descended primarily from Middle Persian, it also incorporated substantial elements of other Iranian languages of ancient Central Asia, such as Sogdian.

Following the Islamic conquest of Iran and most of Central Asia in the 8th century AD, Arabic for a time became the court language and Persian and other Iranian languages were relegated to the private sphere. In the 9th century AD, following the rise of the Samanids, whose state was centered around the cities of Bukhoro (Buxoro), Samarqand and Herat and covered much of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and northeastern Iran, New Persian emerged as the court language and swiftly displaced Arabic.

New Persian became the lingua franca of Central Asia for centuries, although it eventually lost ground to the Chaghatai language in much of its former domains as a growing number of Turkic tribes moved into the region from the east. Since the 16th century AD, Tajik has come under increasing pressure from neighbouring Turkic languages. Once spoken in areas of Turkmenistan, such as Merv, Tajik is today virtually non-existent in that country. Uzbek has also largely replaced Tajik in most areas of modern Uzbekistan – the Russian Empire in particular implemented Turkification among Tajiks in Ferghana and Samarqand, replacing the dominant language in those areas with Uzbek.<ref name="NourzhanovBleuer2013">Template:Cite book</ref> Nevertheless, Tajik persisted in pockets, notably in Samarqand, Bukhoro and Surxondaryo Region, as well as in much of what is today Tajikistan.

The creation of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union in 1929 helped to safeguard the future of Tajik, as it became an official language of the republic alongside Russian. Still, substantial numbers of Tajik speakers remained outside the borders of the republic, mostly in the neighbouring Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, which created a source of tension between Tajiks and Uzbeks. Neither Samarqand nor Bukhoro was included in the nascent Tajik SSR, despite their immense historical importance in Tajik history. After the creation of the Tajik SSR, a large number of ethnic Tajiks from the Uzbek SSR migrated there, particularly to the region of the capital, Dushanbe, exercising a substantial influence in the republic's political, cultural and economic life. The influence of this influx of ethnic Tajik immigrants from the Uzbek SSR is most prominently manifested in the fact that literary Tajik is based on their northwestern dialects of the language, rather than the central dialects that are spoken by the natives in the Dushanbe region and adjacent areas.

After the fall of the Soviet Union and Tajikistan's independence in 1991, the government of Tajikistan has made substantial efforts to promote the use of Tajik in all spheres of public and private life. Tajik is gaining ground among the once-Russified upper classes and continues its role as the vernacular of the majority of the country's population. There has been a rise in the number of Tajik publications. Increasing contact with media from Iran and Afghanistan, after decades of isolation under the Soviets, as well as governmental orientation toward a "Persianisation" of the language have brought closer Tajik and the other Persian dialects.