Editing Tajik language (section)

==History==
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 [[Greater Khorasan|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 [[Middle Iranian languages|Iranian languages]] of ancient Central Asia, such as [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]].

Following the [[Arabs|Islamic]] conquest of Iran and most of Central Asia in the 8th century AD, [[Arabic]] for a time became the court language and [[Persian language|Persian]] and other Iranian languages were relegated to the private sphere. In the 9th century AD, following the rise of the [[Samanid]]s, 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 peoples|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 language|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">{{cite book|author1=Kirill Nourzhanov|author2=Christian Bleuer|title=Tajikistan: A Political and Social History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nR6oAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA22|date=8 October 2013|publisher=ANU E Press|isbn=978-1-925021-16-5|pages=22–}}</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 language|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-[[Russification|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.