Editing Tajik language (section)

==Geographical distribution==
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" ([http://dare.uva.nl/document/469926]). Dissertation. Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, [[University of Amsterdam]]. 2013</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2023}}<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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2016}} This Tajik–Uzbek [[bilingualism]] has had a strong influence on the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Bukharan Tajik.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ido|first=Shinji|title=Bukharan Tajik|year=2014|journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association|volume=44|issue=1|pages=87–102|doi=10.1017/S002510031300011X|doi-access=free}}</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>{{cite book|last1=Foltz|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Foltz|title=A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East, 2nd edition |date=2023|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-7556-4964-8|page=190}}</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 [https://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/1999/369.htm 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 {{in lang|ru}}. English translation: [https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Masov/frame.html ''The History of a National Catastrophe''], transl. [[Iraj Bashiri]], 1996.</ref> The "Uzbekisation" movement ended in 1924.<ref>Rahim Masov. (1996)[https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Masov/MasovHistoryNationalCatastrophe.pdf 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 dialect|Hazaragi]] and [[Aimaq dialect]]s. Approximately 48%-58% of Afghan citizens are native speakers of Dari.<ref name="AFGHANISTAN v. Languages">{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-v-languages |title=Afghanistan v. Languages|quote=Persian (2) is the language most spoken in Afghanistan. The native tongue of twenty-five percent of the population ... |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]], online ed.|work=Ch. M. Kieffer|access-date=10 December 2010}}</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>{{Cite web | url=http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2013/07/201372393525174524.html | title=Tajikistan's missing men &#124; Tajikistan &#124; al Jazeera}}</ref>

===Dialects===
Tajik dialects can be approximately split into the following groups:

# Northern dialects ([[Sughd Region|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 [[Zarafshon (river)|Zarafshan]] Valley)<ref name="Windfuhr, Gernot 2009"/>
# Southern dialects (South and East of [[Dushanbe]], [[Kulob]], and the [[Rasht District|Rasht]] region of Tajikistan)<ref name="Windfuhr, Gernot 2009"/>
# Southeastern dialects (dialects of the [[Darvaz (region)|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 language|Hebrew]] terms, principally religious vocabulary, and historical use of the [[Hebrew alphabet]]. Despite these differences, Bukhori is [[Mutual intelligibility|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). [http://www.iling-ran.ru/library/sborniki/for_lang/2014_06/4.pdf On learning the vocabulary of the Tajik language in modern times], p. 115.</ref>