Language for Tajikistan

What is Tajik?

Tajik, also known as Tajik Persian or Tajiki is a variant of the Persian language. Tajik speakers have no problems communicating with Persian speakers from Iran and Dari speakers from Afghanistan. Although to most Iranians, the Tajik version or Persian uses several older words that are no longer used in modern Persian.

Tajik is one of the two official languages of Tajikistan, alongside Russian.

Tajik is also spoken by a large minority in Uzbekistan, especially in the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand where native Tajik speakers make up a majority of the population. Tajik is also the majority language in much of northern Afghanistan, where Tajikistan shares a border.

What writing system/script do they use in Tajikistan?

Tajik Persian is still written completely in their version of the Cyrillic alphabet, and there’s still no real indication that that’s going to change any time soon. If they were to eventually switch, and there have been vague discussions about it so it may happen at some point, it would likely be to a Persian script, as opposed to the Latin alphabets that the Turkic languages use.

The Tajik Cyrillic script is very similar to Russian, with all the same letters plus 6 extra letters for specifically Tajik sounds. The Tajik Cyrillic alphabet was introduced in 1939. Between 1928 and 1939 Tajik was written in Latin letters and before 1928 it was written in Persian script.

Status of Russian

The other official language in Tajikistan is Russian. While Tajik is the official language of the nation, Russian is the official interethnic language and is recognised in the constitution as such. This is a familiar sight in several of the former Soviet countries wishing to maintain social cohesion and harmony between the different ethnic groups. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan both also have Russian in their constitution as a language of interethnic communication.

During the Soviet Union, Russian was the primary language taught in schools and universities. Tajik was spoken mainly at home and in more rural areas. Until recently the ruling classes and educated elite still preferred Russian over the Tajik language, however this has changed considerably in recent times.

Young Tajikistanis are increasingly shunning Russian in preference for European languages, especially English. However, considering most job prospects for Tajikistanis are in Russia, and more than 20% of the population of Tajikistan is working in Russia at any one time, Russian is here to stay. Because of its Soviet history, relations with neighbours and economic realities, approximately 90% of Tajikistanis speak Russian.

Other languages

Other than Tajik and Russian, Uzbek is the next most widely spoken language in Tajikistan. Along the Uzbek border in western and northern Tajikistan reside a significant Uzbek speaking minority. After Tajik, Russian and Uzbek comes the much smaller languages such as the Pamir languages, and Kyrgyz. There are also small numbers of migrants from Soviet times meaning there are small communities of Kazakhs, Armenians, Azeris, Belarussians, Ukrainians, Tatars and Turkmen just to name a few.

English language in Tajikistan

English on the whole is fairly uncommon in Tajikistan. Most people you will come across will know a few phrases or words, however not many will be able to have conversations with you. This is especially the case when travelling to more rural areas. Younger Tajiks are more likely to speak English. Those who speak English will usually be the ones who have been to university and had the opportunity to travel abroad. Most importantly, Tajiks will usually be very happy to play a game of charades in order to communicate with you and non-language communication will still raise a lot of smiles.

Some useful phrases in Tajik

Numbers