TAJIK LANGUAGE
Understanding The Tajik Language & Providing Professional Tajik Interpreters, Translators and Transcriptionists
American Language Services (AML-Global) understands the importance of working in the Tajik language. For over a Quarter of a Century, American Language Services has worked with the Tajik language as well as hundreds of others from around the world. We offer comprehensive language services 24 hours, 7 days a week worldwide by providing Tajik interpreting, translation and transcriptions services along with hundreds of other languages and dialects. Our linguists are native speakers and writers who are screened, credentialed, certified, field tested and experienced in a number of specific industry settings. The Tajik language is unique and has very specific origins and characteristics.
The Tajik Language and Tajikistan
The Tajik language is spoken in Tajikistan, a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People’s Republic of China to the east. Tajikistan also lies adjacent to Pakistan but is separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Most of Tajikstan’s population belongs to the Tajik ethnic group, who share culture and history with the Iranian peoples and speak the Persian language. Historically, Tajiks and Persians come from very similar stock, speaking variants of the same language and are related as part of the larger group of Iranian peoples. The Tajik language is the mother tongue of around two-thirds of the citizens of Tajikistan.
Tajik Vocabulary
Tajik is conservative in its vocabulary, retaining numerous terms that have long since fallen into disuse in Iran and Afghanistan, such as (arziz), meaning ‘tin,’ and (farbeh), meaning ‘fat.’ Most modern loan words in Tajik come from Russian as a result of the position of Tajikistan within the Soviet Union. Vocabulary also comes from the geographically close Uzbek language and, as is usual in Islamic countries, from Arabic. Since the late 1980’s, an effort has been made to replace loanwords with native equivalents, using either old terms that had fallen out of use, or coined terminology.
The Tajik Writing System
In Afghanistan and Iran, Tajik is written using the Persian script. In Tajikistan and other countries of the former Soviet Union, Tajik is currently written in the Cyrillic alphabet, although it was written in both the Latin alphabet and the Persian alphabet in certain parts of its history. In the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, the use of the Latin script began in 1928, and was later replaced in the 1930’s by the Cyrillic script. In an interview to Iranian news media in May 2008, Tajikstan’s deputy culture minister said Tajikistan would study the issue of switching its Tajik alphabet from Cyrillic to Persian script used in Iran and Afghanistan when the government feels that “the Tajik people became familiar with the Persian alphabet”.
Who are You Going to Trust with Your Vital Tajik Language Needs?
The Tajik language is an important language worldwide. It is vital to understand the general nature and specific idiosyncrasies of Tajik. Since 1985, AML-Global has provided outstanding Tajik interpreters, translators and transcriptionsts worldwide.
