Tajik/Introduction

Welcome to the English Wikibook for learning the Tajik Language.

This course requires no prior knowledge of Tajik. It aims to teach grammar, vocabulary, common phrases, conversational language, and formal/literary Tajik. By the end, you should be able to read and write Tajik but will probably need a human teacher to help with listening and speaking. The book is meant to be read starting with lesson 1 and moving forward. It will move slowly.

The Persian Language

The Tajik language (sometimes written Tadjik or Tadzhik; тоҷикӣ, تاجیکی‎, tojikí [tɔːdʒɪˈki]) is a variant of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. It is an Indo-European language, more specifically part of the Iranian language group. Speakers of Tajik live mostly in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and western Pakistan. Tajik is the official language of Tajikistan. It is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Knowledge of the Tajik language will let you fully appreciate a rich and diverse body of literature.

Vocabulary and grammar

In learning to read or speak any language, the two aspects to be mastered are vocabulary and grammar. Acquiring vocabulary is a matter of memorization. Children learn thousands of words of their native language by the time they are conscious of the learning process, so it is easy to underestimate importance of having a large vocabulary. This process can be reactivated by immersion: moving to where the language is spoken and one’s native tongue cannot be used for daily communication.

Without the opportunity to move to a Tajik-speaking area, a student must make a substantial effort to learn the meaning, pronunciation, and proper use of words. Be sure to learn all of the vocabulary words in each lesson. Early lessons have simple sentences because the student’s vocabulary is presumably limited, but more complex sentences in later lessons demonstrate more typical Tajik. It may be helpful to translate these using a Tajik-English dictionary. Access to a print dictionary is very helpful. Other sources of Tajik, such as newspapers, magazines, and web sites can help to build vocabulary and to develop a sense of how Tajik sentences are put together.