Tajik language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tajik/Tajiki
тоҷикӣ (tojikī)
"Tojikī" written in Cyrillic script and Persian (Nasta'liq script)
Native to	Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
Ethnicity	Tajiks
Native speakers	8.4 million  (2015 census – 2015)e18
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Southwestern Iranian Persian Tajik/Tajiki
Writing system	Cyrillic, Latin
Official status
Official language in	Tajikistan
Recognised minority language in	Uzbekistan  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan
Linguasphere	58-AAC-ci
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The Tajik language is the official language of Tajikistan, a country in Central Asia. It is a dialect of the Persian language, which is also spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. Tajik is spoken by millions of people, mainly in Tajikistan and parts of Uzbekistan.

About the Tajik Language

Tajik is part of the Indo-Iranian language family. This means it's related to many languages spoken across parts of Europe and Asia. It shares a lot of its words and grammar with Persian, but it has some differences too. Think of it like different versions of the same song!

How Tajik is Written

The way Tajik is written has changed over time. For a long time, it used the Persian alphabet. This alphabet is read from right to left.

In 1928, people started using the Latin alphabet for Tajik. This is the same alphabet English uses. But then, in 1939, the Soviet government made people switch to the Cyrillic alphabet. This is the alphabet used for Russian.

Even after the Soviet Union ended, Tajik mostly stayed written in Cyrillic. However, today, you might also see it written using the Latin alphabet again.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma tayiko para niños