Тоҷики

Tajiki is the national language of Tajikistan. Depending on who you ask, it is either a dialect of Persian, or a distinct language in the close-knit trio with Farsi (spoken in Iran) and Dari (spoken in Afghanistan).

I studied Farsi at Yale, which means that I learned the Arabic alphabet, learned my professor's Tehran accent, read modern short stories, and wrote my senior essay about the historical context of Simin Daneshvar's novel Savushun. Tajiki uses the Cyrillic alphabet, because it was part of the Soviet Union for over 70 years. Tajiki uses many Russian words, and much of the Farsi I learned is considered literary Tajiki, and not used in everyday speaking. 

This means that I speak weirdly. People ask me if I am from Iran, more for my wrong-vowels than for my word choice, I think. The long ah in Farsi becomes a long oh in Tajiki, and the long ee is a shorter eh, and so on. I make lots of spelling mistakes when I write - but fewer now. Some people say they think it is a beautiful sound; I think the relationship may be a little like Americans' relationship with British English. Nonetheless, when people ask how I learned Tajiki, I say, "I studied Farsi for two years at university. I arrived here a month ago, and now I am trying to change from Farsi to Tajiki."

I plan to share some of what I learn here, both my ridiculous mistakes and the stories or phrases that I like from my lessons.