Bukharian, also known as Judeo-Bukharic and Judeo-Tajik (autonym: Bukhori, , , ', ), is a

Judeo-Persian Judeo-Persian refers to both a group of Jewish dialects spoken by Jews and Judeo-Persian texts (written in Hebrew alphabet). As a collective term, Judeo-Persian refers to a number of Judeo-Iranian languages spoken by Jewish communities throughout ...

dialect historically spoken by the

Bukharan Jews Bukharan Jews, also known as Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that dwelt predominantly in what is today Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The group's name is derived from the Emirate of Bukh ...

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. It is a Jewish dialect derived from—and largely mutually intelligible with—the Eastern Persian varieties of

Tajiki Tajik, Tajik Persian, Tajiki Persian, also called Tajiki, is the variety of Persian language, Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by ethnic Tajiks. It is closely related to neighbouring Dari of Afghanistan with which it forms a dialect co ...

and

Dari Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...

History

Historically, Bukharian was spoken by Jews in Central Asia.Birnbaum, Salomo A. 2011. ''Ein Leben für die Wissenschaft.'' Germany: De Gruyter. The language classification of Bukharian is as follows: Indo-European > Indo-Iranian >

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

> West Iranian > Southwest Iranian > Persian > Tajik > Bukharian. Bukhori is based on

Classical Persian Persian ( ), also known by its endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoke ...

, with a large number of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

s. Over time, a small number of loanwords from other surrounding languages including Uzbek, Russian, and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

were added to the language. In 1987, the total number of speakers was 85,000. In the USSR, there were 45,000 speakers; in Israel, there were 32,000; and in all other countries combined, there were 3,000. Ethnic Tajik minorities exist in many countries, such as

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

. Samarkand and Bukhara are two cities in Uzbekistan which are particularly densely populated by Tajik speakers, among whom were tens of thousands of Bukharan Jews in the 19th to 20th centuries. (In modern times, the dialects spoken by the few remaining Jews in these cities barely differ, if at all, from their non-Jewish counterparts.) Like most

Jewish languages Jewish languages are the various languages and dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the Jewish diaspora, diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following the Babylonian capti ...

, Bukhori traditionally used the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...

. But throughout the past century, due to the influence of various empires and ideologies, Bukhori was written using the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

in the 1920s and 1930s, then

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

from 1940 onwards. The Hebrew alphabet fell further into disuse outside of Hebrew liturgy when the Bukharian Jewish schools were closed in Central Asia and Bukharian Jewish publications, such as books and newspapers, began to appear using the Cyrillic alphabet. Today, many older Bukharian Jews who speak Bukharian only know the Cyrillic alphabet when reading and writing Bukharian. The origin of its respective spelling system is Talmudic orthography. Early in the Soviet period, Soviet authorities wanted Hebrew to be the language of culture and instruction for Jews in the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and in the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic. In late 1921, the Turkestani People's Commissariat of Education ordered that schools for Bukharian Jews teach in Bukharian and not in Hebrew. In 1934, 15 Bukharian Jewish clubs and 28 Bukharian Jewish red teahouses in Uzbekistan existed. However, in 1938, Bukharian was no longer used as the language for instruction in schools and cultural activities; instead, it became mainly spoken at home.

Revival

Attempts were made to bring about a revival of Bukharian Jewish culture in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. One significant attempt was the establishment of a council for Bukharian Jewish literature in the Uzbekistan Writers’ Union, headed by Aharon Shalamaev-Fidoi (who emigrated to Israel in 1991). Another significant attempt was the ''Hoverim'' society established in Tajikistan and headed by Professor Datkhaev (Datkhaev emigrated to the US in 1992). The main organizational supporter for Bukharian Jewish culture today is the World Bukharian Jewish Congress, which aims to teach and spread awareness of the history, culture, language, and literature of the Bukharian Jews. Based on the Soviet census of 1979, 20% more Central Asian Jews spoke Russian than Bukharian. Among some Bukharian Jewish youth, especially in the New York City area, there has been a revival of using the Bukharian Jewish language written in a modified Latin alphabet similar to the one developed by Bukharian Jewish linguist and writer, Yakub Kalontarov. Today, youth learning the Bukharian Jewish language sponsored by the Achdut-Unity Club in Queens use the modified Latin alphabet. Classes on Bukharian Jewish history and the Bukhori language are also available at Queens College since 2010, marking the first time that Bukhori has been taught in an American university. The classes are taught by Bukharian adjunct professor Imanuel Rybakov. Rybakov has also authored a guide to learning the Bukharian language for English speakers.

Writing systems

Bukharian historically used the

(called Eastern Rashi in writing and square script in printing). From 1928 to 1940, the written Bukharian language in the USSR used the

. The first version of the Latin alphabet for the language was compiled in April 1928 and had the following order:

a в d ә l n s r k m h t u x ş f p g o v z ⱨ ƣ q e c ç i j ә̦ ƶ

In 1930, changes were made to the alphabet: capital letters were introduced, the letter ә̦ was eliminated, and the letter Ů ů was introduced. At a spelling conference in August 1934, the letter Ⱨ ⱨ was removed from the alphabet and the letter Ů ů was replaced by Ū ū. On February 5, 1935, this decision was legalized by order No. 112 of the People's Commissariat of Education of the Uzbek SSR. As a result, the later version of the Soviet Latin alphabet had the following order:

A a, B в, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, F f, G g, Ƣ ƣ, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ū ū, V v, X x, Z z, Ƶ ƶ, Ә ә

Currently, printed literature in the Bukharian Judeo-Tajik dialect is published mainly in

. Some works also use the Latin alphabet, which is close to the Uzbek one. Current Cyrillic alphabet:

А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Ъ ъ, Э э, Ю ю, Я я, Ғ ғ, Ӣ ӣ, Қ қ, Ӯ ӯ, Ҳ ҳ, Ҷ ҷ

Current Latin alphabet:

A a, B в, C c, Ch ch, D d, E e, F f, G g, Gh gh, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, Sh sh, T t, Ts ts, U u, U' u', V v, X x, Y y, Yi yi, Z z, Zh zh'

History

Revival

Writing systems

See also

Notes

References

External links