Tajik
/tɑːˈdʒiːk
/(also Tadjik or Tadzhik)
noun
1A member of a mainly Muslim people inhabiting Tajikistan and parts of neighbouring countries.The people of the area are mostly Tajiks, a Muslim ethnic minority who speak an Iranian language....
- We have Hazaras, we have Pashtuns, we have Tajiks, we have Uzbeks, we have Pashai, Nooristani, and people coming from the very remote areas of Afghanistan.
- The officer corps before 1963 was not all-inclusive, however, and was dominated by Pashtuns and Tajiks.
1.1A native or inhabitant of the republic of Tajikistan.The national sport of the Tajiks, gushtigiri, has a colorful tradition....
- Tajiks are the largest ethnic group, with Uzbeks making up a quarter of the population, over half of which is employed in agriculture and just one-fifth in industry.
2 [mass noun] (also Tajiki /tɑːˈdʒiːki/) The language of the Tajiks, a member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family.In the first years after independence many non-Central Asian peoples emigrated because of the establishment of Tajiki as the official language, dissatisfaction with the standard of living, and fear of political violence....
- In 1989 Tajiki became the sole official language of the country, replacing Russian and Uzbeki.
- About 14 percent of the population - mostly non-Uzbek - speak Russian as their first language; 5 percent speak Tajik.
adjective
Relating to Tajikistan, the Tajiks, or their language.One of the few areas where a pan-Afghan identity has emerged is through popular music, which is a hybrid of the Pashtun musical style with a lot of Tajik language....
- Many Tajiks consider themselves Uzbek, though they retain the Tajik language; this may be because they have long shared an urban lifestyle, which was more of a bond than ethnic labels.
- The curriculum includes the Tajik language and classical Persian literature.
Origin
From Persian tājik 'a Persian, someone who is neither an Arab nor a Turk'.