TAJIK LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

The department of linguistics is considered one of the first and oldest departments in the structure of the Institute of Language and Literature named after Rudaki of NAST. This department as a Linguistics was foundation for the Department of History, Language and Literature of Tajikistan of the Academy of Sciences of the former Soviet Union, in which researched various issues of the Tajik language, grammar and dialects. At the beginning of the 1930s, the task of the linguistics department was to research the issues of phonetics, grammar, the regulation of bilingual cultures, the development of educational manuals, spelling issues, etc., and the employees of the department continued to research on the basis of available opportunities of that time. The linguists of the department have also played an important role in the regulation of textbooks for secondary schools and universities of the country after completing the research work. In those years, the study of the grammar of the Tajik language began with the compiling of textbooks and instructional manuals. The development and writing of some textbooks in the first years for public schools of the country are proof of these statements: (Balenitskyi and Hojizoda, 1936; Arzumanov, Nesterenko, 1938, Arzumanov and others, 1940; Baqozoda, 1941; B. Niyazmuhammadov, L. Buzurgzoda, 1941, 1944) and others.

At the end of the 40s, some of the scientific staff of the Institute were sent to the scientific centers of Moscow for post-graduate and doctoral studies to prepare and train linguists. Among them, the candidate of philological sciences B. N. Niyazmuhammadov defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic of "Simple sentences in the modern Tajik literary language" (1948) and O. Jalolov defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic of "Plural category in the modern Tajik language" (1956). Sh. Niyazi defended his candidate dissertation on the topic of "Noun and adjective word formation in modern Tajik literary language" (1950). M. Fozilov defended his candidate dissertation on the topic "Illustrative words in the Tajik language" (1950). M. Shahobova defended her candidate dissertation in Moscow on the topic "The subordinate conjunction of "ki" in the modern Tajik literary language". Of course, all these scientific works served as scientific and practical materials for the creation of the first textbooks of higher schools.

 Since the 60 years, the employees of the department B. Niyazmohamedov, O. Jalolov, Kh. Huseynov, S. Abdurahimov, Sh. Rustamov, S. Atoulloev wrote a series of works and articles on various issues of the grammar of the literary language, some of which were researched for the first time in the field of syntax as candidate theses. After Sh. Niyozi the research of morphology in the department was continued by Sh. Rustamov. He researched the noun in the literary language and defended this topic as a doctoral dissertation in 1972. In his dissertation, he researched and reviewed all the details of this part of speech based on the material of the literary language.

Also, in the department, in addition to research of grammar issues, one of the employees N. Sharopov made research in the field of lexis of the literary language, in particular, borrowings in the example of Russian and international words. It should be noted that the lexis of the literary language and its formation from the 9^th to 10^th centuries is one of the most important topics of Tajik linguistics, and its comprehensive research is considered one of the most important issues of Tajik linguistics in order to determine the current state of the vocabulary of the language, both in terms of meaning and the structure of words. The main direction of the department's research is focused on the study of the grammar of the literary language, and the issues of lexis and phonetics were not included in the research plan. All the achievements of the language department in research of grammar of the literary language have been recorded both in articles and in separate works of the employees over the years, one of these achievements is the comprehensive research and scientific coverage under the name "Academic Grammar of the Tajik Literary Language". Academic grammar was developed and published in three volumes (vol. 1, 1985, vol. 2, 1986, vol. 3, 1989).

The first volume covers issues of phonetics and morphology, and these scholars participated in the research of its chapters: the Introduction to Grammar and the chapter of noun were written by Sh. Rustamov; Phonetics was written by T. Khaskashov; Introduction to morphology, Interjection were written by A. Mirzoev; Adjective was written by K. Shukurova; Numeral was written by H. Karimov; Pronoun was written by B. Siyoev; Verb was written by N. Vasumi, Infinitive, Participle I, Participle II were written by D. Tajiev; Adverb was written by S. Abdurahimov, Preposition and postposition were written R.L. Nemenova; Conjunction was written by N. Bozidov, Particle was written by A. Khalilov, R. Ghafforov.

Volumes 2 and 3 are dedicated to the research of Tajik language syntax. The authors of the second volume are prominent linguists, like S. Abdurahimov (Noun phrases, numeral phrases, pronoun phrases, adverbial phrases , principal members of sentences, Adverbial modifier of quantity and degree), A. Mirzoev (Verb phrase. Connection of words in a phrase and a sentence), F. Zikriyoev (Explanation units, parenthetical word. Address), M. Ismatulloev (Object), B. Kamoliddinov (one-member simple sentences), S. Rahmatova (homogeneous parts of the sentence. Summarizing units. Order of words in a sentence), Sh. Rustamov (Introduction, simple sentences; narrative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory, negative. apposition. Adverbial modifier. Adverbial modifier of place. Adverbial modifier of time. Adverbial modifier of cause. Adverbial modifier of purpose. Adverbial modifier of condition), R. Ghafforov (Attribute).

The 3^rd Volume of Grammar belongs to the pen of these authors: F. Zikriyoev (Complex sentences. Compound sentences. Parenthetical / inserted clause); B. Kamoliddinov (Direct and Indirect speech); Sh. Rustamov (Complex sentences and subordinate clauses of attribute, object, subject, predicate. Polycomponent compound sentences), D. Tojiyev (complex sentences with subordinate clause of adverbial modifier).

    Volumes 1 and 2 edited by Sh. Rustamov and R. Ghafforov and Volume 3 was edited by Sh Rustamov and B Kamoliddinov.

From the second half of the 70 years, three employees of the department T. Vahhobov, M. Rakhmatov in the field of sociolinguistics and A. Rustamov in the field of lexis were sent to Moscow for postgraduate study at the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy Sciences of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, after the untimely death of two young specialists and the departure T. Vahobov from Dushanbe to abroad, the research in these areas of linguistics was stopped in the department.

In 1992, after uniting the Department of Language History with the Department of Literary Language, the Department of Language History and Literary Language was established. Since 1995, the department has started researching the scientific topic on "Issues of grammar and lexis of the Tajik language" (synchronic and diachronic research). Research on this topic is related to various periods of Tajik language formation, and through comparing the periods of language formation based on written sources and ways of words meanings changes are determined and researched. A comprehensive study of this topic highlights the independent development of the Tajik language in this historical language field, namely in the Movarounnahr area.

In 2000, due to the lack of specialists, the Department of Dialectology and the Yagnobi Group were united into the Department of Language History and Literary Language as independent departments. Now the department has independent research departments, and in these departments, various issues of the Tajik language are researched through collective research. Such approach of research at different linguistic levels meets the standards of modern linguistic science.

Currently, the scientific staff of the department conducts research on ethnolinguistic issues of the Tajik language, which is one of the most important topics of the day. In the research of ethnolinguistic issues, more attention is paid to the materials of the Tajik and Sogdian dialects and the preservation of the old vocabulary in these dialects. One of the most important issues in the research of this topic is the determination of the Sogdian lexis and the lexis of other Eastern Iranian languages in the Tajik dialects. The task of researchers in the study of ethnolinguistic issues is to define the peculiarities of the Tajik language and its dialects, to protect the vocabulary of the regions where the Tajik language is spread and local dialects, and the influence of eastern Iranian languages on Tajik dialects.

Department taken into account the experience and scientific skills of prof. V.S. Rastorgueva into, requested her to organize a program for collecting and regulating dialect’s speech. V.S. Rastorgueva arranged such a program and handed it over to the department, which was a very important guide for the effective work of the expeditions and better coverage of the evidence. This program is the first experiment in Tajik dialectology. The employees of the department collected a lot of materials with this instruction for more than 6 years. This material was checked and determined again in the department, and it was written in separate sheets and notebooks. As a result, the scientific resource of the department was created, which was the main source for the completion of the topic. For the scientific summary of the southern dialect, it is necessary to determine the area of its dissemination on the banks of the Kofarnihan River, the western direction of Tajikistan, as well as some areas bordering the Republic of Uzbekistan, including Surkhandarya region.

In 1970, the employees of the department were divided into three groups based on the brief program that R.L. Nemenova arranged, they went on linguistic trips. One of these groups comprising of R. Ghafforov, Gh. Juraev and M. Mahmudov determined the end of the dissemination of southern dialects in Chirtaki, Regar district. During the linguistic expeditions of 1970, the employees of the department discovered new topics and points of research. In particular, the scientific group of the right bank of Kofarnihan (B. Berdiev, A. Hakberdiev) clarified the location and peculiarities of the Sogdian dialect. The team related to the Vakhsh Valley (J. Muruvatov, B. Sadulloev) discovered a dialect whose speakers once migrated here from Afghanistan.

The study of the history of the language and written works of ancient languages in Tajikistan began in the first half of the 50s, the center of which was the Institute of Language and Literature named after Rudaki. The founder of this branch of linguistics in our country is one of Russian well-known orientalist, doctor of philology sciences, Professor V.A. Livshitz. He came to Tajikistan from St. Petersburg, and from 1952 to 1958, he devoted himself to the research of ancient languages, especially the Sogdivian, Khorazmian, Portian and Bakhtarian languages, and rendered valuable service in the interpretation and translation of works and recognition of the calligraphy of these languages at the Institute of Language and Literature after Rudaki. Identification, interpretation and translation of the most rare archaeological monuments from Sogdu-Bakhtar artifacts from the land of Tajikistan and other historical sources of Sogdu-Bakhtar were carried out by this scientist. During scientific activity of professor V.A. Livshits, the Institute of Language and Literature named after Rudaki was recognized as a scientific center in the research of the cultural heritage of Sogdian and Khorazm and Port and Bactria.

Another important achievement of the department in these five years was compiling "Dictionary of southern dialects of the Tajik language", which was developed by scientists of the department, well-known Tajik dialectologists, doctor of philology sciences Gh. Juraev and candidate of philology sciences M. Mahmudov and it was published in 2013. The mentioned dictionary includes more than 25,000 lexical units and phraseological expressions of the southern dialects of the Tajik language. This dictionary is the first dictionary that is unprecedented in the history of Persian-Tajik lexicography. Among the hundreds of ancient dictionaries that have reflected the great scientific and cultural treasure of our language, one cannot find a dictionary that describes the vocabulary of this or that dialect in a scientific way. This dictionary is the newest phenomenon in the field of lexicography of the Tajik language, and it is based on a resource of more than 70,000 cards of the department, in the collection and creation of which directly participated the authors Gh. Juraev, M. Mahmudov, B. Berdiev as well as the mentioned dictionary was developed and organized by them.

   This dictionary was welcomed by domestic and foreign experts with special attention. Iranian specialist of the Academy Sciences of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Federation wrote a detailed review regarding this dictionary in the "Abstract journal" magazine as well as gave it a high assessment.

This dictionary is considered an important, useful and valuable source for improving the vocabulary of the Tajik language, and its material can be used for linguistic and ethnographic research.

Another achievement of the department is the publication of the book written by D. Saymiddinov under the title "Linguistic research".

It is known that the issues of Middle Persian grammar and lexis are considered one of the most important issues in the history of the language. Middle Persian language, despite many studies in European, Russian and Persian languages, has been studied in the Tajik language for the first time in these five years. This research provides information regarding the features of parts of speech, grammar and phonetics (phonology) of Middle Pahlavi and Monav Persian.

Another achievement of the department is the creation of Yaghnobi study group. Taking into account the status and value of Yaghnobi language, in November 1991, a group of Yaghnobi studies was established within the dialectology department of the Institute. Professor A.L. Khromov and scientific staff S. Mirzoev, B. Aliyev, T. Yorov, M. Razzoqov were members of this group.

In 1998, an important scientific and cultural event took place in the history of the Institute and the Yaghnobi study group. Many years of research of young researchers and the representatives of the language itself brought the desired results. With the care and guidance of well-known scientists of the Institute, three young people from Yagnab completed and defended their candidate's theses. S. Mirzoev defended his candidate dissertation on the topic "Lexis of Yaghnob language" (under the supervision of D. Saymiddinov, corresponding member of AS RT); G. Nematov defended his candidate dissertation on the topic "Lexis of cattle-breeding in the Yaghnob language" (scientific leader, Professor D. Karamshoev); B. Aliyev defended his candidate dissertation on the topic "Ethnolinguistics of the Yaghnob language" (scientific leader, Professor Gh. Juraev). From the materials of the three researched dissertations, it seems that Yaghnob language is rich in words and field terms. Most of these words are the basic words of the language itself and have been preserved in their original form up to the present time.

Taking into account the importance of the language, the group of Yagnob study group traveled to the places where Yagnob people live and collected materials wherever possible, especially from the elders. On the basis of the collected materials, bilingual and trilingual dictionaries have been published, a guide to the Yaghnob language was published that contains information regarding the local traditions and Yaghnob poems, a collection of articles on various issues of the language, herbs and plants of Yaghnob were published as well. The most important of which are the following:

Mirzozoda S. Yaghnobi zivok 2-3 (Yaghnobi language for gardes 2-3). - Dushanbe: Devashtich, 2007. - 200 p.

  Mirzozoda S. Culture of Yaghnobi language  (Yaghnobi-Persian). - Dushanbe: Paivand, 1996. - 124 p.

Works: Yaghnobi-Tajik Dictionary (2008), Yaghnobi -Tajik-English Dictionary (2008), Yaghnobi Songs and Poems (2011), Yaghnobi Local Traditions and Songs (2012), Yaghnobi Language Guide (2008), Yaghnobi Culture and Traditions (2015) , Collection of articles on Iranian studies (2021), Medicinal herbs and plants of Yagnob valley (2022) and etc, written by S. Mirzoev.

The Language Department was headed by the following scholars: B. Niyozmohamedov, O. Jalalov, N. Masumi, Sh. Rustamov, R. Gafforov, G. Juraev, M. Fayzov, D. Saimiddinov, A. Mirzoev, S. Nazarzoda, S. Sabzaev, S. Mirzoev.