I first visited Tajikistan in 2001. It was a research trip to study the methods of teaching the Tajik language to Russian students. I met the teachers of the Tajik Language Department of Russian-Tajik (Slavic) Together with their colleagues from the leading educational institutions of the country, I attended the classes.
At that time, more than ten years had passed since the adoption of the Language Law. However, the difficult domestic political situation prevented the active implementation of this law. Only ten years later, attempts were made to understand the language situation in the country, the current state of the language, new spelling rules were developed and approved in 1998, short thematic, educational Tajik-Russian and Russian-Tajik dictionaries appeared. In 2002, the first scientific conference dedicated to the problems of teaching the state language was held at Slavonic University.
I had a chance to meet my Tajik colleagues again this year, and I managed to go to Khujand and visit higher educational institutions and a Russian school. Secondary school students, both Russian and Tajik, study the state language according to a single program, get acquainted with Tajik literature. Without seeing the child's face, it is difficult to understand who reads Mirzo Tursunzod's poems so expressively: Russian or Tajik?
However, the main thing that catches your eye after a five-year absence is the growing role of the Tajik language in the republic. During this time, there was a qualitative leap. A wonderful gift for all Iranians is a Tajik-Russian dictionary prepared by a team of employees of the Institute of Language and Literature. Rudaki of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan. Half a century has passed since the last Tajik-Russian dictionary was published under the editorship of M. V. Rahimi and L. V. Uspenskaya. The new dictionary, created on the basis of the index fund of the Institute's dictionary Department, most fully reflects the vocabulary of the modern Tajik language. In addition to this fundamental work, with the active assistance of the Institute of Language and Literature. A variety of terminology dictionaries also appeared in Rudaki: an explanatory dictionary of legal terms and expressions, an explanatory dictionary of human rights, a dictionary of socio-political terms, a dictionary of art history terms, dictionaries of terminology in the field of office management, taxation, banking, and many others. In modern bookstores in Dushanbe, it is pleasant to pick up newly printed school textbooks that already reflect new realities.
The review is mainly based on the materials of the newspaper "Jumhuriyat" (July 2005-2006). For two consecutive years, the summer issues of the newspaper published articles by the head of the working group of the Commission on the Implementation of the Law on Language A. Dzhuraev, Director of the Institute of Language and Literature named after him. Rudaki of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan S. Nazarzoda.
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This year, when I once again entered the familiar classroom, the Department of Tajik Language at Slavonic University, I was amazed by the achievements of my friends. On their initiative, conferences dedicated to teaching the Tajik language continue to be held, and a lot of different methodological manuals for students of the Tajik language have been published. On the eve of the start of the new academic semester, a round table was held on the problems of modern spelling. The round table meeting was attended by leading philologists of the country. They discussed both the teaching of spelling rules and offensive typos in the media.
In recent years, Language Day has been celebrated with great enthusiasm on July 22. Articles published in the central press outline the current state of the language and discuss ways to solve existing problems. Today, the idea that the national state language is a component of the country's independence is ingrained in the minds of most people.
The Language Law was adopted in 1989 before the collapse of the USSR and was in keeping with the spirit of those days. The Soviet policy on national languages was aimed at bilingualism with the gradual transition of the peoples of the USSR to Russian. The law was also based on this policy. In it, Russian is called the language of interethnic communication.
In 1989, shortly after the adoption of the Language Law, a special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan "On measures to implement the Language Law"was issued. It defined measures for the transition to the national language in 1990-1995. In accordance with this plan, during the first two years, short-term Tajik language courses were created at state-owned enterprises and ministries, educational materials were prepared, and Tajik language departments were established in non-philological universities. It was assumed that by January 1, 1996, all State-owned enterprises and institutions were to operate in the Tajik language. The civil war prevented this goal from being achieved. In addition, the deadlines set were absolutely unrealistic. Experience shows that it takes at least 10 to 15 years to eliminate the consequences of the past in relation to the state language, and for the entire system of government to switch to the national language. In some former Soviet republics, the deadline for switching to the national language was set before 2005, but even then the expected results were not achieved.
To correct the situation, the Commission for the Implementation of the Law on Language under the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan was reanimated in 1995. The process accelerated noticeably after the establishment of political stability in the country. In 1997, a government decree was adopted on the development of the state language and other languages in Tajikistan. This decree consisted of two parts: the first, very detailed, is devoted to the state language, the second-to other languages (Russian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Yagnob, Pamir). The program provided for the widespread use of the Tajik language as the state language in all areas of political, social, economic, and cultural life of the people; the creation of various courses in institutions; maintaining all documentation and office work in the center and in the field in Tajik; replacing all Russian-and English-language advertising; developing special business terminology and monitoring its uniform use throughout the teaching technical, medical, and agricultural subjects in higher education institutions in the Tajik language; preparing bilingual, explanatory, and dialect dictionaries; expanding research on the history and current state of the language; training philologists; and promoting the language in the media.
Members of the working group of the Commission for the Implementation of the Law on Language under the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan regularly conduct inspections, the results of which are encouraging: -
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At present, many ministries, State committees, organizations, and central and local government bodies conduct office work in the Tajik language; the attitude of managers and employees to this issue has changed markedly.
It is obvious that in order to consolidate positive trends, it is necessary to pay serious attention to language learning from the earliest age. But here are hidden pitfalls: there are not enough teachers, textbooks (in those that are published, there are many annoying typos). At the moment, research by the Commission's working group shows that about 90% of university students do not have a solid language foundation in secondary school.
Currently, the development of new terminology is of paramount importance in the field of language policy. If we focus on the transition of universal and higher education to the Tajik language, then obviously urgent measures need to be taken to prepare textbooks and ensure uniformity of terminology, since what is published now is not centrally controlled. In this regard, a huge responsibility falls on the Institute of Language and Literature. Rudaki Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Creating new terms is not an easy task. Currently, tracing paper words from other languages that do not comply with the rules of word formation of the Tajik language are widely used. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that during the years of Soviet power, the natural process of language development was disrupted. Russian words were used to denote concepts that were not present in the Tajik language.
Today, the process of getting rid of artificial terms imposed by the Soviet system is underway. Censorship restrictions have disappeared, and socio-political neologisms from Dari and Persian have flooded into the language. Some cultural figures return words like (congress), ruznoma (newspaper), shuro (council), (revolution) that were discarded in the 1930s, and also invent their own words: charkhbol (helicopter), (constitution), wombarg (bond), etc. A more radical group believes that only Persian loanwords have any meaning. the right to exist. Representatives of this group promote their position, observing the Persian pronunciation and intonation in their speeches.
Of course, some grammatical and lexical norms and the system of term formation need to be reformed, but it is also clear that this should be done without fanaticism and inappropriate imitation.
When developing terminology, it is suggested to make maximum use of the internal reserves of the Tajik language. It is a rich language with an ancient history that allows you to convey a significant part of scientific concepts by your own means. Arabic also remains an important source, especially words that have a long tradition of use in the Tajik language. Finally, it is necessary to correctly introduce internationally recognized words and expressions.
There is a serious problem with the formation of our own scientific terminology. There are no specialists in the republic who are well versed in a particular field of science, or who are familiar with the principles of word formation of the Tajik language. As a result, there are many shortcomings in the compiled terminology dictionaries. In the absence of cooperation between textbook authors and translators and Tajik philologists, hard-to-understand books are eventually published. Often, different textbooks use different terms to convey the same concept. Only as a result of close cooperation of specialists in various fields of science can terminology be unified, a single computer database for all sciences can be created, and thus the use of created scientific terms in the Tajik language can be consolidated.
Currently, the issue of introducing amendments to the Law on the Language that would reflect the current situation is actively discussed: Russian is gradually losing its popularity.
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Tajik is gaining its importance as a language of interethnic communication, and Tajik is strengthening its position in all areas of life. In the new version, the Law is more correctly called the "Law on the State Language of the Republic of Tajikistan". It is expected that in the upcoming new edition of the Law, the main changes will concern issues of education, the transformation of the Tajik language into the language of science, the relationship of Tajik with Dari and Persian, the use of the Tajik language in the media, as well as the use of foreign languages in the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan.
During the celebration of the Day of the Tajik Language, a proposal was also made on the pages of central newspapers to hold a" regular " congress of linguists of Tajikistan, especially since more than forty years have passed since the last, second congress.
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about Huriniso Alizoda's very emotional article " Non-governmental language - non-governmental organizations (or: why does the chairman of the assembly not speak Tajik at meetings, seminars, conferences, round tables held in the capital by non-governmental organizations?)". The topic of the article is very relevant, because with the collapse of the USSR and the independence of the Republic of Tatarstan, the activities of international organizations are constantly expanding in the country. Among the employees of these organizations, those who competently speak the Tajik language, respect and study the national language as the state language of independent Tajikistan are particularly distinguished.
The work of non-governmental organizations on the ground remains an important challenge. Their employees speak Russian, but the peasants do not understand Russian enough to discuss serious issues in this language, convey their difficulties, and make suggestions for solving problems. The difficulty also lies in the design of grants and the presentation of development programs. These documents should be written in Russian or English, and not in Tajik. Naturally, local residents face great difficulties when spending money on transfers.
All documents of non-governmental organizations - instructions, minutes of meetings, information literature-are written in Russian. For whom?! For example, a report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was recently published in Russian, which also addresses the situation of Tajik women. But more than 70% of Tajik women live in villages and cannot understand what is written in this report!
Until recently, knowledge of the Tajik language was not a prerequisite for successful work in the republic. Almost half of the population knew Russian. In Dushanbe, this was a matter of pride and an indicator of education. However, today "Russian-speaking Tajiks" are beginning to feel a sense of shame, as they do not fully speak their native language. In fact, employees of international and non-governmental organizations and diplomatic missions should also feel this way, since, according to generally accepted practice, specialists working outside their homeland should first of all know the language of the country where they are located.
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