Bukhori (Persian: بخاری - boxārī, Tajik: бухорӣ - buxorī; native: בוכארי - buxori; also known as Bukhari, Bukharic, Bukharan, or Bukharian) is a unique dialect of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia by the Bukharian Jews. Hence, a more descriptive name for the language might be Judæo-Persian or Judæo-Tajik.

Bukhori is based on a substrate of classical Persian, with a large number of Hebrew loanwords, as well as smaller numbers of loanwords from other surrounding languages, including Uzbek and Russian. Despite its long history, it still has a great deal of mutual intelligibility with Tajik Persian, and shares many similar features with Dzhidi. The vocabulary consists of a mixture of Persian (Tajik), Hebrew, Arabic and Uzbek words.^[2]

Today, the language is spoken by approximately 10,000 Jews remaining in Uzbekistan and surrounding areas, although most of its speakers reside elsewhere, predominantly in Israel (approx. 50,000 speakers), and the United States.

Like most Jewish languages, Bukhori uses the Hebrew alphabet.

Kol Israel (קול ישראל) broadcasts in Bukhori from 12:45 to 13:00 GMT.^[3]

[edit] See also

• Azerbaijani Jews
• Bukharan Jews
• Bukhara
• Dushanbe synagogue
• Emirate of Bukhara
• History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
• Kazakh Jews
• Mountain Jews
• Persian Jews
• Shimon Hakham
• Tajik Jews
• Uzbek Jews

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Learn Basic Bukhori