DUSHANBE, July 22, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan today marks State Language Day. 

Tajiks celebrate State Language Day on July 22, the anniversary of the designation of Tajik as the state language in 1989.  Tajikistan was the first among the former Soviet republics to introduce the notion “state language.”  In the former Soviet Union, there had been notion “language of the international and interethnic communication.”

The law determining role and status of the Tajik language in society was adopted in Tajikistan on July 22, 1989.  In accordance with Tajikistan’s Constitution, the Tajik language has the status of the state language and the Russian language has the status of the language of the interethnic communication.       

All documents, including laws, are drawn up in Tajik and then translated into Russia

A ceremonial meeting with participation of President Emomali Rahmon opened in Dushanbe today on occasion of the State Language Day.

 Besides, by capital mayor’s resolution mass festivities are being held in Dushanbe’s parks of Druzhba Narodov, and Molodyozhnoye Ozero as well as at the Square of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow and in the territory of the Culture Center Poytakht-80 (Amphitheater).

We will recall that President Emomali Rahmon proposed designating 2008 the Year of the Tajik Language, and publishing by September 2008 a new two-volume Tajik dictionary, together with grammars for the classical and modern literary languages.