Bukharian language

Historically, Bukharian was spoken by Jews in Central Asia. The language classification of Bukharian is as follows: Indo-European > Indo-Iranian > Iranian > West Iranian > Southwest Iranian > Persian > Tajik > Bukharian. In 1987, the total number of speakers was 85,000. In the USSR, there were 45,000 speakers; in Israel, there were 32,000; and in all other countries combined, there were 3,000. among whom were tens of thousands of Bukharan Jews in the 19th to 20th centuries. (In modern times, the dialects spoken by the few remaining Jews in these cities barely differ, if at all, from their non-Jewish counterparts.) Like most Jewish languages, Bukhori traditionally used the Hebrew alphabet. But throughout the past century, due to the influence of various empires and ideologies, Bukhori was written using the Latin alphabet in the 1920s and 1930s, then Cyrillic from 1940 onwards. The Hebrew alphabet fell further into disuse outside of Hebrew liturgy when the Bukharian Jewish schools were closed in Central Asia and Bukharian Jewish publications, such as books and newspapers, began to appear using the Cyrillic alphabet. Today, many older Bukharian Jews who speak Bukharian only know the Cyrillic alphabet when reading and writing Bukharian. The origin of its respective spelling system is Talmudic orthography. Early in the Soviet period, Soviet authorities wanted Hebrew to be the language of culture and instruction for Jews in the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and in the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic. In late 1921, the Turkestani People's Commissariat of Education ordered that schools for Bukharian Jews teach in Bukharian and not in Hebrew. In 1934, 15 Bukharian Jewish clubs and 28 Bukharian Jewish red teahouses in Uzbekistan existed. However, in 1938, Bukharian was no longer used as the language for instruction in schools and cultural activities; instead, it became mainly spoken at home. == Revival ==