page_title: Samarkand
section_title: Language
hierarchical_section_title: Samarkand / People / Language
caption_attribution_description: English: Bilingual arch ("Welcome" in Uzbek and Tajik languages) at the entrance to one of the mahallas of the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. "Bo'zi" mahallah. Русский: Двуязычная надпись ("Добро пожаловать" на узбекском и таджикском языках) на арке у входа в одну из махаллей города Самарканда, Узбекистан. Махалля "Бузи".
context_page_description: Samarkand, also known as Samarqand and Markanda, is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city from the late Paleolithic Era, though there is no direct evidence of when Samarkand was founded; some theories propose that it was founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities of Central Asia.
  By the time of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, it was the capital of the Sogdian satrapy. The city was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE, when it was known by its Sanskrit name of Markanda, which was rendered in Greek as. The city was ruled by a succession of Iranian and Turkic rulers until it was conquered by the Mongols under Genghis Khan in 1220. Today, Samarkand is the capitol of Samarqand Region and one of the largest cities of Uzbekistan.
  The city is noted as a centre of Islamic scholarly study and the birthplace of the Timurid Renaissance.
context_section_description: The state and official language in Samarkand, as in all Uzbekistan, is the Uzbek language. Uzbek is one of the Turkic languages and the mother tongue of Uzbeks, Turkmens, Samarkandian Iranians, and most Samarkandian Arabs living in Samarkand. About 95% of signs and inscriptions in the city are in Uzbek, mostly in the Uzbek Latin alphabet).
  As in the rest of Uzbekistan, the Russian language is the de facto second official language in Samarkand, and about 5% of signs and inscriptions in Samarkand are in this language. Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Germans, Koreans, the majority of Ukrainians, the majority of Armenians, Greeks, some Tatars, and some Azerbaijanis in Samarkand speak Russian. Several Russian-language newspapers are published in Samarkand, the most popular of which is "Samarkandskiy vestnik" (Russian: Самаркандский вестник — Samarkand Herald). The Samarkandian TV channel STV conducts some broadcasts in Russian.
  De facto, the most common native language in Samarkand is Tajiki, which is a dialect or variant of the Persian language (Farsi). Samarkand was one of the cities in which the Persian language developed. Many classical Persian poets and writers lived in or visited Samarkand over the millennia, the most famous being Abulqasem Ferdowsi, Omar Khayyam, Abdurahman Jami, Abu Abdullah Rudaki, Suzani Samarqandi, and Kamal Khujandi.
  While the official stance is that Uzbek is the most common language in Samarkand, some data indicate that only about 30% of residents speak it as a native tongue. For the other 70%, Tajiki is the native tongue, with Uzbek the second language and Russian the third. However, as no population census has been taken in Uzbekistan since 1989, there are no accurate data on this matter. Despite Tajiki being the second most common language in Samarkand, it does not enjoy the status of an official or regional language. Only one newspaper in Samarkand is published in Tajiki, in the Cyrllic Tajik alphabet: "Ovozi Samarqand" (Tajik: Овози Самарқанд — Voice of Samarkand). Local Samarkandian STV and "Samarqand" TV channels offer some broadcasts in Tajiki, as does one regional radio station.
  In addition to Uzbek, Tajiki, and Russian, native languages spoken in Samarkand include Ukrainian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Tatar, Crimean Tatar, Arabic (for a very small percentage of Samarkandian Arabs), and others.
caption: Greeting in two languages: Uzbek (Latin) and Tajik (Cyrillic) at the entrance to one of the mahallahs (Bo'zi)  of Samarkand
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