Some Iranian languages have been in intensive contact with Turkic languages for many centuries. Tajik and Uzbek are representative of the languages that have co-existed in the Iranian-Turkic language contact in Central Asia. Uzbek is a Turkic language that has Chaghatay as its literary predecessor and is the 'state language' of the republic of Uzbekistan. Tajik, on the other hand, is a South-West Iranian language which is genetically closely related to such Iranian languages as Persian and Dari. Most Tajik speakers are in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; within the latter Samarkand and Bukhara are particularly densely populated by Tajik speakers. The cohabitation of Tajik speakers with Uzbek speakers has made Tajik-Uzbek bilingualism the norm in much of this area. Bukhara is one of the cities where Tajik-Uzbek bilingualism is most pronounced; virtually all Tajik speakers in Bukhara are bilingual in Tajik and Uzbek.

This book contains transcriptions of recordings of the Tajik language used by Bukharans who have had no formal education in/of Tajik. A large number of linguistic features of Bukharan Tajik are considered to have emerged or have been retained under the influence of Uzbek.