Word A Day

муаллиф

муаллиф: author

Муаллифи ин китоб кист?
Who is the author of this book?
Муаллим дар бораи муаллифи китоб маълумот медиҳад.
The teacher gives information about the author of the book.


Bonus:
You can tell that this word is Arabic in origin because of the pattern of letters – муа??и?, where the ?? is a double consonant. Other examples would be муаллим, муаззин, муассис.
Other related words are таълиф: writing (noun), and алиф which is the first letter of the Tajik Arabic alphabet.

даст

даст: hand

Хӯрокро бо даст мехӯранд.
They eat (their) food with their hands.
Нонро ҳеҷ гоҳ бо як даст нашикан.
Don’t ever break naan (bread) with one hand.


Bonus:
The sentence about not breaking bread with one hand was in a list of good manners. There are a lot of “rules” to do with bread and eating, but that was a new one to me. If you know of other rules or etiquette to do with eating and you want to comment, you can do that below.

ғалаба

ғалаба: victory

Рӯзи Ғалаба муборак!
Happy Victory Day!
Муштзани тоҷик Соҳиб Усаров ғалабаи 21-уми худро ба даст овард.
The Tajik boxer Sohib Usarov earned his 21st victory.


Bonus:
Some other words related to ғалаба:
ғолиб: victorious
ғолибона: victoriously

ё

ё: or

Равам ё наравам?
Should I go or not?
Ман намедонам, ки корро имрӯз ба анҷом мерасонам ё не.
I don’t know whether I will complete the work today or not.


Bonus:
Using ё twice in a sentence can be translated as “either…or…”:
Ҳар бегоҳӣ ё ман ба дидани бародарам мерафтам, ё ӯ ба назди ман меомад. – Every evening either I went to see my brother, or he came to see me.

ғайр

ғайр: except

Ғайр аз ман каси дигар набуд.
There was nobody else except for me.
Ғайр аз ту ҳама рафтанд.
Except for you everybody went.


Bonus:
ғайри- is a prefix meaning “un-“, or “the opposite of”, for example –
ғайриимкон: impossible
ғайриоддӣ: extraordinary (not ordinary)
ғайриқонун: unlawful

донишҷӯ

донишҷӯ: student

Ту донишҷӯӣ?
Are you a university student?
Дар факултаи мо панҷоҳ нафар донишҷӯ таҳсил мекунад.
Fifty students study in our department.


Bonus:
донишҷӯ = дон + иш + ҷӯ
дон – present tense stem of донистан: to know
дониш – adding the suffix иш makes a noun, дониш: knowledge
ҷӯ – present tense stem of ҷӯстан: to look for, to seek
донишҷӯ = knowledge seeker
Донишҷӯ is used for university students. A student in school would be талаба.

ташкилот

ташкилот: organization

Донишгоҳ бо 16 ташкилоти байналмилалӣ шартномаи ҳамкорӣ дорад
The university has cooperation contracts with 16 international organizations.


Bonus:
Some Tajik nouns that are Arabic in origin may retain their Arabic plural -от, for example ҳайвон:animal and ҳайвонот: animals. In some cases, however the Arabic plural form now has a new meaning that is singular, as in the case of today’s word. Ташкилот is a singular word.

дарё

дарё: river

Дарозтарин дарё дар ҷаҳон дарёи Нил мебошад..
The longest river in the world is the river Nile.
Дарёи Вахш зимистон камоб мешавад.
The Vakhsh river is shallow in the winter.


Bonus:
ча is a suffix that can be used to mean something small. So дарёча is a small river, or a stream.

нисбат ба

нисбат ба: compared to

Ин мактаб нисбат ба он мактаб хурдтар аст.
This school compared to that school is smaller.
Эверест нисбат ба дигар қуллаҳои ҷаҳон баландтар аст.
Mount Everest compared to other peaks in the world, is bigger.


Bonus:
нисбатан: comparitively
Also related, is the word муносибат: connection, relation. Notice that if you remove the му, the next three consonants are the same as in нисбат. Words beginning with му are usually Arabic loan words.

аксар

аксар: most

Аксари модарони имрӯза афсонаро намедонанд.
Most mothers today don’t know fairy tales.
Қуллаҳои кӯҳҳои Помир хеле баланд ва аксари онҳо ҳамеша яхбаста мебошад.
The mountain peaks in the Pamirs are very high and most of them are always frozen.


Bonus:
аксарият: majority

News article from last month: Дар Душанбе аксари марказҳои букмекериро бастанд.