ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is Modern Standard Persian and Modern Standard Tajik. Both evolved from Early New Persian. Western Persian has typologically shifted differently from modern Tajik which has retained a considerable number of Early Eastern Persian features, on the one hand, and has also assimilated a strong typologically Turkic component, on the other hand. In spite of their divergence, both languages continue to share much of their underlying features, and are discussed jointly in this chapter.
