ABSTRACT
Judeo-Tat belongs to the Iranian language family; it is related to both Persian and Tajik (see Persian and Tajik), though speakers of Judeo-Tat are generally able to understand those languages only imperfectly and with difficulty. Judeo-Tat is also distinguished from the language called Tat or Tati, which is spoken by about 30,000 Muslims in the same region, though Judeo-Tat and Tat have a high degree of similarity. Judeo-Tat has a rich oral tradition of folktales, poems, and proverbs, no doubt with a long history. In the early Soviet period (the 1920s and early 1930s), there was a policy of active state support for regional languages, and Judeo-Tat benefited from this. In 1938, Judeo-Tat became one of the ten official languages of Dagestan. In the 1920s, amateur and professional Judeo-Tat theatre troupes were established, performing various genres of plays, including dramas and musicals. The 1930s also saw the emergence of original prose and poetry written in Judeo-Tat.
