Zehni Foundation
The Zehni Foundation
سخن
sukhan  ·  сухан  ·  “the word”

Carrying the oldest words a thousand years forward.

Founded in the name of Turaqul Zehni — linguist, poet and lexicographer of the Tajik tongue — to keep one of the world’s oldest living languages thriving into its next age: digital, global, machine-read.

Join the foundation See the work →
From the foundation’s charter  ◆
سخن
sukhan
сухан
/suː'xan/
noun · Tajik–Persian
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Continuity through rupture

One word. Three alphabets.
One century.

Within a single lifetime, Tajik was written three different ways. Zehni recorded the word through every change — and lost nothing.

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The next change will be the deepest yet. The Zehni Foundation exists so that when language becomes data, the word still arrives whole.

Write a word in three hands →
The work

Four endeavors,
from the archive to the algorithm.

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The reach of a language

Words that walked the Silk Road

From the bazaars of Samarkand, Persian words traveled the caravan routes into the everyday speech of the world.

Tap a word to trace its journey
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Read the Tashhis Letters →

Become part of the continuity.

Endowments, fellowships and gifts of expertise sustain a heritage that belongs to everyone. We would be honoured to begin a conversation.

Endow the word Speak with our office
Zehni Foundation

A family foundation keeping the language, scholarship and craft of Central Asia in living use — from manuscript to machine.

In memory of Turaqul Zehni, lexicographer
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© {{ year }} Zehni Foundation · Samarkand · Dushanbe سخن  ·  Language ◆ Memory ◆ Continuity
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From the Persian
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