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Rating: 
Summary: Not a good guide for Tajik
Review: Although when I first found out about this book, I was very excited, I was totally disappointed when I got it. I am an ethnic Tajik, and a professional translator, and this book was very poorly done. As another Tajik reader said, this book is full of misspellings, and words that are just completely wrong. Also, many of the words that are given do not reflect the Tajik dialect of Persian. Even the introduction (in English) is factually incorrect, because Tajik is not a separate language, it is a dialect of Persian/Farsi, that, during Soviet times, was written in Cyrillic. A Tajik who speaks English should have assisted in this project, in order to have a more satisfactory outcome.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a very useful dictionary
Review: I purchased this book before leaving for a two year job contract in Tajikistan. I was very excited to find this pocket dictionary. Unfortunately it was never very helpful to me. My new Tajik friends felt that it was inaccurate in many places. It rarely seemed to have the words or phrases that I needed. And finally, the transliteration system didn't seem to correctly reflect the pronunciation used by natives (I was living in the capital, Dushanbe.)To be fair to the authors there was nothing else available at the time they published this and the situation in Tajikistan was one of violent transition. Tajikistan has become much more stable now and there are now a few more resources available in English. Although there was discussion in Tajikistan at one time aobut making either Persian or Roman script official alphabets, Cyrillic is still the oficiall alphabet and the one used by Tajiks 99% of the time. To be really useful a Tajik-English phrase book should use Cyrillic, which this one does not. The most effective method I found for learning the Tajik language was making Tajik friends who spoke a little English and learning to speak Tajik from them. I also got a lot of help from two books published by STAR:
The Official Beginner's Guide to Tajiki, by Azim Baizoyev
Standard Tajik-English Dictionary, by Randall and Rochelle Olsen
Rating: 
Summary: Ignoring contemporary Tajik script is incorrect
Review: The authores should definitely get a credit for writiing a book on such a rare language as Tajik. However, I am not sure what to think about the script used throughout the book. It is not clear what script Cyrilllic, Romance or Arabic will be used for this language in the future. However, even if the Romance alphabet is approved for use, it will probably look different from what is presented by the authors. I doubt that digraphs like GH, KH, SH, and ZH will be in use. We also do not know how the Tajik are going to use the Romance alphabet to present their vowels. So, ignoring the modern Tajik alphabet lowers the value of this book. E.g., what if the reader finds an authentic Tajik sentence ? Then, knowing all the words and grammar, will not help figure out what it is about. So, I believe that the authors should have given a table presenting contemporary Tajik script at least for references.
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