Junqan
Junqan is a city in, and the capital of, Junqan District in Farsan County, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, Iran.
Demographics
Language
Three languages are spoken in Junqan: Turkic, Bakhtiari and Persian. The three together paint a picture of balanced multilingualism in the community; each is dominant in certain aspects and recessive in others. Turkic is numerically the city's dominant first language —unlike in the majority of the province where it is Bakhtiari—and is used together with Bakhtiari at home. Turkic is also used as the primary language in shared social contexts. Nevertheless, the majority of people in Junqan are equally skilled in both Bakhtari and Turkic, regardless of which language they speak at home.Junqan's Turkic speakers refer to their language simply as "Torki", but they do admit a connection to Qashqai Turkic of Fars province. Because Southern Lori, a close relative of Bakhtiari, is spoken alongside Qashqai Turkic in Fars, the term "Lori-ye Bakhtiyri", which is not frequently used for Bakhtiari elsewhere in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, may reflect a perception of the language situation influenced by the Turkic speakers' origin in that province.
Persian, the nation's official language, and both Turkic and Bakhtiari coexist in diglossic relationships in Junqan. Both groups are seeing a linguistic shift toward Persian as L1 at-home instruction of Persian is becoming more common among both communities, although it may be that the social blend of the city is acting as a catalyst.