Junqan

For the administrative divisions, see Junqan District and Junqan Rural District.

Junqan Persian: جونقان
City
Junqan
Coordinates: 32°09′11″N 50°41′16″E
Country	Iran
Province	Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari
County	Farsan
District	Junqan
Population  (2016)
• Total	14,433
Time zone	UTC+3:30 (IRST)

Junqan (Persian: جونقان, also Romanized as Jūnqān, Jūnaqān, Jūneqān, and Jūnoqān; also known as Jooneghan) is a city in, and the capital of, Junqan District of Farsan County, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, Iran.

At the 2006 census, its population was 14,660 in 3,437 households, when it was one of the three cities in the Central District. The following census in 2011 counted 14,800 people in 3,933 households, by which time the city had been separated from the district in the establishment of Junqan District. The latest census in 2016 showed a population of 14,433 people in 4,154 households.

Demographics

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 (L1)—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" (Turkic/Turkish), but they do admit a connection to Qashqai Turkic of the Fars Province. Because Southern Lori, a close relative of Bakhtiari, is spoken alongside Qashqai Turkic in the Fars Province, the term "Lori-ye Bakhtiyri" (Bakhtiari Lori), 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.