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Azerbaijani
Azərbaycan dili (Latin script) آذربایجان دیلی (Perso-Arabic script)
Pronunciation	Template:IPA-tu
Native to	Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Syria
Ethnicity	Azerbaijani
Native speakers	30 million (2010)
Language family	Turkic Southwestern Turkic (Oghuz) Western Oghuz Azerbaijani
Writing system	Latin and Cyrillic for North Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan, Perso-Arabic for South Azerbaijani in Iran.
Official status
Official language in	Azerbaijan (North Azerbaijani)  Russia - One of the official languages of Dagestan.
Language codes
ISO 639-1	az
ISO 639-2	aze
ISO 639-3	aze – inclusive code Individual codes: azj – North Azerbaijani azb – South Azerbaijani
Linguasphere	part of 44-AAB-a
Location of Azerbaijani speakers
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Azerbaijani or Azeri (Azərbaycanca, Azərbaycan dili) is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran. Azerbaijani is member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages and is closely related to Turkish, Qashqai, Turkmen and Crimean Tatar. Turkish and Azerbaijani are known to closely resemble each other, and the native speaker of one language is able to understand the other, though it is easier for a speaker of Azerbaijani to understand Turkish than the other way around.

History and evolution

Today′s Azerbaijani languages evolved from the Eastern Oghuz branch of Western (Oghuz) Turkic which spread to Southwestern Asia during medieval Turkic migrations, and has been heavily influenced by Persian. Arabic also influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian.

Azerbaijani gradually supplanted the Iranian languages in what is now northern Iran (most notably the Tat, Azari, and Middle Persian varieties), and a variety of Caucasian languages in the Caucasus, particularly Udi. By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region, and was a spoken language in the court of the Safavid Empire. However, minorities in both Azerbaijan and Iran continue to speak the earlier Iranian languages to this day, and Middle- and Modern Persian loanwords are numerous in the Azerbaijani language.

The historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods: early (c. 16th to 18th century) and modern (18th century to present). Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained a much greater amount of Persian, and Arabic loanwords, phrases and syntactic elements. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects (such as pronouns, case endings, participles, etc.). As Azerbaijani gradually moved from being merely a language of epic and lyric poetry to being also a language of journalism and scientific research, its literary version has become more or less unified and simplified with the loss of many archaic Turkic elements, stilted Iranisms and Ottomanisms, and other words, expressions, and rules that failed to gain popularity among Azerbaijani-speaking masses.

Between c. 1900 and 1930, there were several competing approaches to the unification of the national language in Azerbaijan popularized by the literati, such as Hasan bey Zardabi and Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski. Despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature. They all criticized the overuse of Persian, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and European (mainly Russian) elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a more simple and popular style.

The Russian conquest of the South Caucasus in the 19th century split the speech community across two states; the Soviet Union promoted development of the language, but set it back considerably with two successive script changes - from Perso-Arabic script to Latin and then to Cyrillic - while Iranian Azeris continued to use the Perso-Arabic script as they always had. Despite the wide use of Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan during the Soviet era, it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1956. After independence, Azerbaijan decided to switch to the Latin script.

Literature

Classical literature in Azerbaijani was formed in 14th century based on the various Early Middle Ages dialects of Tabriz and Shirvan (these dialects were used by classical Azerbaijani writers Nasimi, Fuzuli, and Khatai). Modern literature in Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iran it is based on the Tabrizi one. The first newspaper in Azerbaijani, Əkinçi was published in 1875.

In mid-19th century it was taught in the schools of Baku, Ganja, Shaki, Tbilisi, and Yerevan. Since 1845, it has also been taught in the University of St. Petersburg in Russia.

Lingua franca

Azerbaijani served as a lingua franca throughout most parts of Transcaucasia (except the Black Sea coast), in Southern Dagestan, Eastern Turkey, and Iranian Azerbaijan from the 16th century to the early 20th century.

Varieties and dialects

Azerbaijani, also known as “Azeri”, is divided into two varieties: Northern Azerbaijani and Southern Azerbaijani, and a large number of dialects. Turkic Khalaj, Qashqa'i, and Salchuq are considered by some to be separate languages in the Azerbaijani language group.

Despite their relatively large number, dialects of Azerbaijani do not differ substantially. Speakers of various dialects normally do not have problems understanding each other. However, minor problems may occur between Azerbaijani-speakers from the Caucasus and Iran, as some of the words used by the latter that are of Persian or Arabic origin may be unknown to the former. For example, the word firqə ("political party") used by Iranian Azerbaijanis may not be understood in Azerbaijan, where the word partiya is used to describe the same object. Such phenomenon is explained by the fact that both words have been in wide use since after the split of the two speech communities in 1828.

The following list reflects only one of several perspectives on the dialectology of Azerbaijani. Some dialects may be varieties of others.

• Ardabil dialect (Ardabil and western Gilan, Iran)
• Ayrum dialect (northwestern Azerbaijan; northeastern Armenia)
• Baku dialect (eastern Azerbaijan)
• Borchali dialect (southern Georgia; northern Armenia)
• Derbent dialect (southern Russia)
• Gabala (Gutgashen) dialect (northern Azerbaijan)
• Ganja dialect (western Azerbaijan)
• Gazakh dialect (northwestern Azerbaijan)
• Guba dialect (northeastern Azerbaijan)
• Hamadan dialect (Hamadan, Iran)
• Karabakh dialect (central Azerbaijan)
• Karadagh dialect (East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, Iran)
• Kars dialect (eastern Turkey and northwestern Armenia)
• Lankaran dialect (southeast Azerbaijan)
• Maragheh dialect (East Azerbaijan, Iran)
• Mughan (Salyan) dialect (central Azerbaijan)
• Nakhichevan dialect (southwestern Azerbaijan)
• Ordubad dialect (southwestern Azerbaijan; southern Armenia)
• Shaki (Nukha) dialect (northern Azerbaijan)
• Shirvan (Shamakhy) dialect (eastern Azerbaijan)
• Tabriz dialect (East Azerbaijan, Iran)
• Yerevan dialect (central Armenia)
• Zagatala-Gakh dialect (northern Azerbaijan)
• Zanjan dialect (Zanjan, Iran)

Varieties

Azerbaijani is sometimes classified as two languages, North and South Azerbaijani. While there is a fair degree of mutual intelligibility between them, there are also morphological and phonological differences.

North Azerbaijani

North Azerbaijani, or North Azeri, is the official language of Azerbaijan. It is also spoken in southern Dagestan, along the Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains, as well as in Armenia and scattered through Central Asia. There are some 8 million native speakers, and about as many L2 speakers.

The Baku dialect is the basis of Standard Azerbaijani. Since 1992 it has been officially written with a Roman script in Azerbaijan, but the older Cyrillic script was still widely used in the late 1990s.

South Azerbaijani

South Azerbaijani, or South Azeri, is spoken in northwestern Iran and to a lesser extent in neighboring regions of Iraq and Turkey, with smaller communities in Afghanistan and Syria. Iranian Azerbaijanis mostly call it Türki. In Iran, it is spoken in East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, and parts of Kurdistan, Hamadan, Qazvin and Gilan. It is also spoken in some districts of Tehran city and across Tehran Province. Most sources report the percentage of Azerbaijani-Turkic-speakers at around 16 percent of the Iranian population, or about 12 to 13 million. South Azerbaijani is also spoken in parts of Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, and Asian Turkey.

In Iran, the Azerbaijani language is written in an Arabic alphabet. It is influenced by the Persian language.

Phonology

Consonants

1. /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ are realised as and respectively in the areas around Tabriz and to the west, south and southwest of Tabriz (including Kirkuk in Iraq); in the Nakhchivan and Ayrum dialects, in Jabrayil and some Caspian coastal dialects;
2. In most dialects of Azerbaijani, /c/ is realized as [ç] when it is found in the coda position or is preceded by a voiceless consonant (as in çörək - "bread"; səksən - "eighty").
3. /k/ appears only in words borrowed from Russian or French (spelled, as with /c/, with a k).
4. /w/ exists in the Kirkuk dialect as an allophone of /v/ in Arabic loanwords.
5. In the Baku dialect, /ov/ may be realised as , and /ev/ and /øv/ as , e.g. /ɡovurˈmɑ/ → , /sevˈdɑ/ → , /døvˈrɑn/ →
6. In the colloquial language, /x/ is usually pronounced as /χ/

Vowels

Vowel phonemes of Standard Azerbaijani

Alphabets

In Azerbaijan, North Azerbaijani now officially uses the Latin script, but the Cyrillic script is also in wide use, while in Iran, South Azerbaijani uses the Perso-Arabic script. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets for North Azerbaijani (although the Cyrillic alphabet has a different order):

Before 1929, Azerbaijani was written only in the Perso-Arabic script. In 1929–1938 a Latin alphabet was in use for North Azerbaijani (although it was different from the one used now), from 1938 to 1991 the Cyrillic script was used, and in 1991 the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow. If written in the Latin alphabet, all foreign words are transliterated, for example, "Bush" becomes "Buş", and "Schröder" becomes "Şröder".

South Azerbaijani speakers in Iran have always continued to use the Perso-Arabic script, although the spelling and orthography is not yet standardized.

Nomenclature

In 1992–1993, when Azerbaijan Popular Front Party was in power in Azerbaijan, the official language of Azerbaijan was renamed by the parliament to Türk dili ("Turkic"). However, since 1994 the Soviet era name of the language, Azərbaycan dili ("Azerbaijani"), has been re-established and reflected in the Constitution. Varlıq, the most important literary Azerbaijani magazine published in Iran, uses the term Türki ("Turkish" in English or "Torki" in Persian) to refer to the Azerbaijani language. South Azerbaijani speakers in Iran often refer to the language as Türki, distinguishing it from İstambuli Türki ("Anatolian Turkish"), the official language of Turkey. Some people also consider Azerbaijani to be a dialect of a greater Turkish language and call it Azərbaycan Türkcəsi ("Azerbaijani Turkish"), and scholars such as Vladimir Minorsky used this definition in their works. ISO encodes its two varieties, North Azerbaijani and South Azerbaijani, as distinct languages. According to the Linguasphere Observatory, all Oghuz languages form part of a single "outer language" of which North and South Azerbaijani are "inner languages".

Vocabulary

Numbers

For numbers 11-19, the numbers literally mean 'ten one, ten two' and so on.

See also

• Azerbaijani people
• Historical linguistics
• Language families and languages

References

1. Ethnologue
2. Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
3. "Azeri Turkish" at Encyclopædia Iranica, by Gerhard Doerfer
4. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=azb
5. http://countrystudies.us/iran/42.htm
6. "The Turkic Languages" Osman Fikri Sertkaya, in "Turks - A Journey of a Thousand Years", London, 2005.
7. L. Johanson, "AZERBAIJAN ix. Iranian Elements in Azeri Turkish" in Encyclopædia Iranica .
8. John R. Perry, "Lexical Areas and Semantic Fields of Arabic" in Éva Ágnes Csató, Eva Agnes Csato, Bo Isaksson, Carina Jahani, "Linguistic convergence and areal diffusion: case studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic", Routledge, 2005. Pg 97: "It is generally understood that the bulk of the Arabic vocabulary in the central, continguous Iranic, Turkic and Indic languages was originally borrowed into literary Persian between the ninth and thirteenth centuries CE ..."
9. Language Commission Suggested to Be Established in National Assembly. Day.az. 25 January 2011.
10. Pieter Muysken, "Introduction: Conceptual and methodological issues in areal linguistics", in Pieter Muysken, From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics, 2008 ISBN 90-272-3100-1, p. 30-31
11. Viacheslav A. Chirikba, "The problem of the Caucasian Sprachbund" in Muysken, p. 74
12. Lenore A. Grenoble, Language Policy in the Soviet Union, 2003 ISBN 1-4020-1298-5,p. 131
13. Nasledie Chingiskhana by Nikolai Trubetzkoy. Agraf, 1999; p. 478
14. J. N. Postgate. Languages of Iraq. British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007; ISBN 0-903472-21-X; p. 164
15. ^ "Language Family Trees: Altaic, Turkic, Southern, Azerbaijani" Ethnologue
16. ISO 639-3 aze "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: aze" SIL International
17. ISO 639-3 azj "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: azj" SIL International
18. ISO 639-3 azb "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: azb" SIL International
19. ISO 639-3 klj "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: klj" SIL International
20. ISO 639-3 qxq "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: qxq" SIL International
21. ISO 639-3 slq "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: slq" SIL International
22. http://www.anl.az/sh002e3.php
23. http://www.anl.az/el/k/k002/mmt001.htm
24. "Azerbaijani, North - A language of Azerbaijan" Ethnologue, accessed 8 December 2008
25. Schönig (1998), pg. 248.
26. "Azerbaijani, South - A language of Iran" Ethnologue, accessed 8 December 2008
28. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html
29. "People of Western Asia, Volume 3", Marshall Cavendish, 2006. pg 124. Quote: "Iranian Azeris speak a Southern version of the Azeri language, which belongs to the Turkic family. They write in the Arabic script, while the northerners use Roman (European) letters"
30. L. Johanson, "AZERBAIJAN ix. Iranian Elements in Azeri Turkish" in Encyclopædia Iranica
31. Persian Studies in North America by Mohammad Ali Jazayeri

External links

• A blog on Azerbaijani language resources and translations.
• AZERI.org - Azerbaijan Literature and English translation
• Online bidirectional Azerbaijani-English Dictionary
• Alphabet and Language in Transition. Entire issue of Azerbaijan International (AZER.com), Spring 2000 (8.1)
• Editorial: Azerbaijan Alphabet & Language in Transition. Azerbaijan International (AZER.com), Spring 2000 (8.1)
• Chart: Four Alphabet Changes in Azerbaijan in the 20th Century. Azerbaijan International (AZER.com), Spring 2000 (8.1)
• Chart: Changes in the Four Azerbaijan Alphabet Sequence in the 20th century. Azerbaijan International (AZER.com), Spring 2000 (8.1)
• Baku’s Institute of Manuscripts: Early Alphabets in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan International (AZER.com), Spring 2000 (8.1)
• Azeri language at Ethnologue
• Azerbaijan language, alphabets and pronunciation at omniglot.com
• Learn Azerbaijani (Organization teaching grammar vocabulary and phrases)
• Pre-Islamic roots
• Azerbaijan-Turkish language in Iran by Ahmad Kasravi
• Azerbaijan tongue with Japanese translation incl. sound file, from Internet Archive
• Azerbaijan-Turkish and Turkish-Azerbaijan dictionary
• Azerbaijan Language with Audio
• Azerbaijani thematic vocabulary
• AzConvert An open source computer transliterator program for Azerbaijan language

v t e Turkic languages
Proto-language	Proto-Turkic
Common Turkic	Argu Argu Khalaj Karluk Western Northern Uzbek Southern Uzbek Eastern Ili Turki Uyghur Khoton Lop Äynu Old Chagatai Karakhanid Khorezmian Kipchak Bulgar Bashkir Tatar Mishar Tatar Nagaibak Old Tatar Cuman Armeno-Kipchak Crimean Tatar Cuman Karachay-Balkar Karaim Krymchak Kumyk Mamluk-Kipchak Urum Kyrgyz Fergana Kipchak Kyrgyz Pamir Kyrgyz Siberian Tatar Baraba Tom Southern Altai Telengit Teleut Nogai Dobrujan Tatar Karakalpak Kazakh Nogai Siberian Tatar Tobol-Irtysh Oghuz Salar Eastern Khorasani Turkic Turkmen Trukhmen Southern Afshari Chaharmahali Turkic Qashqai Sonqori Western Azerbaijani North Azerbaijani South Azerbaijani Ajem-Turkic Balkan Gagauz Gagauz Karapapakh Turkish Karamanli Turkish Old Anatolian Turkish Ottoman Turkish Siberian Northern Dolgan Yakut Southern Chulym Lower Chulym Sayan Steppe Tuvan Taiga Dukhan Soyot Tofa Yenisei Fuyu Kyrgyz Khakas Northern Altai Chelkan Kumandy Tuba Shor Western Yugur Old Old Uyghur Orkhon Turkic
Oghur	Bulgar Chuvash
Disputed classification	Khazar Pecheneg
Potentially Turkic languages	Di Hunnic Jie Pannonian Avar Tuoba Wusun Xiongnu
Creoles and pidgins	Hezhou Kurbet Qoqmončaq
Italics indicate extinct languages Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

v t e Turkic topics
Languages	Afshar Altai Northern Southern Äynu Azerbaijani Bashkir Bulgar Chagatai Chulym Chuvash Crimean Tatar Cuman Dolgan Fuyü Gïrgïs Gagauz Ili Turki Karachay-Balkar Karaim Karakalpak Karamanli Turkish Kazakh Khakas Khalaj Khazar Khorasani Turkic Kipchak Krymchak Kumyk Kipchak languages Kyrgyz Nogai Old Turkic Ottoman Turkish Pecheneg Qashqai Sakha/Yakut Salar Shor Siberian Tatar Tatar Tofa Turkish Turkmen Tuvan Urum Uyghur Uzbek Western Yugur Alphabets Old Turkic Common Turkic Cyrillic Old Uyghur Persian
Peoples	Afshars Altaians Chelkans, Kumandins, Telengits, Teleuts, Tubalars Azerbaijanis in Iran, Armenia, Georgia Balkars Bashkirs Chulyms Chuvash Crimean Karaites Crimean Tatars Dolgans Gagauz Karachays Karakalpaks Kazakhs in China Khakas Khalaj Khorasani Turks Krymchaks Kyrgyz in China Kumyks Naimans Nogais Qarai Turks Qashqai Salar Shors Siberian Tatars Baraba Tatars Tatars Astrakhan, Chinese, Lipka, Kryashens, Mishar, Nağaybäk, Volga Tofalar Turkmens Afghan, Iranian Turkish in Abkhazia, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Crete, Cyprus, Dodecanese, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, North Macedonia, Meskhetia (Ahiska), Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Western Thrace, Yemen Tuvans Uyghurs Uzbeks in Afghanistan Yakuts (Sakha) Yugurs Extinct Turkic groups Bulaqs Bulgars Cumans Dughlats Göktürks Karluks Khazars Kimek Kipchaks K'o-sa Oghuz Turks Shatuo Türgesh Uzes
Politics	Grey Wolves Kemalism Burkhanism Jadid Pan-Turkism Turkesism Turanism (Hungarian)
Origins	Turkestan Mongolia History Timeline of the Göktürks Timeline 500–1300 Migration Turkification Nomadic empire Turco-Mongol Tian Shan / Altai Mountains Otuken Oğuz
Locations	Sovereign states Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Northern Cyprus Turkey Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Autonomous areas Altai Republic Bashkortostan Chuvashia Crimea Gagauzia Kabardino-Balkaria Karachay-Cherkessia Karakalpakstan Khakassia Nakhchivan Sakha Tatarstan Tuva Xinjiang
Studies	Old Turkic script Proto-Turkic language Turkology
Religions	Turkic mythology Tengrism Shamanism Aiyy Faith Tibetan Buddhism Islam Alevism Batiniyya Bayramiye Bektashi Order Burkhanism Christianity Hurufism Khalwati order Malamatiyya Qadiri Qalandariyya Rifaʽi* Safaviyya Zahediyeh Vattisen Yaly
Traditional sports	Kyz kuu Jereed Kokpar Jigit Chovgan
Organizations	Organization of Turkic States International Organization of Turkic Culture (TÜRKSOY) Parliamentary Assembly (TURKPA) Turkic Academy Organization of the Eurasian Law Enforcement Agencies with Military Status (TAKM) World Turks Qurultai
These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. State with limited international recognition.

• Turkic languages
• Use dmy dates from July 2011
• Agglutinative languages
• Azerbaijani language
• Languages of Georgia (country)
• Languages of Iran
• Languages of Russia
• Languages of Turkey
• Languages of Kazakhstan
• Languages of Azerbaijan
• Languages of Iraq
• Languages of Syria
• Subject–object–verb languages