Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani or Azeri^[8] or Torki^[9][10] (Azərbaycanca, Azərbaycan türkcəsi, 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 and Turkmen.

History and evolution

Today′s Azerbaijani languages evolved from the Eastern Oghuz branch of Western (Oghuz) Turkic^[11] which spread to Southwestern Asia during medieval Turkic migrations, and has been heavily influenced by Persian.^[12] Arabic also influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian.^[13]

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 end of the 17th 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. 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.^[14] After independence, Azerbaijan decided to switch to the Latin script.

Literature

Classical literature in Azerbaijani was formed in 14th century based on the various dialect 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.

Notable folklore and literary works in Azerbaijani are the Book of Dada Gorgud, Asli and Kerem, the Epic of Köroğlu, and others. Important poets and writers of Azerbaijani include

• Imadaddin Nasimi
• Muhammed Fuzuli
• Khatai
• Molla Panah Vagif
• Khurshidbanu Natavan
• Mirza Fatali Akhundov
• Jalil Mammadguluzadeh
• Mirza Alakbar Sabir
• Huseyn Javid
• Jafar Jabbarly
• Samad Vurghun
• Mikayil Mushfig
• Mammed Said Ordubadi
• Mohammad Hossein Shahriar

Lingua franca

Azerbaijani served as a lingua franca throughout most parts of Transcaucasia (except the Black Sea coast), in Southern Dagestan,^[15][16][17] Eastern Turkey, and Iranian Azerbaijan from the 16th century to the early 20th century.^[18][19]

Varieties and dialects

Azeri, also known as “Azerbaijani”,^[20][21] is divided into two varieties: Northern Azerbaijani^[22] and Southern Azerbaijani,^[23] and a large number of dialects. Turkic Khalaj,^[24] Qashqa'i,^[25] and Salchuq^[26] are considered by some^[20] to be separate languages in the Azerbaijani language group.

Despite their relatively large number, dialects of Azeri do not differ substantially. Speakers of various dialects normally do not have problems understanding each other. However, minor problems may occur between Azeri-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 Azeris 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 Azeri. 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)

Distribution of speakers

North Azeri variety

North Azeri^[29] is the official language of Azerbaijan. It is spoken in: Azerbaijan, and southern Dagestan, along the Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains. Also spoken in Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia (Asia), Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

South Azeri variety

South Azeri^[30] is spoken in Iran. Iranian Azeris often call it Türki.^[31] Specifically 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. Furthermore, some Azeri-speaking groups live in Fars Province and other parts of Iran. Most of the sources have reported the percentage of Azerbaijani-Turkic-speakers at around 19-20 percent of the Iranian population.^[32] South Azeri is also spoken in parts of Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, and Asian Turkey.

Phonology

Consonants

1. /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ are realised as [t͡s] and [d͡z] 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;^[33]
2. In the 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 [tʃøˈɾæç] - "bread"; səksən [sæçˈsæn] - "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 [oʷ], and /ev/ and /øv/ as [øw], e.g. /ɡovurˈmɑ/ → [ɡowurˈmɑ], /sevˈdɑ/ → [søwˈdɑ], /døvˈrɑn/ → [døwˈrɑn]
6. In the colloquial language, /x/ is usually pronounced as /χ/

Vowels

Vowel phonemes of Standard Azerbaijani

Alphabets

In Azerbaijan, North Azeri now officially uses the Latin alphabet, but the Cyrillic script is also in wide use, while in Iran, South Azeri uses the Perso-Arabic script. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets for North Azeri (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 Azeri (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 Azeri 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 Azeri magazine published in Iran, uses the term Türki ("Turkish" in English or "Torki" in Persian) to refer to the Azeri language. South Azeri 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 Azeri to be a dialect of a greater Turkish language and call it Azərbaycan Türkcəsi ("Azerbaijan Turkish"), and scholars such as Vladimir Minorsky used this definition in their works. ISO encodes its two varieties, North Azeri and South Azeri, as distinct languages. According to the Linguasphere Observatory, all Oghuz languages form part of a single "outer language" of which North and South Azeri 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

External links

• 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
• 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