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Ancient Azari language
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Azari, also spelled Adari, Adhari, is the name used for the Iranian language composed of groups of dialects which were spoken in Azerbaijan at one time. Some linguists have also designated the southern tati dialects of Azerbaijan like those spoken by the Tats around Khalkhal, Harzand and Keringan as a remnant of Azari.
It was the dominant language in Azerbaijan before it was replaced in many regions by the Azerbaijani language, which is a Turkic language.
Linguistic affiliation
Azari is believed to be a part of the dialect continuum of Northwest Iranian languages.
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Encyclopedia
Azari, also spelled Adari, Adhari, is the name used for the Iranian language composed of groups of dialects which were spoken in Azerbaijan at one time. Some linguists have also designated the southern tati dialects of Azerbaijan like those spoken by the Tats around Khalkhal, Harzand and Keringan as a remnant of Azari.
It was the dominant language in Azerbaijan before it was replaced in many regions by the Azerbaijani language, which is a Turkic language.
Linguistic affiliation
Azari is believed to be a part of the dialect continuum of Northwest Iranian languages. As such, its ancestor would be close to the earliest attested Northwest Iranian languages, Median. As the Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian languages had not yet developed very far apart by the first millennium AD, Azari would also still have been very similar to classical Middle Persian (also called Pahlavi).
Azari was spoken in most of Azarbaijan at least up to the 17th century, with the number of speakers decreasing since the 11th century due to the Turkification of the area. According to some accounts, it may have survived for several centuries after that up to the 16th or 17th century. Today, Iranian dialects are still spoken in several linguistic enclaves within Azarbaijan. While some scholars believe that these dialects form a direct continuation of the ancient Azari languages,, others have argued that they are likely to be a later import through migration from other parts of Iran, and that the original Azari dialects became extinct.
The name "Azari" is derived from the old Iranian name for the region of Azarbaijan. The same name for the region, in a Turkified form, was later adopted also to designate the modern Turkic language "Azeri".
According to Vladimir Minorsky, around the 9th-10th century
Professor Igrar Aliyev states that:
Professor. Ighrar Aliyev also mentions that the Arab historians Baladhuri, Masudi, Ibn Hawqal and Yaqut have mentioned this language by name. Medieval historians and scholars also record that the language of the region of Azarbaijan, as well as its people there, as Iranians who spoke Iranian languages. Among these writes are Al-Istakhri, Al-Masudi, Ibn al-Nadim, Hamzeh Esfahani, Ibn Hawqal, Al-Baladhuri, Moqaddasi, Yaghubi, Hamdallah Mostowfi, and Al-Khwarizmi.
According to Professor. Gilbert Lazard:
Historical attestations
Ebn al-Moqaffa’ (d. 142/759) is quoted by ibn Al-Nadim in his famous Al-Fihrist as stating that Azerbaijan, Nahavand, Rayy, Hamadan and Esfahan speak Fahlavi (Pahlavi) and collectively constitute the region of Fahlah. .
A very similar statement is given by the medieval historian Hamzeh Isfahani when talking about Sassanid Iran. Hamzeh Isfahani writes in the book Al-Tanbih ‘ala Hoduth alTashif that five “tongues” or dialects, were common in Sassanian Iran: Fahlavi, Dari, Persian, Khuzi and Soryani. Hamzeh (893-961 A.D.) explains these dialects in the following way:
Ibn Hawqal states:
It should be noted that Ibn Hawqal mentions that some areas of Armenia are controlled by Muslims and others by Christians.
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Al-Masudi (896-956), the Arab historian states:
Al-Moqaddasi(d. late 4th/10th cent.) considers Azerbaijan as part of the 8th division of lands. He states:“The languages of the 8th division is Iranian (al-‘ajamyya). It is partly partly Dari and partly convoluted (monqaleq) and all of them are named Persian”.
Al-Moqaddasi also writes on the general region of Armenia, Arran and Azerbaijan and states.:
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Ahmad ibn Yaqubi mentions that the People of Azerbaijan are a mixture of Azari 'Ajams ('Ajam is a term that developed to mean Iranian) and old Javedanis (followers of Javidan the son of Shahrak who was the leader of Khurramites and successed by Babak Khorramdin).
Zakarrya b. Mohammad Qazvini's report in Athar al-Bilad, composed in 674/1275, that “no town has escaped being taken over by the Turks except Tabriz” (Beirut ed., 1960, p. 339) one may infer that at least Tabriz had remained aloof from the influence of Turkish until the time.
From the time of the Mongol invasion, most of whose armies were composed of Turkic tribes, the influence of Turkish increased in the region. On ther hand, the old Iranian dialects remained prevalent in major cities. Hamdallah Mostawafi writing in the 1340s calls the language of Maraqa as “modified Pahlavi”(Pahlavi-ye Mughayyar). Mostowafi calls the language of Zanjan (Pahlavi-ye Raast). The language of Gushtaspi covering the Caspian border region between Gilan to Shirvan is called a Pahlavi language close to the language of Gilan.
Following the Islamic Conquest of Iran, Middle Persian, also known as Pahlavi, continued to be used until the 10th century when it was gradually replaced by a new breed of Persian language, most notably Dari. The Saffarid dynasty in particular was the first in a line of many dynasties to officially adopt the new language in 875 CE. Thus Dari, which contains many loanwords from its predecessors, is considered the continuation of Middle Persian which was prevalent in the early Islamic era of western Iran. The name Dari comes from the word which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished. (See Persian literature)
The Iranic dialect of Tabriz
The language of Tabriz, being an Iranian language, was not the standard Khurasani dari. Qatran Tabrizi(11th century) has an interesting couplet mentioning this fact:
There are extant words, phrases, sentences and poems attested in the old Iranic dialect of Tabriz in a variety of books and manuscripts.
Hamdullah Mustuwafi(14th century) mentions a sentence in the language of Tabriz
A Macaronic(mula'ma which is popular in Persian poetry where some verses are in one language and another in another language) poem from Homam Tabrizi where some verses are in Khorasani (Dari) Persian and others are in the dialect of Tabriz
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Another Ghazal from Homam Tabrizi where all the couplets except the last couplet is in Persian. The last couplet reads:
Another recent discovery by the name of Safina-yi Tabriz has given sentences from native of Tabriz in their peculiar Iranic dialect. The work was compiled during the Ilkhanid era. A sample expression of from the mystic Baba Faraj Tabrizi in the Safina:
The Safina (written in the Ilkhanid era) contains many poems and sentences from the old regional dialect of Azerbaijan. Another portion of the Safina contains a direct sentence in what the author has called as "Zaban-i-Tabriz"(dialect/language of Tabriz)
A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz (the author calls Zaban-i-Tabriz (dialect/language of Tabriz) recorded and also translated by Ibn Bazzaz Ardabili in the Safvat al-Safa
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A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz by Pir Zehtab Tabrizi addressing the Qara-qoyunlu ruler Eskandar:
The word Rood for son is still used in some Iranian dialects, specially the Larestani dialect and other dialects around Fars.
Four quatrains titled fahlavvviyat from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani (d. 677/1278-79); born in Kojjan or Korjan, a village near Tabriz, recorded by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi.
A sample of one of the four quatrains from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani
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Two qet'as (poems) quoted by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi in the dialect of Tabrz (d. 838/1434-35; II, p. 142).
A sample of one these poems
A Ghazal and fourteen quatrains under the title of fahlaviyat by the poet Maghrebi Tabrizi (d. 809/1406-7).
A text probably by Mama Esmat Tabrizi, a mystical woman-poet of Tabriz (d. 9th/15th cent.), which occurs in a manuscript, preserved in Turkey, concerning the shrines of saints in Tabriz.
A phrase “Buri Buri” which in Persian means Biya Biya or in English: Come! Come! is mentioned by Rumi from the mouth of Shams Tabrizi in this poem:
The word Buri is mentioned by Hussain Tabrizi Karbali with regards to the Shaykh Khwajah Abdur-rahim Azh-Abaadi as to "come":.
In the Harzandi Iranic dialect of Harzand in Azerbaijan as well as the Iranic Karingani dialect of Azerbaijan, both recorded in the 20th century, the two words “Biri” and “Burah” means to “come” and are of the same root
On the language of Maragheh
Hamdollah Mustawafi of the 13th century A.D. mentions the language of Maragheh as "Pahlavi Mughayr" (modified Pahlavi):
Interestingly enough, the 17th century A.D. Ottomon Turkish traveler Evliya Chelebi who traveled to Safavid Iran also states:
“The majority of the women in Maragheh converse in Pahlavi”.
Pre-Turkic Azari
The current Turkic Azeri language spoken in Azerbaijan replaced the old Pahlavi only by the beginning of the Safavid dynasty's rule in Persia. Earlier, many Turkic speaking nomads had chosen the green pastures of Azerbaijan, Aran and Shrivan for their settlement as early as the advent of the Seljuqs. However, they only filled in the pasturelands while the farmlands, villages and the cities remained Iranic in language. The linguistic conversion of Azerbaijan went hand in hand with the coversion of the Azeris into Shiism. By the late 1800s, the Turkification of Azerbaijan was near completion with the old Iranic speakers found solely in tiny isolated recesses of the mountains or other remote areas (such as Harzand, Galin Guya, Shahrud villages in Khalkhal and Anarjan).
Some Azari Words with other Iranian languages
rder="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="border:1px solid #aaa; border-collapse:collapse"
|- bgcolor="#ECECEC"
!Azari || Zazaki || Persian || Kurdish ||English
|--
| berz|| berz || boland || bilind || high
|--
| herz|| erz || hêl || hil || throw, allow
|--
| sor || ser || sal || sal || year
|--
| dêl || zerri || dêl || dil || heart
|--
| hre || hire || se || se || three
|--
| des || des || dah|| deh || ten
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Source: Paul, Ludwig. (1998) "The Position of Zazaki Among West Iranian languages."
See also
External links
- (includes research articles on Adhari)
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