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Azerbaijani language
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Azerbaijani (also Azeri, Azari, Azeri Turkic, Azerbaijani Turkic) is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran. Azeri is member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages and is closely related to Turkish.
For the languages spoken in Azerbaijan before the Turks' arrival, see:
The Azeri language of today evolved from the Eastern Oghuz dialect of Western (Oghuz) Turkic which spread to Southwestern Asia during medieval Turkic migrations, and was heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic.
It gradually supplanted the previous Iranian languages—Tat, Azari, and Middle Persian in northern Iran, and a variety of Caucasian languages in the Caucasus, particularly Udi, and had become the dominant language before the time of the Safavid dynasty; however, minorities in both the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran continue to speak the earlier Iranian languages to this day, and Middle- and New Persian loanwords are numerous in Azeri.
The historical development of Azeri can be divided into two major periods: early (ca.
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Encyclopedia
Azerbaijani (also Azeri, Azari, Azeri Turkic, Azerbaijani Turkic) is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran. Azeri is member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages and is closely related to Turkish.
History and evolution
- For the languages spoken in Azerbaijan before the Turks' arrival, see:
The Azeri language of today evolved from the Eastern Oghuz dialect of Western (Oghuz) Turkic which spread to Southwestern Asia during medieval Turkic migrations, and was heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic.
It gradually supplanted the previous Iranian languages—Tat, Azari, and Middle Persian in northern Iran, and a variety of Caucasian languages in the Caucasus, particularly Udi, and had become the dominant language before the time of the Safavid dynasty; however, minorities in both the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran continue to speak the earlier Iranian languages to this day, and Middle- and New Persian loanwords are numerous in Azeri.
The historical development of Azeri can be divided into two major periods: early (ca. 16th to 18th century) and modern (18th century to present). Old Azeri differs from its descendant in that it contained a much greater amount of Persian, and Arabic loanwords, phrases and syntactic elements. Early writings in Azeri also demonstrate lingustic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects (such as pronouns, case endings, participles, etc.). As Azeri 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, bulky Iranisms and Ottomanisms, and other words, expressions, and rules that failed to gain popularity among Azeri-speaking masses.
Between ca. 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 semiliterate 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 - 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 Azeri during the Soviet era, it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1978 (along with Georgian in Georgia and Armenian in Armenia). After independence, the Republic of Azerbaijan decided to switch again to the Latin script, following the Turkish model.
Literature
Classical literature in Azeri was formed in 14th century based on the Tabrizi and Shirvani dialects (these dialects were used by classical Azeri writers Nasimi, Fuzuli, and Khatai). Modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect only, while in Iran it is based on the Tabrizi one. The first newspaper in Azeri, kinçi 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.
Famous literary works in Azeri are the Book of Dada Gorgud, the Epic of Köroglu, translation of Layla and Majnun (Dâstân-i Leylî vü Mecnûn), and Heydar Babaya Salam. Important poets and writers of the Azeri language include Imadeddin Nasimi, Muhammed Fuzuli, Hasanoglu Izeddin, Shah Ismail I, Khurshidbanu Natavan, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Mirza Alakbar Sabir, Bakhtiyar Vahabzade, and Mohammad Hossein Shahriar.
Azeri as a lingua franca
Azeri served as a lingua franca throughout most parts of Transcaucasia (except the Black Sea coast), in Southern Dagestan, Turkish Armenia, Kurdistan and Northern Persia from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century.
Varieties and dialects
Azeri, formally Azerbaijani, is divided into two varieties, North Azerbaijani and South 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 class.
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 firq? ("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)
The denoted dialects were traditionally spoken in the given area until recent times. As a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict virtually all Azeris fled Armenia by 1991, which is why Azeri is no longer spoken there.
Distribution of speakers
North Azeri variety
North Azeri is the official language of the Republic 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 is spoken in Iran. Iranian Azeris often call it Türki , Türki Azari or Azari. Specifically it is spoken in East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan,and parts of Kordestan, Hamedan, Qazvin, Markazi and Gilan provinces. It is spoken in many districts of Tehran. Some Azeri-speaking groups are in Fars Province and other parts of Iran. Most of the sources have reported the percentage of Azerbaijani-Turkic-speakers at around 16-24 percent of the Iranian population. South Azeri is also spoken in parts of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, and Asian Turkey.
Phonology
Consonants
- and 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;
- In many dialects of Azeri, is realized as when it is found in the coda position or is preceded by a voiceless consonant (as in çör?k - "bread"; s?ks?n - "eighty").
- appears only in words borrowed from Russian or French (spelled, as with , with a k).
- exists in the Kirkuk dialect as an allophone of in Arabic loanwords.
- In the Baku dialect, may be realised as , and and as , e.g. ? , ? , ?
Vowels
Alphabets
In the Republic of Azerbaijan, North Azeri now officially uses the Latin alphabet, but the Cyrillic alphabet 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):
| Aa | ?? | ? ? | | ?? | ?? | ? ? | | Bb | ?? | ? | | Cc | ?? | ? | | Çç | ?? | ? | | Dd | ?? | ? | | Ee | ?? | ? | | Ff | ?? | ? |
| | Gg | ?? | ? | | Gg | ?? | ? | | Hh | ?h | ? ? | | Xx | ?? | ? | | Ii | ?? | ? | | Ii | ?? | ? | | Jj | ?? | ? | | Kk | ?? | ? |
| | Qq | ?? | ? | | Ll | ?? | ? | | Mm | ?? | ? | | Nn | ?? | ? | | Oo | ?? | ? | | Öö | ?? | ? | | Pp | ?? | ? | | Rr | ?? | ? |
| | Ss | ?? | ? ? ? | | Ss | ?? | ? | | Tt | ?? | ? ? | | Uu | ?? | ? | | Üü | ?? | ? | | Vv | ?? | ? | | Yy | ?? | ? | | Zz | ?? | ? ? ? ? |
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Before 1929, Azeri was only written 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 alphabet 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 "Bus", and "Schröder" becomes "Sröder".
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, Az?rbaycan dili ("Azerbaijani"), has been re-established and reflected in the Constitution. Varliq, 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 Istambuli 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 Az?rbaycan Türkc?si ("Azerbaijani Turkish"), and scholars such as Vladimir Minorsky used this definition in their works. ISO and the Unicode Consortium, call the macrolanguage "Azeri" and its two varieties "North Azeri" and "South Azeri". According to the Linguasphere Observatory, all Oghuz languages form part of a single 'outer language' of which "Azeri-N." and "Azeri-S." are 'inner languages'.
See also
External links
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