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Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic languages|Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan (Iran)|northwestern Iran. Azerbaijani is member of the Oghuz languages|Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages and is related to Turkish language|Turkish, Qashqai language|Qashqai and Turkmen language|Turkmen.

History and evolution

The Azerbaijani language of today evolved from the Eastern Oghuz dialect of Western (Oghuz language|Oghuz) Turkic"The Turkic Languages" Osman Fikri Sertkaya, in "Turks - A Journey of a Thousand Years", London, 2005. which spread to Southwestern Asia during medieval Turkic migrations, and was heavily influenced by Persian language|Persian.L. Johanson, "Azerbaijan: Iranian Elements in Azerbaijan language" in Encycoopedia Iranica http://www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc?Article=http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/v3f2/v3f2a088.html Arabic language|Arabic also influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary New Persian.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, contingous Iranic, Turkic and Indic languages was originally borrowed into literary Persian between the ninth and thirteenth century" It gradually supplanted the previous Iranian languages in northern Iran (most notably the Tat language|Tat, Ancient Azari language|Azari, and Middle Persian dialects), and a variety of Caucasian languages in the Caucasus, particularly Udi language|Udi. By the end of the 17th century, it had become the dominant language of the region, and was an official court language of the Safavid dynasty|Safavid Empire. However, minorities in both Azerbaijan and Iran continue to speak the earlier Iranian languages to this day, and Middle- and New Persian loanwords are numerous in Azerbaijan language. The historical development of Azerbaijani 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 language|Persian, and Arabic language|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 poetry|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 Azerbaijani-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 language|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 alphabet|Latin and then to Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic - while Iranian Azeris continued to use the Perso-Arabic script as they always had. Despite the wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan region during the Soviet era, it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1978. 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, ''Akinchi|Əkinçi'' was published in 1875. In mid-19th century it was taught in the schools of Baku, Ganja (city)|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 Dede Korkut|Book of Dada Gorgud, Asli and Kerem, the Epic of Köroğlu, and others. Important poets and writers of Azerbaijani include
- Imadaddin Nasimi
- Muhammed Fuzuli
- Shah Ismail I|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 DagestanPieter Muysken, "Introduction: Conceptual and methodological issues in areal linguistics", in Pieter Muysken, ''From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics'', 2008 ISBN 9027231001, p. 30-31 http://books.google.com/books?id=n9p4rl09ec0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=azeri+lingua+franca&ei=8voWSYynLJWszASRneW3Ag#PPA30,M1Viacheslav A. Chirikba, "The problem of the Caucasian Sprachbund" in Muysken, p. 74Lenore A. Grenoble, Language Policy in the Soviet Union, 2003 ISBN 1402012985,p. 131 http://books.google.com/books?id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC&pg=PA127&dq=azeri+lingua+franca&ei=7fwWSf3mNY3IMtCxtOcN#PPA131,M1, Eastern Turkey, and Iranian Azerbaijan from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century.Nasledie Chingiskhana by Nikolai Trubetzkoy. Agraf, 1999; p. 478J. N. Postgate. Languages of Iraq. British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007; ISBN 090347221X; p. 164

Varieties and dialects

Azeri, formally Azerbaijani"Language Family Trees: Altaic, Turkic, Southern, Azerbaijani" EthnologueISO 639-3 aze "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: aze" SIL International, is divided into two varieties, North AzerbaijaniISO 639-3 azj "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: azj" SIL International and South Azerbaijani,ISO 639-3 azb "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: azb" SIL International and a large number of dialects. Khalaj language|Turkic KhalajISO 639-3 klj "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: klj" SIL International, Qashqai language|Qashqa'iISO 639-3 qxq "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: qxq" SIL International, and Salchuq language|SalchuqISO 639-3 slq "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: slq" SIL International are considered by some to be separate languages in the Azerbaijani language group. [[File:South Azeri Turks (in Iran) uses the Arabic script.jpg|thumb|250px|South Azerbaijan people|Azeri Turks uses the Arabic script.http://www.anl.az/sh002e3.php(Mirza Mahammad Taghi "QUMRİ" 1819-1891http://www.anl.az/el/k/k002/mmt001.htm)]] [[File:Ana Dili.JPG|thumb|200px|The monument for the Native (Azerbaijani) language in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan]] 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 Province|Zanjan, Iran)

Distribution of speakers

North Azeri variety

North Azeri "Azerbaijani, North - A language of Azerbaijan" Ethnologue, accessed 8 December 2008 is the official language of Azerbaijan. It is spoken in: Azerbaijan, and southern Dagestan, along the Caspian Sea|Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains. Also spoken in Armenia, Estonia, Georgia (country)|Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia (Asia), Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

South Azeri variety

South Azeri"Azerbaijani, South - A language of Iran" Ethnologue, accessed 8 December 2008 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 Province|Zanjan,and parts of Kordestan, Hamedan, Qazvin, Markazi and Gilan provinces. It is spoken in many districts of Tehran city and across Tehran Province. 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.N. Ghanea-Hercock, Ethnic and religious groups in the Islamic Republic of Iran. London: University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 2003, p. 6 South Azeri is also spoken in parts of Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, and Asian Turkey.