Azerbaijani is the primary & official language of Azerbaijan. It is also the primary language in northwestern Iran, and is also spoken to a small extent in southern Dagestan (Russia), the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, and eastern Turkey. It is a Turkic language, and is to an extent mutually intelligible with Turkish.
A Language of Many Scripts
The Persian-Arabic alphabet was used amongst all Azerbaijani speakers until 1922, when the Latin alphabet was adopted (slightly different from the current one in use). In 1939, Stalin sought to cut ties between Azerbaijanis (a Turkic peoples) and Turkey and use of the Latin alphabet was forbidden thereafter under Soviet rule. In Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani language has been written in the Latin alphabet since 1991, although use of cyrillic was permitted until 2002. In Iran, the Persian-Arabic alphabet , with a few letters created especially for Azerbaijani, has remained in use; however, there is no standard for written Azerbaijani in terms of spelling.
Azerbaijani is written in the Latin alphabet by its seven million native speakers in Azerbaijan and the souther Caucasus. Azerbaijani is written in Persian-Arabic alphabet by its estimated 24 million speakers in Iran, Iraq, & Turkey. Be careful as many latin letters are pronounced differently than they are in English and a few letters share the same sound in the Persian-Arabic script!
The following letters are in Latin (Azerbaijan since 1991) & Arabic (Iran; Azerbaijan until 1922).
Aa ﺍ
- pronounced like soft 'a' father.
Bb ﺏ
- pronounced like 'b'.
Cc ﺝ
- pronounced like 'J' in Japan.
Çç چ
- pronounced like 'ch' in chat..
Dd ﺩ
- pronounced like 'd'.
Ee ﻩ
- pronounced like soft 'e' in Embassy.
Əə ع
- pronounced like 'a' in fat. (This letter was represented by Ää from 1991-1992)
Ff ﻑ
- pronounced like 'f'.
Gg گ
- pronounced like 'g' in goal. More like g' , while Xx is English g.
Ğğ ﻍ
- pronounced like
Hh ﺡ / ﻩ
- pronounced like 'h'.
Xx ﺥ
- pronounced like 'c' (or 'kh') in cartoon. More like a soft kh, while Kk is a hard k.
Iı ی
- pronounced like hard 'i' in time.
İi ی
- pronounced like soft 'i' in it.
Jj ژ
- pronounced like 'j' (or 'zh') in déjà vu.
Kk ک
- pronounced like 'k'.
Qq ﻕ
- pronounced like 'g'
Ll ﻝ
- pronounced like 'l'
Mm ﻡ
- pronounced like 'm'.
Nn ﻥ
- pronounced like 'n'.
Oo ﻭ
- pronounced like first 'o' in October.
Öö ﻭ
- pronounced like second 'o' in October.
Pp پ
- pronounced like 'p'.
Rr ﺭ
- pronounced like 'r'.
Ss ﺙ / ﺱ / ﺹ
- pronounced like 's' in sizzle.
Şş ﺵ
- pronounced like 'sh' in shape.
Tt ﺕ / ﻁ
- pronounced like 't'.
Uu ﻭ
- pronounced like 'u' in put.
Üü ﻭ
- pronounced like 'u' (or 'yu') in mute.
Vv ﻭ
- pronounced like 'v'.
Yy ی
- pronounced like 'y' in year.
Zz ﺫ / ﺯ / ﺽ / ﻅ
- pronounced like 'z' in zebra.
Vowels
There are 9 vowels: a, ı, o, u, e, ə, i, ö, ü
Phrase list
I love Baku/Azerbaijan
Mən Bakını/Azərbaycanı sevirəm
Visiting Baku/Azerbaijan is my dream
Bakını/Azərbaycanı görmək mənim arzumdur
