Languages of Azerbaijan

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Languages of Azerbaijan
Street sign about the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan 02.jpg
Sign about the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijani
Official Azerbaijani
Minority Lezgian, Talysh, Avar, Russian, Tat, Tsakhur, Khinalug, Turkish
Foreign English, Russian, Turkish
Signed Azerbaijani Sign Language
Keyboard layout

Azerbaijani is the sole official language of Azerbaijan and is spoken by the majority of its population. However, several minority languages also exist in the country, including Lezgian, Talysh, Avar, Russian, and Tat. Additionally, languages such as Tsakhur and Khinalug are spoken by a small percentage of the population.

Contents

General

Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (2024, after the collapse of the breakaway Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in 2023). Azerbaijan ethnic map 2024.png
Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (2024, after the collapse of the breakaway Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in 2023).
Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (1994-2020, after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and before the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War). Azerbaijan ethnic map 1994-2020.png
Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (1994-2020, after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and before the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War).

The primary and official language of Azerbaijan is Azerbaijani, [1] [2] a Turkic language closely related to and partially mutually intelligible with Modern Turkish. [3] Together with Turkish, Turkmen and Gagauz, Azerbaijani is a member of Oghuz branch of southwestern group Turkic language family. [4]

Present

According to the 2009 census of the country, Azerbaijani is spoken as a native language by 92.5% of the population, [5] whereas Russian and English play significant roles as languages of education and communication. More than half of Azerbaijani speakers are monolingual. [4] Lezgian, Talysh, Avar, Georgian, Budukh, [6] Juhuri, [6] Khinalug, [6] Kryts, [6] Jek, [7] Rutul, [6] Tsakhur, [6] Tat, [6] and Udi [6] are all spoken by minorities. All these [8] (with the exception of Armenian, Lezgian, Talysh, Avar, and Georgian, which have a much larger number of speakers outside Azerbaijan, but nevertheless are steadily declining within Azerbaijan) above-mentioned languages are endangered languages which are threatened with extinction, as they are spoken by few (less than 10,000) or very few (less than 1,000) people and their usage is steadily declining with emigration and modernization.

According to 2019 research, English language proficiency in Azerbaijan was the lowest among surveyed European countries. [9]

An entire issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, edited by Jala Garibova, was devoted to the matter of languages and language choices in Azerbaijan, vol. 198 in 2009. [10]

Azerbaijan has not ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages to which it became a signatory in 1992, under the Popular Front. In 2001, the then President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev issued a statement whereby "the Republic of Azerbaijan is not in the power to guarantee the implementation of the Charter regulations until its territory occupied by the Republic of Armenia is liberated". [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northeast Caucasian languages</span> Language family

The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or Vainakh-Daghestani, or sometimes Caspian languages, is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in Georgia and diaspora populations in Western Europe and the Middle East. According to Glottolog, there are currently 36 Nakh-Dagestanian languages.

Articles related to the Azerbaijan Republic include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lezgins</span> Ethnic group in Dagestan (Russia) and Azerbaijan

Lezgins are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group native predominantly to southern Dagestan, a republic of Russia, and northeastern Azerbaijan, and speak the Lezgin language. Their social structure is firmly based on equality and deference to individuality. Lezgin society is structured around djamaat and has traditionally been egalitarian and organised around many autonomous local clans, called syhils (сихилар).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of the Caucasus</span> Diverse languages between the Black and Caspian seas

The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talysh people</span> Iranian ethnic group

The Talysh people or Talyshis, Talyshes, Talyshs, Talishis, Talishes, Talishs, Talesh are an Iranian ethnic group, with the majority residing in Azerbaijan and a minority in Iran. They are the indigenous people of the Talish, a region on the western shore of the Caspian Sea shared between Azerbaijan and Iran. The main city of the Talysh people and their homeland is Lankaran, the majority of the population of which is ethnically Talysh. They speak the Talysh language, one of the Northwestern Iranian languages. The majority of Talyshis are Shiite Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tat language (Caucasus)</span> Southwestern Iranian language of Azerbaijan and Russia

Tat, also known as Caucasian Persian, Tat/Tati Persian, or Caucasian Tat, is a Southwestern Iranian language closely related to, but not fully mutually intelligible with Persian and spoken by the Tats in Azerbaijan and Russia. There is also an Iranian language called Judeo-Tat spoken by Mountain Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Tat</span> Persian-derived Jewish language of the eastern Caucasus

Judeo-Tat or Juhuri is a Judeo-Persian dialect of the Tat language historically spoken by the Mountain Jews, primarily in Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and today in Israel. It belongs to the southwestern group of the Iranian division of the Indo-European languages with heavy influence from the Hebrew language. In the era of Soviet historiography, the Mountain Jews were mistakenly considered to be related to the Muslim Tats of Azerbaijan. However, they do not share a common linguistic heritage, as the Mountain Jews kept their native language, while the Muslim Tats eventually adopted contemporary Persian. The words Juvuri and Juvuro translate as "Jewish" and "Jews".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic groups in the Caucasus</span> Diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups

The peoples of the Caucasus, or Caucasians, are a diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talysh language</span> Iranic language spoken in Northwestern Iran and Southeastern Azerbaijan

Talysh is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan by around 500,000-800,000 people. Talysh language is closely related to the Tati language. It includes many dialects usually divided into three main clusters: Northern, Central (Iran) and Southern (Iran). Talysh is partially, but not fully, intelligible with Persian. Talysh is classified as "vulnerable" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsakhur people</span> Lezgin sub-ethnic group

The Tsakhur or Saxur people are a Lezgin sub-ethnic group of northern Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan (Russia). The group numbers around 30,000 people and are called yiqy, but are generally known by the name Tsakhur, which derives from the name of a Dagestani village, where they make up the majority.

The Azerbaijani people are a Turkic ethnic group of mixed ethnic origins, primarily the indigenous peoples of eastern Transcaucasia, the Medians, an ancient Iranian people, and the Oghuz Turkic tribes that began migrating to Azerbaijan in the 11th century CE. Modern Azerbaijanis are the second most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic peoples after Anatolian Turks and speak North Azerbaijani and/or South Azerbaijani. Both languages also have dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects.

Azerbaijanis in Russia or Russian Azerbaijanis are people of Azeri descent in Russia. These may be either ethnic Azeris residents in the country or recent immigrants who profess Azeri ancestry.

Tsakhur is a Lezgic language spoken by the Tsakhurs in northern Azerbaijan and southwestern Dagestan (Russia). It is spoken by about 11,700 people in Azerbaijan and by about 10,600 people in Russia. The word Tsakhur derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan</span>

This article focuses on ethnic minorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khinalug language</span> Northeast Caucasian language

Khinalug (also spelled Khinalig, Khinalugi, Xinalug(h), Xinaliq or Khinalugh) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 3,000 people in the villages of Khinalug and Gülüstan, Quba in the mountains of Quba Rayon, northern Azerbaijan. It forms its own independent branch within the Northeast Caucasian language family.

The majority of the population of Iran consists of Iranic peoples. The largest groups in this category include Persians and Kurds, with smaller communities including Gilakis, Mazandaranis, Lurs, Tats, Talysh, and Baloch.

The Intercontinental Dictionary Series is a large database of topical vocabulary lists in various world languages. The general editor of the database is Bernard Comrie of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig. Mary Ritchie Key of the University of California, Irvine is the founding editor. The database has an especially large selection of indigenous South American languages and Northeast Caucasian languages.

Azerbaijan has had a deliberate policy of forced assimilation of ethnic minorities since Soviet times and up to the present. Non-Turkic peoples, such as Talyshis, Lezgins, Tats and others have been subjected to forced Azerbaijanization (Turkification).

References

  1. "Azerbaijan". www.ethnologue.com. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  2. "Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan" (PDF). President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Official Website of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  3. Sinor, Denis (1969). Inner Asia. History-Civilization-Languages. A syllabus. Bloomington. pp. 71–96. ISBN   0-87750-081-9.
  4. 1 2 Keith, Brown; Ogilvie, Sarah (2008). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World 1st Edition. Elsevier Science. p. 110. ISBN   9780080877754.
  5. "UNdata | record view | Population by language, sex and urban/rural residence". Data.un.org. 2015-12-24. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Published in: Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. Edited by Christopher Moseley. London & New York: Routledge, 2007. 211–280".
  7. "Н. МАРР : "Яфетические языки", Большая сов. энциклопедия, 1-е изд., т. 65, Москва : Сов. Энц., 1931, стр. 841". Archived from the original on October 28, 2012.
  8. "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". UNESCO.
  9. "EF EPI 2019 – Europe". www.ef.com. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
  10. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Volume 2009, Issue 198 (Jul 2009), http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ijsl.2009.2009.issue-198/issue-files/ijsl.2009.2009.issue-198.xml
  11. Azərbaycan Respublikasının Regional dillər və ya azlıqların dilləri haqqında Avropa Xartiyasına dair bəyanatı. 20 December 2001. Retrieved 17 February 2017.

Further reading