Azerbaijani language

"Azeri language" redirects here. For the extinct Iranian language, see Old Azeri.

Azerbaijani
Azeri
Azərbaycan dili, آذربایجان دیلی, Азәрбајҹан дили[note 1]
Azerbaijani in Perso-Arabic Nastaliq (Iran), Latin (Azerbaijan), and Cyrillic (Russia).
Pronunciation[ɑːzæɾbɑjˈdʒɑn diˈli]
Native to
  • Azerbaijan
    • Iran
  • Russia
  • Turkey
  • Iraq[a]
  • Georgia
RegionIranian Azerbaijan, South Caucasus
EthnicityAzerbaijanis
Native speakers
24 million (2022)[2]
Turkic
Early forms
Standard forms
  • Shirvani (For North Azerbaijani variety in Republic of Azerbaijan)
  • Tabrizi (For South Azerbaijani variety in Iranian Azerbaijan)
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
Azerbaijan
Dagestan (Russia)
Organization of Turkic States
Regulated by
Language codes
ISO 639-1az
ISO 639-2aze
ISO 639-3aze – inclusive code
Individual codes:
azj – North Azerbaijani
azb – South Azerbaijani
Glottologazer1255  Central Oghuz
Linguaspherepart of 44-AAB-a
Areas that speak Azerbaijani
  The majority speak Azerbaijani
  A sizable minority speaks Azerbaijani
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Azerbaijani (/ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒæni, -ɑːni/ AZ-ər-by-JAN-ee) or Azeri (/æˈzɛəri, ɑː-, ə-/ az-AIR-ee, ah-, ə-), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish, is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan, where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, while Iranian Azerbaijanis in the Azerbaijan region of Iran, speak the South Azerbaijani variety. Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan (a federal subject of Russia), but it does not have official status in Iran, where the majority of Iranian Azerbaijani people live. Azerbaijani is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe and North America.

Although there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and sources of loanwords. The standardized form of North Azerbaijani (spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) is based on the Shirvani dialect, while South Azerbaijani uses variety of regional dialects. Since the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Northern Azerbaijani has used the Latin script. On the other hand, South Azerbaijani has always used and continues to use the Perso-Arabic script.

Azerbaijani is closely related to Turkmen, Turkish, Gagauz, and Qashqai, being mutually intelligible with each of these languages to varying degrees.


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  1. ^ Bulut, Christiane (2018b). "The Turkic varieties of Iran". In Haig, Geoffrey; Khan, Geoffrey (eds.). The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia: An Areal Perspective. Walter de Gruyter. p. 398. ISBN 978-3-11-042168-2.
  2. ^ Azerbaijani language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  3. ^ a b "Azerbaijani, North". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ethnologue 22 AZB was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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