Old Azeri

This article is about the Iranian language of Azerbaijan. For the Turkic language of Azerbaijan, see Azerbaijani language.
Old Azeri
Azeri/Azari
آذری Āzarī
Native toIran
RegionIranian Azerbaijan
Era700s–1600s CE
Persian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologadha1238
A page from the travelogue of Evliya Çelebi, the Ottoman world traveler, which deals with the spread of the Azeri language among the women of Maragheh city in the 10th century AH.

Old Azeri (also spelled Adhari, Azeri or Azari) is the extinct Iranian language that was once spoken in the northwestern Iranian historic region of Azerbaijan (Iranian Azerbaijan) before the Turkification of the region. Some linguists believe the southern Tati varieties of Iranian Azerbaijan around Takestan such as the Harzandi and Karingani dialects to be remnants of Old Azeri.[1][2][3] Along with Tat dialects, Old Azeri is known to have strong affinities with Talysh and Zaza language and Zaza and Talysh are considered to be remnants of old Azeri.[4][5] Iranologist linguist W. B Henning demonstrated that Harzandi has many common linguistic features with both Talysh and Zaza and positioned Harzandi between the Talysh and Zaza.[5]

Old Azeri was the dominant language in Azerbaijan before it was replaced by Azerbaijani, which is a Turkic language.[3]

  1. ^ Paul, Ludwig (1998a). "The position of Zazaki among West Iranian languages" in Melville (1999). Charles Melville (ed.). Proceedings of the Third European Conference of Iranian Studies: Mediaeval and modern Persian studies. Reichert. ISBN 978-3-89500-104-8.
  2. ^ Dalby, Andrew (1998). Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More Than 400 Languages. Columbia University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-231-11568-1., p. 496.
  3. ^ a b Yarshater 1988, pp. 238–245.
  4. ^ "Northwestern/Adharic/Zaza". Glottolog. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  5. ^ a b Henning, Walter Bruno (1955). The Ancient Language of Azerbaijan. Austin & Sons. pp. 174–175.