Azerbaijani, North

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A language of Azerbaijan

ISO 639-3
azj
Alternate Names
Azerbaijan, Azerbaydzhani, Azeri, Azeri Turk
Autonym
Azərbaycan dili, Azərbaycanca
Population

8,250,000 in Azerbaijan (2011 UNSD). 4,000,000 monolinguals. Total users in all countries: 9,197,760.

Language Maps
Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (1995, Constitution, Article 21(1)).

Classification
Turkic, Southern, Azerbaijani
Dialects

Quba, Derbend, Baku, Shamakhi, Salyan, Lenkaran, Qazakh, Airym, Borcala, Terekeme, Qyzylbash, Nukha, Zaqatala (Mugaly), Qabala, Yerevan, Nakhchivan, Ordubad, Ganja, Shusha (Karabakh), Karapapak. Slight dialect differences. Qazakh dialect is not related to Kazakh [kaz]. Significant differences from South Azerbaijani [azb] in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and loanwords. A member of macrolanguage Azerbaijani [aze].

Typology

SOV; postpositions; no articles; case-marking (6 cases); verb affixes mark person, number; passives; tense; 24 consonant and 9 vowel phonemes; non-tonal; stress on final syllable; vowel harmony.

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: High. Taught as L2 in Russian language schools. Literature. Radio. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 1891–2004.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Azerbaijani, North
Writing

Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab], used until 1920s. Braille script [Brai]. Cyrillic script [Cyrl], widely used in Armenia. Latin script [Latn], official script in Azerbaijan since 1992.

Other Comments

North and South Azerbaijani are spoken by 1 ethnic group. Each language group is reluctant to accept the written form of the other. Muslim.

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