South Azerbaijani language
Encyclopedia
South Azerbaijani is a variety of the Azerbaijani language
spoken in northwestern Iran
and neighboring regions of Iraq
and Turkey
. Other communities exist in Afghanistan and Syria. Dialects include Aynallu, Karapapakh, Tabriz, Afshari, Shahsavani, Moqaddam, Baharlu, Nafar, Qaragozlu, Pichagchi, Bayat, Qajar. An Arabic script is used to write South Azerbaijani. South Azerbaijani is influenced by the Persian language
. While there is a fair degree of mutual intelligibility between South Azerbaijani and North Azerbaijani
, there are also morphological and phonological differences between the two varieties, so much so that Ethnologue
considers them to be distinct languages.
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
spoken in northwestern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and neighboring regions of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Other communities exist in Afghanistan and Syria. Dialects include Aynallu, Karapapakh, Tabriz, Afshari, Shahsavani, Moqaddam, Baharlu, Nafar, Qaragozlu, Pichagchi, Bayat, Qajar. An Arabic script is used to write South Azerbaijani. South Azerbaijani is influenced by the Persian language
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. While there is a fair degree of mutual intelligibility between South Azerbaijani and North Azerbaijani
North Azerbaijani language
North Azerbaijani is a variety of the Azerbaijani language spoken in Azerbaijan and neighboring regions of the Caucasus. Expatriate communities exist in Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. There are reported to be some North Azerbaijani speakers...
, there are also morphological and phonological differences between the two varieties, so much so that Ethnologue
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
considers them to be distinct languages.
Further reading
- Sooman Noah Lee. 1996. "A Grammar of Iranian Azerbaijani," University of Sussex PhD dissertation.