| Languages of Azerbaijan | |
|---|---|
 Sign about theCOVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijani | |
| Official | Azerbaijani |
| Minority | Lezgian,Talysh,Avar,Russian,Tat,Tsakhur,Khinalug,Turkish |
| Foreign | English,Russian,Turkish |
| Signed | Azerbaijani Sign Language |
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Azerbaijani is the sole official language ofAzerbaijan and is spoken by the majority of its population. However, several minority languages also exist in the country, includingLezgian,Talysh,Avar,Russian, andTat. Additionally, languages such asTsakhur andKhinalug are spoken by a small percentage of the population.
The primary and official language of Azerbaijan isAzerbaijani,[1][2] aTurkic language closely related to and partiallymutually intelligible withTurkish.[3] Together with Turkish,Turkmen andGagauz, Azerbaijani is a member of theOghuz branch of theTurkic languages family.[4]
According to the 2019 census of the country, Azerbaijani is spoken as a native language by 96% of the population,[5] whereasRussian andEnglish 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] andUdi[6] are all spoken by minorities. All the aforementioned languages[8] (except Lezgian, Talysh, Avar, and Georgian, which have far larger numbers of speakers outside Azerbaijan but steadily declining numbers within the country) are consideredendangered languages. They are threatened with extinction, as they have few (below 10,000) or very few (below 1,000) speakers and their use continues to decline with emigration and modernization.
According to 2019 research,English language proficiency in Azerbaijan was the lowest among the European countries surveyed.[9]
An entire issue oftheInternational 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 theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages to which it became a signatory in 1992, under thePopular Front. In 2001, the then President of AzerbaijanHeydar 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]
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