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TheAzerbaijani alphabet[a] has three versions which includes theArabic,Latin, andCyrillic alphabets.
North Azerbaijani, the main variety spoken in theRepublic of Azerbaijan, is written in theLatin script. After the fall of theSoviet Union, this superseded previous versions based on theCyrillic andArabic scripts.
South Azerbaijani, the language spoken in Iran'sAzerbaijan region, is written in a modified Arabic script sinceSafavid Empire.[1]
Azerbaijanis ofDagestan still use theCyrillic script.[2][3]
| Azerbaijani Latin alphabet Latın qrafikalı Azərbaycan əlifbası | |
|---|---|
| Script type | |
Period | 1991 – present |
| Languages | Azerbaijani |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
| Unicode | |
| subset ofLatin (U+0000...U+02AF) | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet consists of 32 letters.
| Majuscule forms (uppercase/capital letters) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | Ç | D | E | Ə | F | G | Ğ | H | X | I | İ | J | K |
| Q | L | M | N | O | Ö | P | R | S | Ş | T | U | Ü | V | Y | Z |
| Minuscule forms (lowercase/small letters) | |||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | ç | d | e | ə | f | g | ğ | h | x | ı | i | j | k |
| q | l | m | n | o | ö | p | r | s | ş | t | u | ü | v | y | z |
| Names[4] | |||||||||||||||
| a | be | ce | çe | de | e | ə | fe | ge | ğe | he | xe | ı | i | je | ke |
| qe | el | em | en | o | ö | pe | er | se | şe | te | u | ü | ve | ye | ze |

From the nineteenth century there were efforts by some intellectuals likeMirza Fatali Akhundov andMammad agha Shahtakhtinski to replace the Arabic script and create a Latin alphabet for Azerbaijani. In 1922, a Latin alphabet was created bySoviet Union sponsoredYeni türk əlifba komitəsi (New Turkic Alphabet Committee;Јени түрк əлифба комитəси) inBaku which hoped that the new alphabet would divide the Azerbaijanis in the USSR from those living in Iran.[5]
An additional reason for the Soviet regime's encouragement of a non-Arabic script was that they hoped the transition would work towards secularizing Azerbaijan's Muslim culture and since language script reform, proposed as early as the 19th century by Azerbaijani intellectuals (e.g.Mirza Fatali Akhundov), had previously been rejected by the Azerbaijani religious establishment on the grounds that Arabic script, the language of theKoran, was "holy and should not be tampered with.[6]
There was some historical basis for the reform which received overwhelming support at the First Turkology Congress in Baku during 1926[7] where the reform was voted for 101 to 7. The Azerbaijani poetSamad Vurgun declared "Azerbaijani people are proud of being the first among Oriental nations that buried the Arabic alphabet and adopted the Latin alphabet. This event is written in golden letters of our history"[8]As a result, in the Soviet Union in 1926 theUniform Turkic Alphabet was introduced to replace the varieties of theArabic script in use at the time.[9] From 1922 to 1929, both Arabic and Latin scripts were used in Soviet Azerbaijani editions; in 1929, the Latin script was finally chosen. In 1933, the Azerbaijani Latin alphabet was reformed to match alphabets of other Soviet Turkic languages.[10] The reform changed glyphs for some letters and phonetic values for some other letters. In 1939Joseph Stalin ordered that the Azerbaijani Latin script used in the USSR again be changed, this time to the Cyrillic script[11] in order to sever the Soviet Azerbaijani Turks' ties with theTurkish people in the Republic ofTurkey.[5]
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Azerbaijan gained its independence, one of the first laws passed in the new Parliament was the adoption of a new Latin-script alphabet. The period from 1991 to 2001 was declared the transitional period, when both Latin and Cyrillic alphabet were accepted. Since 2001, the Azerbaijani Latin alphabet is the official alphabet of the Azerbaijani language in the Republic of Azerbaijan.[12][13]
| 1922–1933 | Aa | Bʙ | Cc | Çç | Dd | Ee | Əə | Ff | Ƣƣ | Gg | Hh | Xx | Ii | Ƶƶ | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Ꞑꞑ | Oo | Ɵɵ | Pp | Rr | Ss | Ɜɜ | Tt | Yy | Uu | Vv | Jj | Zz | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933–1939 | Çç | Cc | Gg | Ƣƣ | Ьь | Kk | Şş | Uu | Уy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1939–1958 | Аа | Бб | Ҹҹ | Чч | Дд | Ээ | Әә | Фф | Ҝҝ | Ғғ | Һһ | Хх | Ыы | Ии | Жж | Кк | Гг | Лл | Мм | Нн | Оо | Өө | Пп | Рр | Сс | Шш | Тт | Уу | Үү | Вв | Йй | Зз | |
| 1958–1991 | Ее | Јј | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1991–1992 | Aa | Bb | Cc | Çç | Dd | Ee | Ää | Ff | Gg | Ğğ | Hh | Xx | Iı | İi | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Öö | Pp | Rr | Ss | Şş | Tt | Uu | Üü | Vv | Yy | Zz | ||
| 1992–present | Əə | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IPA | /ɑ/ | /b/ | /d͡ʒ/ | /t͡ʃ/ | /d/ | /e/ | /æ/ | /f/ | /ɟ/ | /ɣ/ | /h/ | /x/ | /ɯ/ | /i/ | /ʒ/ | /c/,/k/ | /ɡ/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | [ŋ] | /ɔ/ | /œ/ | /p/ | /r/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /t/ | /u/ | /y/ | /v/ | /j/ | /z/ |
The Azerbaijani alphabet is the same as theTurkish alphabet, except forӘə,Xx, andQq, the letters for sounds which do not exist as separate phonemes in Turkish. When compared to the historic Latin alphabet of 1933, as well as the 1991 version:Ğğ has replaced the historicƢƣ; the dotlessIı has replaced the historic I with bowlЬь (also, the lowercase form of the letterB was changed from small capitalʙ to the usualb, while the uppercase form of the lettery was also changed from a Cyrillic-lookingУ to the usualY); the dottedİi has replaced the historic soft-dottedIi, with the addition of the tittle on its uppercase counterpart, additionallyI is now the uppercase counterpart ofı, whilei is the lowercase counterpart ofİ;Jj has replaced the historicƵƶ;Öö has replaced the historicƟɵ;Üü has replaced the historicYy; andYy has replaced the historicJј.Әə was replaced byÄä, which was placed betweenAa andBb, but was then changed back toӘə, placed betweenEe andFf in the alphabet. Consequently,Jj,Yy, and some other several letters (Cc,Çç) have also changed their phonetic values in comparison with the historical alphabet.
The sounds[k] and[ɡ] in loanwords were rendered as respectively asq andƣ in the Latin alphabet of 1933, but asк andг in Cyrillic and are rendered ask andq in the current Latin alphabet:ƣrafiqa (1933 Latin) —графика (Cyrillic) —qrafika (current Latin).
In translingual contexts (e.g. mathematics), the letters of theISO basic Latin alphabet are named in Azerbaijani in the following way:[14]a, be, ce (se),[15][16] de, e, ef, qe, aş (haş),[16] i, yot, ka, el, em, en, o, pe, ku, er, es, te, u, ve, dubl-ve, iks, iqrek, zet.
When the new Latin script was introduced on 25 December 1991,A-diaeresis (Ä ä) was selected to represent the sound /æ/. However, on 16 May 1992, it was replaced by the graphemeschwa (Ə ə), used previously. Although use ofÄ ä (also used inTatar,Turkmen, andGagauz) seems to be a simpler alternative as the schwa is absent in most character sets, particularlyTurkish encoding, it was reintroduced; the schwa had existed continuously from 1929 to 1991 to represent Azerbaijani's most common vowel, in both post-Arabic alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic) of Azerbaijan.
However, the "upside-down 'e'" on computers caused considerable problems during the early 1990s[17] as its placement on standard Azerbaijani keyboards and its assignment in computer encodings[18] had not yet become standardized.
The development of a modern standardizedAzerbaijani Arabic alphabet has been an ongoing project in Iran in the past several decades. ThePersian alphabet, without modification or standardization is not suitable for Azerbaijani as:
The first steps in the process of standardization started with the publication of Azerbaijani magazines and newspapers such asVarlıq from 1979. Azerbaijani-speaking scholars and literarians showed great interest in involvement in such ventures and in working towards the development of a standard writing system. These effort culminated in language seminars being held inTehran, chaired by the founder ofVarlıq,Javad Heyat in 2001 where a document outlining the standard orthography and writing conventions were published for the public.[1] This standard of writing is today canonized by the official Persian–Azerbaijani Turkic dictionary in Iran titled "lugat name-ye Turki-ye Azarbayjani".[19]
The use of the Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet, is widespread. However, due to a failure by the Iranian government to implement the constitutionally-required formal education of Azerbaijani language in the Iranian education system, and due to the spread of use of computers and smartphones, and the ease of using Latin alphabet on these platforms, the Latin alternative from Iran's northern neighbor has been gaining popularity in the last two decades.
In the Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet, nine vowels are defined. Six of those vowels are present in Persian, whereas three are missing.Diacritics (including hamza) in combination with the lettersalef (ا),vav (و) orye (ی) are used in order to mark each of these vowels.
Important to note that similar to Persian alphabet, vowels in the initial position require analef (ا) all the time—and if needed, followed by eithervav (و) orye (ی). This excludes Arabic loanwords that may start withʿayn (ع).
Below are the six vowel sounds in common with Persian, their representation in Latin and Arabic alphabets.
Below are the three vowels that don't exist in Persian, and are marked with diacritics.
| Front اینجه صائیتلر incə saitlər | Back قالین صائیتلر qalın saitlər | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | ||
| Close | Arabic | ای / ی | اوٚ / وٚ | ایٛ / یٛ | اوُ / وُ |
| Latin | İ i | Ü ü | I ı | U u | |
| IPA | [i] | [y] | [ɯ] | [u] | |
| Mid | Arabic | ائ / ئ | اؤ / ؤ | اوْ / وْ | |
| Latin | E e | Ö ö | O o | ||
| IPA | [ɛ] | [œ] | [o] | ||
| Open | Arabic | اَ / ـَ / ـه / ه | آ / ـا | ||
| Latin | Ə ə | A a | |||
| IPA | [æ] | [ɑ] | |||
Like other Turkic languages, Azerbaijani has a system of vowel harmony. Azerbaijani's system of vowel harmony is primarily a front/back system. This means that all vowels in a word must be ones that are pronounced either at the front or at the back of the mouth.[20] In Azerbaijani there are two suffixes that make a plural. It is either-ـلَر-lər or-ـلار-lar, front and back vowels respectively. The same variety of options for suffixes exists across the board in Azerbaijani. Here is how vowel harmony works, in an example of a word in which the vowels are all frontal:
And below are examples for back vowels:
A secondary vowel harmony system exists in Azerbaijani language, which is arounded/unrounded system. This applies to some (but not all) of the suffixes. For example, there are four variations for the common suffixلی--lı/-li and-لو-lu/-lü.
In the Perso-Arabic script, or in Arabic scripts in general,diacritics are usually not written out, except in texts for beginners or in order to avoid confusion with a similarly written word.
In the Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet, there are conventions with regards to writing of diacritics.[1]
ForA-a (آ / ـا), the vowel is always written and shown withalef.
ForƏ-ə (اَ / ـَ / ـه / ه), the initial vowel is written with analef. Vowels in the middle of the word are written in two ways. They are either shown, i.e. written with a diacritic, which usually needs not be written; or they are written with a finalhe (ـه / ه). The former is used in closed syllables (CVC), or in the first open syllable of the word. The latter is used in open syllables (CV) with the exception of the first syllable of the word. Note that the vowelhe (ـه / ه) is not attached to the following letter, but is separated from it with aZero-width non-joiner. For example, the wordgələcəyim (gə-lə-cəy-im)'my future' is written asگلهجگیم. Note that the first syllable of the word is open, but it is not marked. The second syllable is open, and thus the vowel is marked withhe (ـه / ه), not attached to the following letter. Also note the breakdown of the word into syllables – this is because the word is made up ofgələcək plus possessive pronoun-im.
For E-e (ائ / ئ), the sound is shown with ahamzeh on top of aye in almost all cases. The exceptions are loanwords of Persian, Arabic, or European origin. For example,enerji'energy' is written asانرژی. Writing it asائنئرژی is incorrect. Other examples includeتلویزیونteleviziyon'TV'),علمelm'science', andقانعqane'satisfied'. In words, for both Azerbaijani and loanwords, if⟨E⟩ and⟨Y⟩ come side by side, both letters are written; e.g.,قئیدqeyd,شئیداşeyda,ویئتنامVyetnam,غئیرتğeyrət. Loanwords from Persian or Arabic which contain the sound[i], but are adopted in Azerbaijani with an[e] sound, are shown with⟨ئ⟩. Examples includeتسبئحtəsbeh,بئساوادbesavad,پئشکشpeşkəş.
Forİ-i (ای / ی), the sound is always shown withye (ی).
ForI-ı (ایٛ / یٛ), the sound is shown withye (ی) all the time. The writing of the diacritic is optional and not necessary,[citation needed] and is only ever actually done in beginner language lesson books or in order to avoid confusion with a similarly written word. Native speakers can usually read words without the use of diacritic, as they are aware of vowel harmony rules (meaning that they can interpolate the correct pronunciation of⟨ی⟩ by the presence of other vowels in the word). In words likeqızılقیزیل'gold', familiarity with the vocabulary helps native speakers.[citation needed]
For round vowels,O-o (اوْ / وْ),U-u (اوُ / وُ),Ö-ö (اؤ / ؤ), andÜ-ü (اوٚ / وٚ), it is recommended that the first syllable containing such vowel be marked with diacritic, while the rest can remain unmarked and solely written with avav (و). This reduces the effort of marking vowels, while also providing readers with a clue with respect to vowel harmony, namely as to whether the vowels of the word are to be front or back. Examples includeگؤرونوشgörünüş,اوْغوزoğuz,دوٚیونdüyün.
However, it is recommended[by whom?] new learners write diacritics on all round vowels, e.g.,گؤروٚنوٚشgörünüş,اوْغوُزoğuz,دوٚیوٚنdüyün.
In daily practice, it is rare to see vowels other thanÖ-ö (اؤ / ؤ) marked. This may be due to the fact thathamza is the only one of such symbols that is frequently written in Persian as well, and due to the fact that the inverted "v" diacritic forÜ-ü (اوٚ / وٚ) does not exist on typical Persian keyboards.
While Azerbaijani Latin alphabet has nine vowels and twenty-three consonants, the Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet has thirty consonants, as there are sounds that are represented by more than one consonant. Highlighted columns indicate letters from Persian or Arabic that are exclusively used in loanwords, and not in native Azerbaijani words.[1]
| No. | Letter | Latin equivalent | IPA | Example | Latin spelling | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ب | B b | [b] | بالؽق بئل قاب | Balıq Bel Qab | fish dorsum plate |
| 2 | پ | P p | [p/pʰ] | ایپک ساپ | İpək Sap | silk string |
| 3 | ت | T t | [t/tʰ] | تلیس | Təlis | sack |
| 4 | ث | S s | [s] | ثۆریّا | Sürəyya | Surayya (name) |
| 5 | ج | C c | [d͡ʑ] | جئیران قوْجا کرپیج | Ceyran Qoca Kərpic | Gazelle old person brick |
| 6 | چ | Ç ç | [t͡ɕ/t͡ɕʰ] | چای سئرچه قوْلچاق | Çay Serçə Qolçaq | river sparrow puppet |
| 7 | ح1 | H h | [h/hˁ] | حۆریّت صاباح | Hürriyyət Sabah | freedom morning, tomorrow |
| 8 | خ | X x | [x/χ] | خوْرتان آرخ توْخۇماق | Xortan Arx Toxumaq | boogeyman water stream to knit |
| 9 | د | D d | [d̪] | داراق دامجؽ | Daraq Damcı | shoulder droplet |
| 10 | ذ | Z z | [z] | اذیّت گۆذشت | əziyyət güzəşt | bothering forgiveness |
| 11 | ر | R r | [ɾ/r] | بَرک قارا | Bərk Qara | hard black |
| 12 | ز | Z z | [z] | زای مازالاق بالدؽز | Zay Mazalaq Baldız | rotten spinning top (toy) sister-in-law |
| 13 | ژ | J j | [ʒ] | قؽژقؽرماق ژاله | Qıjqırmaq Jalə | to go sour Zhaleh (name) |
| 14 | س2 | S s | [s] | ساچ ترسَه | Saç Tərsə | hair bun in reverse |
| 15 | ش | Ş ş | [ʃ/ʂ/ɕ] | شیش مئشه دؤش | Şiş Meşə Döş | skewer forest chest |
| 16 | ص | S s | [s] | صاباح صۆلح ایصفاهان | Sabah Sülh İsfahan | morning, tomorrow peace Isfahan |
| 17 | ض | Z z | [t/tʰ] | ضربه | Zərbə | hit |
| 18 | ط | T t | [t̪] | طاماح | Tamah | greed |
| 19 | ظ | Z z | [z] | ظالؽم | Zalım | tyrant |
| 20 | غ3 | Ğ ğ | [ɣ/ʁ (ʕ/ʢ)] | آغرؽ یاغ | Ağrı Yağ | pain oil |
| 21 | ف | F f | [f] | کۆفلنمیش | Küflənmiş | moldy |
| 22 | ق4 | Q q | [g/ɢ] | قارقا قۇلاق قارپؽز | Qarqa Qulaq Qarpız | crow ear watermelon |
| 23 | ک5 | K k | [c/cʰ/k (ç)] | کۆرک تیکان اؤرتۆک | Kürək Tikan Örtük | shoulder blade thorn bedsheet |
| 24 | گ6 | G g | [ɟ] | گؤزل گَلین سۆپۆرگه | Gözəl Gəlin Süpürgə | beautiful bride broom |
| 25 | ل | L l | [l/ɫ] | لاله سالخؽم اَل | Lalə Salxım Əl | tulip fruit bunch (e.g. grape) hand |
| 26 | م | M m | [m] | مارال اَپریمک | Maral Əprimək | deer to rut or rust |
| 27 | ن | N n | [n] | نارین | Narin | tiny |
| 28 | و7 | V v | [v] | وئرمک سئوگی | Vermək sevgi | to give lov |
| 29 | ه / هـ1,7 | H h | [h/hˁ] | هؤرمک | Hörmək | to braid |
| 30 | ی7 | Y y | [j] | آیؽ آی | Ayı Ay | bear moon |
Notes[1]
This section contains thenational anthem of Azerbaijan, in the current Latin, Cyrillic, Jaŋalif, Georgian, and Arabic alphabets.
| Azerbaijani in Latin script (since 1992) | Azerbaijani in Arabic script (modern convention) | English translation |
|---|---|---|
Azərbaycan! Azərbaycan! |
| Azerbaijan! Azerbaijan! |
| Azerbaijani in Latin script (1991–1992) | Azerbaijani in Cyrillic script (1958–1991; still used inDagestan) | Azerbaijani in Cyrillic script (1939–1958) |
Azärbaycan! Azärbaycan! | Азәрбајҹан! Азәрбајҹан! | Азәрбайҹан! Азәрбайҹан! |
| Azerbaijani in Latin script (1933–1939) | Azerbaijani in Latin script (1929–1933) | Azerbaijani in Arabic script (until 1929) |
Azərʙajçan! Azərʙajçan! | Azərbajcan! Azərbajcan! |
|
The Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets each have a different sequence of letters. The table below is ordered according to the latest Latin alphabet:
| Arabic | Latin | Cyrillic | Latin | IPA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1922–1933 | 1933–1939 | 1939–1958 | 1958–1991 | 1991–1992 | 1992–Present | ||
| آ-ا | A a | [ɑ] | |||||
| ب | B b | B ʙ | Б б | B b | [b] | ||
| ج | C c | Ç ç | Ҹ ҹ | C c | [dʒ] | ||
| چ | Ç ç | C c | Ч ч | Ç ç | [tʃ] | ||
| د | D d | Д д | D d | [d] | |||
| ائ | E e | Е е, Э э[b] | Е е | [e] | |||
| ه-ٱ-اَ-هٔ | Ə ə | Ä ä | Ə ə | [æ] | |||
| ف | F f | Ф ф | F f | [f] | |||
| گ | Ƣ ƣ | G g | Ҝ ҝ | G g | [ɟ] | ||
| غ | G g | Ƣ ƣ | Ғ ғ | Ğ ğ | [ɣ] | ||
| ح, ه | H h | Һ һ | H h | [h] | |||
| خ | X x | [x] | |||||
| اؽ | Į į | Ь ь | Ы ы | I ı | [ɯ] | ||
| ای | I i | И и | İ i | [ɪ] | |||
| ژ | Ƶ ƶ | Ж ж | J j | [ʒ] | |||
| ک | Q q | K k | К к | K k | [c],[ç],[k] | ||
| ق | K k | Q q | Г г | Q q | [ɡ] | ||
| ل | L l | Л л | L l | [l] | |||
| م | M m | М м | M m | [m] | |||
| ن | N n | Н н | N n | [n] | |||
| وْ | O o | [o] | |||||
| ؤ | Ɵ ɵ | Ö ö | [œ] | ||||
| پ | P p | П п | P p | [p] | |||
| ر | R r | Р р | R r | [r] | |||
| ث, س, ص | S s | С с | S s | [s] | |||
| ش | Ɜ ɜ | Ş ş | Ш ш | Ş ş | [ʃ] | ||
| ت, ط | T t | Т т | T t | [t] | |||
| ۇ | Y y | U u | У у | U u | [u] | ||
| ۆ | U u | У y | Ү ү | Ü ü | [y] | ||
| و | V v | В в | V v | [v] | |||
| ی | J j | Й й | Ј ј | Y y | [j] | ||
| یا | ЈА ја | Я я | ЈА jа | YA ya | [jɑ] | ||
| یئ | ЈE јe | Е е[b] | ЈЕ је | YE ye | [je] | ||
| ئ | E e | [e] | |||||
| یوْ | ЈO јo | Йо йо | ЈО јо | YO yo | [jo] | ||
| یۇ | JY jy | ЈU јu | Ю ю | ЈУ ју | YU yu | [ju] | |
| ذ, ز, ض, ظ | Z z | З з | Z z | [z] | |||
The Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet originally contained the letter ڴ. Originally ڴ stood for the sound [ŋ], which then merged with [n]. Initial versions of the Azerbaijani Latin alphabet contained the letter Ꞑꞑ, which was dropped in 1938. This letter no longer exists in the Azerbaijani Arabic orthographic conventions anymore either.[1]
The letter Цц, intended for the sound [ts] in loanwords, was used in Azerbaijani Cyrillic until 1951. In Azerbaijani, like in most Turkic languages, the sound [ts] generally becomes [s].
Theapostrophe was used until 2004 in loanwords from Persian for representing theglottal stop or vowel length. Since 2004, the apostrophe is not used in Azerbaijani except in foreign proper names.