The Azerbaijani alphabet ( az, Azərbaycan əlifbası, , ) has three versions which includes the
Perso-Arabic
The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran (Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th ce ...
,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, and
Cyrillic alphabets
Numerous Cyrillic alphabets are based on the Cyrillic script. The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 9th century AD and replaced the earlier Glagolitic script developed by the Byzantine theologians Cyril and Methodius. It is the b ...
.
North Azerbaijani, the official language of
Republic of Azerbaijan, is written in a modified
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
. This superseded previous versions based on
Cyrillic
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
scripts after the fall of
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
.
In
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, where
Iranian Azerbaijanis make up the second largest ethnic group after ethnic
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
, a modified
Persian script is widely used to write the
South Azerbaijani language.
Azerbaijanis of
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North Ca ...
and other parts of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
still use the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking c ...
.
Latin Azerbaijani alphabet
The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet consists of 32 letters.
History
From the nineteenth century there were efforts by some intellectuals like
Mirza Fatali Akhundov
Mirza Fatali Akhundov ( az, Mirzə Fətəli Axundov; fa, میرزا فتحعلی آخوندزاده), also known as Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, or Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (12 July 1812 – 9 March 1878), was a celebrated Azerbaijani author, pla ...
and
Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski
Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski ( az, Məhəmməd ağa Məhəmmədtağı sultan oğlu Şahtaxtılı; 1846 in Erivan – 1931 in Baku) was an Azerbaijani journalist, scholar, and political writer.
Life and education
Shahtakhtinski was born into an Azeri ...
to replace the Arabic script and create a Latin alphabet for Azeri. In 1929, a Latin alphabet was created by
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
sponsored ''Yeni türk əlifba komitəsi'' (New Turkic Alphabet Committee; Јени түрк əлифба комитəси) in
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...
which hoped that the new alphabet would divide the Azerbaijanis in the USSR from those living in Iran.
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 Azeri intellectuals (e.g.
Mirza Fatali Akhundov
Mirza Fatali Akhundov ( az, Mirzə Fətəli Axundov; fa, میرزا فتحعلی آخوندزاده), also known as Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, or Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (12 July 1812 – 9 March 1878), was a celebrated Azerbaijani author, pla ...
), had previously been rejected by the Azeri religious establishment on the grounds that Arabic script, the language of the
Koran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
, was "holy and should not be tampered with" there was some historical basis for the reform which received overwhelming support at the First Turcological Congress in Baku during 1926 where the reform was voted for 101 to 7. The Azeri poet
Samad Vurgun
Samad Vurgun ( az, Səməd Vurğun ; born Samad Yusif oghlu Vekilov;, . March 21, 1906 – May 27, 1956) was an Azerbaijani and Soviet poet, dramatist, public figure, first People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1943), academician of Azerbaijan Nat ...
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"
As a result, in the Soviet Union in 1926 the
Uniform Turkic Alphabet was introduced to replace the varieties of the
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and th ...
in use at the time. In 1939
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
ordered that the Azeri script used in the USSR again be changed, this time to the Cyrillic script in order to sever the Soviet Azerbaijani Turks' ties with the
Turkish people
The Turkish people, or simply the Turks ( tr, Türkler), are the world's largest Turkic ethnic group; they speak various dialects of the Turkish language and form a majority in Turkey and Northern Cyprus. In addition, centuries-old ethnic ...
in the Republic of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
.
[Script change in Azerbaijan: acts of identity, Lynley Hatcher, International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Volume 2008, Issue 192, Pages 105–116, ISSN (Online) 1613-3668, ISSN (Print) 0165-2516, , July 2008, page 106, http://www.degruyter.com/dg/viewarticle.fullcontentlink:pdfeventlink/$002fj$002fijsl.2008.2008.issue-192$002fijsl.2008.038$002fijsl.2008.038.pdf?t:ac=j$002fijsl.2008.2008.issue-192$002fijsl.2008.038$002fijsl.2008.038.xml]
At the same time that the leaders of the Soviet Union were attempting to isolate the Soviet population of Azeri speakers from the neighboring populations in Persia and Turkey, the Persian government of the Azeri speaking
Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic origin ...
was overthrown by
Reza Shah (1925–41) who quickly established the
Pahlavi dynasty and banned the publication of texts in Azeri.
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.
* From 1929 until 1939 (old alphabet defined using the Latin script):
*: Aa, Bʙ, Cc,
Çç, Dd, Ee,
Əə, Ff, Gg,
Ƣƣ, Hh, Ii,
Ьь, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn,
Ꞑꞑ, Oo,
Ɵɵ, Pp, Rr, Ss,
Şş, Tt, Uu, Vv, Xx, Уy, Zz,
Ƶƶ
* From 1939 until 1958 (first version of the alphabet defined using the Cyrillic script):
*:
Аа,
Бб,
Вв,
Гг,
Ғғ,
Дд,
Ее,
Әә,
Жж,
Зз,
Ии,
Йй,
Кк,
Ҝҝ,
Лл,
Мм,
Нн,
Оо,
Өө,
Пп,
Рр,
Сс,
Тт,
Уу,
Үү,
Фф,
Хх,
Һһ,
Цц,
Чч,
Ҹҹ,
Шш,
Ыы,
Ээ,
Юю,
Яя, ʼ
''(apostrophe)''
* From 1958 until 1991 (simplified version of the alphabet defined using the Cyrillic script and the letter Јј borrowed from Latin):
*: Аа, Бб, Вв, Гг, Ғғ, Дд, Ее, Әә, Жж, Зз, Ии, Ыы,
Јј, Кк, Ҝҝ, Лл, Мм, Нн, Оо, Өө, Пп, Рр, Сс, Тт, Уу, Үү, Фф, Хх, Һһ, Чч, Ҹҹ, Шш, ʼ
''(apostrophe)''
* From 1991 until 1992 (first version of the modern alphabet defined using the Latin script):
*: Aa, Ää, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz
* Since 1992 (current version of the modern alphabet defined using the Latin script, replacing Ää with the historic Əə for better sorting):
*: Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz
The Azerbaijani alphabet is the same as the
Turkish alphabet
The Turkish alphabet ( tr, ) is a Latin-script alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which ( Ç, Ğ, I, İ, Ö, Ş and Ü) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requir ...
, except for Әə, Xx, and Qq, the letters for sounds which do not exist as separate phonemes in Turkish. When compared to the historic Latin alphabet: Ğğ has replaced the historic Ƣƣ ; the undotted Iı has replaced the historic I with half-oval Ьь (consequently the lowercase form of B was changed from small capital ʙ to the usual b); the dotted İi has replaced the historic soft-dotted Ii; Jj has replaced the historic Ƶƶ; Öö has replaced the historic Ɵɵ; Üü has replaced the historic Yy; and Yy has replaced the historic Jј. The letters are named ''a, be, ce, çe, de, e, ə, fe, ge, ğe, he, xe, ı, i, je, ke/ka, qe, el, em, en, o, ö, pe, er, es, şe, te, u, ü, ve, ye, ze''. W, which is only used in certain dialects and not part of the standard Azerbaijani alphabet, is named ''ikiqat ve''.
Schwa (Ə)
When the new Latin script was introduced on December 25, 1991,
A-umlaut (''Ä ä'') was selected to represent the sound /æ/. However, on May 16, 1992, it was replaced by the grapheme
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
(''Ə ə''), used previously. Although use of ''Ä ä'' (also used in
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different ,
Turkmen, and
Gagauz) seems to be a simpler alternative as the schwa is absent in most character sets, particularly
Turkish encoding, it was reintroduced; the schwa had existed continuously from 1929 to 1991 to represent Azeri's most common vowel, in both post-Arabic alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic) of Azerbaijan.
Comparison of Azerbaijani alphabets
National anthem
This section contains the
national anthem of Azerbaijan, in the current Latin, Cyrillic, Jaŋalif, Georgian, and Arabic alphabets.
Transliteration
The Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets each have a different sequence of letters. The table below is ordered according to the latest Latin alphabet:
1 – in the beginning of a word and after vowels
The Azeri Arabic alphabet also contains the letter ڴ. Originally ڴ stood for the sound
� which then merged with
Initial versions of the Azeri Latin alphabet contained the letter Ꞑꞑ, which was dropped in 1938.
The letter Цц, intended for the sound
sin loanwords, was used in Azerbaijani Cyrillic until 1951. In Azerbaijani, like in most Turkic languages, the sound
sgenerally becomes
Sources
*Hatcher, Lynley. 2008. Script change in Azerbaijan: acts of identity. ''
International Journal of the Sociology of Language'' 192:105–116.
References
External links
Source: azeri.orgAzerbaijani alphabet(with video)
{{Language orthographies
Azerbaijani language
Latin alphabets
Cyrillic alphabets
Arabic alphabets
Persian alphabets
Alphabets used by Turkic languages