Azerbaijani Alphabets

The Azerbaijani alphabet (, , ) has three versions which includes the Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets.

North Azerbaijani, the official language of Republic of Azerbaijan, is written in a modified Latin alphabet. After the fall of Soviet Union this superseded previous versions based on Cyrillic and Arabic scripts.

South Azerbaijani, the language spoken in Iran’s Azerbaijan region, is written in a modified Arabic script since Safavid Empire.

Azerbaijanis of Dagestan still use the Cyrillic script.

Azerbaijani Latin alphabet

The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet consists of 32 letters.

History

From the nineteenth century there were efforts by some intellectuals like Mirza Fatali Akhundov to replace the Arabic script and create a Latin alphabet for Azerbaijani. In 1922, a Latin alphabet was created by Soviet Union sponsored ''Yeni türk əlifba komitəsi'' (New Turkic Alphabet Committee; ) in Baku 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 Azerbaijani intellectuals (e.g. Mirza Fatali Akhundov, was "holy and should not be tampered with.

There was some historical basis for the reform which received overwhelming support at the First Turkology Congress in Baku during 1926 where the reform was voted for 101 to 7.
The Azerbaijani poet Samad 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"
As a result, in the Soviet Union in 1926 the Uniform Turkic Alphabet was introduced to replace the varieties of the Arabic script in use at the time. 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. The reform changed glyphs for some letters and phonetic values for some other letters. In 1939 Joseph Stalin ordered that the Azerbaijani Latin 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 in the Republic of Turkey.

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.

* From 1922 until 1933 (old alphabet defined using the Latin script):
*: Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ƣƣ, Hh, Ii, , Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ꞑꞑ, Oo, Ɵɵ, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Xx, Yy, Zz, Ƶƶ, Ɜɜ, ' ''(apostrophe)''
* From 1933 until 1939:
*: 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, ' ''(apostrophe)''
* 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, ' ''(apostrophe)''
* From 1958 until 1991 (simplified version of the alphabet defined using the Cyrillic script and the letter Јј borrowed from Latin and abolition of the letters Ээ, Юю, Яя):
*: 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, ' ''(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, 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 of 1933, as well as the 1991 version: Ğğ has replaced the historic Ƣƣ; the dotless Iı has replaced the historic I with bowl Ьь (also, the lowercase form of the letter B was changed from small capital ʙ to the usual b, while the uppercase form of the letter y was also changed from a Cyrillic-looking У to the usual Y); the dotted İi has replaced the historic soft-dotted Ii, with the addition of the tittle on its uppercase counterpart, additionally I is now the uppercase counterpart of ı, while i is the lowercase counterpart of İ; 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. Әə was replaced by Ää, which was placed between Aa and Bb, but was then changed back to Әə, placed between Ee and Ff 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 and in loanwords were rendered as respectively as q and ƣ in the Latin alphabet of 1933, but as к and г in Cyrillic and are rendered as k and q in the current Latin alphabet: (1933 Latin) — (Cyrillic) — (current Latin).

In translingual contexts (e.g. mathematics), the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet are named in Azerbaijani in the following way: ''a, be, ce (se),Kimya 7-ci sinif
/ref> de, e, ef, qe, aş (haş), i, yot, ka, el, em, en, o, pe, ku, er, es, te, u, ve, dubl-ve, iks, iqrek, zet''.

Schwa (Ə)

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 grapheme schwa (''Ə ə''), used previously. Although use of ''Ä ä'' (also used in Tatar, 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 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 as its placement on standard Azerbaijani keyboards and its assignment in computer encodings had not yet become standardized.

Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet

The development of a modern standardized Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet has been an ongoing project in Iran in the past several decades. The Persian alphabet, without modification or standardization is not suitable for Azerbaijani as:

# It contains multiple letters for the same consonant sounds, for example there are two letters for the sound (ت، ط)
# Persian alphabet does not have letters and diacritics for many of the vowels used in Azerbaijani and other Turkic languages.

The first steps in the process of standardization started with the publication of Azerbaijani magazines and newspapers such as Varlıq 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 in Tehran, chaired by the founder of Varlıq, Javad Heyat in 2001 where a document outlining the standard orthography and writing conventions were published for the public. This standard of writing is today canonized by the official Persian–Azerbaijani Turkic dictionary in Iran titled "".

The use of 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.

Vowels

In 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 letters ''alef'' (), ''vav'' () or ''ye'' () are used in order to mark each of these vowels.

Important to note that similar to Persian alphabet, vowels in the initial position require an ''alef'' () all the time—and if needed, followed by either ''vav'' () or ''ye'' (). This excludes Arabic loanwords that may start with ''ʿayn'' ().

Below are the six vowel sounds in common with Persian, their representation in Latin and Arabic alphabets.

* (); ; A front vowel; only marked with ''fatha'' () diacritic, or with a ''he'' at middle or final positions in a word. Examples include: , ,
* (); ; A front vowel; marked with a ''hamza'' on top a ''ye'' (). Examples include: ,
* (); ; A rounded back vowel; Shown with ''vav'' (), either unmarked, or marked with sukun (zero-vowel) (). Examples include: , , .
* (); ; A back vowel; shown with ''alef'' () in middle and final positions, and ''alef-maddeh'' () in initial position. Examples include: ,
* () ; A front vowel; shown with a ''ye'' () and no diacritic. Examples include: ,
* () ; A back vowel; shown with a ''vav'' and a Ḍammah (). Examples include: ,

Below are the three vowels that don't exist in Persian, and are marked with diacritics.
* () ; A front vowel; shown with a ''hamza'' on top a ''vav'' (). Examples include: ,
* () ; A front vowel; shown with a "v" diacritic on top a ''vav'' (). Examples include , ,
* () (rarely used and usually substituted by ); A back vowel; shown with an inverted "v" diacritic on top of a ''ye'' (). Examples include: , , ,

Vowel harmony

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. In Azerbaijani there are two suffixes that make a plural. It is either or , 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:
* The word for is . The word for is . ( is incorrect.)

And below are examples for back vowels:
* The word for is , thus the word for is .

A secondary vowel harmony system exists in Azerbaijani language, which is a rounded/unrounded system. This applies to some (but not all) of the suffixes. For example, there are four variations for the common suffix and .
* The word for is . The word for will be .
* In Azerbaijani, the city of Tabriz is . The word for someone from Tabriz is .

Conventions on writing of vowels

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.

For (), the vowel is always written and shown with ''alef''.

For (), the initial vowel is written with an ''alef''. 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 final ''he'' (). 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 vowel ''he'' () is not attached to the following letter, but is separated from it with a Zero-width non-joiner. For example, the word (gə-lə-cəy-im) is written as . 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 with ''he'' (), not attached to the following letter. Also note the breakdown of the word into syllables – this is because the word is made up of plus possessive pronoun .

For E-e (ائ / ئ), the sound is shown with a ''hamzeh'' on top of a ''ye'' in almost all cases. The exceptions are loanwords of Persian, Arabic, or European origin. For example, is written as . Writing it as is incorrect. Other examples include ), , and . In words, for both Azerbaijani and loanwords, if and come side by side, both letters are written; e.g., , , , . Loanwords from Persian or Arabic which contain the sound , but are adopted in Azerbaijani with an sound, are shown with . Examples include , , .

For (), the sound is always shown with ''ye'' ().

For (), the sound is shown with ''ye'' () all the time. The writing of the diacritic is optional and not necessary, 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 by the presence of other vowels in the word). In words like , familiarity with the vocabulary helps native speakers.

For round vowels, (), (), (), and (), it is recommended that the first syllable containing such vowel be marked with diacritic, while the rest can remain unmarked and solely written with a ''vav'' (). 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 include , , .

However, it is recommended new learners write diacritics on all round vowels, e.g., , , .

In daily practice, it is rare to see vowels other than () marked. This may be due to the fact that ''hamza'' 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 for () does not exist on typical Persian keyboards.

Consonants

While Azerbaijani Latin alphabet has nine vowels and twenty-three consonants, 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.

Notes
# Arabic loanwords that in their original spelling end in ʿayn (ع), such as "طمع" (təmə') ''(meaning greed)'', or "متاع" (məta') ''(meaning baggage)'', are instead pronounced in Azerbaijani with a final Thus they are to be written with a "ح" (''he''). e.g. "طاماح" (tamah), "ماتاح" (matah). (Note that the vowels of these words are also changed in accordance with the vowel harmony system) If the change in pronunciation of ʿayn (ع) happens mid-word, it would be written as "ه / هـ". An example being "فعله" (fə'lə) ''(meaning worker)'' being written as "فهله" (fəhlə).
# Loanwords that start with consonant sequences "SK, ST, SP, ŞT, ŞP", in Azerbaijani Arabic script, they are to be written starting with an "ای" (i). e.g. ایستئیک (isteyk) ''(meaning steak)'', ایسپورت (isport) ''(meaning sports)''
# There is a distinction between the pronunciation of "غ" and "ق" in Azerbaijani. Such distinction does not exist in standard Iranian Persian. But in any case, loanwords from Arabic or Persian, regardless of how their "غ" and "ق" is pronounced, are to be kept as their original writing. This is not a rule in Latin alphabet. An example being the word meaning ''Afghan'', "افغان" (Əfqan). The "غ" in Azerbaijani is pronounced as a meaning that, as it is done in Latin, it is being pronounced as if it is a "ق". But the writing of the loanword in Azerbaijani Arabic will remain the same.
# Loanwords whose original spelling was with a "گ" (G g) but are written in Latin alphabet with a Q q, are to be written with a "ق". Examples include "قاز" (Qaz) ''(meaning gas, written as "گاز" in Persian)'', "اوْرتوقرافی" (Orfoqrafi) ''(meaning orthography, written as "اورتوگرافی" in Persian)''
# When suffixes are added to words ending in "ک" (K k), resulting in the letter "ک" (K k) being between two vowels, will have its pronunciation modified to equivalent to the letter "ی" (Y y). This change is reflected in Latin writing. However, in the Arabic script, in order to maintain the original familiar shape of the word, the letter "گ" (G g) (functioning in a role dubbed "soft G") is used, as the letter is similar in shape to "ک". Examples: "çörək+im" becoming "çörəyim" in Latin script ''(meaning my bread)'', but "چؤرک+یم" becoming "چؤرگیم". "gələcək+im" becoming "gələcəyim" in Latin script ''(meaning my future)'', but "گله‌جک+یم" becoming "گله‌جگیم".
# Whenever the letter "ی" (Y) is placed between two "ای" (İ-i) vowels, it is written as "گ" (G g) (functioning in a role dubbed "soft G"). This is not something done in Latin script. Example: "ایگیرمی" (iyirmi) ''(meaning twenty)''
# The letters "و" ,"ه / هـ", and "ی" have a double function, as consonant, and as part of vowels. When used as consonant, they are written with no diacritic or marking.
# Shadda, the Arabic diacritic for gemination, is retained for loanwords from Arabic. Examples: "مۆکمّل" (mükəmməl) ''(meaning complementary)'', "مدنیّت" (mədəniyyət) ''(meaning civility)''. In native Azerbaijani words and in loanwords of European origin, double consonants are written twice. Examples: "یئددی" (yeddi) ''(meaning seven)'', "ساققال" (saqqal) ''(meaning beard)'', "اوْتللو" (Otello).

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:

The Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet originally contained the letter ڴ. Originally ڴ stood for the sound � which then merged with 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.

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

The apostrophe was used until 2004 in loanwords from Persian for representing the glottal stop or vowel length. Since 2004, the apostrophe is not used in Azerbaijani except in foreign proper names.

Notes

References

External links

Alphabet Changes in Azerbaijan [Republic
/nowiki> in the 20th Century: Four Major Changes—Arabic, Early Latin, Cyrillic and New Latin—Plus Seven More Minor Changes">epublic">Alphabet Changes in Azerbaijan [Republic
/nowiki> in the 20th Century: Four Major Changes—Arabic, Early Latin, Cyrillic and New Latin—Plus Seven More Minor Changesin AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 8:1 (Spring 2000), p. 13.

Changes in the Azerbaijan [Republic] Alphabet Sequence in the 20th Century
in AZER.com at ''Azerbaijan International,'' Vol. 8:1 (Spring 2000), p. 15.


by Dr. Farid Alakbarov, AZER.com at ''Azerbaijan International,'' Vol. 8:1 (Spring 2000), 50-52.

''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 74–75.

in AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 14:1 (Spring 2006), pp. 24–25.

in AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 8:1 (Spring 2000), pp. 58–61.
* [https://www.azeri.org/Azeri/az_english/43_folder/43_articles/43_names_az.html Garibova, Jala and Betty Blair. Names: History in a Nutshell: 20th Century Personal Naming Practices in Azerbaijan] in AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 4:3 (Autumn 1996), pp. 54–59, 63, 82.
Anar (Rezayev), Reading Between the Lines: Personal Reflections on the History of Alphabet Reform in Azerbaijan
(Arabic to Latin to Cyrillic to Latin) in AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 8:1 (Spring 2000), pp. 54–56.

in AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 10:4 (Winter 2002), pp. 68–69.

by Nazim Abbas (television media), Afet Babayeva (French teacher), Leyla Gafurova (librarian), Ruhangiz Gulmammadova (office administration), Elman Gurbanov (driver), Gular Hajiyeva (dentist), Nadir Karimov (economics professor), Marina Kulakova (office administration), Afshan Mammadova (computer sciences), Tinatin Valiyeva (student) in AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 8:1 (Spring 2000), pp. 27–36.
* "Pronunciation of the Azerbaijani Latin Alphabet

AZERI.org
* (with video)

{{Language orthographies

Azerbaijani language
Latin alphabets
Cyrillic alphabets
Arabic alphabets
Persian alphabets
Alphabets used by Turkic languages
Caucasian scripts