PROFILE
| | Total Speakers
13,869,000
Usage by Country
Official Language: Azerbaijan
Home Speakers: Iran, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan
Background
It belongs to the Altaic family, Turkic group and is spoken by over 7 million people. It is also widely spoken in Iran (another 4 million speakers) in the northwesternmost part of the country. Traditionally, the language was written in the Arabic script, but in 1924 the Soviet government introduced the Roman script, and in 1940 the Cyrillic. Dialect differences are slight. Everyone is familiar with the standardised written and spoken forms. The Qazakh dialect is not especially related to the Kazakh language. Differences from South Azerbaijani in phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax are significant. Azeri is also taught as a second language in Russian language schools.
Received: 19980525
Posted: 19980904
Checked: 19981112
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