Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Azeri/Azerbaijani (Cyrillic)

Source: United Nations Department of Public Information, NY

Profile

Native Name
None

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 5/25/1998
Posted 9/4/1998
Checked 11/12/1998