Azerbaijani

When Azerbaijani became a literary language

Azerbaijani became a language of poetry in the 14th century, when Nasimi, Kadi Burhan al-Din and Hasanoghlu wrote in it, and later at the courts of the Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu. In the 16th century Fuzûlî wrote mainly in Azerbaijani. Under the Safavids it was called ḳızılbaşī, after the Qizilbash, and a French Capuchin, Raphaël du Mans, wrote a grammar of Turc Agemi in 1684.

From the 16th century to the early 20th, Azerbaijani served as a common language across most of the South Caucasus, southern Dagestan and Iran, beside Persian as the language of government. Russia's wars with Iran of 1804 to 1813 and 1826 to 1828 split the speech community between two states. The first Azerbaijani newspaper in the Russian Empire, Akinchi, 'The Ploughman', appeared in 1875. Azerbaijani became the official language of Soviet Azerbaijan only in 1956.

Why North and South Azerbaijani differ on paper

Until 1929 Azerbaijani was written only in the Perso-Arabic alphabet, which leaves most vowels unmarked. In the north a Latin alphabet followed from 1929 to 1938, then Cyrillic to 1991, then the present Latin alphabet. The change was slow: newspapers ran Latin headlines over Cyrillic stories until a presidential decree of 2001. Dagestan still writes Azerbaijani in Cyrillic. In Iran spelling was standardised in stages, beginning with the magazine Varlıq in 1979 and set down at seminars in Tehran in 2001.

The standard in the north rests on the Shirvani dialect, while South Azerbaijani draws on several regional dialects. ISO treats Northern and Southern Azerbaijani as separate languages, although speakers of the two understand each other to a high degree.

How far Azerbaijani and Turkish understand each other

Speakers communicate to an extent, but not evenly: Azerbaijani speakers find Turkish easier than Turkish speakers find Azerbaijani. A 2011 study of 30 Turkish participants found their understanding of Azerbaijani lower than expected. In a 2017 study, Iranian Azerbaijanis scored an average of 56% in understanding spoken Turkish.

The alphabets are cousins. The present Azerbaijani Latin alphabet follows Turkish, which was itself modelled on an earlier Azerbaijani Latin alphabet, and Ə, X and Q exist only in the Azerbaijani one. Northern Azerbaijani respells foreign names, so Bush is Buş and Schröder is Şröder.