There are roughly between 21 to 22 million native Azerbaijanian speakers (Circa 16 million around Iran & 7 million inside Azerbaijan Republic). These are the Turkic language of Oghuz branch, closely related to Turkish and also historically influenced by Persian and Arabic languages.

Nomenclature
In a period of a initial period of the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence, a official language of Azerbaijan was known as "Türk dili" ("Turkish"), however since 1994 the older name of the language, "Azərbaycan dili" ("Azerbaijanian"), has been re-established. A first literary magazine of the language published inside Iran, Varliq, utilizes a English term "Turkish" & a Persian term "torki" for the language. Virtually all Iranians casually call a language Torki, distinguishing it from either a Turkey's official language, Turkish, by calling the latter the term which may be translated when Istanbuli Turkish. A few population as well assume "Azerbaijanian" the idiom of a greater "Turkish" language & call for it "Azerbaijanian-Turkish". ISO and the Unicode Consortium, call a language "Azerbaijani".

History and Evolution

A Azerbaijani language of inside todays world was brought in from either Central Asia by the Oghuz Seljuk Turks. It step by step supplanted a last Iranian languages - Tat and Pahlavi in the south, and the kind of Caucasian languages, particularly Udi, further n - & experienced turn into a dominant language prior to a Safavid dynasty; however, minorities within two a Republic of Azerbaijan & Iran prove my point to speak a earliest Iranian languages to this day, & Pahlavi and Persian loanwords are many inside Azerbaijani. It became the literary language early on, by owning a select few works from either when early when a 11th century. A Russian conquest of northern Azerbaijan in a 19th century split a speech community through 2 states; the Soviet Union promoted development of the language, but let it run back well by owning 2 sequential script changes - from either Arabic alphabet to Latin to Cyrillic - while Iranian Azeris continued to apply Arabic when it universally got. Fallowing independence, a Republic of Azerbaijan decided to switch once again, to a Latin script, below the Turkish model.

Literature
Independent article: Azerbaijani literature

Definitive literature withinside Azerbaijanian was formed in 11th century based on Tabrizi and Shervani idiom (these dialects were utilized by definitive Azerbaijani writers Nasimi, Fizuli, & Khatai). Modern literature within a Republic of Azerbaijan is according to a Shervani idiom merely, when in Iran these are according to the Tabrizi of these. A number 1 newspaper around Azerbaijani, Æ?kinçi was published in 1875. In a period of the Soviet Union period, Azerbaijani was often utilized as a lingua-franca between the Turkic people of the Union.

Inside mid-19th century it was taught inside schools of Baku, Ganja, Sheki, Tbilisi, and Yerevan. Since 1845, it has also been taught in the University of St. Petersburg in Russia.

Notable literacy works inside Azerbaijani come The book of Dede Qorqud (which UNESCO celebrated its 1300th anniversary around 1998, written in an early Oghuz Turkic dialect), KoroÄŸlu, Leyli and Mejnun, and Heydar Babaya Salam. Crucial poets & writers of the Azerbaijani language include Imadedin Nesimi, Muhammad Suleymanoglu Fuzuli (the number one writer to write extensively withwithin Azerbaijani, however as well in Persian), Hesenoglu Izedin, Shah Ismail I (the Azeri king), Bakhtiar Vahabzada, Khurshudbanu Natavan (female poet), Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Mirza Sabir (satirist), & Mohammad Hossein Shahriar (who has supplementary verse form inside Persian than inside Azerbaijani).

Phonology
According to trading tools at [http://www.azeri.org/Azeri/az_learn/latin_az_sounds.html], Azerbaijani phonology appears to be:

Consonants

		bilabial	dental	dental consonant	velar	uvular	glottal
blocks	voiceless
	sonant
affricate consonant	voiceless
	soft
fricative consonant	voiceless
	sonant
nasals
lateral
rhotic

Vowels

	front		telephone exchange		back
	unfat	rounded	unfat	rounded	unrounded	rounded
high
mid
moo

Alphabets
Officially, Azerbaijani nowadays utilizes Latin alphabet, but a "Soviet" Cyrillic alphabet is still inside wide apply: watch Azerbaijani alphabet. There is the of these-to-1 correspondence between a Latin & Cyrillic alphabets for Azerbaijani (although a Cyrillic alphabet has a different sequentially):

(Aa Ð?а), (Æ?É™ Ó˜Ó™), (Bb Бб), (Mil Ò¸Ò¹), (Çç Чч), (Dd Дд), (Ee Ее), (Ff Фф), (Gg ÒœÒ?), (Ğğ Ò’Ò“), (Hh ÒºÒ»), (Xx Хх), (Iı Ыы), (Ä°i Ии), (Jj Жж), (Kk Кк), (Qq Гг), (Ll Лл), (Millimetre Мм), (Nn Ð?н), (Oo Оо), (Öö Ó¨Ó©), (Pp Пп), (Rr Рр), (Ss СÑ?), (Şş Шш), (Tt Тт), (Uu Уу), (Üü Ò®Ò¯), (Vv Вв), (Yy Јј), (Zz Зз).

Prior to 1929, Azerbaijani was only written in the Arabic alphabet. Around 1929–1938 a Latin alphabet was in have (although it was different from either either a of these utilized currently), from 1938 to 1991 the Cyrillic alphabet was used, & within 1991 the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition thereto has been like slow. A Azerbaijani speakers around Iran have at times universally continued to use a Arabic alphabet, although the spelling & writing system is non eventually standardized.

A Azerbaijani language, whenever written within Latin, transliterates totally foreign words to its have spelling. E.g., "Bush" becomes "Buş", & "Schröder" becomes "Şröder". Note