The Azerbaijani Alphabet

Azerbaijani (Azərbaycan dili) is the official language of Azerbaijan ^[1] with approximately 23 million speakers. It is spoken in Azerbaijan and by large communities in northern Iran, Russia, and Turkey.

As an Oghuz Turkic language, Azerbaijani is closely related to Turkish and Turkmen. The two main varieties are North Azerbaijani (ISO: azj, official in Azerbaijan) and South Azerbaijani (ISO: azb, spoken in Iran), which differ primarily in vocabulary and loanwords.

The 9 unique letters in the Azerbaijani Latin alphabet ^[2] are: Ç/ç (ch-sound), Ə/ə (schwa/ae vowel), Ğ/ğ (soft G), İ/ı (dotted I / undotted ı), Ö/ö (front rounded vowel), Q/q (uvular stop), Ş/ş (sh-sound), Ü/ü (close front rounded vowel), and X/x (kh-sound).

Of these, Ə is the most distinctive — it is the schwa letter representing a sound similar to the "a" in English "cat." Q represents a deep uvular stop (like Arabic qaf), and X represents the kh-sound (like Scottish loch), not the "ks" sound of English.

The letter Ə (called "schwa" or "ae") represents a near-open front unrounded vowel ^[2] — the same sound as the "a" in English "cat" or "hat." It is the ninth letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, placed after E.

Ə is among the most distinctive features of Azerbaijani orthography and is unique among Turkic Latin alphabets. It appears in common words such as əl (hand), ər (husband), and Azərbaycan (Azerbaijan itself). The schwa symbol ə is borrowed from the International Phonetic Alphabet.

In Azerbaijani, I (undotted) and İ (dotted) are two completely different vowel letters ^[2]. Undotted I/ı represents the close back unrounded vowel (as in the unstressed "e" in English "roses"). Dotted İ/i represents the close front vowel (as in English "see").

This creates a four-way distinction: uppercase İ (dot), lowercase i (dot), uppercase I (no dot), lowercase ı (no dot). This feature is shared with Turkish and is critical for correct spelling — confusing them changes word meanings. Azerbaijan uses standard Unicode characters for both.

Azerbaijan officially adopted the current Latin alphabet on 25 December 1991 ^[1], shortly after declaring independence from the Soviet Union. The transition from Cyrillic was completed by 2001, with Latin becoming mandatory in official documents, education, and media.

This was actually Azerbaijani's second Latin alphabet — the first was used from 1929 to 1939, when the Soviet Union replaced it with Cyrillic. Before 1929, Azerbaijani was written in Perso-Arabic script. The 1991 Latin alphabet differs slightly from the 1929 version in its unique letter choices.

Azerbaijani and Turkish are both Oghuz Turkic languages ^[1] and are closely related — often considered mutually intelligible at a conversational level, especially in their standard forms. Both descended from the same medieval Oghuz dialect spoken across Anatolia and the Caucasus.

Key differences: Azerbaijani preserves more vowels (including Ə), uses Q and X where Turkish uses K and H/K, and has absorbed more Persian and Arabic loanwords in its South Azerbaijani variety. The standard Baku dialect of Azerbaijani is closest to Turkish, while South Azerbaijani (Iran) is more conservative.

Azerbaijani belongs to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family ^[1]. Its closest relatives are Turkish, Turkmen, Gagauz, and Qashqai. All Oghuz languages descend from the medieval Oghuz Turkic of the Seljuk Empire.

Within the broader Turkic family, Azerbaijani is distinct from Kipchak languages (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar) and Siberian Turkic languages (Tuvan, Khakas). The Oghuz branch is characterised by specific sound changes, including the shift of initial d- to y- (e.g., Proto-Turkic *dag → Azerbaijani dağ, mountain) that distinguish it from other Turkic branches.

Yes — Iran has the world's largest Azerbaijani-speaking population ^[2]. Estimates suggest 15–20 million Azerbaijani speakers live in northwestern Iran, primarily in the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, and Zanjan — far exceeding the population of Azerbaijan itself.

The Iranian variety is called South Azerbaijani (ISO: azb) and differs from North Azerbaijani (ISO: azj, official in Azerbaijan). South Azerbaijani uses Perso-Arabic script in Iran (not Latin), has absorbed more Persian vocabulary, and lacks official status — it is spoken but not used in Iranian education or government.

Azerbaijani has multiple ISO codes reflecting its two main varieties ^[2]. The ISO 639-1 two-letter code for Azerbaijani is az. The ISO 639-3 codes are azj (North Azerbaijani, official in Azerbaijan) and azb (South Azerbaijani, spoken in Iran).

The Glottolog code for North Azerbaijani is nort2697. The language is sometimes called "Azeri" in English, though Azerbaijani is the preferred endonym. In Azerbaijan, the constitution and official documents use "Azerbaijani language" (Azərbaycan dili) as the sole official name.

Azerbaijan is a country in the South Caucasus region ^[1], bordering Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, and the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Baku, one of the largest cities in the Caucasus. Azerbaijan declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The country has a rich cultural heritage reflecting its position at the crossroads of Turkic, Persian, and Russian civilisations. Azerbaijani is spoken by the vast majority of the population. The flag of Azerbaijan has three horizontal stripes — blue (Turkic heritage), red (progress), and green (Islam) — with a crescent and star.