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Languages of Azerbaijan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Languages of Azerbaijan
Sign about theCOVID-19 pandemicin Azerbaijani
OfficialAzerbaijani
MinorityLezgian,Talysh,Avar,Russian,Tat,Tsakhur,Khinalug,Turkish
ForeignEnglish,Russian,Turkish
SignedAzerbaijani Sign Language
Keyboard layout

Azerbaijaniis the sole official language ofAzerbaijanand is spoken by the majority of its population. However, several minority languages also exist in the country, includingLezgian,Talysh,Avar,Russian,andTat.Additionally, languages such asTsakhurandKhinalugare spoken by a small percentage of the population.

General

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Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (2024, after the collapse of thebreakawayRepublic of Nagorno-Karabakhand theflight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armeniansin 2023).
Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (1994-2020, after theFirst Nagorno-Karabakh Warand before theSecond Nagorno-Karabakh War).

The primary and official language of Azerbaijan isAzerbaijani,[1][2]aTurkic languageclosely related to and partiallymutually intelligiblewithModern Turkish.[3]Together with Turkish, Turkmen and Gagauz, Azerbaijani is a member of Oghuz branch of southwestern groupTurkic languagefamily.[4]

Present

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According to the 2009 census of the country, Azerbaijani is spoken as a native language by 92.5% of the population,[5]whereasRussianandEnglishplay significant roles as languages of education and communication. More than half of Azerbaijani speakers are monolingual.[4]Lezgian,Talysh,Avar,Georgian,Budukh,[6]Juhuri,[6]Khinalug,[6]Kryts,[6]Jek,[7]Rutul,[6]Tsakhur,[6]Tat,[6]andUdi[6]are all spoken by minorities. All these[8](with the exception of Armenian, Lezgian, Talysh, Avar, and Georgian, which have a much larger number of speakers outside Azerbaijan, but nevertheless are steadily declining within Azerbaijan) above-mentioned languages areendangered languageswhich are threatened with extinction, as they are spoken by few (less than 10,000) or very few (less than 1,000) people and their usage is steadily declining with emigration and modernization.

According to 2019 research,English languageproficiency in Azerbaijan was the lowest among surveyed European countries.[9]

An entire issue oftheInternational Journal of the Sociology of Language,edited by Jala Garibova, was devoted to the matter of languages and language choices in Azerbaijan, vol. 198 in 2009.[10]

Azerbaijan has not ratified theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languagesto which it became a signatory in 1992, under thePopular Front.In 2001, the then President of AzerbaijanHeydar Aliyevissued a statement whereby "the Republic of Azerbaijan is not in the power to guarantee the implementation of the Charter regulations until its territory occupied by the Republic of Armenia is liberated".[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Azerbaijan".ethnologue.Retrieved14 September2013.
  2. ^"Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan"(PDF).President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.Official Website of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.Retrieved31 August2020.
  3. ^Sinor, Denis (1969).Inner Asia. History-Civilization-Languages. A syllabus.Bloomington. pp. 71–96.ISBN0-87750-081-9.
  4. ^abKeith, Brown; Ogilvie, Sarah (2008).Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World 1st Edition.Elsevier Science. p. 110.ISBN9780080877754.
  5. ^"UNdata | record view | Population by language, sex and urban/rural residence".Data.un.org. 2015-12-24.Retrieved2016-01-29.
  6. ^abcdefgh"Published in: Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. Edited by Christopher Moseley. London & New York: Routledge, 2007. 211–280".
  7. ^"Н. МАРР:" Яфетические языки ", Большая сов. энциклопедия, 1-е изд., т. 65, Москва: Сов. Энц., 1931, стр. 841".Archived fromthe originalon October 28, 2012.
  8. ^"Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger".UNESCO.
  9. ^"EF EPI 2019 – Europe".ef.Retrieved2019-11-08.
  10. ^International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Volume 2009, Issue 198 (Jul 2009),http:// degruyter /view/j/ijsl.2009.2009.issue-198/issue-files/ijsl.2009.2009.issue-198.xml
  11. ^Azərbaycan Respublikasının Regional dillər və ya azlıqların dilləri haqqında Avropa Xartiyasına dair bəyanatı.20 December 2001. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
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Further reading

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