Azeri (Azərbaycan dili)

[eskandar]

Əlin ağarmasun! / !الین آقرماسن (not sure about the Perso-Arabic spelling there, but I tried )

I look forward to using your Azeri grammar, as I'd really like to pick up Azeri again. You're quite right to note that hardly any English-language material exists online for learning the language. Now if we could only find someone to moderate an Azeri forum!

[peterlin]

As always, zhiguli, your efforts are appreciated in Poland. And I really like the color scheme you're using

[eskandar]

Today I got a copy of "Elementary Azerbaijani" by Kurtuluş Öztopçu. If anyone is interested, I would be willing to type up excerpts. Since it's based on the Baku dialect, I hope to augment my studies by continuing to pester my aunt for Tabrizi equivalents.

[culúrien]

Today I got a copy of "Elementary Azerbaijani" by Kurtuluş Öztopçu. If anyone is interested, I would be willing to type up excerpts. Since it's based on the Baku dialect, I hope to augment my studies by continuing to pester my aunt for Tabrizi equivalents.

I, for one, would definitely be interested

[zhiguli]

i don't know if it's such a good idea to be putting copyright material on here, besides, the book (and the accompanying audio) can be found on file-sharing.

just found this blog by an azeri learner living in baku:

http://speakazeri.blogspot.com/

[eskandar]

You're right - I was thinking I could paraphrase/reword parts of the book if anyone had any specific questions they wanted me to look up, though. I'm just trying to be helpful as I'd like to increase interest in Azeri here. Thanks for the blog link!

[kalemiye]

Can somebody post some tabrizi sentences ehre? ı'd be really grateful!

[eskandar]

Unfortunately my Azeri is still really basic (even more so than my Turkish), but here is an article from the Azeri Wikipedia on Tabriz. It's written in the Perso-Arabic script which makes me think it's probably in the Tabriz dialect (I don't know enough yet to distinguish between Iranian dialects like those of Tabriz and Orumiyeh, or even between those and the Baku dialect). Searching Google for تبریزده turns up a lot of results that are probably in Tabrizi as well.

[alijsh]

It's surprising Azerbaijani doesn't have its own forum? Have you ever requested? I think it will have more threads and will be more active than the Kurdish forum, for example. I must write about it to the admin but before that I have a question: What's the most proper name for the language? In Iran, ordinary people simply call it Torki/Turki (Turkish), which is not certainly the most proper. Isn't Azerbaijani better than Azeri?

***
Since we can't apparently have separate threads, I have to "share music" here:

Changiz'e Habibiyân is a popular singer who sings both in Persian and Azerbaijani. In this album, he has three songs in Azerbaijani. They don't have lyrics but you can recognize from the title that which ones in Azerbaijani are: 2, 4, 7. This song of him was also popular and I have heard it much from TV and Radio. Browse his other albums and you will find more Azerbaijani songs.

For now, just one more song: بیاض گجه‌لر (شبهای سفید) from Rahim'e Shahriyâri

[eskandar]

Azeri can't have its own forum until someone volunteers to moderate it. The moderator must be at least somewhat fluent in Azeri; otherwise, I would be happy to volunteer myself. I've asked a few people from the Turkish forum to moderate, but none of them felt that they were capable of doing so. Ali, if you have any Azeri friends who also speak English, could you ask them to moderate? It would be so wonderful if we could find an Iranian Azeri to join the forum. I think most of the people on Unilang are more interested in Tabrizi and other "Southern"/Iranian dialects of Azeri, anyway - that's certainly the case for me!

I don't know what the proper name is; there are so many! Aside from Torki/Türki ("Turkish"), you can say Azərbaycan dili (Azerbaijani language), Azərbaycan Türkçəsi (Azerbaijani Turkish), Azərbaycanca (Azerbaijani), Azəri dili (Azeri language), or just Azəri (Azeri). I think Azərbaycan dili is best for now, and if we recruit a native speaker we can ask them what they think it should be called.

Thanks for sharing those songs! I'll post some links to my favorite Azeri songs soon. For now, here is Googoosh (an Iranian Azeri) performing her classic song آیریلیق (Ayriliq) which means "separation."

[alijsh]

Well, I don't think having a moderator is a must. There are currently some forums that have no moderator. Have you seen the moderators wanted thread? The main job of a moderator is to manage posts (split, move, etc.), which anybody can learn to do and also, consider that we'll basically write in English and not in Azərbaycan dili. So, for our case, it isn't a must to be a fluent speaker. Did you get my point? If you can afford the time to visit the forum regularly and manage posts then go and write your request to proycon. I hope you can persuade him that Azərbaycan dili deserves to have a forum.

I have Tork friends but they can't explain the grammar of their language. I tried several times to learn Torki from my Tork classmates, friends and neighbors but they couldn't help me much because they didn't know about the grammar of their language. Well, if you ask my brother about Persian grammar, even simple questions, he can't answer you, even though he has passed Persian grammar lessons in school! Ordinary people can't help us. We need someone who is familiar with the structure of the language and unfortunately, I don't have such a friend. That's why I have decided to learn Istanbuli Turkish first and then try to learn our own Turkish.

As for a native-speaker moderator, my suggestion is to find Torki weblogs and then write to its author (I think it's better to write in Persian than in English. Not all of them may know English well) and ask him/her to come here and moderate the forum (this thread for the time being). Google ترکی آذربایجانی and see what weblogs you can find.

By the way, did you know Azari is also the name of an extinct Iranian language? What your Tork relatives suggest for the name of the language? Just Torki?

[zhiguli]

I don't know what the proper name is; there are so many! Aside from Torki/Türki ("Turkish"), you can say Azərbaycan dili (Azerbaijani language), Azərbaycan Türkçəsi (Azerbaijani Turkish), Azərbaycanca (Azerbaijani), Azəri dili (Azeri language), or just Azəri (Azeri). I think Azərbaycan dili is best for now, and if we recruit a native speaker we can ask them what they think it should be called.

Don't forget about the Turkmen of Iraq, who despite their name speak a dialect of Azeri.

I have a book for Persian-speakers about Azeri grammar:
Farsca-Azərbaycan Türk Dilbilgisi (Dasture zabane torkiye azarbayjan) - Ali Mohammadi
(and look what I found online: http://www.az-dili.com/ )

I know someone from Tabriz (who seems to know grammar, he also knows "Istanbul Turkish") but he's generally allergic to forums. But I'll try asking him if he's interested.

You can also try looking at forums like these:

http://turan.info/forum/forumdisplay.ph ... c0a78&f=79

http://forum.arbuz.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20

(here is the thread for Azeri: http://forum.arbuz.com/showthread.php?t=23608 )

http://forum.bakililar.az/index.php?showforum=39
http://www.azeri.net/pages.html?name=Forums
http://myazerbaijan.org/forum/index.php?act=idx
http://www.veten.be/forum/index.php?act=idx

etc.

Well, I don't think having a moderator is a must. There are currently some forums that have no moderator. Have you seen the moderators wanted thread? The main job of a moderator is to manage posts (split, move, etc.), which anybody can learn to do and also, consider that we'll basically write in English and not in Azərbaycan dili. So, for our case, it isn't a must to be a fluent speaker.

Indeed. A lot of those forums don't have moderators, or native speakers, or even any serious learners. So this is not an obstacle, despite what the admins claim.
I think I know enough of this language to be able to explain (elementary) grammar and contribute in some way. The only problem is there's just not much interest in Azeri (or Turkic languages in general) on here.

[eskandar]

Thanks for your advice Ali. My Azeri relatives just call their language Torki. I don't think they've heard of extinct Iranian language called Azari.

There may be little interest compared to other languages, but I think that between myself, alijsh, zhiguli, renata, culúrien, peterlin, and possibly others, we constitute enough interest to merit a forum. I'll contact Proycon and see what can be done. I'm willing to moderate an Azeri forum if it can be created. I certainly spend enough time on Unilang as it is! However, I think it would be best to ultimately have a moderator who is fluent; let's all keep looking for an Azeri volunteer.

[kalemiye]

I don't think they really like being called Tork , at least from stories they told me; I think they prefer Azeri, and I heard "azerice" for the language (not really often though).

It could be great if we could have an azeri forum, I agree with the idea and Iskender is the one that knows more I think.

[eskandar]

I requested that an Azeri forum be created, and was told that since Ainu just got its own forum, we need to wait a couple of months before another forum can be created. In the meantime, let's just carry on here, and hopefully in a month or two we can have our own forum!

I think Iranian Azeris who have a strong Azeri identity tend to call themselves "Azeri," whereas those who identify more as Iranian (or whose first language is Persian) will call themselves "Tork." I believe "azerice" is used much more in Istanbuli Turkish than in Azeri.

[kalemiye]

Well, I think precisely when they have a strong Iranian identity is when they really reject being called Turks/Tork whatever. My friends always complain that in Iran they are called "Tork" and in Turkey "Iranians".

[zhiguli]

I've heard quite the opposite from some Iranian Azeris. They consider their language to be the real "torki" and "torkiye estanboli" as a more "feminine" (because it lacks sounds like خ غ ق etc.), Europeanized version. (Turks could just as easily respond that Azeri is a Persianized version of Türkiye Turkish).

[kalemiye]

I never heard such a thing between Turks and Azeris since I am here. To Turks, Azeri is funny because of the way they speak and the words they use (I think sb here already mentioned the kıç thing ), and to Azeris, Turkey's Turkish sounds softer than theirs (which is definitely true), but never that it sounds "feminine".

Maybe they don't complain abut Istanbuli Turkish because we don't live in Istanbul, haha! It is true that Anatolian Turkish is somehow different than that of Istanbul.

[DANAY]

Azeri can't have its own forum until someone volunteers to moderate it. The moderator must be at least somewhat fluent in Azeri; otherwise, I would be happy to volunteer myself. I've asked a few people from the Turkish forum to moderate, but none of them felt that they were capable of doing so. Ali, if you have any Azeri friends who also speak English, could you ask them to moderate? It would be so wonderful if we could find an Iranian Azeri to join the forum. I think most of the people on Unilang are more interested in Tabrizi and other "Southern"/Iranian dialects of Azeri, anyway - that's certainly the case for me!

I don't know what the proper name is; there are so many! Aside from Torki/Türki ("Turkish"), you can say Azərbaycan dili (Azerbaijani language), Azərbaycan Türkçəsi (Azerbaijani Turkish), Azərbaycanca (Azerbaijani), Azəri dili (Azeri language), or just Azəri (Azeri). I think Azərbaycan dili is best for now, and if we recruit a native speaker we can ask them what they think it should be called.

Thanks for sharing those songs! I'll post some links to my favorite Azeri songs soon. For now, here is Googoosh (an Iranian Azeri) performing her classic song آیریلیق (Ayriliq) which means "separation."

Hallo everyone, nice effort to organize this topic!! As I speak some turkish ( my parents speak turkish at home, I had turkish at school, since we're greek muslims & our language is TR) I find Azeri very interrsting & sometimes funny, as far I understand it.
My sisters friend is an Azeri, well I asked him about the name of the language and he preferred the form Azerbaycanca...he said that this is the language he speaks...
About azeri dili...he just smiled & said it's like childish language and about Azerbaycan dili he asked:
Which one? In Azerbaycan they speak also other languages, like russian, armenian etc...thus he understood Azezerbaijan language(s).
Btw, the suffix -liq is writen without the letter ya, just lam/ kaf(qaf) according the vowel harmony.
Çox gözel bir şarqı!!

[eskandar]

Btw, the suffix -liq is writen without the letter ya, just lam/ kaf(qaf) according the vowel harmony.

Hoş geldiniz Danay! Are you sure about that spelling? آیریلق gets 14,400 hits on Google, compared with 272 for آیریلق and 105 for آیرلق.