Ancient Azari language
Encyclopedia
Azari is the name used for the Iranian language
composed of groups of dialects which were spoken in Azerbaijan
at one time. Some linguists have also designated the southern Tati dialects of Azerbaijan
like those spoken by the Tats
around Khalkhal, Harzand and Keringan as a remnant of Azari. In addition, Old Azari is known to have strong affinities with Talysh
.
It was the dominant language in Azerbaijan before it was replaced by a Turkic language, now known as the Azerbaijani language
.
. As the Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian languages had not yet developed very far apart by the first millennium AD, Azari would also still have been very similar to classical Middle Persian
(also called Pahlavi).
Azari was spoken in most of Azarbaijan at least up to the 17th century, with the number of speakers decreasing since the 11th century due to the Turkification
of the area. According to some accounts, it may have survived for several centuries after that up to the 16th or 17th century. Today, Iranian dialects are still spoken in several linguistic enclaves within Azarbaijan. While some scholars believe that these dialects form a direct continuation of the ancient Azari languages, others have argued that they are likely to be a later import through migration from other parts of Iran, and that the original Azari dialects became extinct.
The name "Azari" is derived from the old Iranian name for the region of Azarbaijan. The same name for the region, in a Turkified form, was later adopted also to designate the modern Turkic language "Azeri".
According to Vladimir Minorsky, around the 9th-10th century::
Professor Igrar Aliyev
states that:
Aliyev also mentions that the medieval Muslim historians like Baladhuri, Masudi, Ibn Hawqal
and Yaqut have mentioned this language by name. Medieval historians and scholars also record that the language of the region of Azarbaijan, as well as its people there, as Iranians who spoke Iranian languages. Among these writes are Istakhri, Masudi, Ibn al-Nadim
, Hamza Isfahani, Ibn Hawqal
, Baladhuri, Muqaddasi, Yaghubi, Hamdollah Mostowfi
, and Khwarazmi.
According to Gilbert Lazard:
According to Professor. Richard Frye: Azari was a major Iranian language and the original language of Azerbaijan region and Azari gradually lost its stature as the prevalent language by the end of the 14th century.
A very similar statement is given by the medieval historian Hamzeh Isfahani when talking about Sassanid Iran. Hamzeh Isfahani writes in the book Al-Tanbih ‘ala Hoduth alTashif that five "tongues" or dialects, were common in Sassanian Iran: Fahlavi, Dari, Persian, Khuzi and Soryani. Hamzeh (893-961 CE) explains these dialects in the following way:
Ibn Hawqal states:
It should be noted that Ibn Hawqal mentions that some areas of Armenia are controlled by Muslims and others by Christians.
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Al-Masudi
(896-956), the Arab
historian states:
Al-Moqaddasi(d. late 4th/10th century) considers Azerbaijan as part of the 8th division of lands. He states:"The languages of the 8th division is Iranian (al-‘ajamyya). It is partly partly Dari and partly convoluted (monqaleq) and all of them are named Persian".
Al-Moqaddasi also writes on the general region of Armenia, Arran and Azerbaijan and states.:
.
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi mentions that the People of Azerbaijan are a mixture of Azari 'Ajams ('Ajam is a term that developed to mean Iranian) and old Javedanis (followers of Javidan the son of Shahrak who was the leader of Khurramites and successed by Babak Khorramdin).
Zakarrya b. Mohammad Qazvini's report in Athar al-Bilad, composed in 674/1275, that "no town has escaped being taken over by the Turks except Tabriz" (Beirut ed., 1960, p. 339) one may infer that at least Tabriz had remained aloof from the influence of Turkish until the time.
From the time of the Mongol invasion, most of whose armies were composed of Turkic tribes, the influence of Turkish increased in the region. On ther hand, the old Iranian dialects remained prevalent in major cities. Hamdallah Mostawafi writing in the 1340s calls the language of Maraqa as "modified Pahlavi"(Pahlavi-ye Mughayyar). Mostowafi calls the language of Zanjan (Pahlavi-ye Raast). The language of Gushtaspi covering the Caspian border region between Gilan to Shirvan is called a Pahlavi language close to the language of Gilan.
Following the Islamic Conquest of Iran, Middle Persian
, also known as Pahlavi, continued to be used until the 10th century when it was gradually replaced by a new breed of Persian language, most notably Dari. The Saffarid dynasty
in particular was the first in a line of many dynasties to officially adopt the new language in 875 CE. Thus Dari, which contains many loanwords from its predecessors, is considered the continuation of Middle Persian
which was prevalent in the early Islamic era of western Iran. The name Dari comes from the word (دربار) which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished. (See Persian literature
)
did not speak Turkish in the 15th century.
The language of Tabriz, being an Iranian language, was not the standard Khurasani dari. Qatran Tabrizi(11th century) has an interesting couplet mentioning this fact:
There are extant words, phrases, sentences and poems attested in the old Iranic dialect of Tabriz in a variety of books and manuscripts.
Hamdullah Mustuwafi(14th century) mentions a sentence in the language of Tabriz::
A Macaronic(mula'ma which is popular in Persian poetry where some verses are in one language and another in another language) poem from Homam Tabrizi where some verses are in Khorasani (Dari) Persian and others are in the dialect of Tabriz
.
Another Ghazal from Homam Tabrizi where all the couplets except the last couplet is in Persian. The last couplet reads:
Another recent discovery by the name of Safina-yi Tabriz has given sentences from native of Tabriz in their peculiar Iranic dialect. The work was compiled during the Ilkhanid era. A sample expression of from the mystic Baba Faraj Tabrizi in the Safina:
The Safina (written in the Ilkhanid era) contains many poems and sentences from the old regional dialect of Azerbaijan. Another portion of the Safina contains a direct sentence in what the author has called as "Zaban-i-Tabriz"(dialect/language of Tabriz)
A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz (the author calls Zaban-i-Tabriz (dialect/language of Tabriz) recorded and also translated by Ibn Bazzaz Ardabili in the Safvat al-Safa
A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz by Pir Zehtab Tabrizi addressing the Qara-qoyunlu ruler Eskandar:
The word Rood for son is still used in some Iranian dialects, specially the Larestani dialect and other dialects around Fars.
Four quatrains titled fahlavvviyat from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani (d. 677/1278-79); born in Kojjan or Korjan, a village near Tabriz, recorded by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi.
A sample of one of the four quatrains from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani
.
Two qet'as (poems) quoted by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi in the dialect of Tabrz (d. 838/1434-35; II, p. 142).
A sample of one these poems
A Ghazal and fourteen quatrains under the title of fahlaviyat by the poet Maghrebi Tabrizi (d. 809/1406-7).
A text probably by Mama Esmat Tabrizi, a mystical woman-poet of Tabriz (d. 9th/15th cent.), which occurs in a manuscript, preserved in Turkey, concerning the shrines of saints in Tabriz.
A phrase "Buri Buri" which in Persian means Biya Biya or in English: Come! Come! is mentioned by Rumi from the mouth of Shams Tabrizi in this poem:
The word Buri is mentioned by Hussain Tabrizi Karbali with regards to the Shaykh Khwajah Abdur-rahim Azh-Abaadi as to "come":.
In the Harzandi Iranic dialect of Harzand in Azerbaijan as well as the Iranic Karingani dialect of Azerbaijan, both recorded in the 20th century, the two words "Biri" and "Burah" means to "come" and are of the same root
of the 13th century AD mentions the language of Maragheh as "Pahlavi Mughayr" (modified Pahlavi):
Interestingly enough, the 17th century AD Ottoman Turkish traveler Evliya Chelebi who traveled to Safavid Iran also states: "The majority of the women in Maragheh converse in Pahlavi".
According to the Encyclopedia of Islam:"At the present day, the inhabitants speak Adhar Turkish, but in the 14th century they still spoke "arabicized Pahlawi" (Nuzhat al-Qolub: Pahlawi Mu’arrab) which means an Iranian
dialect of the north western group."
Azeri language spoken in Azerbaijan replaced the old Pahlavi only by the beginning of the Safavid dynasty's rule in Persia. Earlier, many Turkic speaking nomads had chosen the green pastures of Azerbaijan, Aran and Shrivan for their settlement as early as the advent of the Seljuqs
. However, they only filled in the pasturelands while the farmlands, villages and the cities remained Iranic in language. The linguistic conversion of Azerbaijan went hand in hand with the coversion of the Azeris into Shiism. By the late 1800s, the Turkification of Azerbaijan was near completion with the old Iranic speakers found solely in tiny isolated recesses of the mountains or other remote areas (such as Harzand, Galin Guya, Shahrud villages in Khalkhal and Anarjan). The city of Tabriz
---capital of Azerbaijan, however, maintained a number of distinctly Old Azari-speaking neighborhoods well into the Qajar period of the Persian history. The poet Ruhi Onarjani still composes an entire compendium in Old (Iranic) Azari language in the 19th century.
It seems the nail was driving into the coffin of the old language in Tabriz
by the selection of that city as a "second capital" of Persia/Iran in the course of the 19th century where the crown prince, Muzaffar al-Din (later, the Shah) resided for nearly 50 years. Muzaffar al-Din used Turkic Azeri as the sole language of his "court" and himself could barely speak Persian upon assuming the throne in 1892.
Source: Paul, Ludwig. (1998) "The Position of Zazaki Among West Iranian languages."
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
composed of groups of dialects which were spoken in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (Iran)
Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan , also Iranian Azerbaijan, Persian Azarbaijan is a region in northwestern Iran. It is also historically known as Atropatene and Aturpatakan....
at one time. Some linguists have also designated the southern Tati dialects of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (Iran)
Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan , also Iranian Azerbaijan, Persian Azarbaijan is a region in northwestern Iran. It is also historically known as Atropatene and Aturpatakan....
like those spoken by the Tats
Tats
Tats are an Iranian people, presently living within Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia ....
around Khalkhal, Harzand and Keringan as a remnant of Azari. In addition, Old Azari is known to have strong affinities with Talysh
Talysh language
The Talyshi language is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Historically, the language and its people can be traced through the middle Iranian period back to the ancient...
.
It was the dominant language in Azerbaijan before it was replaced by a Turkic language, now known as the Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
.
Linguistic affiliation
Azari is believed to be a part of the dialect continuum of Northwest Iranian languages. As such, its ancestor would be close to the earliest attested Northwest Iranian languages, MedianMedian language
The Median language was the language of the Medes. It is an Old Iranian language and classified as belonging to the northwestern Iranian subfamily which includes many other languages such as Azari, Zazaki, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Kurdish and Baluchi.-Attestation:Median is only attested by numerous...
. As the Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian languages had not yet developed very far apart by the first millennium AD, Azari would also still have been very similar to classical Middle Persian
Middle Persian
Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...
(also called Pahlavi).
Azari was spoken in most of Azarbaijan at least up to the 17th century, with the number of speakers decreasing since the 11th century due to the Turkification
Turkification
Turkification is a term used to describe a process of cultural or political change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily or involuntarily...
of the area. According to some accounts, it may have survived for several centuries after that up to the 16th or 17th century. Today, Iranian dialects are still spoken in several linguistic enclaves within Azarbaijan. While some scholars believe that these dialects form a direct continuation of the ancient Azari languages, others have argued that they are likely to be a later import through migration from other parts of Iran, and that the original Azari dialects became extinct.
The name "Azari" is derived from the old Iranian name for the region of Azarbaijan. The same name for the region, in a Turkified form, was later adopted also to designate the modern Turkic language "Azeri".
According to Vladimir Minorsky, around the 9th-10th century::
Professor Igrar Aliyev
Igrar Aliyev
Igrar Habib oglu Aliyev was an Azerbaijani historian. Aliyev was the author of 160 peer reviewed journal publications and books. Many of his books are devoted to the Medes and Median Empire...
states that:
Aliyev also mentions that the medieval Muslim historians like Baladhuri, Masudi, Ibn Hawqal
Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal was a 10th century Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler. His famous work, written in 977, is called Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ ....
and Yaqut have mentioned this language by name. Medieval historians and scholars also record that the language of the region of Azarbaijan, as well as its people there, as Iranians who spoke Iranian languages. Among these writes are Istakhri, Masudi, Ibn al-Nadim
Ibn al-Nadim
Abu'l-Faraj Muhammad bin Is'hāq al-Nadim , whose father was known as al-Warrāq was a Shia Muslim scholar and bibliographer. Some scholars regard him as a Persian, but this is not certain. He is famous as the author of the Kitāb al-Fihrist...
, Hamza Isfahani, Ibn Hawqal
Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal was a 10th century Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler. His famous work, written in 977, is called Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ ....
, Baladhuri, Muqaddasi, Yaghubi, Hamdollah Mostowfi
Hamdollah Mostowfi
Hamdollah Mostowfi was a Persian historian, geographer and epic poet.Mostowfi is the author of Nozhat ol-Gholub , Zafar-Nameh , and the Tarikh e Gozideh . His tomb is a structure with a blue turquoise conical dome, at Qazvin.-References and notes:...
, and Khwarazmi.
According to Gilbert Lazard:
According to Professor. Richard Frye: Azari was a major Iranian language and the original language of Azerbaijan region and Azari gradually lost its stature as the prevalent language by the end of the 14th century.
Historical attestations
Ebn al-Moqaffa’ (d. 142/759) is quoted by ibn Al-Nadim in his famous Al-Fihrist as stating that Azerbaijan, Nahavand, Rayy, Hamadan and Esfahan speak Fahlavi (Pahlavi) and collectively constitute the region of Fahlah.A very similar statement is given by the medieval historian Hamzeh Isfahani when talking about Sassanid Iran. Hamzeh Isfahani writes in the book Al-Tanbih ‘ala Hoduth alTashif that five "tongues" or dialects, were common in Sassanian Iran: Fahlavi, Dari, Persian, Khuzi and Soryani. Hamzeh (893-961 CE) explains these dialects in the following way:
Ibn Hawqal states:
It should be noted that Ibn Hawqal mentions that some areas of Armenia are controlled by Muslims and others by Christians.
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Al-Masudi
Al-Masudi
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Mas'udi , was an Arab historian and geographer, known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs." Al-Masudi was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, Muruj adh-dhahab...
(896-956), the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
historian states:
Al-Moqaddasi(d. late 4th/10th century) considers Azerbaijan as part of the 8th division of lands. He states:"The languages of the 8th division is Iranian (al-‘ajamyya). It is partly partly Dari and partly convoluted (monqaleq) and all of them are named Persian".
Al-Moqaddasi also writes on the general region of Armenia, Arran and Azerbaijan and states.:
.
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi mentions that the People of Azerbaijan are a mixture of Azari 'Ajams ('Ajam is a term that developed to mean Iranian) and old Javedanis (followers of Javidan the son of Shahrak who was the leader of Khurramites and successed by Babak Khorramdin).
Zakarrya b. Mohammad Qazvini's report in Athar al-Bilad, composed in 674/1275, that "no town has escaped being taken over by the Turks except Tabriz" (Beirut ed., 1960, p. 339) one may infer that at least Tabriz had remained aloof from the influence of Turkish until the time.
From the time of the Mongol invasion, most of whose armies were composed of Turkic tribes, the influence of Turkish increased in the region. On ther hand, the old Iranian dialects remained prevalent in major cities. Hamdallah Mostawafi writing in the 1340s calls the language of Maraqa as "modified Pahlavi"(Pahlavi-ye Mughayyar). Mostowafi calls the language of Zanjan (Pahlavi-ye Raast). The language of Gushtaspi covering the Caspian border region between Gilan to Shirvan is called a Pahlavi language close to the language of Gilan.
Following the Islamic Conquest of Iran, Middle Persian
Middle Persian
Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...
, also known as Pahlavi, continued to be used until the 10th century when it was gradually replaced by a new breed of Persian language, most notably Dari. The Saffarid dynasty
Saffarid dynasty
The Saffarids or the Saffarid dynasty was a Persian empire which ruled in Sistan , a historical region in southeastern Iran, southwestern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan...
in particular was the first in a line of many dynasties to officially adopt the new language in 875 CE. Thus Dari, which contains many loanwords from its predecessors, is considered the continuation of Middle Persian
Middle Persian
Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...
which was prevalent in the early Islamic era of western Iran. The name Dari comes from the word (دربار) which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished. (See Persian literature
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
)
The Iranic dialect of Tabriz
According to Jean During, the inhabitants of TabrizTabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
did not speak Turkish in the 15th century.
The language of Tabriz, being an Iranian language, was not the standard Khurasani dari. Qatran Tabrizi(11th century) has an interesting couplet mentioning this fact:
There are extant words, phrases, sentences and poems attested in the old Iranic dialect of Tabriz in a variety of books and manuscripts.
Hamdullah Mustuwafi(14th century) mentions a sentence in the language of Tabriz::
A Macaronic(mula'ma which is popular in Persian poetry where some verses are in one language and another in another language) poem from Homam Tabrizi where some verses are in Khorasani (Dari) Persian and others are in the dialect of Tabriz
.
Another Ghazal from Homam Tabrizi where all the couplets except the last couplet is in Persian. The last couplet reads:
Another recent discovery by the name of Safina-yi Tabriz has given sentences from native of Tabriz in their peculiar Iranic dialect. The work was compiled during the Ilkhanid era. A sample expression of from the mystic Baba Faraj Tabrizi in the Safina:
The Safina (written in the Ilkhanid era) contains many poems and sentences from the old regional dialect of Azerbaijan. Another portion of the Safina contains a direct sentence in what the author has called as "Zaban-i-Tabriz"(dialect/language of Tabriz)
A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz (the author calls Zaban-i-Tabriz (dialect/language of Tabriz) recorded and also translated by Ibn Bazzaz Ardabili in the Safvat al-Safa
A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz by Pir Zehtab Tabrizi addressing the Qara-qoyunlu ruler Eskandar:
The word Rood for son is still used in some Iranian dialects, specially the Larestani dialect and other dialects around Fars.
Four quatrains titled fahlavvviyat from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani (d. 677/1278-79); born in Kojjan or Korjan, a village near Tabriz, recorded by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi.
A sample of one of the four quatrains from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani
.
Two qet'as (poems) quoted by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi in the dialect of Tabrz (d. 838/1434-35; II, p. 142).
A sample of one these poems
A Ghazal and fourteen quatrains under the title of fahlaviyat by the poet Maghrebi Tabrizi (d. 809/1406-7).
A text probably by Mama Esmat Tabrizi, a mystical woman-poet of Tabriz (d. 9th/15th cent.), which occurs in a manuscript, preserved in Turkey, concerning the shrines of saints in Tabriz.
A phrase "Buri Buri" which in Persian means Biya Biya or in English: Come! Come! is mentioned by Rumi from the mouth of Shams Tabrizi in this poem:
The word Buri is mentioned by Hussain Tabrizi Karbali with regards to the Shaykh Khwajah Abdur-rahim Azh-Abaadi as to "come":.
In the Harzandi Iranic dialect of Harzand in Azerbaijan as well as the Iranic Karingani dialect of Azerbaijan, both recorded in the 20th century, the two words "Biri" and "Burah" means to "come" and are of the same root
On the language of Maragheh
Hamdollah MostowfiHamdollah Mostowfi
Hamdollah Mostowfi was a Persian historian, geographer and epic poet.Mostowfi is the author of Nozhat ol-Gholub , Zafar-Nameh , and the Tarikh e Gozideh . His tomb is a structure with a blue turquoise conical dome, at Qazvin.-References and notes:...
of the 13th century AD mentions the language of Maragheh as "Pahlavi Mughayr" (modified Pahlavi):
Interestingly enough, the 17th century AD Ottoman Turkish traveler Evliya Chelebi who traveled to Safavid Iran also states: "The majority of the women in Maragheh converse in Pahlavi".
According to the Encyclopedia of Islam:"At the present day, the inhabitants speak Adhar Turkish, but in the 14th century they still spoke "arabicized Pahlawi" (Nuzhat al-Qolub: Pahlawi Mu’arrab) which means an Iranian
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
dialect of the north western group."
Pre-Turkic Azari
The current TurkicTurkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
Azeri language spoken in Azerbaijan replaced the old Pahlavi only by the beginning of the Safavid dynasty's rule in Persia. Earlier, many Turkic speaking nomads had chosen the green pastures of Azerbaijan, Aran and Shrivan for their settlement as early as the advent of the Seljuqs
Seljuq dynasty
The Seljuq ; were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries...
. However, they only filled in the pasturelands while the farmlands, villages and the cities remained Iranic in language. The linguistic conversion of Azerbaijan went hand in hand with the coversion of the Azeris into Shiism. By the late 1800s, the Turkification of Azerbaijan was near completion with the old Iranic speakers found solely in tiny isolated recesses of the mountains or other remote areas (such as Harzand, Galin Guya, Shahrud villages in Khalkhal and Anarjan). The city of Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
---capital of Azerbaijan, however, maintained a number of distinctly Old Azari-speaking neighborhoods well into the Qajar period of the Persian history. The poet Ruhi Onarjani still composes an entire compendium in Old (Iranic) Azari language in the 19th century.
It seems the nail was driving into the coffin of the old language in Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
by the selection of that city as a "second capital" of Persia/Iran in the course of the 19th century where the crown prince, Muzaffar al-Din (later, the Shah) resided for nearly 50 years. Muzaffar al-Din used Turkic Azeri as the sole language of his "court" and himself could barely speak Persian upon assuming the throne in 1892.
Some Azari Words with other Iranian languages
| Azari | Zazaki | Persian | Kurdish | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| berz | berz | boland | berz | high |
| herz | erz | hêl | hil | throw, allow |
| sor | ser | sal | sal | year/sol |
| dêl | zerri | dêl | dil | heart |
| hre | hire | se | sê | three |
| des | des | dah | deh | ten |
Source: Paul, Ludwig. (1998) "The Position of Zazaki Among West Iranian languages."
See also
- Azerbaijani languageAzerbaijani languageAzerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
- Languages of Azarbaijan
- Languages of IranLanguages of IranDifferent publications have reported different statistics for the languages of Iran; There have been some limited census taken in Iran in 2001, 1991, 1986 and 1949-1954.The following are the languages with the greatest number of speakers :...
- Iranian languagesIranian languagesThe Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
- Talysh languageTalysh languageThe Talyshi language is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Historically, the language and its people can be traced through the middle Iranian period back to the ancient...
- Tat languageTat languageThe Tat language or Tat/Tati Persian or Tati is a Southwestern Iranian language and a variety of Persian spoken by the Tats in Azerbaijan and Russia. According to the Ethnologue, it's spoken by 18,000 people in Azerbaijan, 8000 in Iran, and 2300 in Russia. Its written form is related to Middle...
- Safina-yi TabrizSafina-yi TabrizSafīna-yi Tabriz is an important encyclopedic manuscript from 14th century Ilkhanid Iran compiled by Abu'l Majd Muhammad b. Mas'ud Tabrizi between 1321 and 1323....
- Nozhat al-MajalesNozhat al-MajalesNoz'hat al-Majāles is an anthology which contains around 4,100 Persian quatrains by some 300 poets of the 5th to 7th11th-13th centuries. The anthology was compiled around the middle of the 7th/13th century by the Persian poet Jamal al-Din Khalil Shirvani...
External links
- more references
- Azapadegan Research Institute for Iranian cultures and civilization (includes research articles on Adhari)