Azerbaijani

About Azerbaijani

Azerbaijani, also called Azeri, is the official language of Azerbaijan and is also spoken by millions of people in northwestern Iran. It is a Turkic language, so close to Turkish that speakers of the two understand much of each other. About 23 million people speak it as a first language.

In Azerbaijan it is written in a Latin alphabet much like the Turkish one, while in Iran it is written in the Arabic script. Use siz for a polite "you" and sən with friends. The letter ə sounds like the a in "cat", x like the ch in Scottish "loch" and q like the g in "go".

FamilyTurkic, Oghuz branch
Native speakersabout 23 million (2007)
Official inAzerbaijan
ScriptLatin alphabet in Azerbaijan, Arabic script in Iran
Codesaz (ISO 639-1), aze (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Nationalencyklopedin (2007), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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