Learn Azerbaijani

Azərbaycan dili

Turkic → Oghuz

35 million speakers

Latin script

Azerbaijan, Iran

Azerbaijani is the official language of Azerbaijan and is also spoken by roughly 15 million people in northwestern Iran as South Azerbaijani. Together these two varieties make it one of the largest Turkic languages by speaker count. Azerbaijani shares ~80–85% lexical overlap with Turkish — higher than any other pair of major Turkic languages — and a Turkish speaker can understand everyday Azerbaijani with moderate effort. The ashug (âşıq) oral poetry tradition and the classical poet Fuzuli (c. 1494–1556) define its literary heritage.

Language Facts

FamilyTurkic → Oghuz

Native speakers35 million

Writing systemLatin alphabet (since 1991)

CountriesAzerbaijan, Iran

Learning Tips

→If you know Turkish, Azerbaijani will feel immediately familiar — focus on the phonological differences like "x" sounds where Turkish uses "h"
→North Azerbaijani uses the 32-letter Latin alphabet; South Azerbaijani in Iran uses Perso-Arabic — both are worth knowing
→The ashug musical-poetic tradition is a living art form; listening to ashug performances is excellent immersive learning
→Azerbaijani postpositions differ subtly from Turkish equivalents — these are worth drilling early