Another great resource

I recently found another learning resource and I have just received it in the mail. A fabulous find! It's a textbook and two CDs of conversation and audio drills.

Learning resources

I had a comment today asking about resources for learning Azerbaijani. Here are some of the dictionaries, books, and CDs that I have found useful. Search used bookstores and regular bookstores. Some resources can be downloaded.

Consonant changes

Final consonants k, q, and t change if a suffix is added that places the consonant between two vowels.

For example, çimərlik is Azerbaijani for beach. If you say you are going to the beach, çimərliyə, the K changes to a Y.

Changes are:

• k to y - göbələk + ə = göbələyə
• q to ğ - ayaq + a = ayağa
• t to d - eşit + irəm = eşidirəm

However - it does not happen to a single syllable word such as kök (carrot), so kökə (to the carrot). As well, doesn't happen if the word is Russian. I find Russian words often sound, well, Russian (hem!) or English, so they are easy to spot. Definitely bear no resemblance to Azərbaycanca!

Vowel harmony

Yes, you won't get far without knowledge of vowel harmony. Luckily, the more you speak the language the more it seems to come naturally because, well, it just sounds better!

Here's how it works. Azeri uses suffixes to create cases and to change the meaning of words. Whenever a suffix is added to a word, the vowel in the suffix has to agree or harmonize with the last vowel in the original word - that is, the last vowel in the word must agree with the first vowel in the suffix.

If the suffix contains only two first vowels, they will be ə and a. For example -lar and -lər to make a word plural. This type of suffix is represented in Azeri grammar as ə squared. These are the vowels that harmonize:

If the suffix contains four first vowels, they will be i, ü, ı, and u. For example, -si, -sı, -sü, -su. This type of suffix is represented as i to the power of 4. These are the vowels that harmonize:

Typing with an Azeri keyboard

It's really easy to type in Azeri since most of the letters are the same as the English QWERTY keyboard layout. First, add Azeri (Latin) - Azerbaijani with the Latin script - to your computer's list of languages. So > Control panel > Regional and language settings > Azeri (Latin) language with Azeri Latin keyboard. Once installed, hitting Shift-Alt will toggle you from English to Azeri and back. If you have other languages installed, it will go through them one by one as you hit Shift-Alt.

Cheat sheets for shopping

Here is very basic vocabulary to get you by in shops. A chart that you can print as a cheat sheet is provided at the bottom of this post.

How much does it cost?/How much is it? = Bu neçəyədir?
Bu = this / neçəyə = how much / dir = it is
How much are the apples? = Alma neçəyədir?
What is this? = Bu nədir?

I am ... using TO BE suffixes

The simplest sentences tell people something about yourself - I am a doctor, a librarian; I am sick, tired, happy. Or something about someone else - You are late, beautifulç selfish.

Present tense "To Be" suffixes are:

Greetings

Listen to the recording. Explanations of each greeting are below.

Salam = is the most common and means "Hello"

Sabahın xeyir = Good morning to one person.

Sabahınız xeyir = Good morning to many people or a formal greeting.

Axşamın xeyir = Good evening to one person.

Axşamınız xeyir = Good evening to many people or a formal greeting.

Gecən xeyrə qalsın = Good night to one person.

Gecəniz xeyrə qalsın = Good night to many or a formal statement.

A B C Ç ...

It doesn't take long to learn how to pronounce and write Azerbaijani. The alphabet seems a bit strange at first, but it is not really very different from English. Hey, the alphabet used to be in Arabic script and then in Cyrillic! You just need to get used to a few diacriticals and then you will be reading aloud in Azerbaijani.

Here's the guide. Letters pronounced just as in English have no explanation.