New resource

I just happened upon a new online resource. It seems quite good.

obastan 

It has an Azərbaycan Dilinin İzahlı Lüğəti.

More signs around town...

From the pool.

Those sounds I love to hate

I have been trying a new program for improving my fluency and pronunciation. My friend N is helping me to read aloud "Robinzon Kruzo" in an abridged translation from altun kitab. It cost a mere 2.00 manat. I will hope to share a bit more on this soon, but for now I must say it has underscored my personal difficulty with certain sounds in Azerbaijani. N prepared some sentences and word lists to help me improve. See below (troublesome words in bold). I hope to have a sound file to accompany them soon...

arı
Sarı arı məni sancdı.

ağrı

ağır
ağır idi. [say as though written ağıridi]

arığ

ağac
Bax! Bağda yaşıl ağaclar var.

axır
Mətbəxdə su axır.

axı
Axı sən dedin ki, gədərsən.

üzüm
Üzümdən tər axır.
Mən üzüm yedim.

özüm
Özümdən getdim.
Mən özüm yedim.

üstündə
yüz
yön
ona görə
ora-bura
camaatina

Azərbaycanda ana dili ad günü idi (1 Avqustda)

I was looking at BBC Azeri again to read more about the news in Azerbaijan and discovered an interesting "blog" item from a writer named Nərmin Kamal. It is an interesting article about the language as it is used today. Let's try to translate...

Nərmin Kamalın bloqu: Azərbaycan dilinin qüruru

Narmin Kamal's blog: Arrrgghhh! OK, now even the title is troublesome. It seems the exact translation of the title would be Azerbaijan's language's pride. Now, that just doesn't work in English. So I have settled on: The grandeur of the Azerbaijani language. 

The article covers two main topics: 

Azərbaycan dilinin öz üstünlükləri və kəsiri, qüruru və qorxuları var.

"The Azerbaijani language has advantages and disadvantages, greatness and weaknesses."

So, what are the advantages? She seems to be saying that the advantage is that Azerbaijani is like a secret language that others don't understand - that is, workers can insult their boss with impunity because he doesn't understand what they are saying to him. (Did I understand this correctly? I assume he speaks English?) I must say I don't really get this. Things darken considerably when I try to translate “Ə düdük, bizdən yaxşı bilirsən?” Hey stupid [?], you know better than us? Well, check out what Dilmanc does with düdük. Can this really be? 

What are the disadvantages? Same as the advantage - other people don't speak it.

The weaknesses? Education in the mother tongue.

Greatness? That works of great literature exist and are still being written and published in Azerbaijani, despite racist comments from other cultures!

In this last section there is another sentence that is impossible for me to translate. 

"Yüz milyonlarla azərbaycanlı üçün Azərbaycan dili ev pijaması funksiyası yerinə yetirir."

What does this mean?? That millions of Azerbaijanis only speak Azerbaijani at home?

Someone help! Sometimes I despair of ever learning this language...

An experiment with Google Translate

Google featured some quotations from Nelson Mandela today. Not sure why, but I was interested to see that Azerbaijani translated appeared below for all but one of them. I decided to check if they were automatically generated from Google Translate or if they had been translated by a real person. In my opinion, they were translated by a person. Here is the evidence below. The English sentence, the translation given, finally the Google Translate version.

Opinions on the translations would be welcome.

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion.

Heç kəs anadan olan kimi başqasına nifrət etmir, onun dəri rəngi, irs, və ya dininə göra.
[My colleague Arzu says that it should be - Heç kəs anadan olan kimi başqalarına onun irqinə, irsinə, və ya dininə göra nifrət etmir.]

Heç kim, çünki onun dəri və ya onun fon və ya onun dini rəng başqa bir şəxs nifrət doğuldu.
[Here the word for background is fon as in a background for a photo. The real sense is captured in the first translation - irs = heritage.]

People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

İnsanlar nifrət etməyi öyrənirlar, və nifrəti öyrənə bilsələr, sevməyi də öyrənə bilərlər, çünki insan urəyi üçün sevgi daha da təbiidir.

İnsanlar nifrət öyrənmək lazımdır və onlar nifrət öyrənə bilərsiniz əgər onlar onun əks çox insan ürək daha çox təbii gəlir sevgi sevgi tədris edilə bilər.

Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.

Təhsil dünyanı dəyişdirmək üçün ən güclü siladır.

Təhsil biz dünya dəyişdirmək üçün istifadə edə bilərsiniz olan ən güclü silah.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Azad olmaq tək zənciri tökmək deyil, başqalarının azadlığını va hörmətini qazanmaqdır.

Azad olmaq üçün bir zəncir off tökmə, lakin başqalarına azadlığını hörmət və artırır ki, bir şəkildə yaşamaq sadəcə deyil.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.

Həyatda əbədən yıxılmamaq şöhrət deyil, hər zaman yıxılandan sonra qalxmaq daha böyük şöhrətdir.

Yaşayan böyük şöhrət düşən heç deyil var, lakin hər zaman yüksələn siz düşür.

More easily confused words

I'm back. I was talking to my friend H today and he mentioned a word for the plants that they make beach shelters out of - qamış. This is the word for cane, reed or rush - a kind of plant that grows in water. We called them cattails or bulrushes when I was a kid.

However, I made a mistake typing the word into Google Translate and instead wrote qəmiş. This is a funny word and a useful word if people are bothering you. This is what the dictionary has to say:

Bore, a pain in the neck. In other words, an annoying git. Someone who nags you.

Uses in sentences:

Qəmiş qoyma! Don't be annoying! Don't bother me!
Qəmişini çək!  Leave me alone! Get lost!

What I would like to know is, just how rude are these sentences? In English we could say "Stop bothering me." This is not rude. But then again, we could say "Oh just bugger off." This is decidedly rude. Then there is "Get lost!" Rather rude. And the famous f-word. So on a rudeness scale of 1 (not rude) to 5 (very rude), where would these expressions fall?

A conversation - with the sheep!

I found these two sheep in a lovely shop in Tbilisi recently. I thought they would be perfect for some Azerbaijani conversations. Here is the first recording...