azerbaijani

Azerbaijani, also called Azeri, denotes both an ethnolinguistic group and the language they speak. The Azerbaijanis form the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Azerbaijan and are also established in Iranian Azerbaijan. Diaspora communities exist in Russia, Georgia, Turkey, and many Western countries.

The Azerbaijani language is a Turkic language of the Oghuz branch. It exists in two regional standards: North Azerbaijani, spoken in Azerbaijan, and South Azerbaijani, spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan. The varieties are largely mutually intelligible. In Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani uses a Latin-based alphabet adopted after independence in 1991; in Iran, the Perso-Arabic script is used. The language is predominantly agglutinative, with vowel harmony and SOV word order, and borrows vocabulary from Persian, Turkish, Russian, and other languages.

Historically, the Azerbaijani identity formed in the Caucasus among Turkic-speaking groups. The modern state of Azerbaijan emerged in 1918, was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan SSR, and regained independence in 1991. Islam is the major religion among Azerbaijanis, with both Shia and Sunni communities represented; Iran's Azerbaijani community is largely Shia. Cultural traditions include mugham music, literature, carpet weaving, and distinctive cuisine.

The global Azerbaijani population is large, with the strongest concentrations in Azerbaijan and Iran, and sizable communities in Russia, Georgia, Turkey, and Europe.

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