Basic Course in Azerbaijani (Uralic & Altaic)

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BASIC COURSE IN AZERBAIJANI by Fr~

W. Hous.holder

it.

with

Mansour LotH

Published by Indiana University, Bloomington

Mouton & Co., The Hogue, The Netherlonds 1965

Indiana University Publications Uralic and Altaic Series, Vol. 45

INTRODUCTION

This book is designed to help you to learn spoke n Aze rbaijani. This language is th e mother tongue o f roughly 5,000,000 people almo s t equally divide d betwe e n Southe rn Azerbaijan, which is a northern province of P e rsia, and Northern Azerbaijan, a Soviet Socialist Republic on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, in the Caucasus region. The dial e ct presented in this book is as closely Tabrizi as pos s ible considering the fact that it is supposed to be at least intelligible in all parts of Persian Azerbaijan. Because of the relatively minor importance of dialect differences in general it can serve as a means of communication in most parts of the Azerbaijani area although people in the extreme outlying districts may have their difficulties, mos tly because of vocabulary. Differences in phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary are tnentioned wherever feasible and a s pe cial chapte r on th e Baku dialect, which was pre pare d with the help of Yusuf KachramanoRlu from Baku, ap peal's at the end. The book is based in plan, form, and method on the series begun in 1942 for the U.S. Armed Forces. The original draft was prepared in 1952-1953 and 1954, and used with one class in 1954. All the Azerbaijani text of Basic Se ntence s, Exe rcises, and Conversations is the o riginal work of Mansour Lotfi (of Marand). The Basic Sentences and some Conversations were composed orally by Mansour Lotfi and transc:ribed by Fred W. Householder jr.; the other Azerbaijani items were written by Mansour Lotfi, checked and the transcription revis e d by Fred W. House holder jr. All transcriptions ('Aids to Listening'), therefore, repr e s e nt a particular rendition by a particular speaker at a particular time. Other renditions are , of course, bound to be different. Salim Neysari of Tabriz was cons ulted and =any points checke d with him. Nothing in the book is translated from English except some of the bracketed synonyms; all English Equivalents are trans lated from Azerbaijani. The Pronunciation and Analysis s ections and the chapters on Spelling are the work of Fred W. Householder jr., checked with Mansour Lotli. The examples cited there are largely taken from the text itself, but =any are drawn from other sources - Voice of Atnerica broadcasts, Azerbaijani books and mag azines, texts published by Karl Foy in M.S. O. 5. 6, 197-265, and one or two other periodical article s. The whole book was condensed and rechecked by Gerd Fraenkel in 1959 -1960 with the help of Parvin Atai from Tabriz who also helped considerably with the preparation of the vocabulary. Final proofreading and completion of the vocabulary were the tasks of Harold Batte rsby in 1963. The book was designed and compo sed by Suzanne Brown. Since this revi l ed ve rlion hal never b ee n u sed with a clals, it undoubt e dly contains many erro rs and infelicities, for which we apologize in advanc e . We are indebted to the Center for Applied Linguistics for a grant which expedited the publication of this book. Azerbaijani il a Turkic language , ve r y closely related to Turkil h, Turkmen, Tiirki of Eastern Turkeatan, Uzbek, etc. Its relationship to Turkish is about as close as Danish to Norwegian. They are to some extent mutually intelligible.

/

Note s on the Symbolization Employed

1.

Abbre viations

You will find a number of remarks on the official spelling of Azerbaijani later on. Let it ~y be said here that for th e lake of concisenels and economy we resort to two different kinds of symbols: the sp'e cific ones : representing individual Azerbaijani sounds (phonemic transcription); and general ones, representing classes. Tbe symbols for the latter are the following: C '" consonant CC = consonant cluster V = vowel

VV :: vowel cluster FV = front vowel B V = back vowel

Ff)V = front rounded vowel BOV = back rounded vowel

These are , of course, in the main nothing but abbreviations of the names of the classes. 2.

Suffixation

In many case s we may u se th e hyphen to indicate position of an ele ment in the word, i.e. stem- , -suffix-, -final suffix respectively whenever this is necessary to avoid confUlion. However, this use must not be confused with the hyphen used to mark juncture in the transcription.

v

3.

Loc~l

V.l.riations

Bec ~ ;o.e oi the possible variations in local pronunciation, none of which can be given absolute preference, ""e Ihal! ,nclude the two most common ones in a single transcription system. Thil problem is related to, though not identical '.:ith, the question of the two standard languages, Persian and Soviet Azerbaijani, about which more ..... ill "oe said later . The variants will be indicated in the following way:

· mAX : Y :: max I'i in Tabriz rna!:klyelsewhere

_AjAXly:: ajaxl.., in Tabriz eejeeklyelsewhere

_ux :: we: or lx in Tabriz ik or illaeli, bir yaxi{:restorl..n-var.

22.

this where? where 11 (it)? Where i. thi. re.taurant?

bu h«r(a)cia hlr(alcia-di{r) bu re storan hiracia-di?

23. hotel Is there a hotel here? Whe re i. the hotel?

23. (h) ot61, mehmanxana bJrta)cia hot~l vir-(tni)? hot~l hi'r(a)da-dt?

24.

(the) atation which way i. (it)? Which way i. the a t ation?

24.

25.

25.

va'tufi, ulin.tyee, istigah h;(:zyanda - di(r)? vayzaJ ha=yanda-di?

Coot r oad, way ill way (the) toilet men'a toilet Where i. the t o ilet?

'_2

ayu

y6' yoh~

mil.tarih, tnawl ayu=yolu mUstad.h hiyanda-dt.

2

26.

the pO lltoffice

27. right on the right to the right left on the left to the left side hand It' s on the right (if close) . It's on the right (if distant). It's on the left (if close). It's on the left (if distant). front straight It's straight ahead.

26.

pbsxani

27.

1I;£of

saydi sayi

'01 solda: sota: teeraef

"'I

s{y-teereef~-di.

siY - iII!l~ - di. s61-teerl'Ji!f~-di.

s61-l'Ji!ldee-di. qabruc dO. qabaxda:-di-, dih"Me-di

28.

What place? Where to? are you going Where are you going?

h{ra hiraya, hira gedfr -lIl'Ji!n h,fr(ay)a gedt(r)-lIl'Ji!n.

29.

29.

28.

I

inM:n

Baku to Baku train by train four at four hour; o'clock I'm going to Baku, by train, at four o'clock.

Baki Bakiyi t(i)rin trin - ill'Ji!, tren - iruen dtlrd sa9{t sa9at dOrtMe+rnien Bak(i-)ye gedir -l'Ji!m; trin - ilae.

30. Show me! here herel (it) ill here (itl is herel Here it is!

30. gostaer=1lUIeru:e ! bur(a)da bur(alda I bur(alda:-dibur{alda-di-l bu - daha [bu-duva]

31.

there there There it is I

31.

or(a)ei! 6r(a)da 6-daha [6 - duva)

32.

this what? What is this?

32.

bU rW: [nae-rnseneeJ bu nee-di(rl. [bu Mernsenee-di(r).1

33.

33.

dOrt~

dee.rae bir deefae bir-dee, bir dee.fse - dee ded1z. (dedin) [dedaz, dedan] esit-rnsedtm tikr{r=edin [=eliyinJ bayiiJl{ytn nae=dediz.* eiit-rnsedim. bir dee.fse-dee tikr!r=eliyin.

time once once more you said I did not hear repeat I Excuse me; what did you say? I did not hear. Plea lie r e peat once more.

* The rna lit common pronunciation of Me plull noun (like Me=zaman, Me=gUn{i) or Me plus verb (like Me=dediz) has the stress on the interrogative word. The lIame goes for other interrogative particles. However, there exiSts a divergent pronunciation which stresses the syllable following the interrogative (Me gUnU) with or without higher pitch on the interrogative particle. This wil l be understood to be a different phonetic actualization of the phonemic pattern of nae=g(1nU, which will be our regular IIpeUing.

3

1-3

Pronunciation a: The vowel written a i, very similar to our a in father or sometimes in lawn, our 0 in hot. Sometimes in weak syllables it rna}' sou;:;-d a little like our ~ in b~t. A medial!. between s ingle consona~t8 (in a three-syllable word) t ends toward t-. especially before y. yaxlf-yam oynayan

yolcUfl axlam

piyada bay;.nol:

qan'r-am hol:rada

almaya apartp

0: This vowel i s generally dosed, like the beginning of the vowe l in boat, but occasionall y more open, like the vowel in all - e specially before -I, as in futbol, for example. Like e, it is generally found only in stem syllables, It never ends with an ~-sound (as our 0 in bow usually does) except when followed by;: or y. and is ahnost always shorter than our related £-sounds. In final syllables and medially between single consonants (in a thre e -s yllable word) it tends toward u.

6n

ab(tlj6v tilefon

old\!

limonat yox , y60

06x 6

otubos [otupos] ayrodr6m

i: This vowel is very si milar to ours in~, but with some variation according to position. The most striking variations (occuring in words of two or more syllables) are (I) in final position and be fore 1 it tends in the dir ectio n of our ~ in bet; (2) near labials (m. p, b~ especially m, it tends toward U; ( 3) be fore y (and to some extent r, I, k. g) it is like our e in beet.

Practice I bilitimizi illir -i yetdi d(1zeemselli ikinji

Practice 2 Miyana verim bil-mir-dim aadaet=edip -llII!r glll!lmil-UX

Practice 3 xudaaCizli y -iiciin ayliy'=ayliya elikdae e liytoe qiylYllll!t

e: Thill vowel variell between ou r ~ in bet and our ~ in th ey. depending on the following consonant. Except where it is in a Sandhi* development from III!, and in a few loan - words, it occurs chiefly as the first vowel of a word. It rellembles our!y in they before y and r; slightly lells so (shorter, le8s drawled) before k, g, I, and n. Finally and in medial syllable s of polysyllables (all loan-words) it tends toward our.!. in~. This i s also true of t he stem ed- when between stronger lIyllables . Near ~ or y,it may sound like~, o r even a . Otherwise it is very close to our e in bet. Practice I eyliytoe bilsaem yeri yeyin servisi yetdi

Practice 2 de-nee .,~

taerk::edAX aerodrom qeezetae

Practice 3 to