Ancient Azari language
| Azari | |
|---|---|
| Old Azeri | |
| آذری Āḏarī | |
| Native to | Iran (Persia), Azerbaijan |
| Era | 1100–1972 CE |
|
Indo-European
|
|
| Persian alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
| Glottolog | adha1238 |
Old Azeri, also known as Azeri or Azari (Persian: آذری Āḏarī [ɑːzæri]), is the extinct Iranian language that was once spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan. Some linguists believe the southern Tati varieties of Iranian Azerbaijan such as those around Takestan such as the Harzandi and Karingani dialects to be remnants of Azeri. In addition, Old Azeri is known to have strong affinities with Talysh.
Azeri was the dominant language in Azerbaijan before it was replaced by Azerbaijani, which is a Turkic language.
The first scholar who discovered Azeri language is Ahmad Kasravi. He used Arabic, Persian, and Greek historical sources to prove that people of Azerbaijan used to speak a language of Iranian family called Azeri before they spoke the Turkic language of the same name. This discovery lead him to conclude that the people of Azarbaijan were Persians who were assimilated by invading Seljuq Turks.
Old Azeri was spoken in most of Azerbaijan at least up to the 17th century, with the number of speakers decreasing since the 11th century due to the Turkification of the area. According to some accounts, it may have survived for several centuries after that up to the 16th or 17th century. Today, Iranian dialects are still spoken in several linguistic enclaves within Azarbaijan. While some scholars believe that these dialects form a direct continuation of the ancient Azeri languages, others have argued that they are likely to be a later import through migration from other parts of Iran, and that the original Azeri dialects became extinct.
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