The Iranian and Azari languages

Abstract

persian predominant ethnic group of Iran formerly known as Persiaand a significant minority community in western Afghanistan. Although of diverse ancestry the Persian people are united by their language, Persian )Farsi) which belongs to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family. The name of Azarbaijan has been one of the most renowned geographical names of Iran since 2000 years ago. Azar is a New-Persian word derivative from Middle-Persian (Pahlavi) Athur, Adur which means fire. In Pahlavi inscriptions the the region located south of Aras river has been recorded as Athurpatekan while it has been mentioned Azarbayegan and Azarpadegan in Persian writings. In many references Azerbaijanis are designated as a Turkic people due to their Turkic language. However modern-day Azerbaijanis are believed to be primarily the descendants of the Caucasian and Iranic peoples who lived in the areas of the Caucasus and northern Iran respectively prior to Turkification. Various historians including Vladimir Minorsky explain how largely Iranian and Caucasian populations became Turkish-speaking.

Key words: Language, Iranian languages, The Indo-European languages, Language of Azari people,  Azeris.