Asia
To what language should you translate to localize in Azerbaijan?
What we know from our community
Azerbaijani language belongs to the group of Turkic languages, the Oghuz class, according to the genealogical division. Thus, this language is closer to Turkmen, Gagauz, Crimean Tatars, and Turkic (Ottoman) languages. Azerbaijani language is used not only in Azerbaijan but also in Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan. As a result of trade and international relations with other countries, the language has international words as well as Russian-European and Arabic-Persian loanwords.
The letters and sounds ‘ə,’ ‘ı,’ ‘ğ,’ and ‘x’ belong only to the Azerbaijani language; they are almost never used in other languages. For example: “çok güzelsin” (you’re very beautiful) in Turkish is used as “çox gözəlsən.”
Brands often play word games using synonyms, homonyms, and polysemous words to create original and creative content. E.g., with the slogan “al şal,” it is possible to convey both the message “buy a shawl” and the message “red shawl.”
As a result of major changes in the country’s political, economic, scientific, and cultural life, styles have emerged in the vocabulary of the Azerbaijani language. Understanding which style to use for which channel is vital in marketing campaigns:
Kamran Shukurlu , Digital Marketing & Content StrategistArtistic style – Figurative, emotional form of speech. E.g., in the proverb “Azacıq aşım, ağrımaz başım,” the repetition of vowels ‘a’ and ‘ı’ adds emotionality and rhyme to the text.
Scientific style – Its main characteristic is logic and concreteness. Terms such as “gravity,” “sine,” and “phonetics” can be examples.
Journalistic style – Used by radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. Aimed to be understood by everyone.
Household style – The language in which people communicate with one another in everyday life. Brands that want to be closer to their target audience and look sincere use this style in their advertising texts.
Official-business style – Used for documents such as presidential decrees, laws, decisions, resumes, applications, announcements, etc.
Azerbaijani
Azərbaycan dili genoloji bölgüyə əsasən, türk dilləri qrupuna, oğuz sinfinə məxsusdur. Məhz bu səbəbdən Azərbaycan dili türkmən, qaqauz, krım tatarlarının dili və türk (osmanlı) dillərinə daha yaxındır. Azərbaycan dilindən Azərbaycanla yanaşı, İran, İraq, Gürcüstan, Rusiya, Türkiyə, Ukrayna, Suriya və Əfqanıstan ərazisində də istifadə olunur. Digər ölkələrlə ticari və beynəlxalq əlaqələr nəticəsində dildə beynəlmiləl sözlərlə yanaşı rus-avropa, həmçinin ərəb-fars mənşəli alınma sözlər də mövcuddur.
‘ə’, ‘ı’, ‘ğ’, ‘x’ hərf və səsləri ancaq Azərbaycan dilinə məxsusdur, digər dillərdə, demək olar ki, işlədilmir. Məsələn: Türk dilindəki “çok güzelsin” ifadəsi “çox gözəlsən“ şəklində işlədilir.
Brendlər tez-tez orjinal və kreativ kontent yaratmaq üçün sinonim, omonim və çoxmənalı sözlərdən istifadə edərək söz oyunları oynayırlar. Məsələn “al şal” şüarı ilə həm “şal al” mesajını, həm də “al rəngdə şal” mesajını ötürmək mümkündür.
Ölkənin siyasi, iqtisadi, elmi, mədəni həyatında baş verən böyük dəyişikliklər nəticəsində Azərbaycan dilinin lüğət tərkibində üslublar yaranmışdır. Marketinq kampaniyalarında hansı kanal üçün hansı üslubu istifadə etmək lazım olduğunu başa düşmək həyati əhəmiyyətlidir:
Bədii üslub – Obrazlı, emosional nitq formasıdır. Məsələn: «Azacıq aşım, ağrımaz başım» atalar sözündə a və ı saitlərinin təkrarı nitqə emosionallıq qatır.
Elmi üslub – Əsas xüsusiyyəti məntiqilik və konkretlikdir. Nümunə kimi “qravitasiya”, “sinus”, “fonetika” terminlərini göstərə bilərik.
Publisistik üslub – Radio, televiziya, qəzet və jurnallar tərəfindən istifadə olunur. Əsas xüsusiyyəti fikrin hamı tərəfindən anlaşıqlı, aydın və təsirli şəkildə ifadə olunmasıdır.
Məişət üslubu – Gündəlik həyatda insanların bir-biri ilə ünsiyyət saxladığı dildir. Hədəf auditoriyasına daha yaxın olmaq, səmimi görünmək istəyən brendlər reklam mətnlərində bu üslubdan istifadə edir.
Rəsmi-işgüzar üslub – Prezident fərmanları, qanun, qərar, əmr, tərcümeyi – hal, ərizə, elan, arayış və s. sənədlər üçün istifadə olunur.
Introduction
Language
Official language
Azerbaijani 92.5%
T-index
0.053%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Other languages
Russian 1.5% and Armenian 1%
Lezgic
A Lezgic language, Lezgian is spoken by the Lezgins living in northern Azerbaijan. It is classified as a vulnerable language by UNESCO.
Avar
A language of the Northeast Caucasian family, Avar is spoken in parts of north-western Azerbaijan and Dagestan. It is spoken by about 762,000 people worldwide.
Taylish
The Talysh language, an Iranian language, is spoken in parts of Iran and southern Azerbaijan. Although it has about 500,000 to 1 million speakers, its popularity is constantly decreasing. Thus, UNESCO also classifies this language as vulnerable in its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
English
Very low proficiency (EF) – 92 of 112 countries/regions in the world- 35/35 position in Europe.
Demography
Capital: Baku
Currency: Azerbaijani manat
Population: 10,15 billion
Population density: 122/km2
Economy
GDP: 154.62 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 5,384.0 USD (2021)
Exports: $13.8 billion (2020)
Statistics
Internet users: 81.1% penetration, 8.32 billion
Unemployment rate: 7.2% (2020)
Urbanisation: 53.06% (2020)
Literacy: 100% (2019)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numbering system, point as decimal separator and space or comma as separator of thousands.
Date format: yyyy-mm-dd
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 0099
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$10.7 billion (2020). Cars ($615M), Gas Turbines ($321M), Packaged Medicaments ($302M), Wheat ($289M), and Broadcasting Equipment ($244M), importing mostly from Russia ($2.03B), Turkey ($2.03B), China ($936M), Germany ($473M), and United Kingdom ($448M).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 29% have an account with a financial institution
• 5.3% have a credit card
• 9.4% make online purchases
Ease of doing business
Very Easy to conduct business (76.7 out of 100) 7th out of 24 European and Central Asian countries, 34th worldwide out of 190 countries (2022, World Bank)
Exports
$13.8 billion (2020). Crude Petroleum ($9.3B), Petroleum Gas ($2.2B), Refined Petroleum ($292M), Gold ($211M), and Tomatoes ($201M), exporting mostly to Italy ($4.06B), Turkey ($2.61B), Russia ($728M), Greece ($514M), and Georgia ($490M).
Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (61.6 out of 100) 37th out of 45 countries in Europe 100th worldwide out of 186 countries (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 16th out of 19 Central and Southern Asian countries, 93rd out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service Exports (2018)
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most Specialised Products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Azerbaijan observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Azerbaijan is not specialized in
Source: OEC
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language
Russian, English, Azerbaijani
Information channels
Dissenting voices are practically absent from mainstream media and critical journalists risk arrest and imprisonment.
“President Ilham Aliyev has been waging a relentless war against his remaining critics”, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in 2017. The organisation reported “independent journalists and bloggers are thrown in prison if they do not first yield to harassment, beatings, blackmail, or bribes.”
TV is the most popular medium and many homes are served by satellite channels. All Azerbaijan-based channels toe the government line. Some networks are owned by relatives or associates of the president. State-owned AzTV runs three national channels and there are four national privately-owned stations. State-funded iTV is a notional public service broadcaster. Turkish, Russian and Western TVs are available on cable. Opposition and exile TVs use satellite and online distribution. Analogue terrestrial TV was phased out in 2016-17. Radio outlets focus on entertainment. Around a dozen stations are on FM in Baku and many of them are relayed elsewhere. Most newspapers were set up for political or personal interests. Their distribution is largely limited to Baku. US-based Freedom House reports that although the government does not extensively block online content, web users and their families can “face arrest and intimidation, and pro-government trolling distorts political discussions”.
Press
Azarbaycan – government daily
Azadliq – opposition, online
Ekho – private daily, in Russian
Zerkalo – private daily, in Russian
Yeni Musavat – opposition title
Yeni Azarbaycan – ruling party house organ
Ekspress – weekly
525 Qazet – weekly
Television
AzTV – state-run, operates three networks
iTV – state-funded
Space TV – private
Lider TV – private
Azad Azarbaycan (ATV) – private
Radio
Azerbaijan Radio – state-run
Public Radio – state-funded
News Agencies
Azartac – state-run, English-language pages
Turan – private, English-language pages
Trend – private, English-language pages
APA – private, English-language pages
Day.az – news website, in Russian
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
81.1% penetration, 8.32 billion
Share of web traffic by device
61.89% mobile phones, 37.10% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.96% tablet devices, others 0.06%
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
28.25 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
16.47 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population 116.1%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G) 84.3%
Most popular web search engines
Google (94.11%), Yandex (3.48%), Bing (0.83%), Yahoo (0.24%), DuckDuckgo (0.12%), Mail.ru (0.13%)
Most used social media
Facebook (30.16%), YouTube (21.21%), Pinterest (18.32%), Instagram (17.29%), Twitter (8.45%), Linkedin 1.6%
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
73 yrs (2020)
Average age of the population
32.3 yrs (2020)
Ethnicity
There are no overt ethnic problems. There is a tense situation with Armenians concerning an Azeri territory that is occupied by the Armenians, commonly known as the Garabagh conflict. There are small numbers of Kurds – Taats, Jews, etc, but there is no overt discrimination against any ethnicities in the country.
Healthcare expenditure
4.04% of GDP (2019)
Religion
People are generally non-religious. Having lived under Communism for 70 years and never learned about religion, therefore they are quite secular in their beliefs. However, many identify themselves as Muslims, without fully knowing what it means.
Gender
Society in general is male-oriented, fair pay for women is a battle that has a long way to go.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Languages spoken in Azerbajian
Legend
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Tsakhur
-
Georgian
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Lezgi
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Ludeo Tat
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Budukh
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Kryts
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Muslim Tat
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Khinalugh
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Khalaj
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Talysh
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Udi
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Kurdish
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Armenian
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Azerbaijani
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Rutul
-
Avar
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Uninhabited
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Ganimat Pashazade, Unsplash