Tat, an Endangered Language of Azerbaijan, and Its Speakers: A Historical and Sociolinguistic Overview

Abstract

This article offers a brief insight into the history of Tat, an Iranian language spoken mainly in Azerbaijan, and the sociolinguistic profile of its speakers, with emphasis on phenomena such as language identity and language shift. Despite the absence of reliable figures regarding the number of Tat speakers, field inquiries show that fluency in Tat decreases with each generation, a worrying trend considering that many Tat varieties still await their description and documentation.

Keywords

• Tat
• Azerbaijan
• minority languages
• endangered languages
• sociolinguistics
• Iranian languages

Azerbaycan'ın Tehlikedeki Bir Dili Tatça ve Konuşurları Tarihsel ve Toplumdilbilimsel Bir Bakış

Öz

Bu makale, ağırlıklı olarak Azerbaycan'da konuşulan bir İrani dil olan Tatçanın tarihine ve konuşanlarının toplumdilbilimsel profiline, dil kimliği ve dil kayması gibi olgulara vurgu yaparak kısa bir bakış açısı sunmaktadır. Tatça konuşurlarının sayısına ilişkin güvenilir rakamlar olmamasına rağmen, saha araştırmaları, toplumda Tatçayı akıcı bir şekilde konuşabilenlerin sayısının her kuşakta azaldığını gösteriyor. Bu, Tatçanın pek çok varyantının hâlâ tanımlanmadığı ve belgelenmediği düşünüldüğünde endişe verici bir eğilimdir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Tat
• Cuhuri
• Dağ Yahudileri
• Azerbaycan
• toplum dil bilim
• dil kayması
• azınlık dilleri

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