This paper presents an acoustic description of the nine Azerbaijani vowels; investigating the underlying acoustic and temporal characteristics of its vowel system. We explored acoustic and temporal parameters including: the first three formants (F1, F2 and F3), fundamental frequency (F0) and duration of the vowels. Participants in this study were 20 male and 23 female Azerbaijani speakers with a Tabrizi dialect. They were asked to utter three repetitions of the nine Azerbaijani vowels in three natural word contexts, embedded in carrier sentences. Results showed that the [ɯ] and [œ] vowels had a large overlap in the F1–F2 vowel space. Further analysis suggested that F3 is an important cue in discrimination of this vowel pair. Vowel-intrinsic duration effect seemed to be relatively strong in Azerbaijani. Other universal features also were found in the production of Azerbaijani vowels: low vowels and female speakers had lower F0 values. Surprisingly, in contrast with previous results for most languages, the average duration of Azerbaijani vowels was greater in males than females. The results of this study define the acoustic vowel-space of the Azerbaijani language and develop a database for further comparisons and investigations.
The consequence of globalization in many bilingual and multilingual communities appears to be the increased endangerment of language varieties and the speeding erosion of linguistic diversity. Understanding this concern and its associated issues of language contact, conflict, and maintenance may be considerably enhanced by exploring attitudes of communities towards the language varieties they live with. In this exploratory study we investigate attitudes of a group of bilingual Farsi-Azerbaijani speakers in the Iranian city of Tabriz towards the Azerbaijani language. Based on questionnaire data and semistructured interviews, the study explores the participants’ emotional attitudes towards Azerbaijani as well as their position regarding its application in some domains of language use. The study depicts the participants’ positive emotions and feelings towards their local language but at the same time reveals their hesitation and reservations in approving of its use in some domains of language use, education and new media in particular. On this basis, we argue that the safe status of a language even with the magnitude of Azerbaijani in Iran cannot be taken for granted and further comprehensive and in-depth research may be needed in this regard.
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