The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: TTT
ISO 639-2: ira
| Population | 22,000 in Azerbaijan (1979 census). Population total both countries 30,000 (1994 UBS). |
| Region | It may be declining around Baku, but still widely used in the mountainous area around Qonaqkend. Also spoken in Iran. |
| Alternate names | MUSSULMAN TATI, MUSLIM TAT, TATI |
| Dialects | QUBA, DEVECHI, QONAQKEND, QYZYL QAZMA, ARUSKUSH-DAQQUSHCHU (KHYZY), ABSHERON, BALAKHANI, SURAKHANI, LAHYJ, MALHAM. |
| Classification | Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western, Southwestern, Tat. |
| Comments | Difficult intelligibility with Judeo-Tat. Close to Farsi. It has vowel harmony like Azerbaijani. The first 4 dialects listed are northern, the next is central, the last 5 are southern. It is not clear if this distinction is linguistic or geographic. Balakhani are recent exiles from Iran, and their language is very close to Farsi. Lahyj may be a separate language. Lahyi use Azerbaijani as a literary language. Different from Takestani of Iran. Taught up to grade 3 in schools. Shi'a Muslim. |
| Iran |
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