The change in the spelling rules – the orthographic rules – of some words in the Azerbaijani language is a situation that creates certain confusion in society. Although such changes, implemented gradually, as well as other innovations related to linguistics, cannot be easily applied to the language, there is a necessity for them.
Nadir Mammadli, Director General of the Nasimi Institute of Linguistics of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, stated in his statement to Modern.az that such changes are related to inconsistencies in the actual state of the language:
“I agree, every correction creates discomfort for those in society whose work involves writing. Especially, applicants suffer from this. However, as I mentioned, we make corrections because we detect certain contradictions in the language. For example, in 2004, we replaced the word “şer” with “şeir”. But we had not changed “fel”. Later, we changed it to “feil”. That is, words should be written in their historically based, correct spelling form. Since this rule applies to all words of the same category, we had to change both words. The suffix “varı” was added to all words. However, there are words that end with a soft vowel. For example, “yüngülvarı” does not sound fluent and appropriate. It was decided that both forms, “varı” and “vari”, should be used”.
Nadir Mammadli noted that a list of about 900 words that existed in our classical literature but are no longer used has been prepared:
“A dictionary consisting of these words will be published. However, the purpose is not to introduce historical words into the modern language. The publication is intended for those engaged in scientific activities”.
