The Azerbaijani alphabet: 32 letters and how it differs from Turkish

The Azerbaijani alphabet has 32 Latin letters, and you can read almost any word once you know them. Spelling follows sound closely. If you read Turkish, you already know 29 of them: Azerbaijani adds ə, q and x — and gives g and k slightly different sounds. This guide lists every letter with its name and sound, shows the traps for Turkish speakers and gives you words to practise. To see where you stand, try the free Azerbaijani level test.

Updated November 12, 2026 · 6 min read

Azerbaijani and its alphabet

Azerbaijani is the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Article 21 of the Constitution says so, and adds that the state guarantees the free use and development of the other languages spoken by the population.

The language has changed scripts more than once. The Unicode Standard notes that Turkic languages have switched between Arabic, Latin and Cyrillic, and that Azerbaijani "is now officially using a Turkish-based Latin script" — the alphabet in this guide. Wiktionary still records the Cyrillic and Arabic spellings of many words: *kitab* (book) is китаб in Cyrillic and کتاب in Arabic script. If you meet the older forms, our guides to the Russian alphabet and the Persian alphabet will help.

All 32 letters

Order and names follow Wiktionary's list of Azerbaijani letter names (where two names are given, both are used). The sound column gives the basic value in Wiktionary's pronunciation rules, with our rough English hint; some letters shift a little next to certain vowels.

The three letters Turkish does not have

Turkish uses 29 letters; Azerbaijani has the same 29 plus these three, each in its own place in the order (ə after e, x after h, q after k):

• Ə ə — the open a of English cat: ürək (heart), çörək (bread), Azərbaycan (Azerbaijan).
• Q q — the hard g of go, never a k: qız (girl, daughter), qardaş (brother).
• X x — the ch of Scottish loch: xalq (people, nation), xeyr (no, formal).

Dotted İ and dotless I

Like Turkish, Azerbaijani has two different i letters, and each keeps its dot (or lack of one) in capitals: İ i is the ee of see, I ı is a back vowel with no English match. Unicode's casing rules treat I/ı and İ/i as the case pairs for Turkish and Azerbaijani — so software set to English can turn İ into the wrong lower-case letter. Set your phone or computer to Azerbaijani when you type it.

Same word, different spelling

Azerbaijani and Turkish share many everyday words; the alphabets make the small sound differences visible. All examples are from Wiktionary — and the last one shows that a shared word can mean something different.

First words to read

The Cyrillic column is there only to help you recognise older texts; today's spelling is the Latin one.

A one-week plan

1. Day 1: the letters that sound roughly as in English: a, b, d, e, f, h, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, z.
2. Day 2: c, ç, ş, j, y — the ones that look familiar but sound different.
3. Day 3: ə, ı, ö, ü — the vowels English does not have.
4. Day 4: g, k, q, ğ, x — say göz, kitab, qız, sağ ol, xalq until they feel different.
5. Days 5–7: read the word tables aloud and learn ten words a day. Then take the Azerbaijani level test.

Learning Turkish too? The Turkish course and our guides to the TYS exam and the TÖMER exam are the next step.

Keep learning

• Serbian's two alphabets — another language read in Latin and Cyrillic
• The Persian alphabet, the Arabic alphabet and the Urdu alphabet
• The Georgian alphabet — Azerbaijan's neighbour and its unique script
• Level tests: Azerbaijani, Turkish, Persian, Russian or all 36 languages
• All guides · Plans and prices