Azerbaijani/Contents (Latin)/Lesson One - Greetings

Salam! Birinci dərsinizə xoş gəlmişsiniz! If you're wondering what that meant, it means Hello! Welcome to your first lesson!. Read on to learn more interjections.

Greetings

Hello! - Salam ələyküm!, or Salam! for short!

Note that if someone says the former greeting, you must say the following back:

Hello! - Ələyküm salam

How are you? - Necəsiniz (formal), Necəsən (informal)

I'm fine, thanks. - Yaxşıyam, sağ olun.

And this is invariably followed by:

And you? - Bəs siz?

To which you can reply:

Thank you (very much). - Çox sağ olun.

After making a new Azeri friend, it would be rude not to say the following (and there are two ways of saying it):

Nice to meet you. - Məmnun oldum. / Çox şadam.

Greetings at different times of the day

Good morning! - Sabahınız xeyir! (formal), Sabahın xeyir! (informal)

Good afternoon! - Gün aydın!

Good evening! - Axşamınız xeyir! (formal), Axşamın xeyir! (informal)

Good night! - Gecəniz xeyir! (formal), Gecən xeyir! (informal)

Goodbyes

Goodbye! - Sağ olun!

See you! - Görüşərik!

See you (on Monday)! - (Bazar ertəsi günü) görüşənədək!

When put into context...

Aysel: Salam ələyküm! Mənim adım Ayseldir.

Tural: Ələyküm salam, Aysel! Mən Tural.

Aysel: Necəsiniz, Tural?

Tural: Yaxşıyam. Bəs siz?

Aysel: Yaxşıyam, çox sağ olun.

Tural: Yaxşı. Tanış olduğumuza məmnun oldum.

Aysel: Mən də məmnun oldum.

Tural: Sağ olun!

Aysel: Görüşənədək!

Translation

Aysel: Hello! My name is Aysel!

Tural: Hello, Aysel! I'm Tural.

Aysel: How are you?

Tural: I'm good. And you?

Aysel: I'm very good, thank you.

Tural: Good. Nice to meet you.

Aysel: Nice to meet you too.

Tural: Goodbye

Aysel: See you!

Notes

In Azerbaijani, as is true with many other languages, when you're talking to someone you've never met before/rarely ever talk to/worthy of respect, you refer to them in the plural form. As you can see in the conversation, rather than referring to each other as sən (you [singular]), they refer to each other as siz (you [plural]). This is only a formality, but very important.

Another thing to note is that they rarely use the word mən (I) when referring to themselves. In Turkish, as long as the reader/listener can understand who the writer/speaker is talking about, words such as mən, sən, o (he/she), etc., don't need to be used.

Also, when Tural says "Mən Tural" (meaning "I'm Tural, but literally "Me Tural"), it's just like in Tarzan, when Tarzan goes "Me Tarzan, you Jane". In Azerbaijani, this is considered to be normal, because the copula ("to be" in English) is considered redundant.

Homework

Practise everything you've learnt in this lesson with someone else.
Read the following articles:
- Sociolinguistically Speaking: Saying "Hello" in Azerbaijani"
- Azerbaijan - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette