Native to Iran Native speakers 949,000 (2015)[1] | Ethnicity Qashqai Writing system Persian | |
Region Fars, Isfahan, Bushehr, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Khuzestan Language family Turkic
Common Turkic
Oghuz
Western Oghuz
Southwestern Oghuz
Qashqai | ||
Qashqai (also spelled Qashqay, Kashkai, Kashkay, Qašqāʾī, and Qashqa'i) is a Oghuz Turkic language spoken by the Qashqai people, an ethnic group living mainly in the Fars region of southern Iran. In the Encyclopaedia Iranica Qashqai is also regarded as an independent third group of dialects within the southwestern Turkic languages. It is known to speakers as Turki. Estimates of the number of Qashqai speakers vary. Ethnologue gives a figure of 949,000 in 2015.
The Qashqai language is closely related to Azerbaijani. However, some Qashqai varieties namely the variety spoken in the Sheshbeyli tribe share features with Turkish, too. Some linguists argue that it is a dialect of the Azerbaijani language. In a sociopolitical sense, though, Qashqai must be considered as a language on its own right.
Like other Turkic languages spoken in Iran, such as the Azerbaijani language, known also as Azeri, Qashqai uses a modified version of the Perso-Arabic script.