Languagle #44: Azerbaijani
Bilməmək eyib deyil, soruşmamaq eyibdir
"Not knowing is no shame; not asking is."
What it means
There is no shame in not knowing something; the shame is in not asking. A saying that encourages curiosity and learning.
How to say it
BIL-mə-mək eh-YIB DEH-yil, so-RUSH-ma-mag eh-YIB-dir
Ə is the a in 'cat', and ş is sh. A q at the end of a word sounds like a g.
Word by word
- Bilməmək BIL-mə-mək: not knowing (bilmək, to know)
- eyib eh-YIB: shame
- deyil DEH-yil: is not
- soruşmamaq so-RUSH-ma-mag: not asking (soruşmaq, to ask)
- eyibdir eh-YIB-dir: is a shame
The -mə- and -ma- in the middle of the two verbs both mean 'not'.
Where it was found
In Azerbaijani a proverb is an atalar sözü, 'a saying of the fathers'. This one is from Wikiquote's list of Azerbaijani proverbs.
Similar sayings
- Portuguese: Quem tem boca vai a Roma. Whoever has a mouth can get to Rome. (Languagle #36)
- Japanese: 聞くは一時の恥、聞かぬは一生の恥 (kiku wa ittoki no haji, kikanu wa isshō no haji). Asking is a moment's shame; not asking is a lifetime's.
How to recognise Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani's giveaway is ə, an upside-down e, which no other language in the game uses. It shares ç, ş, ğ, ö, ü and the dotless ı with Turkish, and adds x and q, which Turkish doesn't have. In Iran, Azerbaijani is written in Arabic script instead.
About the Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani is a Turkic language of the Oghuz branch, closely related to Turkish and Turkmen. It is spoken by around 10 million people in Azerbaijan and by many more in northwestern Iran, where Azerbaijanis are the largest minority. In Azerbaijan it is written in the Latin alphabet (with the upside-down e, ə), having switched from Cyrillic in 1991, while in Iran it is written in the Perso-Arabic script.
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