DEFINITION OF AZERBAIJANI VOCALISM OF THE 13TH CENTURY (BASED ON IBN MUHANNA'S DICTIONARY)

Abstract

The talented philologist of the 13th century Ibn Muhanna, having studied the language of the
Turkish-Azerbaijanis, where he lived and was a state official during the time of the Khulakis, gives information about 9 vowels (a, ə, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü), three of which (o, u, ü) are pronounced in two ways.
He tries to explain vowels alien to Arabic by analyzing them in his own way. These explanations are
often unclear. Since the three-vowel Arabic alphabet is unable to reflect the exact pronunciation of 9
Turkish-Azerbaijani vowel phonemes, which makes it difficult to create an overview of the vocalism
of the Azerbaijani language. Ibn Muhanna, explaining the peculiarities of pronunciation, emphasizes
the fact that some vowels are sometimes pronounced fluently, which is still a characteristic phonetic
phenomenon for the modern Azerbaijani language.
P. M. Melioransky, who studied the European manuscripts of the Ibn Muhanna's glossary, did
not include the sound “e” in the above list of vowels, but our study proves the existence of this phoneme.