The Azerbaijani, or Azeri, language was steadily been replaced by Russian as Azerbaijan’s chief language when the country became a part of the Soviet Union in 1922.
In the 1960s, a group of university professors began a movement to preserve Azeri.Among them was Professor Altay Goyushov’s father.
Goyushov, who has taught Azeri at UCLA for three years, has always been a part of the circle of academics and advocates who have fought to restore the importance of the language.
“It was part of my, let me say, life ““ preserving the language,” Goyushov said.
Although Azeri is a language largely unknown to English-speakers, it is in fact widely spoken in the Indo-European and Eastern European regions, with around 30 million speakers today.
Goyushov called the Azeri a revived language. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, demand for the teaching and speaking of the language rose drastically. However, Azerbaijan remains the only place with schooling conducted in Azeri.
According to Goyushov, because of Azerbaijan’s geographical location ““ it borders Iran, Russia and Turkey ““ the country shares something with each: Shiite Islam with Iran, culture with Russia after becoming a part of the Soviet Union and linguistic roots with Turkey.
Goyushov taught Azeri at Georgetown University in Washington before coming to UCLA. Before that, he taught the language with Russian instruction back in Azerbaijan.
Teaching international students had been an entirely new endeavor for Goyushov and other professors in Azerbaijan.
It was something they’d never had experience with before.
“Teaching a language to a foreign learner is itself something new ““ some kind of an adventure,” Goyushov said. “I see myself as part of that adventure.”