Qashqai language

Qashqai (قشقایی ديلى, Qaşqâyî dili, pronounced in English as KASH-ky, and also spelled Qaşqay, Qashqayi, Kashkai, Kashkay, Qašqāʾī and Qashqa'i or Kaşkay) is an Oghuz Turkic language spoken by the Qashqai people, an ethnic group living mainly in the Fars province of Southern Iran. Encyclopædia Iranica regards Qashqai as an independent third group of dialects within the Southwestern Turkic language group. It is known to speakers as Turki. Estimates of the number of Qashqai speakers vary. Ethnologue gave a figure of 1.0 million in 2021. It is usually written in the Nastaliq hand of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. It is closely related to Khorasani Turkic, Azeri, Turkish, Türkmen, Gagauz, and Chaharmahali Turkic. The Qashqai language is closely related to Azerbaijani. However, some Qashqai varieties, namely the variety spoken in the Sheshbeyli tribe, share features with Turkish. In a sociopolitical sense, though, Qashqai is considered a language in its own right.