Qashqai (also spelled Ghashghai, Ghashghayi, Qašqāʾī, Qashqa'i, and Qashqayi) is a Turkic language spoken by the Qashqai people, an ethnic group living mainly in the Fars region of Iran. Estimates of the number of Qashqai speakers vary. Ethnologue gives a figure of 1.5 million. The Qashqai language is closely related to Azerbaijani, and some linguists consider it to be a dialect of that language.
Like the South Azerbaijani language in Iran, Qashqai uses the Persian modification of the Arabic script. The Qashqai also speak Persian, and use it as their literary language.
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“It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content ... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.”
—René Daumal (1908–1944)