Bakı

== Azerbaijani == === Etymology === Baku is long attested under the Perso-Arabic name بَاکُو (bākū). Early Perso-Arabic sources also referred to the city as بَاکُوه (bākūh) and بَاکُویَه (bākūya), all of which seem to come from a Persian name. Further etymology is unknown. A popular etymology in the 19th century considered it to be derived from Persian بَادْکوبَه (bādkōba, “wind-pounded”), compound of بَاد (bād) + کوب (kōb) + ـَه (-a). This etymology was first proposed in the 17th century-chronicle Tārīkh-i ʕālam-ārā-yi ʕabbāsī. Another and even less probable etymology explains the name as deriving from Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (*bgkwdk' /⁠*baykōyōē, *bakkōyōē⁠/), an unattested compound of [Book Pahlavi needed] (bg /⁠bay, bag⁠/, “God; lord”) + [Book Pahlavi needed] (kwd /⁠kōy⁠/, “street, lane”) + [Book Pahlavi needed] (-wyk' /⁠-ōē⁠/), meaning "God's town". It may be compared with Baghdād ("God-given") in which dād is the Old Persian word for "give". During Soviet rule, the city was spelled in Cyrillic as Бакы in Azerbaijani (while the Russian spelling was and still is Баку́ (Bakú)). The modern Azerbaijani spelling, which has been in the Latin alphabet since 1991, is Bakı. The shift from the Perso-Arabic letter و (u) to Cyrillic ы and later Latin ı may be compared to that in other Azerbaijani words (e.g. قاپو (qapu) in old Perso-Arabic spelling with modern Azerbaijani qapı (“door”)), which changed in pronunciation following the development of labial harmony in the Azerbaijani language. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈbɑcɯ/ === Proper noun === Bakı Baku (the capital city of Azerbaijan) ==== Declension ==== ==== Derived terms ==== bakılı (“Bakuvian”) Bakıxanov === References === === Further reading === Baku on Wikipedia.Wikipedia