Frequently Asked Questions

Yaz.Az is a free online tool that lets you type in Azerbaijani using any standard Latin keyboard. Instead of needing an Azerbaijani keyboard layout installed on your device, you type using familiar shortcodes — for example, sh becomes ş, and ae becomes ə — and then click Convert to get proper Azerbaijani text.

It also includes a virtual on-screen keyboard so you can click Azerbaijani characters directly, and a reverse mode that converts Azerbaijani text back to ASCII shortcodes.

No account, no registration, no installation. Open the site, start typing. Yaz.Az works entirely in your browser — there is nothing to download or set up. It works on any modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) on any device.

Yes, fully. Yaz.Az is designed to be mobile-first. The Virtual Keyboard mode is especially convenient on phones — instead of typing shortcodes, you tap Azerbaijani letters directly on screen. The reference panel is collapsible on mobile to keep the interface clean.

All character shortcuts are shown in the reference panel on the main page. Here is the complete list:

• ae or e' → ə (and AE / E' → Ə)
• oe or o' → ö (and uppercase variants → Ö)
• ue or u' → ü (and uppercase → Ü)
• ii → ı (dotless i — see below)
• gh → ğ (and GH → Ğ)
• ch → ç (and CH → Ç)
• sh → ş (and SH → Ş)

Capitalisation follows naturally: use the uppercase shortcode to get the uppercase Azerbaijani character.

This is the most important distinction in Azerbaijani typing, and the most commonly confused.

• Dotted i / İ — this is the standard Latin i that appears in "internet", "ali", "kitab". Type a single i to produce it.
• Dotless ı / I — this is a distinct vowel, a back unrounded vowel unique to Azerbaijani (and Turkish). It appears in words like "qış" (winter), "balıq" (fish), "ılıq" (warm). Type ii to produce it.

Mixing up these two letters changes the meaning of words. "Ali" (a common name) is different from "alı" (he/she takes). The double-i shortcode is intentional — it is the most memorable way to distinguish them on a standard keyboard.

A bare e is not mapped to ə by default because the ambiguity is too high. Azerbaijani text frequently contains plain Latin e — in loanwords like "email", "internet", "metr", and in proper nouns. If e were automatically converted, words like "elə" would have an unintended second conversion, and any Latin text mixed with Azerbaijani would produce incorrect results.

Use ae or e' to produce ə explicitly. This is a deliberate design choice: predictability is more important than brevity.

Yes. Each mapping has a lowercase, full-uppercase, and title-case variant. For example:

• sh → ş
• SH → Ş
• Sh → Ş

This means you can type naturally at the start of sentences without worrying about case — "Shimal" (North) will correctly produce "Şimal".

Type your text in the text area using the shortcodes, then click the teal Convert button. The shortcodes in your text are replaced in-place with the corresponding Azerbaijani characters. The conversion does not happen automatically while you type — you trigger it manually. This is intentional: it prevents unintended substitutions and lets you review your text before converting.

This mode reverses the process. If you have Azerbaijani text with proper special characters and you need a version that uses only standard Latin keyboard characters — for example, for a system that cannot render Unicode, for SMS on old devices, or for a database that only accepts ASCII — this mode converts ş → sh, ə → ae, ğ → gh, and so on.

Click the Virtual Keyboard tab in the mode selector. An on-screen keyboard appears below the text area. Click or tap any key to insert that character at your cursor position in the text area. The Azerbaijani-specific letters (ə, ö, ü, ı, ğ, ç, ş and their uppercase forms) are highlighted in teal so they are easy to find. Use the space bar and backspace keys on the virtual keyboard as normal. You can mix virtual keyboard input with typed text freely.

Yes. After converting, use the utility buttons below the text area:

• Copy — copies the full text to your clipboard in one click.
• Download .txt — saves the text as a plain .txt file to your device.
• Clear — empties the text area so you can start fresh.
• Paste — pastes text from your clipboard into the text area (requires browser clipboard permission).

It should not have. Switching between modes (Latin → Azerbaijani, Azerbaijani → ASCII, Virtual Keyboard) preserves the contents of the text area. Conversion is only triggered when you click the Convert button — never automatically when you switch modes. If the text area content changed unexpectedly, please contact us with details.

No. Yaz.Az does not have a backend for text processing. The transliteration engine is entirely JavaScript running in your browser. Your text never leaves your device and is never transmitted to any server. This applies equally to the Latin → Azerbaijani mode, the reverse mode, and the virtual keyboard. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

We do not set any first-party cookies. The dark/light mode preference is stored only in memory for the duration of your browser session — it resets when you close the tab. Google AdSense (our ad provider) may set third-party cookies for ad personalisation. You can opt out through Google's Ad Settings.

We use Umami Analytics, a privacy-respecting platform that collects only anonymous, aggregated statistics — page views and general referrer data. Umami uses no cookies and stores no personally identifiable information. No individual profile is ever created about you. We collect this data purely to understand how the tool is used in aggregate so we can improve it.

Once the page has loaded in your browser, the transliteration engine works offline — the JavaScript runs locally with no network requests required for converting text. Fonts and analytics require a connection, but the core functionality (typing, converting, copying) is fully available offline after initial load. For full offline use, you can bookmark the page and access it once a connection becomes available to reload the assets.

All modern browsers are supported: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera, and their mobile equivalents. The Paste button requires the browser's Clipboard API, which is available in all modern browsers over HTTPS. Internet Explorer is not supported.

There is no enforced character limit. The text area can hold as much text as your browser's memory allows. For very long documents (tens of thousands of characters), performance may vary depending on your device, but typical use — emails, messages, paragraphs — is handled instantly.

We welcome feedback from native Azerbaijani speakers — real-world usage reveals edge cases that automated testing cannot anticipate. Please email info@azerbaijanikeyboard.com with the input text, the output you received, and what the correct output should be. We will investigate and update the mapping rules accordingly.