Semantic Analysis

Several Azerbaijani terms in this Language Package carry a different semantic range than their English source word, and a number are shared directly with Shia Islamic religious vocabulary, which affects how consistently they can be used across contexts.

Terms shared with Islamic/Shia vocabulary but semantically narrower in this curriculum

• İman (faith): in Shia usage, iman can include assent to the Imamate alongside belief in Allah and the prophets. This curriculum uses İman more narrowly: personal trust in İsa Məsih. The object of faith must always be stated, since İman alone defaults to the broader Islamic sense for most readers.
• Vasitəçilik (intercession): a generic word for mediation that must be actively distinguished from the much more devotionally loaded şəfaət (Imamate intercession); using the generic term is a deliberate choice to avoid importing şəfaət’s specific theological content, not an oversight.
• Şükran (thanksgiving): shares a root with şükür, a frequent devotional term in everyday Azerbaijani Islamic speech. This is a genuinely narrower usage than the broader Islamic devotional sense, but the overlap is a point of resonance rather than risk.

Terms narrower than their common Azerbaijani usage

• Rəbb (Lord): in general Azerbaijani usage rəbb can appear as a title of respect, but this curriculum reserves it for the confession that İsa is Rəbb — the unique, exclusive Lordship claim of Romans 10:9.
• Müqəddəs Ruh (Holy Spirit): broader Islamic commentary on “Ruh əl-Qüds” often explains the phrase as referring to the archangel Cəbrail; this curriculum narrows and redefines the term specifically as God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, and this redefinition must be made explicit, not assumed.

Implication

Where an Azerbaijani term’s common semantic range overlaps with, but does not match, its Shia or broader Islamic theological usage, the glossary’s notes field (see translation_memory.json) exists specifically to flag the mismatch for translators, so a term is never applied on the assumption that a reader’s existing associations will automatically narrow correctly.