By the late 19th century, "Bey" had been reduced in the Ottoman Empire to an honorary title. While in Qazaq and other Central Asian Turkic languages, "бай" remains a rather honorific title, in modern Turkish, and in Azerbaijan, the word "bey" (or "bay") simply means "mister" (compare Effendi) or "sir" and is used in the meaning of "chieftain" only in historical context. "Bay" is also used in Turkish in combined form for certain military ranks, e.g. "albay", meaning colonel, from "alay" "regiment" and "-bay", and "yarbay", meaning lieutenant colonel, from "yardim" "assistance" and "-bay" (thus an "assistant "albay"").