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Zazaki
Native to	Turkey
Region	Main in Gümüşhane Province, Şanlıurfa Province, and Adıyaman Province, diasporic in Mutki, Sarız, Aksaray, and Taraz
Native speakers	About 1.5 - 2.5 million in Turkey, unknown numbers elsewhere
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Zaza-Gorani Zazaki
Language codes
ISO 639-2	zza
ISO 639-3	Variously: zza – Zazaki (generic) diq – Dimli (Southern Zazaki) kiu – Kirmanjki (Northern Zazaki)
ELP	Dimli

Zazaki (or Kirmanjki, Dimli) is a language spoken by Zazas in eastern Turkey. According to Ethnologue, the Zazaki is a part of the northwestern group of the Iranian section of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Zazaki shares many features, structures, and vocabulary with Gilaki, Talyshi and other Caspian languages, spoken in northern Iran, along the southern Caspian coast. According to Ethnologue (which cites ), the number of Zazaki speakers is between 1.5 and 2.5 million (including all dialects).

While many Zazaki speakers classify themselves as a separate ethnic group, many other speakers of the Zazaki language consider themselves as a part of the Kurdish ethnic group.

Zaza Dialects

There are three main Zaza dialects:

• Northern Zazaki: It is spoken in Tunceli, Erzincan, Erzurum, Sivas, Gumushane, Mus (Varto), Kayseri (Sariz) provinces.

Its sub-dialects are:

• West-Dersim
• East-Dersim
• Varto
• Border dialects like Sarız, Koçgiri (Giniyan-idiom)

• Central Zazaki: It is spoken in Elazığ, Bingöl, Solhan, Girvas and Diyarbakır provinces.

Its sub-dialects are:

• Bingol
• Palu
• Border dialects like Hani, Kulp, Lice, Ergani, Piran

• Southern Zazaki: It is spoken Şanlıurfa (Siverek), Diyarbakır (Cermik, Egil), Adiyaman, Malatya provinces.

Its sub-dialects are:

• Siverek
• Cermik, Gerger
• Border dialects like Mutki and Aksaray

Zaza literature and broadcast programs

The first written statements in Zaza were compiled by the linguist Peter Lerch in 1850. Two other important documents are the religious writings of Ehmedê Xasi of 1899, and of Usman Efendiyo Babıc (published in Damascus in 1933); both of these works were written in the Arabic alphabet.

The use of the Latin alphabet to write Zazaki became popular only in the diaspora in Sweden, France and Germany at the beginning of the 1980s. This was followed by the publication of magazines and books in Turkey, particularly in Istanbul. The efforts of Zaza intellectuals to advance the comprehensibility of their native language by alphabetizing were not fruitless; the number of publications in Zaza has multiplied. This rediscovery of the native culture by Zaza intellectuals not only caused a renaissance of Zaza language and culture, it also triggered feelings among younger generations of Zazas (who, however, rarely speak Zazaki as a mother tongue) in favor of this modern Western use of Zazaki, rekindling their interest in their ancestral language.

The diaspora has also generated a limited amount of Zaza-language broadcasting. Moreover, after restrictions were removed on local languages in Turkey during their move toward accession to the European Union, Turkish state-owned TRT television launched a Zazaki TV program and a radio program on Fridays.

Phonological Correspondences of Zazaki and other Iranian Languages

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Initial /v/

Proto-Iranian initial *w (from Proto-Indo-European *w) changes to /b/ or /g/ in Persian and Kurmanci by the 10th century. Zazaki, like many Northwestern Iranian languages, has /v/.

avaz: The word "avaz" in Persian is a borrowing from a Northwestern Iranian language, probably the Parthian language. Otherwise, it should have been preserved as "b".

/z/ and /s/

Proto-Iranian *z and *s (from Proto-Indo-European *kʲ and *gʲ) turn to /d/ and /h/ Persian. However, Zazaki and Kurdish keep /z/ and /s/.

zer: The Old Persian word for "gold" was "daraniya-". It changes back to a "z" sound. It is a borrowing most likely from the Parthian Language
ed-: The Modern Persian word for "I" is "man", which replaces Old Persian word "edēm"
ez: In southern Kurdish dialect of Sorani, the word for "I" is "men", like in Persian. It replaced the word "ez".
dıl, deh, bilind: These Kurdish words should be Persian borrowings.

/ĵ/

Proto-Iranian *j and *ĵ (from Proto-Indo-European *gʷ and *kʷ) are /ĵ/ (written as "c" in Zazaki-Latin alphabet) in Zazaki. In Kurdish they change to /ž/ and in Persian to /z/.

Kurdish words zindi and erzan should be borrowings from Persian.
Note: In some southern Zazaki dialects, /-ĵ/ endings like roc, vac, vic, and pewc become /z/ or /ž/. This is mostly a deaffrication of the affricate in intervocalic position.

Initial /b/

Proto-Iranian *dw turns to /b/ in Zazaki. Persian and Kurdish have /d/.

Initial /hr/

Proto-Iranian *θr (from Proto-Indo-European *tr) changes to /hr/ in Zazaki and to /s/ in Persian (†ç in Old Persian) and Kurdish.

/rz/ and /rr/

Proto-Iranian *rd and *rz are /rr/ and /rd/ in Zazaki. They change to /l/ in Persian and in Kurdish.

seporz: In Persian, seporz is probably a borrowing from a Northwestern Iranian language.
vıl: In Zazaki, the "l" ending in the word "vıl" should have been "rr". This word should be a borrowing from a Northwestern Iranian languages given that it has an initial "v".

Initial /w/

Proto-Indo-European *sw turns to *hw in Proto-Iranian. Zazaki drops *h in some words, and *w in others. In Persian and Kurdish *h turns to /x/, however, Persian drops *w while Kurdish keeps it. Proto-Iranian *hw turns to /x/ in Avestan.

• Zazaki words xo and gun should be borrowings from other Iranian Languages.

/m/

Zazaki and Persian keep Proto-Indo-European *m while Kurdish turns it to /v/.

• The Persian form hāmīn is from Middle Persian.

/wt/

The Proto-Indo-European cluster *pt turns to *ft in Proto-Iranian. In Zazaki this turns to /wt/. The outcome in Kurdish is most commonly /t/, /wt/, and /ft/ in some dialects. Persian also retains the original Proto-Iranian /ft/.

Note: In Bingol dialect of Zazaki, /ew/ further turns to /o/ sound, like hewt to hot, kewt to kot, grewt to grot, kew to ko, and vewr to wor.

Grammar

Grammatical Gender

The Zazaki language distinguishes between masculine and feminine grammatical gender. Each noun belongs to one of those two genders. In order to correctly decline any noun and any modifier or other type of word affecting that noun, one must identify whether the noun is feminine or masculine. This distinguishes Zazaki from many other Western Iranian languages that have lost this feature over time.

For example, the masculine preterite participle of the verb kerdene ("to make" or "to do") is kerde; the feminine preterite-participle is kerdiye. Both have the sense of the English "made" or "done". The grammatical gender of the preterite-participle would be determined by the grammatical gender of the noun representing the thing that was made or done.

The linguistic notion of grammatical gender is distinguished from the biological and social notion of gender, although they interact closely in many languages. Both grammatical and natural gender can have linguistic effects in a given language.

Vocabulary

Words in Zazaki can be divided into five groups in respect to their origins. Most words in Zazaki are Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Iranian in origin. The fourth group consists of words that developed when Zazaki speakers divided from the Proto-Iranian language. The fifth group consists of loan words. Loan words in Zazaki are chiefly from Arabic and Persian.

Classification

Zazaki is an Iranic language in the Indo-European family. From the point of view of the spoken language, its closest relatives are Mazandarani, Hewrami, Gilaki and other Caspian languages. However, the classification of Zazaki has been an issue of political discussion. Kurdish nationalist advocate that Zazaki is a Kurdish (another Iranic Language) dialect while Turkish nationalist advocate that Zazaki is Turkish (an Altaic language) dialect.

Ethnologue favors the following hierarchy:

• Northwestern Iranian languages
  • Zaza-Gorani language group
    • Dimli/Zazaki
    • other sublanguages/dialects of Zazaki-Gorani group
  • Caspian Languages group
    • Mazandarani
    • Gilaki
    • others
  • Kurdish language group
    • other sublanguages/dialects of Kurdish

The US State Department "Background Note" lists the Zazaki language as one of the major languages of Turkey, along with Turkish (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, and Arabic. Despite the Ethnologue's classification, Kurdish Academy, which describes itself an "electronic non-governmental organization (e-NGO), lists Zazaki as a dialect of the Kurdish language. The Encyclopedia Britannica notes Zazaki to be a dialect of Kurdish. .

Linguists connect the word Dimli with the Daylamites in the Alborz Mountains near the shores of Caspian Sea in Iran and believe that the Zaza have immigrated from Deylaman towards the west. Zazaki shows many connections to the Iranian dialects of the Caspian region, especially the Gilaki language.

The Zazaki language shows similarities with (Hewrami or Gorani), Shabaki and Bajelani. Gorani, Bajelani, and Shabaki languages are spoken around Iran-Iraq border; however, it is believed that they are also immigrated from Northern Iran to their present homelands. These languages are sometimes put together in the Zaza-Gorani language group.

Literature

• Paul, Ludwig. (1998) "The Position of Zazaki Among West Iranian languages" University of Hamburg,.
• Lynn Todd, Terry. (1985) "A Grammar of Dimili" University of Michigan,.
• Gippert, Jost. (1996) "Historical Development of Zazaki" University of Frankfurt University,.
• Gajewski, Jon. (2003) "Evidentiality in Zazaki" Massachusetts Institute of Technology,.
• Gajewski, Jon. (2004) "Zazaki Notes" Massachusetts Institute of Technology,.
• Larson, Richard. and Yamakido, Hiroko. (2006) "Zazaki as Double Case-Marking" Stony Brook University and University of Arizona,.
• Iremet, Faruk. (1996) "The difference between Zaza, Kurdish and Turkish" Stockholm, Sweden,.
• Brigitte Werner. (2007) "Features of Bilingualism in the Zaza Community" Marburg, Germany
• Mesut Keskin, Zur dialektalen Gliederung des Zazaki. Magisterarbeit, Frankfurt 2008. (PDF)

Notes

1. ^ Ethnologue on Dimili
2. The Position of Zazaki Among West Iranian languages by Paul Ludwig
3. "Kurdish Nationalism and Competing Ethnic Loyalties", Original English version of: "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), 11-37
4. Kehl-Bodrogi, Krisztina. "Syncretistic religious communities in the Near East: Collected Papers of the International Symposium, Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the Past and Present”, Berlin, 14-17 April 1995
5. Ozoglu, Hakan. "Kurdish notables and the Ottoman state." Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004
6. Romano, David. "The Kurdish nationalist movement: opportunity, mobilization, and identity." Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
7. Ethnologue on Kirmanjki
8. Ethnolgue on Dimili
9. Xasi, Ehmedê (1899) Mewlude nebi, reprinted in 1994 in Istambul OCLC 68619349, (Poems about the birth of Mohammed and songs praising Allah.)
10. ^ Numerical system of Balochi and Kurdish
11. The US State Department "Background Note" on Turkey
12. Kurdish Academy on "Kurdish Language"
13. Britannica on Zazaki classification

See also

• Iranian Languages vocabulary comparison table

References

• www.zazaki.net - Zazas and Zazaki

• Blau, Gurani et Zaza in R. Schmitt, ed., Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, Wiesbaden, 1989, ISBN 3-88226-413-6, pp. 336–40 (About Daylamite origin of Zaza-Guranis)
• Mesut Keskin, Zur dialektalen Gliederung des Zazaki. Magisterarbeit, Frankfurt 2008. (PDF)

External links

• Dimli (on the Ethnologue site)
• Kirmanjki (on the Ethnologue site)
• Academic Research Center of Zazaki - (In several languages, including English)
• ZazaPress (In Zazaki, Turkish, English and Swedish)
• Iremet Publishing (In Zazaki, Turkish and Swedish)
• Zazaki Language Institute (In German, Zazaki, and Turkish)
• Ethnic Differentiation among the Kurds: Kurmancî, Kizilbash and Zaza
• MIT OpenCourseWare online course in Zazaki
• A Zazaki Radio: Miraz FM
• Web Center of Zaza People (Weblinks of Zaza people)
• With An Eye and an Ear Towards Zazaki (23-min film, produced/directed by Gulcem Aktas and Andrew Nevins
• A web Portal on Zazaki
• Website of Zazaki Institute Frankfurt

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