Zaza
Zazakî / Kirmanckî / Kirdkî / Dimilkî
Native to	Turkey
Region	Provinces of Sivas, Tunceli, Bingöl, Erzurum, Erzincan, Elazığ, Muş, Malatya,[1] Adıyaman and Diyarbakır[1]
Ethnicity	Zazas
Native speakers	3–4 million (2009)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern Zaza–Gorani[1][2][3] Zaza
Dialects	Tunceli Ovacik Hozat Varto Sivereki Kori Hazo Motki (Moti) Dumbeli Central Zazaki
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-2	zza
ISO 639-3	zza – inclusive code Individual codes: kiu – Kirmanjki (Northern Zaza) diq – Dimli (Southern Zaza)
Glottolog	zaza1246
ELP	Dimli
Linguasphere	58-AAA-ba
The position of Zazaki among Iranian languages[4]
Zaza is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Zaza or Zazaki^[5] (Zazaki: Zazakî, Kirmanckî, Kirdkî, Dimilkî)^[a][6] is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey by the Zazas, who are commonly considered as Kurds, and in many cases identify as such.^[7][8][9] The language is a part of the Zaza–Gorani language group of the northwestern group of the Iranian branch. The glossonym Zaza originated as a pejorative^[10] and many Zazas call their language Dimlî.^[11]

According to Ethnologue, Zaza is spoken by around three to four million people.^[1] Nevins, however, puts the number of Zaza speakers between two and three million.^[12] Ethnologue also states that Zaza is threatened as the language is decreasing due to losing speakers, and that many are shifting to Turkish, as well as mentioning that there are a few monolingual speakers mostly the elderly. This is causing a decline as the language is increasingly not being passed down to younger generations, with most choosing to speak Turkish. Some also speak Kurmanji.^[1]

Macrolanguage

Zaza language is classified by SIL International as a macrolanguage, including the varieties of Southern Zaza (diq) and Northern Zazaki (kiu).^[13] Other international linguistic authorities, the Ethnologue and the Glottolog, also classify the Zaza language as a macrolanguage composed of two distinct languages: Southern Zaza and Northern Zaza.^[1][14]

Relations to other languages

In terms of grammar, genetics, linguistics and vocabulary Zazaki is closely related to Talysh, Old Azeri, Tati, Sangsari, Semnani, Mazandarani and Gilaki languages spoken on the shores of the Caspian Sea and central Iran.^[15][16][17] Prof. Dr. Ludwig Paul demonstrated that Zazaki is closely related to Old Azeri, Talysh and Parthian (an extinct northwestern Iranian language), shares many similarities with these languages^[18] and does not have universal Kurdish vowel changes.^[19] According to linguist Prof. Dr. Joyce Blau, Zazaki is a separate language and the history of Zazaki is older than that of Kurdish, some of the Zazaki and Gorani speakers have been assimilated by the Kurds, but not all.^[20][21][22]

The German linguist Jost Gippert has demonstrated that the Zaza language is very closely related to the Parthian language in terms of phonetics, morphology, syntax and lexicon and that it has many words in common with the Parthian language. According to him, the Zaza language may be a residual dialect of the Parthian language that has survived to the present day.^[23]

While Zaza is linguistically more closely related to Talysh, Tati, Semnani, Sangesari, Gilaki and the Mazandarani^[24][16] due to centuries of interaction, Kurmanji has had an impact on the language, which have blurred the boundaries between the two languages.^[25] This and the fact that Zaza speakers are identified as ethnic Kurds by some scholars,^[26][27] has encouraged some linguists to classify the language as a Kurdish dialect.^[28][29] However, it has been demonstrared that mutual intelligibility between Zaza and Kurdish speakers is rather low and two languages are not mutually intelligible.^[30]

The formation of these consonants, which form the basis of the historical evolution of languages and the classification in language groups, is almost the same in Zazaki as in Talysh, Tati (Harzandi), Sangesari, Vafsi, and some central Iranian languages. Zazaki, here, forms a belt of northwestern Iranian languages with Talysh, Tati, central Iranian dialects and Semnani, Semnani and the Gilaki. This belt is geographically divided by speakers of Persian, Azerbaijani and Kurdish into Zazaki, Talyshi, Tati in the western part and Semnani, Sangesari, Gilaki and other Caspian/Central dialects in the eastern part. Like most other languages of the belt, Zazaki shows a two-case system in the nouns, with an oblique ending generally going back to the Old Iranian genitive ending *-ahya. Zazaki, Talyshi, Azeri, Semnani, Gilaki and some other Caspian/Central dialects derive their present stem from the same old present participle ending in *ant:^{[31][32][33][34]}

Zazaki, along with Tati, Talysh, and some northwestern dialects, has strongly preserved its West Iranian Proto-Indo-European consonant roots and is quite distant from Persian and Kurdish. While Zazaki, along with Talysh and Tati, remain at the westernmost part of the western Iranian languages, Persian and Kurdish are positioned at the easternmost part:^[35]

History

Writing in Zaza is a recent phenomenon. The first literary work in Zaza is Mewlîdu'n-Nebîyyî'l-Qureyşîyyî by Ehmedê Xasi in 1899, followed by the work Mawlûd by Osman Efendîyo Babij in 1903. As the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey during a large part of the Republican period, no text was published in Zaza until 1963. That year saw the publication of two short texts by the Kurdish newspaper Roja Newe, but the newspaper was banned and no further publication in Zaza took place until 1976, when periodicals published a few Zaza texts. Modern Zaza literature appeared for the first time in the journal Tîrêj in 1979 but the journal had to close as a result of the 1980 coup d'état. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most Zaza literature was published in Germany, France and especially Sweden until the ban on the Kurdish language was lifted in Turkey in 1991. This meant that newspapers and journals began publishing in Zaza again. The next book to be published in Zaza (after Mawlûd in 1903) was in 1977, and two more books were published in 1981 and 1986. From 1987 to 1990, five books were published in Zaza. The publication of books in Zaza increased after the ban on the Kurdish language was lifted and a total of 43 books were published from 1991 to 2000. As of 2018, at least 332 books have been published in Zaza.^[36]

Due to the above-mentioned obstacles, the standardization of Zaza could not have taken place and authors chose to write in their local or regional Zaza variety. In 1996, however, a group of Zaza-speaking authors gathered in Stockholm and established a common alphabet and orthographic rules which they published. Some authors nonetheless do not abide by these rules as they do not apply the orthographic rules in their oeuvres.^[37]

In 2009, Zaza was classified as a vulnerable language by UNESCO.^[38]

The institution of Higher Education of Turkey approved the opening of the Zaza Language and Literature Department in Munzur University in 2011 and began accepting students in 2012 for the department. In the following year, Bingöl University established the same department.^[39] TRT Kurdî also broadcast in the language.^[40] Some TV channels which broadcast in Zaza were closed after the 2016 coup d'état attempt.^[41]

Dialects

There are two main Zaza dialects:

• Northern Zaza : It is spoken in Tunceli, Erzincan, Erzurum, Sivas, Gümüşhane, Muş, and Kayseri provinces.

Its subdialects are:

• West-Dersim^[42]
• East-Dersim, Varto, Hınıs, Sarız, Koçgiri

• Southern Zaza : It is spoken in primarily Bingöl, Çermik, Dicle, Eğil, Gerger, Palu and Hani, Turkey.

Its subdialects are:

• Sivereki, Kori, Hazzu, Motki, Dumbuli, Eastern/Central Zazaki, Dersimki.

Zaza shows many similarities with other Northwestern Iranian languages:

• Similar personal pronouns and use of these^[43]
• Enclitic use of the letter "u"^[43]
• Very similar ergative structure^[44]
• Masculine and feminine ezafe system^[45]
• Both languages have nominative and oblique cases that differs by masculine -î and feminine -ê
• Both languages have forgotten possessive enclitics, while it exists in such other languages as Persian, Sorani, Gorani, Hewrami or Shabaki
• Both languages distinguish between aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops
• Similar vowel phonemes

Ludwig Paul divides Zaza into three main dialects. In addition, there are transitions and edge accents that have a special position and cannot be fully included in any dialect group.^[46]

Grammar

As with a number of other Iranian languages like Talysh,^[53] Tati,^[17][54] central Iranian languages and dialects like Semnani, Kahangi, Vafsi,^[55] Balochi^[56] and Kurmanji, Zaza features split ergativity in its morphology, demonstrating ergative marking in past and perfective contexts, and nominative-accusative alignment otherwise. Syntactically it is nominative-accusative.^[57]

Grammatical gender

Among all Western Iranian languages Zaza, Semnani,^[58][59][60] Sangsari,^[61] Tati,^[62][63] central Iranian dialects like Cālī, Fārzāndī, Delījanī, Jowšaqanī, Abyāne'i^[64] and Kurmanji distinguish 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. Most nouns have inherent gender. However, some nominal roots have variable gender, i.e. they may function as either masculine or feminine nouns.^[65]

Phonology

Vowels

The vowel /e/ may also be realized as when occurring before a consonant. /ɨ/ may become lowered to when occurring before a velarized nasal /n/ , or occurring between a palatal approximant /j/ and a palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/. Vowels /ɑ/, /ɨ/, or /ə/ become nasalized when occurring before /n/, as , , and , respectively.

Consonants