Zazaki (Zazakî, Zazaish) or Dimli is a language closely related to the Persian and Kurdish languages, spoken by the Zaza in eastern Anatolia (Turkey), an ethnic minority related to the Iranians and Kurds. 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 migrated from Daylamestan towards the west. Zazaki shows many connections the Iranian dialects of the Caspian region.

The language differs from most Persian dialects in that it contains archaic strains of Hurrian; it has this in common with the Languages Auramani and Bajalani , and these languages are put together in the Zaza-Gorani language group.

Hawrami and Bayjalani are spoken in region of northern Iraqi, which is commonly included in the term Iraqi Kurdistan, but also Goran-Zazaistan by those who want emphasize their distinctness from the Kurds.

Hurrian itself is extinct; however it is thought to have had a close relationship to modern Chechen and was a member of the Alarodian language family.

Controversy over classification

As with many other languages in the region, the exact positioning of Zazaki in terms of language families is controversial; it parallels a similar controversy about the relationship of the various ethnic groups and is politically fraught. Ethnologue favors the following hierarchy: [1]

• Northwestern Iranian languages
  • Kurdish language
    • Kurjmani language
    • other sublanguages/dialects of Kurdish
  • Zaza-Gorani language group
    • Dimli/Zazaki

However, those who view the Zaza people primarily as Kurds tend to favor:

• Northwestern Iranian languages
  • Kurdish language
    • Kurjmani language
    • other sublanguages/dialects of Kurdish
    • Dimli/Zazaki

See Also

• Hurrians
• Zazaki is one of the three sublanguages used in the Kurdish Wikipedia; for an example of such use, see their article Alan Dilpak (zazakî). See also the Kurdish-language article on Zazaki

External links

• Ethnologue on Zazaki (language)
• Academic Research Center of Zazaki - (in several languages but as of 2004 not much English-language content)

Reference

About Daylamite origin of Zaza-Guranis see: Blau, Gurani et Zaza in R. Schmitt, ed., Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, Wiesbaden, 1989, ISBN 3882264136, pp. 336-40