Mazanderani language
| Mazandarani | |
|---|---|
| مازِرونی Mazeruni تَبَری Tabari | |
Mazanderani (Mazeruni) written in Nastaliq script. (مازِرونی) | |
| Native to | Iran (Province of Mazandaran and parts of the provinces of Alborz, Tehran, Qazvin, Semnan and Golestan) |
| Region | South coast of the Caspian Sea |
| Ethnicity | 4.8 million Mazanderanis (2023) |
Native speakers | 1.35 million (2023) |
| Dialects |
|
| Persian alphabet | |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | None the Linguistic faculty of Mazandaran University officially gathers materials and resources about the language |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:mzn – Mazandaranisrz – Shahmirzadi |
| Glottolog | maza1305 Mazanderani–Shahmirzadi |
| ELP | Shahmirzadi |
Areas where Mazandarani is spoken as the mother tongue | |
Mazandarani (Mazanderani: مازِرونی, Mazeruni; also spelled Mazani (مازنی) or Tabari (تبری); also called Taveri, Mazeruni, Tati, Geleki and Galeshi) is an Iranian language of the Northwestern branch spoken by the Mazanderani people. As of 2023, there were 1.35 million native speakers. The language appears to be decreasing, as it is threatened, and due to the majority of its speakers shifting to Iranian Persian. As a member of the Northwestern branch (the northern branch of Western Iranian), etymologically speaking, it is rather closely related to Gilaki and also related to Persian, which belongs to the Southwestern branch. Though the Mazani and Persian languages have both influenced each other to a great extent, both are independent language with different origins in the Iranian plateau.
Mazandarani is closely related to Gilaki, and the two languages have similar vocabularies. The Gilaki and Mazandarani languages (but not other Iranian languages) share certain typological features with Caucasian languages (specifically the non-Indo-European South Caucasian languages), reflecting the history, ethnic identity, and close relatedness to the Caucasus region and Caucasian peoples of Mazandaranis and Gilak people.: 295