Zaza-Gorani

Zaza-Gorani is a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages.

It consists of six related languages Gorani, Bajelani, Kirmanjki (Northern Zaza), Dimli (Southern Zaza), Sarli and Shabaki. Whether to consider them separate languages or only dialects is disputed.

"The area of the north-western dialects of Iranian was largely overrun by Turkish, subsequently known as Azeri or Azerbaijani, introduced in the eleventh century. By the sixteenth century, this language had ousted the indigenous Iranian except from the peripheral area along the Caspian coast. Two of these north-western dialects, however, survive outside the area; they are Gorani and Zaza. The Gorans moved south, but their language, now much declined, survives only in the neighbourhood of Kermanshah. As the language of an obscure sect, Gorani became the vehicle of a considerable literature, but is no more than a patois today. The Zaza people, living in some small communities among the Kurds of Eastern Turkey, are descended from immigrants from Dailam on the southern shore of the Caspian and have in part retained the language of their ancestors, which they themselves call Dimli. It is an almost unwritten language."

Gorani is classified in many sources as a non-Kurdish independent Iranian language belonging to the Zaza-Gorani branch. [http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~siamakr/Kurdish/Papers/Hassanpour98.html] Vladmir Minorsky, an authority in this field mentions in his work "The Goran": "Gûrânî is very distinct from Kurdish there cannot be any doubt...". [http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~siamakr/Kurdish/Papers/Hassanpour98.html] Languages in this group belongs to Northwestern Iranian Languages group, and they might share many lexical and grammatical similarities with other Iranic languages such as Gilaki, Mazandarani, Persian, Kurdish, Belochi, and others.

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External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90046 www.ethnologue.com on Zaza-Gorani]

* [http://www.radiozaza.de Radio Zaza]

* [http://www.zazaki.de www.zazaki.de]