Mazanderani (Mazeruni: ; also referred to as Mazani (), Tabari () or Taveri, Tati, Geleki and Galeshi) is an Iranian language of the Northwestern branch spoken by the Mazanderani people. , there were 1.35 million native speakers. 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 languages with different origins in the Iranian plateau.Coon, "Iran:Demography and Ethnography" in Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume IV, E.J. Brill, pp. 10,8. Excerpt: "The Lurs speak an aberrant form of Archaic Persian" See maps also on page 10 for distribution of Persian languages and dialectKathryn M. Coughlin, "Muslim cultures today: a reference guide," Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. p. 89: "...Iranians speak Persian or a Persian dialect such as Gilaki or Mazandarani"
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),Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated, page 294 reflecting the history, ethnic identity, and close relatedness to the Caucasus region and Caucasian peoples of Mazandaranis and Gilak people.
Etymology The name Mazanderani (and variants of it) derives from the name of the province of Mazandaran (Mazerun in Mazanderani), which was part of the historical region of Tapuria. People traditionally call their language Tabari, as the Tabari themselves do. The name Tapuri / Tabari (which was the name of an ancient language spoken somewhere in former Tapuria) is now used in preference to the name Mazandarani by the young. However, both Gilan and Mazanderan formed part of the region known as Tapuria. The earliest references to the language of Mazandaran, called Tabari, are to be found in the works of the early Muslim geographers. Al-Muqaddasī (or Moqaisi, 10th century), for example, notes: "The languages of Komish and Gurgan are similar, they use hā, as in hā-dih and hāk-un, and they are sweet [to the ear], related to them is the language of Tabaristan, [similar] save for its speediness."
Classification Glottolog classifies Mazandarani (and its dialects) within the Caspian subgroup of Iranian languages, along with Gilaki and Gorgani.
History Among the living Iranian languages, Mazanderani has one of the longest written traditions, from the tenth to the fifteenth century. This status was achieved during the long reign of the independent and semi-independent rulers of Mazandaran in the centuries after the Arab invasion.Windfuhr, G. L. 1989. New Iranian languages: Overview. In Rüdiger Schmitt, ed., Compendium linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert. pp. 246–249.
The rich literature of this language includes books such as Marzban Nameh (later translated into Persian) and the poetry of Amir Pazevari. Use of Mazanderani, however, has been in decline for some time. Its literary and administrative prominence had begun to diminish in favor of Persian by the time of the integration of Mazandaran into the national administration in the early seventeenth century.Borjian, Maryam. 2005. Bilingualism in Mazandaran: Peaceful Coexistence With Persian . Language, Communities and Education. Languages, Communities & Education: A Volume of Graduate Student Research. New York: Society for International Education , Teachers College, Columbia University. pp. 65–73.
Dialects The Mazanderani language is closely related to Gilaki and the two languages have similar vocabularies. In 1993, according to Ethnologue, there were three million native Mazanderani speakers.
The dialects of Mazanderani are as following: Saravi: Spoken in Sari County, which includes Chahardangeh District and highlands of Dodangeh District, Miandorud Plains, plains on the west bank of Tajan river, extending west to Juybar.
Amoli: Encompasses mountainous areas west of Bandpey, as well as Chelav Rural District, Larijan District, Namarestaq and Kelarestaq of Amol, plains of Amol County, Mahmudabad County, foothills and plains of Chamestan region between Amol and Nur.
Baboli: Spoken in plains of Babol County, Babolsar County, and Fereydunkenar County, highlands of Bandpey extending to Chelav Rural District in west and Alasht to east. Foothills of Babol Kenar and Ganj Afrouz are also included.
Ghaemshahri: Spoken in plains between Kiakola in west and Juybar in east, villages of Bisheh Sar Rural District, and mountainous areas of Savadkuh and Firuzkuh.
Chaloos and East Tonekabon: Spoken in Kelar and Langa regions, some villages in foothills of Birun Bashm, coastal plains of Chalus County, Abbasabad County and Nashtarud.
Nur and Nowshahr: Spoken in Kojur District, Baladeh District, parts of Birun Bashm, and coastal plains between Sorkhrud and Chalus River.
Shahsavari: Spoken in most of Tonekabon County, which includes Do Hezar, Seh Hezar, Khorramabad District, and plains between Nashtarud and Shirud. In Ramsar County both Mazandarani and Gilaki languages are common.
Behshahri: Spoken in Plains of Behshahr County, Galugah County and Neka County east of Nekarud, as well as highlands of the mentioned counties (east of Kiasar).
Kordkuy : Includes Eastern part of Hezar Jarib Region, villages of Ziarat, Shahkuh-e Sofla, Shahkuh-e Olya, Radkan and their neighboring villages, villages from Galugah city in west to Zangian, Golestan in east(excluding settlements populated by Turkmens).
Katouli: Spoken in rural mountainous areas north of Shahvar peak, villages in the plains of Aliabad-e Katul County, and eastern part of Gorgan County not populated by Turkmens. Aliabad-e Katul, Pichak Mahalleh and Fazelabad, Golestan are among these settlements.
Ghasrani: Mountains of northern parts of Tehran Province, and west of Jajrud River. Which includes Rudbar-e Qasran District, Fasham, Shemshak, Dizin.
Damavandi: Spoken in mountainous areas of Damavand County, Rudehen District, and Bumahen District, extending eastward towards Firuzkuh.
Shahmirzadi
The native people of Aliabad-e Katul, Gorgan, Kordkuy and Bandar-e Gaz in Golestan province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native people of Shemiranat, Damavand and Firuzkuh in Tehran province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native people of north of Karaj and Taleqan in Alborz province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The people of east of Alamut in Qazvin province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native of people of Aradan, Garmsar, Shahmirzad and north of Damghan in Semnan province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native people of Galugah, Behshahr, Neka, Sari, Shahi, Babol, Amol, Nowshahr, Chalus, Kelardasht, Abbasabad and Tonekabon in Mazandaran province are Mazanderani people and speak the Mazanderani language.
Grammar
Mazanderani is an inflected and genderless language.Fakhr-Rohani, Muhammad-Reza. 2004. She means only her 'husband': politeness strategies amongst Mazanderani-speaking rural women. (Conference abstract) CLPG Conference, University of Helsinki, Finland, PDF It is SOV, but in some tenses it may be SVO, depending on the particular dialect involved.Johanson, Lars. Turkic-Iranian Contact Areas Historical and Linguistic Aspects. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006.Csató, Éva Ágnes, Bo Isaksson, and Carina Jahani. Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion: Case Studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005.
Typology
Morphology Just as in other modern Iranian languages, there is no distinction between the dative and accusative cases, and the nominative in the sentence takes almost no indicators but may be inferred from word order (depending on dialect it may end in a/o/e). Since Mazanderani lacks articles, there is no inflection for nouns in the sentence (no modifications for nouns). For definition, nouns take the suffix e (me dətere meaning The daughter of mine while me dəter means my daughter). The indefinite article for single nouns is a-tā with tā for determination of number (a-tā kijā meaning a girl). There exist some remnants of old Mazanderani indicating that, in the nominative case, female nouns used to end in a, while male nouns ended in e (as in jənā meaning the woman and mərdē meaning the man). Grammatical gender is still present in certain modern languages closely related to Mazandarani such as Semnani, Sangesari, Zaza and Tati.
Notably, Mazandarani, Gilaki, Zaza, some Tati dialects, Talysh and some Komisenian (Semnani) dialects derive their present stems from the same old Iranian present participle *-ant. The present tense in these languages is formed by adding the present participle to the verb stem, in contrast to the Perside modal prefixes added to the present stem of the verb, e.g. -mi in Persian and -di in Kurdish.
Pronouns In the Mazandarani language, independent personal pronouns have three cases: active, passive and possessive. Identification Singular 1 Singular 2 Singular 3 Plural 1 Plural 2 Plural 3 Subject (Sari dialect) mən tə və əmâ šəmâ vəšún Object (Sari dialect) məre təre vəre əmâre šəmâre vəšúnre Possessive (Sari dialect) me te ve ame šeme vešúne
Conjugation Conjugation (hākārden) "to work" in Mazandarani language (Sari dialect). Tense/person Sg1 Sg2 Sg3 Pl1 Pl2 Pl3 Preterit hâkârdeme hâkârdi hâkârde hâkârdemi hâkârdeni hâkârdene Pluperfect hâkârde-bime hâkârde-bi hâkârde-bie hâkârde-bimi hâkârde-bini hâkârde-bine Past subjunctive hâkârde-buem hâkârde-bui hâkârde-bue hâkârde-buim hâkârde-buin hâkârde-buen Pluperfect subjunctive hâkârde-bai-buem hâkârde-bai-bui hâkârde-bai-bue hâkârde-bai-buim hâkârde-bai-buin hâkârde-bai-buen Imperfect (type 1) kârdeme kârdi kârde kârdemi kârdeni kârdene Imperfect (type 2) kândesseme kândessi kândesse kândessemi kândesseni kândessene Past progressive (type1) dai(me)-kârdeme dai(i)-kârdi dai(e)-kârde dai(mi)-kârdemi dai(ni)-kârdeni dai(ne)-kârdene Past progressive (type 2) dai(me)-kândesseme dai(i)-kândessi dai(e)-kândesse dai(mi)-kândessemi dai(ni)-kândesseni dai(ne)-kândessene Present kâmbe/kândeme kândi kânde kâmbi/kândemi kândeni kândene Present progressive dar(eme)-kâmbe dar(i)-kândi dar(e)-kânde dar(emi)-kâmbi dar(eni)-kândeni dar(ene)-kândene Subjunctive hâkânem hâkâni hâkâne hâkânim hâkânin hâkânen Future xâmbe hâkânem xâni hâkâni xâne hâkâne xâmbi hâkânim xânni hâkânin xânne hâkânen
Usage Function cases Case Position Meaning Sere -(a/o/e) Nominative The Home Sere re Accusative (Action) the Home Sere -(o/e) Vocative Home! Sere şe Genitive Home's Sere re Dative To the Home Sere ye jä Ablative/Instrumental By the Home
Adjectives Adjective Position Meaning And-e Sere Applicative Gat-e Sere Comparative Great Home Untä Sere Determinative That Home
Notable postpositions Adpositions in Mazanderani are after words, while most of other languages including English and Persian have preposition systems in general. The only common postpositions that sometimes become preposition are Še and tā. Frequently used postpositions are: + postposition meaning dəle in re of / to je from / by vəse for tā to həmrā / jā with səri on / above bəne under / below pəli near / about vāri/ tarā like derū among / inside
Suffixes The list below is a sample list obtained from the Online Mazanderani-Persian dictionary.
Locatives Suffix Example Meaning -kash Kharkash Good place -kel Tutkel Mulberry limit -ij Yoshij Yoshian -bon Chenarbon At the plantain -ja Səreja Relating to home -sar Bənesar Underneath
Subjectives