Masanderan language
| Mazandarani Masanderan |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Mazandaran ( Iran ) | |
| speaker | 3.5 million native speakers (1993); approx. 12 million in total (1996) | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Recognized minority / regional language in |
 Iran
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
ira |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
Masanderan or Mazandarani (Masanderan: مازرونی زبون; mazandarani zaban ), also Tabari (طبری) is a northwestern Iranian language spoken in the Mazandaran Province in northwestern Iran . Masanderan is only indirectly related to southwest Iranian Persian . Both languages are mutually incomprehensible.
According to Ethnologue , there were more than 3 million native speakers of Masanderan in 1993. The language can be divided into the dialects Mazanderani and Gorgani; possibly also Qadikolahi (Ghadikolahi) and Palani.
Among the living Iranian languages, Masanderan has one of the oldest written traditions, from the 10th to 15th centuries. The rich literature of this language includes books such as Marzban Nameh (later translated into Persian) and the poems of Amir Pazevari . The use of Masanderan, however, is decreasing. The importance of literature and administration was lost to Persian long before the Mazandaran province was integrated into national administration in the early 17th century. Most of the population in the province is now bilingual.
The Masanderan language is closely related to Gilaki . Both languages are similar in their vocabulary. Notably, the language has not come under the influence of other languages such as Arabic or Turkish .
Masanderan uses the Persian variant of the Arabic alphabet .
Web links
- Bahar Mokhtarian: The Maqāmen of Ḥarīrī in tabular translation (I – VII) based on a Tehran manuscript (Library Malek, ms. 2487) . Tübingen (Diss.) 2004.
- Dictionary of Mazandarani, with translations into Saravi, Baboli, and Amoli dialects
- Audio recordings available for Mazandarani
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mzn Ethnologue Report for Mazandarani
- ↑ Bilingualism in Mazandaran: Peaceful Coexistence With Persian ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Maryam Borjian, Columbia University , Language, Communities and Education , pp. 65–73, Spring 2005
