Mazandarani language

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Mazandarani or Tabari is an ancient Iranian language of the northwestern branch. Spoken in Iran's Mazandaran province, it is claimed to be unintelligible with respect to Persian ([link], p.66).

By Regarding to Encyclopædia Iranica it is one of iranian dialects (and not a dialect of persian) spoken along the littoral of Caspian Sea. (p.61)

Among the living Iranian languages, Mazandarani boasts one of the longest written traditions from the 10th to 15th centuries. The rich literature of this language includes books such as Marzban Nameh (later translated to Persian) and the poetry of Amir Pazevari. The usage of Mazandarani, however, has been in decline. Its literary and administrative rank was lost to Persian perhaps long before the ultimate integration of Mazandaran into the national administration in the early 17th century. An overwhelming majority of the population of the Mazandaran Province are now bilingual [link], also speaking Persian.

The Mazandarani language is closely related to Gilaki and the two languages have similar vocabularies. Notably, the language did not come under the influence of other incoming languages such as Arabic and Turkish, and is still spoken in various dialects in the region.

According to Ethnologue, there were more than 3 million native speakers of Mazandarani in 1993 speaking different dialects of Mazanderani such as Gorgani, Qadikolahi (Ghadikolahi) and Palani are dialects of this language.[link]

References

[Bilingualism in Mazandaran: Peaceful Coexistence With Persian], Maryam Borjian, Columbia University, Language, Communities and Education, pp.65-73, Spring 2005.
[Ethnologue Report for Mazandarani]
[Audio recordings available for Mazandarani]

External links

Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Aryan	Varieties of Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit \| Angika \| Assamese \| Bengali \| Bhojpuri \| Dhivehi \| Dogri \| Gujarati \| Hindi \| Hindustani \| Konkani \| Magadhi \| Mahl \| Maithili \| Marathi \| Nepali \| Oriya \| Pāli \| Prakrit \| Punjabi \| Romani \| Sindhi \| Sinhala \| Urdu
Iranian languages>Iranian	Avestan \| Varieties of Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persion (Pahlavi) - Modern Persian (Fārsī) - Darī (Afghanistan) - Tājikī \| Bactrian \| Balochi \| Dari (Zoroastrianism) \| Gilaki \| Kurdish \| Mazandarani \| Ossetic \| Pamiri \| Pashto \| Saka \| Scythian \| Sogdian \| Talysh \| Tat \| Yagnobi
Dardic languages>Dardic	Dameli \| Domaaki \| Gawar-Bati \| Kalasha \| Kashmiri \| Khowar \| Kohistani \| Nangalami \| Pashayi \| Palula \| Shina \| Shumashti
Nuristani languages>Nuristani	Ashkun \| Kamviri \| Kati \| Prasuni \| Tregami \| Waigali

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