| Mazandarani Māzərūni مازِرونی - Mazəni مازنی Tapəri تپری |
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| Spoken in: | Mazandaran, and some parts of Tehran, Golestan, Semnan, Khorasan (Iran) | |
| Region: | Southern Mazandaran Sea | |
| Total speakers: | 3 - 4.5 million (As Native) | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Iranian Mazandarani |
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| Writing system: | Perso-Arabic Script | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | none | |
| Regulated by: | Linguistic Faculty of Babol University | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | ira | |
| ISO 639-3: | mzn | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Mazandarani or Tabari (Also known as: Mazeniki, Taperki) is an Iranian language of the northwestern branch. Spoken mainly in Iran's Mazandaran and Golestan provinces, it is partially, but not fully, unintelligible with respect to Persian. There are many similarities in grammar and vocabulary which render the Mazandarani dialect of Persian, and the mainstream Tehrani dialect, intelligible between speakers of either langauge. In addition, all speakers of Mazandarani are also fluent in Tehrani mainstream Persian. [1]
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History
Among the living Iranian languages, Mazandarani 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[2]. The rich literature of this language includes books such as Marzban Nameh (later translated into Persian) and the poetry of Amir Pazevari. The use 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 seventeenth century. [3]. 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. According to Ethnologue, there were more than three million native speakers of Mazandarani in 1993 speaking different dialects such as Gorgani, Ghadikolahi and Palani[4]
Grammar
Mazanderani is an Inflected and Gender free language.[5] It is considered SVO in conventional typology. [6].
Morphology
Suffixes
Mazandarani is one of Synthetic languages which uses too many suffixes to construct adjectives, verbs, and specially nouns. The list below is a sample list that obtained from the Online Mazandarani-Persian dictionary.
Locatives
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Subjectives
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Orthography
Perso-Arabic Script
Mazanderani is commonly written in the Perso-Arabic script.[7]
Romanization
Jahangir Nasr Ashrafi proposed Latin scripture of this language to be used in dictionaries and other textural resources for compatibly of foreigners. It is also being usable in Chat, Email and SMS messages.
Vocabulary
Although Mazandarani shares the great part of its vocabulary with Gilaki and to lesser extend Modern Persian, it has many specific words of its own. Many old Iranian words, no longer in use in Persian, survive in Mazandarani
Sheltered by high Alborz mountains, Mazandarani preserves many Indo-european old words which are no longer in common use in many other Iranian languages such as Persian. Below, a few common Mazandarani words & their English cognates are listed.
| English | Mazandarani | Persian |
|---|---|---|
| Moon | Moong | Maah |
| Cow | Guw | Gaav |
| Bad | Bad | Bad |
| No | No | Na: |
| New | Neu | No |
| Let's | Les | Ejaze |
| Gab | Gap | Goftogoo |
| Great | Geat | Bozorg |
| Be | Be | Bud |
| Leg | Leng | Pa |
Colloquial Mazandarani has also a few French, English, and a handfull of Russian loan words in everyday use.
Use
Mazandarani is the De facto language of Mazandaran. It's the region's most widely spoken language & its native one
The lack of an official status, a cultural center, education & publishment in Mazandarani language combined with the effects of in-community migration & booming tourism, have resulted in the shrinking population of native Mazandarani speakers who use it everyday. Even when it's spoken, extensive use of Persian equivalents in spoken Mazandarani is quite common especially in bigger towns. Education at all levels are offered solely in Persian & all civil activities in Mazandaran are conducted in Persian. Most Mazandarani scholars fear the language gradually loses ground to Persian. The use of English words in colloquial mazandarani has also become recently very prevalent especially among yound people.
Influences exerted by Mazanderani
Modern-day of Iran
There are many popular companies in Iran that their name are from the origin words of this language.
In non-Iranian languages
There are some Mazanderani loanwords in the Turkmen language.[8] There is also evidence that Sanskrit and Mazanderani share some words.
Specimen
mosalmunun! mέrε šabgir varέnnε āx, mέrε bā kamεr-e haftir varέnnε mέrε bavέrdεnε Tεrkεmun-e dam Tεrkεmun kāfεr o gεlilε be-ra:m Moslems! They are carrying me at the crack of dawn. O, they are taking me away with a pistol on the[ir] waist. They took me to the vicinity of the Turkmen [tribes]. Turkmen [are] unbelievers and the bullet [is] ruthless. gεtε, ašun xō badimā mεn še Ali-rε sio dasmāl davέsso še gali-rε age xā́nnε bā́urεn ámi badi-rε bázεne xεrusεk šέme gali-rε
volvol sar-e dār gέnε εy zāri-zāri me gol dāš báio sarbāz-e Sāri
He would say, Last night I dreamed my Ali. He [had] wrapped a black kerchief [round] his throat. If it is their intention is malignant about us, May croup-cough attack your throat! The nightingale on the tree constantly bemoans (?) My dear brother drafted in Sāri. Quatrains sang by Sabura Azizi, transcribed and translated by Habib Borjian; Ref. Habib Borjian and Maryam Borjian, “Mysterious Memories of a Woman: Ethno-Linguistic Materials from Rural Mazandaran,” Iran and the Caucasus 11/2, 2007.
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ozεrε-vâ énε dámbe sεvâí |
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At break of dawn blows the cool breeze. |
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basutέ sinέye miónnε hấreš! |
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Look at the middle of the burnt chest! |
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Dεl-e armun “Heart’s Aspiration” |
References
- See Also: List of the some works on Mazandarani language
General
- Dr. Borjian, Maryam; Spring 2005; Bilingualism in Mazandaran: Peaceful Coexistence With Persian; Columbia University, Language, Communities and Education, pp.65-73.
Notes
- ^ [1], p.66).
- ^ Windfuhr, G. L., New Iranian languages: Overview. In R. Schmitt. (Ed.), Compendium linguarum Iranicarum (pp. 246-49). Wiesbaden: L.Reichert, 1989.
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
- ^ http://www.language-keyboard.com/resource/indo-euro/mazanderani.htm
- ^ Jahangir Nasr Ashrafi, 2005, Dictionary of Tabari, Vol 5, comparison between Mazanderani and Turkmen
Further reading
Recent Studies
- Habib Borjian, Archiv Orientálni, 2006, The Oldest Known Texts in New Tabari: The Collection of Aleksander ChodŸko, 74/2, pp. 153-171.
- Dr. Borjian, Habib; 2006; Amir Pazevari (legendary poet of Mazandarani language), University of Minnesota, United States
- Habib Borjian, Iranian Studies, 2006, A Mazandarani account of the Babi Incident at Shaikh Tabarsi, 39/3, pp. 381-400.
- Habib Borjian, Guyesh-shenâsi, 2006, Textual sources for the study of Tabari language I. Olddocuments, no. 4.
Other Studies
Bibliography
- Johannes Albrecht Bernhard Dorn, 1860-66, Masanderanische Sprache (I-II/1, 3, St. Petersburg)
- Satoko Yoshie, 1998, Sari Dialect (of Mazandarani language), Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokio, Japan [6][7][8]
- Dr. Shokri, Guiti; 1995, Sari Dialect(of Mazandarani), Tehran, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies.
- Dr. Shokri, Guiti; 2006, Ramsari Dialect , Tehran, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies.
See also
External links
- Ethnologue Report for Mazandarani
- Audio recordings available for Mazandarani
- A website for standardizing Mazandarani dialects
- Dictionary of Mazandarani, with translations into Saravi, Baboli, and Amoli dialects
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| Legend: † Extinct language (no surviving native speakers and no spoken descendant) | |||||
