Zaza (endonym:Zazakî,Dimlî,Dimilkî,Kirmanckî,Kirdkî, orZonê ma,lit.'Our language')[5][6] is aNorthwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey by theZazas, who are mostly considered asKurds, and in many cases identify as such.[7][8][9] The language is a part of theZaza–Gorani language group of thenorthwestern group of theIranian branch. Theglossonym Zaza originated as a pejorative.[10] According toEthnologue, Zaza is spoken by around 1.48 million people, and the language is considered threatened due to a declining number of speakers, with many shifting to Turkish.[1] Nevins, however, puts the number of Zaza speakers between two and three million.[11]
Zaza language is classified as amacrolanguage by international linguistic authorities.SIL International classifies Zaza language as amacrolanguage, including the varieties ofSouthern Zaza (diq) andNorthern Zazaki (kiu).[12] Other international linguistic authorities, theEthnologue and theGlottolog, also classify the Zaza language as a macrolanguage composed of two distinct languages:Southern Zaza andNorthern Zaza.[13][1]
Linguistically, the classification of Zazaki as either a Kurdish dialect or a distinct language is a topic of debate among scholars.[18] Some, such as Ludwig Paul, do not consider Zazaki andGorani to be Kurdish dialects. According to him, they can only be classified as Kurdish dialects in a political and ethnic context, and it would be more accurate to refer to them as Kurdish languages.[19] The differences between them arise from the Kurdish adoption ofPersian linguistic features due to historical contact.[20] Other scholars contend that the classification of Zazaki as a separate language from Kurdish is based on insufficient data, and a detailed comparison between Zazaki andKurmanji in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon reveals a significant degree of shared features, suggesting that Zazaki and Kurmanji are dialects of the same language.[21]
Furthermore, arguments regarding the classification of both Zazaki and Gorani highlight that the distinction between a dialect and a language is a social construct influenced by factors such as shared identity, history, beliefs, and living conditions, rather than being based solely on linguistic evidence. Therefore, Kurdish can be seen as a socio-cultural umbrella that encompasses both recognized Kurdish dialects (such as Kurmanji,Sorani, andSouthern Kurdish) as well as the Zaza and Gorani languages. The term "Kurdic" is used to refer to this broad grouping.[22][23][24]
German linguistJost Gippert has demonstrated that the Zaza language is very closely related to theParthian language in terms of phonetics, morphology, syntax and lexicon and that it has many words in common with the Parthian language. According to him, the Zaza language may be a residual dialect of theParthian language that has survived to the present day.[25]
Many Zaza speakers resided in conflict-affected regions ofeastern Turkey and have been significantly impacted by both the current and historical political situations. Only a few elderly monolingual Zaza speakers remain, while the younger generation predominantly speaks other languages.Turkish laws enacted from the mid-1920s until 1991 banned Kurdish language, including Zazaki, from being spoken in public, written down, or published. The Turkish state’s efforts to enforce the use of Turkish have led many Zaza speakers to leave Turkey and migrate to other countries, primarilyGermany,Sweden,Netherlands and theUnited States, andAustralia.[1][26][27]
Efforts to preserve and revitalize Zazaki are ongoing. ManyKurdish writers in Turkey are fighting to save Zazaki withchildren’s books[28] and others withnewspapers,[29] but the language faces an uncertain future.
The decline of Zazaki speakers could also lead theZazas to lose their identity and shift to aTurkish identity. According to a study led byDr. Nadire Güntaş Aldatmaz, an academic atAnkara University, 402 people aged between 15 and 75 fromMamekîye inDersim province, were interviewed. Respondents younger than 18 mostly stated their ethnicity as ‘Turk,’ their mother language as ‘Turkish,’ and their religion as ‘Islam,’ despite having some proficiency in Zazaki.[30]
Writing in Zaza is a recent phenomenon. The first literary work in Zaza isMewlîdu'n-Nebîyyî'l-Qureyşîyyî byEhmedê Xasi in 1899, followed by the workMawlûd byOsman Efendîyo Babij in 1903. As the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey during a large part of the Republican period, no text was published in Zaza until 1963. That year saw the publication of two short texts by the Kurdish newspaperRoja Newe, but the newspaper was banned and no further publication in Zaza took place until 1976, whenperiodicals published a few Zaza texts. Modern Zaza literature appeared for the first time in the journalTîrêj in 1979 but the journal had to close as a result of the1980 coup d'état. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most Zaza literature was published inGermany,France and especiallySweden until the ban on the Kurdish language was lifted in Turkey in 1991. This meant that newspapers and journals began publishing in Zaza again. The next book to be published in Zaza (afterMawlûd in 1903) was in 1977, and two more books were published in 1981 and 1986. From 1987 to 1990, five books were published in Zaza. The publication of books in Zaza increased after the ban on the Kurdish language was lifted and a total of 43 books were published from 1991 to 2000. As of 2018, at least 332 books have been published in Zaza.[31]
Due to the above-mentioned obstacles, the standardization of Zaza could not have taken place and authors chose to write in their local or regional Zaza variety. In 1996, however, a group of Zaza-speaking authors gathered inStockholm and established a common alphabet andorthographic rules which they published. Some authors nonetheless do not abide by these rules as they do not apply the orthographic rules in their oeuvres.[32]
In 2009, Zaza was classified as a vulnerable language byUNESCO.[33]
Both languages have nominative and oblique cases that differs by masculine -î and feminine -ê
Both languages have forgotten possessive enclitics, while it exists in such other languages as Persian, Sorani, Gorani, Hewrami or Shabaki
Both languages distinguish between aspirated and unaspiratedvoiceless stops
Similar vowel phonemes
Ludwig Paul divides Zaza into three main dialects. In addition, there are transitions and edge accents that have a special position and cannot be fully included in any dialect group.[41]
Among all Western Iranian languages Zaza,Semnani,[48][49][50]Sangsari,[51]Tati,[52][53] central Iranian dialects like Cālī, Fārzāndī, Delījanī, Jowšaqanī, Abyāne'i[54] andKurmanji distinguish between masculine and femininegrammatical gender. Each noun belongs to one of those two genders. In order to correctlydecline any noun and anymodifier or other type of word affecting that noun, one must identify whether the noun is feminine or masculine. Most nouns have inherent gender. However, somenominal roots have variable gender, i.e. they may function as either masculine or feminine nouns.[55]
The vowel/e/ may also be realized as[ɛ] when occurring before a consonant./ɨ/ may become lowered to[ɪ] when occurring before a velarized nasal/n/[ŋ], or occurring between a palatal approximant/j/ and a palato-alveolar fricative/ʃ/. Vowels/ɑ/,/ɨ/, or/ə/ become nasalized when occurring before/n/, as[ɑ̃],[ɨ̃], and[ə̃], respectively.
Zaza text in Arabic letters, written in 1891 and printed in 1899.
Zaza texts written during theOttoman era were written inArabic letters. The works of this era had religious content. The first Zaza text, written by Sultan Efendi, in 1798, was written in Arabic letters in the Nesih font, which was also used inOttoman Turkish.[58] Following this work, the first Zaza language Mawlid, written by the Ottoman-Zaza cleric, writer and poet Ahmed el-Hassi in 1891-1892, was also written in Arabic letters and published in 1899.[59][60] Another Mawlid in Zaza language, written by another Ottoman-Zaza cleric Osman Esad Efendi between 1903-1906, was also written in Arabic letters.[61] After the Republic, Zazaki works began to be written in Latin letters, abandoning theArabic alphabet. However, today Zazaki does not have a common alphabet used by all Zazas. An alphabet called the Jacabson alphabet was developed with the contributions of the American linguist C. M Jacobson and is used by the Zaza Language Institute in Frankfurt, which works on the standardization of Zaza language.[62] Another alphabet used for the language is theBedirxan alphabet. The Zaza alphabet, prepared by Zülfü Selcan and started to be used at Munzur University as of 2012, is another writing system developed for Zazaki, consisting of 32 letters, 8 of which are vowels and 24 of which are consonants.[63] TheZaza alphabet is an extension of theLatin alphabet used for writing the Zaza language, consisting of 32 letters, six of which (ç, ğ, î, û, ş, and ê) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language.[64]
Zaza literature consists of oral and written texts produced in the Zaza language. Before it began to be written, it was passed on through oral literature types. In this respect, Zaza literature is very rich in terms of oral works. The language has many oral literary products such as deyr (folk song), kilam (song), dêse (hymn), şanıke (fable), hêkati (story), qesê werênan (proverbs and idioms). Written works began to appear during the Ottoman Empire, and the early works had a religious/doctrinal nature. After the Republic, long-term language and cultural bans caused the revival of Zaza literature, which developed in two centers, Turkey and Europe, mainly in Europe. After the loosened bans, Zaza literature developed in Turkey.[71]
The first known written works of Zaza literature were written during the Ottoman period. Written works in the Zaza language produced during the Ottoman period were written in Arabic letters and had a religious nature. The first written work in Zazaki during this period was written in the late 1700s. This first written text of the Zaza language was written by İsa Beg bin Ali, nicknamed Sultan Efendi, an Islamic history writer, in 1212 Hijri (1798). The work was written in Arabic letters and in theNaskh script, which is also used inOttoman Turkish. The work consists of two parts III. It includes the Eastern Anatolia region during the reign ofSelim III, the life of Ali (caliph), Alevi doctrine and history, the translation of some parts ofNahj al-balagha into Zaza language, apocalyptic subjects and poetic texts.[72] About a hundred years after this work, another work in the Zaza language, Mevlit (Mewlid-i Nebi), was written by the Ottoman-Zaza cleric, writer and poetAhmed el-Hassi (1867-1951) in 1891-1892. The first Mevlit work in the Zaza language was written in Arabic letters and published in 1899.[73][74] The mawlid, written using theArabic prosody (aruz), resembles the mawlid ofSüleyman Çelebi and the introduction includes the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the details of Allah, tawhid, munacaat, ascension, birth, birth and creation, etc. It includes religious topics and consists of 14 chapters and 366 couplets.[73][74] Another written work written during this period is another Mevlit written by Siverek muftiOsman Esad Efendi (1852-1929). The work called Biyişa Pexemberi (Birth of the Prophet) consists of chapters on the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Islamic religion and was written in Zaza language in Arabic letters in 1901 (1903 according to some sources). The work was published in 1933, after the author's death.[75] Apart from Zaza writers, non-Zaza/Ottoman writers/researchers such as Peter Ivanovich Lerch (1827-1884),[76][77] Robert Gordon Latham (1812-1888) Dr. Humphry Sandwith (1822-1881),[78][79] Wilhelm Strecker (1830-1890), Otto Blau (1828-1879),[80] Friedrich Müller (1864) and Oskar Mann (1867-1917)[81] included Zaza content (story, fairy tales dictionary) in their works in the pre-Republican period.[74]
Post-Republican Zaza literature developed through two branches, Turkey-centered and Europe-centered. During this period, the development of Zaza literature stagnated in Turkey due to long-term language and cultural bans. Zaza migration to European countries in the 1980s and the relatively free environment enabled the revival of Zaza literature in Europe. One of the works in the Zaza language written in post-Republican Turkey are two verse works written in the field of belief and fiqh in the 1940s. Following this work, another Mevlit containing religious subjects and stories was written by Mehamed Eli Hun in 1971. Zaza Divan, a 300-page manuscript consisting of Zazaki poems and odes, started to be written by Mehmet Demirbaş in 1975 and completed in 2005, is another literary work in the divan genre written in this period.[82] Mevlids and sirahs of Abdulkadir Arslan (1992-1995),[83] Kamil Pueği (1999), Muhammed Muradan (1999-2000) and Cuma Özusan (2009) are other literary works with religious content.[73] Written Zaza literature is rich in mawlid and religious works, and the first written works of the language are given in these genres.[73] The development of Zaza literature through magazine publishing took place through magazines published by Zazas who immigrated to Europe after 1980 and published exclusively in the Zaza language, magazines that were predominantly in the Zaza language but published multilingually, and magazines that were not in the Zaza language but included works in the Zaza language. Kormışkan, Tija Sodıri, Vate are magazines published entirely in Zaza language. Apart from these, Ayre (1985-1987), Piya (1988-1992) and Raa Zazaistani (1991), which were published as language, culture, literature and history magazines by Ebubekir Pamukçu, the leading name of Zaza nationalism, are important magazines in this period that were predominantly Zaza and published multilingually. Ware, ZazaPress, Pir, Raştiye, Vengê Zazaistani, Zazaki, Zerq, Desmala Sure, Waxt, Çıme are other magazines that are Zazaki-based and multilingual. In addition to these magazines published in European countries, Vatı (1997-1998), which is the first magazine published entirely in Zaza language and published in Turkey, and Miraz (2006) and Veng u Vaj (2008) are other important magazines published in Zaza language in Turkey. Magazines that are mainly published in other languages but also include works in Zaza language are magazines published in Kurdish and Turkish languages. Roja Newé (1963), Riya Azadi (1976), Tirêj (1979) and War (1997) are in the Kurdish language; Ermin (1991), Ateş Hırsızı (1992), Ütopya, Işkın, Munzur (2000), Bezuvar (2009) are magazines in Turkish language that include texts in Zaza language.[84] Today, works in different literary genres such as poetry, stories and novels in Zaza language are published by different publishing houses in Turkey and European countries.[citation needed]
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