Zazakî

Zaza (endonym: , , , , , or , ) is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey by the Zazas, who are mostly considered as Kurds, and in many cases identify as such. The language is a part of the Zaza–Gorani language group of the northwestern group of the Iranian branch. The glossonym Zaza originated as a pejorative. According to Ethnologue, 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. Nevins, however, puts the number of Zaza speakers between two and three million.

Classification

The Zaza language is considered a branch of the Kurdic subgroup within the Northwestern Iranian languages. The varieties of Kurdic do not directly descend from any known Middle Iranian languages, such as Middle Persian or Parthian, or from Old Iranian languages, such as Avestan or Old Persian. Zaza is considered a macrolanguage, consisting of Southern and Northern Zaza. Glottolog database classifies Zazaki under the Adharic branch of Northwestern Iranian languages.

Linguistically, the classification of Zazaki as either a Kurdish dialect or a distinct language is a topic of debate among scholars. Some, such as Ludwig Paul, do not consider Zazaki and Gorani 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.Paul, Ludwig (2008).
Kurdish language I. History of the Kurdish language
. In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). ''Encyclopædia Iranica''. London and New York: Routledge
Archived
from the original on 4 December 2011. The differences between them arise from the Kurdish adoption of Persian linguistic features due to historical contact. 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 and Kurmanji 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.

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, and Southern Kurdish) as well as the Zaza and Gorani languages. The term "Kurdic" is used to refer to this broad grouping.

German linguist Jost Gippert has demonstrated that the Zaza language is very closely related to the Parthian 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 the Parthian language that has survived to the present day.

Endangerment

Many Zaza speakers resided in conflict-affected regions of eastern 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, primarily Germany, Sweden, Netherlands and the United States, and Australia.

Efforts to preserve and revitalize Zazaki are ongoing. Many Kurdish writers in Turkey are fighting to save Zazaki with children’s books and others with newspapers, but the language faces an uncertain future.

The decline of Zazaki speakers could also lead the Zazas to lose their identity and shift to a Turkish identity. According to a study led by Dr. Nadire Güntaş Aldatmaz, an academic at Ankara University, 402 people aged between 15 and 75 from Mamekîye in Dersim 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.

History

Writing in Zaza is a recent phenomenon. The first literary work in Zaza is ''Mewlîdu'n-Nebîyyî'l-Qureyşîyyî'' by Ehmedê Xasi in 1899, followed by the work ''Mawlûd'' by Osman 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 newspaper ''Roja Newe,'' but the newspaper was banned and no further publication in Zaza took place until 1976, when periodicals published a few Zaza texts. Modern Zaza literature appeared for the first time in the journal ''Tîrêj'' in 1979 but the journal had to close as a result of the 1980 coup d'état. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most Zaza literature was published in Germany, France and especially Sweden 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 (after ''Mawlûd'' 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.

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 in Stockholm and established a common alphabet and orthographic rules which they published. Some authors nonetheless do not abide by these rules as they do not apply the orthographic rules in their oeuvres.

In 2009, Zaza was classified as a vulnerable language by UNESCO.

The institution of Higher Education of Turkey approved the opening of the Zaza Language and Literature Department in Munzur University in 2011 and began accepting students in 2012 for the department. In the following year, Bingöl University established the same department. TRT Kurdî also broadcast in the language. Some TV channels which broadcast in Zaza were closed after the 2016 coup d'état attempt.

Dialects

There are three main Zazaki dialects:
* Northern Zazaki iu/nowiki> is spoken mainly in Aşkale, Hozat, Hınıs, Kelkit