Harzandi dialect

Dialect of the Tati language


title: "Harzandi dialect" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["endangered-languages-of-iran", "northwestern-iranian-languages", "languages-of-iran"] description: "Dialect of the Tati language" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harzandi_dialect" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Dialect of the Tati language ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

FieldValue
nameHarzani
nativenameHarzandi
statesIran
speakers
date2021
refe26
familycolorIndo-European
fam2Indo-Iranian
fam3Iranian
fam4Western
fam5Northwestern II
fam6Tatic
fam7Tati
dia1Kilit
iso3hrz
glottoharz1239
glottorefnameHarzani-Kilit
::

|name=Harzani |nativename=Harzandi |states=Iran |region= |speakers= |date=2021 |ref=e26 |familycolor=Indo-European |fam2=Indo-Iranian |fam3=Iranian |fam4=Western |fam5=Northwestern II |fam6=Tatic |fam7=Tati |dia1=Kilit |iso3=hrz |glotto=harz1239 |glottorefname=Harzani-Kilit

Harzandi or Harzani (Tati: هرزندی، هرزنی) is a dialect of the Tati language, spoken in the northern regions of the East Azarbaijan province of Iran. It is strictly an oral language, and a descendant of the Old Azeri language that has long been extinct as a result of the diffusion of Turkish in the area. Harzandi has many common linguistic features with both Talysh and Zaza and was positioned between the Talysh and Zaza.

General Information

Harzani Tati is considered an endangered language with a little less than 30,000 speakers in present day. Its speakers principally reside in the rural district of Harzand, particularly in the village known as Galin Qayah. Harzani is also present in the neighboring villages of Babratein and Dash Harzand.

As of now, Harzani has not been formally recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and thus receives no government support.

Language Features

Source:

Like other languages and dialects of the Iranian language family, Harzani follows a subject–object–verb (SOV) word order. It has nine vowels, and shares a consonant inventory with Persian. It further exhibits a split-ergative case system: its present tense is structured to follow nominative-accusative patterning, while its past tense follows ergative-absolutive.

One characteristic that distinguishes Harzani from related Northwestern Iranian languages is its change from an intervocalic /d/ to an /r/. It also has a tendency to lengthen its vowels. For instance, it has the closed vowel /oe/.

Nouns and Pronouns

Nouns and pronouns in Harzani do not reflect grammatical gender, but they do express case. Nouns, in particular, encode two cases: direct and oblique case, the first of which is not rendered morphologically, but the second is by attaching a suffix. Meanwhile, personal pronouns have three cases: direct, oblique, and possessive.

Verbs

Verbs in Harzani are inflected for present tense and past tense. Information concerning person and number is reflected in suffixes that attach to these two verb stems. Modal and aspectual information is expressed using prefixes.

Numeral System

Part of Harzani's counting system is as follows:

::data[format=table]

1.11.21.40.2.12.22.50.3.13.23.60.4.14.24.70.5.15.25.80.6.16.26.90.7.17.27.100.8.18.28.200.9.19.29.1000.10.20.30.2000.
idoh-o-ivist-o-it͡ʃel
dedoh-o-de / dozdevist-o-depind͡ʒe
heredoh-o-herevist-o-heriʃeʃt
t͡ʃödoh-o-t͡ʃö / t͡ʃördævist-o-t͡ʃöhæftö
pind͡ʒdoh-o-pind͡ʒ / puzævist-o-pind͡ʒhæʃtö
ʃoʃdoh-o-ʃoʃvist-o-ʃoʃsoj-i-doh-kim
hoftdoh-o-hoftvist-o-hoftsoj / sæ
hæftdoh-o-hæft / hæʒdævist-o-hæftde sæ
novdoh-o-novvist-o-novhæzo
dohvistside-hæzo
::

Sample Words

::data[format=table]

isbaa 'dog'
::

References

References

  1. Kārang, A. A. 1954: ''Tāti va Harzani''. Tabriz: Esma’il Va’ezpur.
  2. "Hening Tati".
  3. Tati Language (An Introduction), Professor Ehsan Yarshater.
  4. Tati group (Tati-Talyshi); Donald Stilo (1981)
  5. Karimzadeh, J. 1994: "The Verbal Constructions in Azari (Harzani Dialect)." Master's thesis, Tarbiat Modarres University.
  6. Henning, Walter Bruno. (1955). "The Ancient Language of Azerbaijan". Austin & Sons.
  7. [https://www.ethnologue.com/language/hrz Harzani] at ''Ethnologue'' (17th Edition, 2014)]
  8. link. (2014-05-02 at ''Languages of the World (LLOW)'')
  9. [http://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/numeral/Harzani.htm] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-05-02 at Eugene Chan's Catalog of the World's Numeral Systems)

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