Mazanderani language

Etymology

The name Mazanderani (and variants of it) derives from the name of the province of Mazandaran (Mazerun in Mazanderani), which was part of the historical region of Tapuria. People traditionally call their language Tabari, as the Tabari themselves do.

The name Tapuri / Tabari (which was the name of an ancient language spoken somewhere in former Tapuria) is now used in preference to the name Mazandarani by the young.

However, both Gilan and Mazanderan formed part of the region known as Tapuria.

The earliest references to the language of Mazandaran, called Tabari, are to be found in the works of the early Muslim geographers. Al-Muqaddasī (or Moqaisi, 10th century), for example, notes: "The languages of Komish and Gurgan are similar, they use hā, as in hā-dih and hāk-un, and they are sweet [to the ear], related to them is the language of Tabaristan, [similar] save for its speediness."

History

Among the living Iranian languages, Mazanderani 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.

The rich literature of this language includes books such as Marzban Nameh (later translated into Persian) and the poetry of Amir Pazevari. Use of Mazanderani, however, has been in decline for some time. Its literary and administrative prominence had begun to diminish in favor of Persian by the time of the integration of Mazandaran into the national administration in the early seventeenth century.

Classification

The Mazanderani language is closely related to Gilaki and the two languages have similar vocabularies. In 1993, according to Ethnologue, there were three million native Mazanderani speakers.

The dialects of Mazanderani are as following:

• Saravi: Spoken in Sari County, which includes Chahardangeh District and highlands of Dodangeh District, Miandorud Plains, plains on the west bank of Tajan river, extending west to Juybar.

• Amoli: Encompasses mountainous areas west of Bandpey, as well as Chelav Rural District, Larijan District, Namarestaq and Kelarestaq of Amol, plains of Amol County, Mahmudabad County, foothills and plains of Chamestan region between Amol and Nur.

• Baboli: Spoken in plains of Babol County, Babolsar County, and Fereydunkenar County, highlands of Bandpey extending to Chelav Rural District in west and Alasht to east. Foothills of Babol Kenar and Ganj Afrouz are also included.

• Ghaemshahri: Spoken in plains between Kiakola in west and Juybar in east, villages of Bisheh Sar Rural District, and mountainous areas of Savadkuh and Firuzkuh.

• Chaloos and East Tonekabon: Spoken in Kelar and Langa regions, some villages in foothills of Birun Bashm, coastal plains of Chalus County, Abbasabad County and Nashtarud.

• Nur and Nowshahr: Spoken in Kojur District, Baladeh District, parts of Birun Bashm, and coastal plains between Sorkhrud and Chalus River.

• Shahsavari: Spoken in most of Tonekabon County, which includes Do Hezar, Seh Hezar, Khorramabad District, and plains between Nashtarud and Shirud. In Ramsar County both Mazandarani and Gilaki languages are common.

• Behshahri: Spoken in Plains of Behshahr County, Galugah County and Neka County east of Nekarud, as well as highlands of the mentioned counties (east of Kiasar).

• Kordkuy : Includes Eastern part of Hezar Jarib Region, villages of Ziarat, Shahkuh-e Sofla, Shahkuh-e Olya, Radkan and their neighboring villages, villages from Galugah city in west to Zangian, Golestan in east(excluding settlements populated by Turkmens).

• Katouli: Spoken in rural mountainous areas north of Shahvar peak, villages in the plains of Aliabad-e Katul County, and eastern part of Gorgan County not populated by Turkmens. Aliabad-e Katul, Pichak Mahalleh and Fazelabad, Golestan are among these settlements.

• Ghasrani: Mountains of northern parts of Tehran Province, and west of Jajrud River. Which includes Rudbar-e Qasran District, Fasham, Shemshak, Dizin.

• Damavandi: Spoken in mountainous areas of Damavand County, Rudehen District, and Bumahen District, extending eastward towards Firuzkuh.

• Shahmirzadi

The native people of Aliabad-e Katul, Gorgan, Kordkuy and Bandar-e Gaz in Golestan province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native people of Shemiranat, Damavand and Firuzkuh in Tehran province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native people of north of Karaj and Taleqan in Alborz province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The people of east of Alamut in Qazvin province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native of people of Aradan, Garmsar, Shahmirzad and north of Damghan in Semnan province are Mazandarani and speak the mazandarani language. The native people of Galugah, Behshahr, Neka, Sari, Shahi, Babol, Amol, Nowshahr, Chalus, Kelardasht, Abbasabad and Tonekabon in Mazandaran province are Mazanderani people and speak the Mazanderani language. 300px|right|Mazandaranis in Iran

Grammar

Mazanderani is an inflected and genderless language. It is SOV, but in some tenses it may be SVO, depending on the particular dialect involved.

Typology

Morphology

Just as in other modern Iranian languages, there is no distinction between the dative and accusative cases, and the nominative in the sentence takes almost no indicators but may be inferred from word order (depending on dialect it may end in a/o/e). Since Mazanderani lacks articles, there is no inflection for nouns in the sentence (no modifications for nouns). For definition, nouns take the suffix e (me dətere meaning The daughter of mine while me dəter means my daughter). The indefinite article for single nouns is a-tā with tā for determination of number (a-tā kijā meaning a girl). There exist some remnants of old Mazanderani indicating that, in the nominative case, female nouns used to end in a, while male nouns ended in e (as in jənā meaning the woman and mərdē meaning the man). Grammatical gender is still present in certain modern languages closely related to Mazandarani such as Semnani, Sangesari and Zaza.

Pronouns

In the Mazandarani language, independent personal pronouns have three cases: active, passive and possessive.{{cite journal |title= The Mazandarani Dialect of Kalijān Rostāq |journal=Iranian Studies |date=2019 |volume=52 |issue=3–4 |url= https://www.academia.edu/38367668 |pages=555 |doi= 10.1080/00210862.2019.1611371|access-date= |language=en |last1=Borjian |first1=Habib }}

Conjugation

Conjugation (hākārden) "to work" in Mazandarani language (Sari dialect).{{cite journal |title= The Mazandarani Dialect of Kalijān Rostāq |journal=Iranian Studies |date=2019 |volume=52 |issue=3–4 |url= https://www.academia.edu/38367668 |pages=561 |doi= 10.1080/00210862.2019.1611371|access-date= |language=en |last1=Borjian |first1=Habib }}

Usage

Function cases

Adjectives

Notable postpositions

Adpositions in Mazanderani are after words, while most of other languages including English and Persian have preposition systems in general. The only common postpositions that sometimes become preposition are Še and tā. Frequently used postpositions are:

Suffixes

The list below is a sample list obtained from the Online Mazanderani-Persian dictionary.

Locatives

Subjectives

Phonology

Vowels

// may also range to near-open [] or a more back []. Allophones of // are heard as []. // can also be heard as [] or [].

Consonants

// appears as an allophone of // in word-final position. // may appear as a voiceless trill in word-final position []. An occasional glottal stop // or voiceless uvular fricative // or voiced plosive // may also be heard, depending on the dialect.

Orthography

Mazanderani is commonly written in the Perso-Arabic script. However, some use the Roman alphabet, for example in SMS messages.

Vocabulary

Spoken in a territory sheltered by the high Alborz mountains, Mazanderani preserves many ancient Indo-European words no longer in common use in modern Iranian languages such as Persian. Listed below are a few common Mazanderani words of archaic, Indo-European provenance with Vedic cognates.

Mazandarani is rich in synonyms, some such nouns also retaining the gender they possessed in Indo-European times: for instance the words miš, gal, gerz all have the meaning of mouse, although they are not all of the same gender. While many Indo-Iranian languages use a masculine noun taking such related forms as muš or muska or mušk, in Mazandarani the most commonly used name for the mouse is the feminine noun gal.

Another example relates to the cow, the most important animal in the symbolism of Indo-European culture: in Mazanderani there are more than 1000 recognized words used for different types of cow. The table below lists some specimens of this rich vocabulary. In Mazandaran there are even contests held to determine those with the greatest knowledge of this bovine nomenclature.

Influences exerted by Mazanderani

Modern-day of Iran

In Iran, there are some popular companies and products, like Rika (boy) or Kija (girl), which take their name from Mazanderani words.

In non-Iranian languages

There are some Mazanderani loanwords in the Turkmen language.

Examples

The following verses are in an eastern Mazandarani dialect spoken in the Caspian littoral in northern Iran. They were transcribed and translated by Maryam Borjian and Habib Borjian.

bεlbεl xavεr biārdε nо̄bεhār ε dār-e čel-ču-rε bāur ánde nέnāle batεrkessέ dεl dā́rmo qam-e yār-ε|I was sitting [on] the heights, on the lofty nefār; The nightingale brought the news that it is early spring. Tell the tree branches not to lament so much, I have a blasted heart for the care of the beloved.}}

vέne sar ništ bío Āl-e Mohammεd har ki mεn o tέrε bázunε tomεt vεšúnnε bákuše Darviš Mohammεd|The lofty balcony, the long mat; On its top had sat the Dynasty of Muhammad. Whoever lay the blame on you and me, May Dervish Muhammad kill him (lit. 'them')!}}

References

In dates given below, A.P. denotes the Iranian calendar, the solar calendar (365 days per year) which is official in Iran and Afghanistan.

References

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