Mazanderani language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mazandarani
مازرونی‎ (Mazoruni) طبری (Tabari)
Mazanderani (Mazoruni) written in Nastaliq script. (مازرونی)
Native to	Iran (Province of Mazandaran and parts of the provinces of Alborz, Tehran, Qazvin, Semnan and Golestan)
Region	South coast of the Caspian Sea
Ethnicity	Mazanderani people
Native speakers	2 million  (2019)e25
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Caspian Mazandarani
Dialects	Gorgani-Mazandarani (East) Katuli-Mazandarani (East) Tabari-Mazandarani (Center) Kojuri-Mazandarani (West) Kelarestaqi-Mazandarani (West) Gilaki-Mazandarani (West) Galeshi-Mazandarani (South) Taleqani-Mazandarani (South) Shahmirzadi (South) Ilikaei (South) Qasrani (South)
Writing system	Persian alphabet
Official status
Regulated by	None. But the Linguistic faculty of Mazandaran University officially gathers materials and resources about it.
Areas where Mazandarani is spoken as the mother tongue
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Mazandarani (مازندرانی), also known as Tabari (طبری), is a language spoken by the Mazandarani people. It belongs to the Iranian languages family, specifically the Northwestern branch. As of 2019, about 2 million people speak Mazandarani as their first language.

Mazandarani is closely related to the Gilaki language. Both languages share similar words and some unique features with languages from the Caucasus region. This shows their historical connections to that area. Mazandarani is also related to Persian, though Persian is from a different branch of Iranian languages. Even with Persian's influence, Mazandarani remains its own distinct language.

What's in a Name?

The name Mazandarani comes from the historical region of Mazandaran. People often call their language Tabari because it was traditionally spoken in the ancient area known as Tapuria. Young people today sometimes prefer the name Tabari.

Early writers, like Al-Muqaddasī in the 10th century, mentioned the language of Tabaristan (another name for Mazandaran). They noted it was similar to languages in nearby regions but spoken more quickly.

A Look at History

Mazandarani has a long written history, dating back from the 10th to the 15th centuries. This was when independent rulers in Mazandaran helped the language grow.

Important books like Marzban Nameh and poems by Amir Pazevari were written in Mazandarani. However, its use in literature and government started to decline in the 17th century. This happened when Mazandaran became part of the larger Iranian government.

Where is it Spoken?

Mazandarani is closely related to Gilaki, and they have many similar words. In 1993, around three million people spoke Mazandarani.

The language has many different ways of being spoken, called dialects. Some of these include Saravi, Amoli, Baboli, and Shahmirzadi. People in cities like Sari, Babol, Amol, and Chalus are Mazandarani people and speak this language.

Mazandaranis in Iran

Map depicting areas where the various dialects of Mazandarani are spoken

How the Language Works

Linguistic Map of Mazandaran Province

Mazandarani is an inflected language, meaning words change their endings to show their role in a sentence. It does not have grammatical gender, unlike some other languages. The usual word order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), but in some dialects, it can be Subject-Verb-Object (SVO).

Word Forms

In Mazandarani, nouns don't change much for different roles in a sentence. You can often tell their role from the word order. To make a noun definite (like "the house"), you add the suffix e (for example, me dətere means The daughter of mine). For indefinite nouns (like "a girl"), you use a-tā (a-tā kijā).

Long ago, female nouns used to end in a and male nouns in e. For example, jənā meant the woman and mərdē meant the man. Some related languages still have grammatical gender today.

How Words Connect

Mazandarani uses words placed after other words to show their relationship, unlike English or Persian which mostly use words before (prepositions). These are called postpositions.

Some common postpositions are:

Word Endings (Suffixes)

Mazandarani uses suffixes, which are small parts added to the end of words, to change their meaning.

Place Suffixes

These suffixes tell you about a place:

Action Suffixes

These suffixes describe someone who does an action:

How it Sounds

Mazandarani has specific vowel and consonant sounds. Some sounds might change slightly depending on where they are in a word or which dialect is being spoken.

Vowel Sounds

Consonant Sounds

How it's Written

Mazandarani is usually written using the Perso-Arabic script, which is similar to the alphabet used for Persian. Sometimes, people also use the Roman alphabet, especially for things like text messages.

Words and Their Meanings

Because it's protected by the Alborz mountains, Mazandarani has kept many old Indo-European words. These words are no longer common in modern Iranian languages like Persian.

Here are some common Mazandarani words that have ancient roots:

Mazandarani has many words that mean the same thing (synonyms). For example, the words miš, gal, and gerz all mean "mouse." Interestingly, these words might have different grammatical genders, even though they refer to the same animal.

The language is especially rich in words for different types of cows. This is because cows are very important in the culture of the region. There are even contests to see who knows the most cow names!

Mazandarani's Influence

Mazandarani has influenced other languages and even modern companies.

In Iran Today

Some popular companies and products in Iran use names from Mazandarani words. For example, "Rika" (boy) and "Kija" (girl) are Mazandarani words.

In Other Languages

Some words from Mazandarani have also been borrowed into the Turkmen language.

Examples of Mazandarani

Here are some verses in an eastern Mazandarani dialect. They were written down and translated by Maryam and Habib Borjian.

Images for kids

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  Areas where Mazandarani is spoken as the mother tongue

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  Mazanderani (Mazoruni) written in Nastaliq script. (مازرونی)

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  Mazandaranis in Iran

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  Map depicting areas where the various dialects of Mazandarani are spoken

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  Linguistic Map of Mazandaran Province

See also

In Spanish: Idioma mazandaraní para niños