Bakhtiari dialect

Bakhtiari dialect (Persian: گویش بختیاری, romanized: Gūyesh-e Bakhtiāri), also called Bakhtiari Luri, is a variety of the Luri language spoken by the Bakhtiari people in the central Zagros Mountains and southwestern Iran. It belongs to the Southwestern Iranian branch and is closely related to Persian. Luri has three main varieties: Northern Luri, Bakhtiari and Southern Luri. Bakhtiari is linguistically intermediate between the other two. Erik Anonby treats the three as distinct languages within a continuum, although many sources still describe Bakhtiari as a "dialect". In the traditional division of the Lurs into the "Greater Lurs" (Lor-e bozorg) and the "Lesser Lurs" (Lor-e kuček), the Bakhtiari belong, together with the Southern Luri-speaking groups, to the Greater Lurs.