Zaza language

Zaza (endonym: Zazakî, Dimlî, Dimilkî, Kirmanckî, Kirdkî, Zonê ma, lit. 'Our language'), also known by its endonym Zazaki, is an Iranic language or group of languages belonging to the Northwestern Iranian branch and spoken in various regions of Turkey by the Zaza people. The language comprises three primary varieties; northern, southern, and central and these varieties are spoken in Bingöl, Elazığ, Erzincan, Erzurum, Malatya, Muş, Bitlis and Tunceli provinces in Eastern Anatolia; Adıyaman, Diyarbakır and Şanlıurfa provinces in Southeastern Anatolia; Kars and Ardahan in Northeastern Anatolia; Sivas, Kayseri, Aksaray in Central Anatolia and Tokat and Gümüşhane in Black Sea regions of Turkey. Leading linguistic authorities, including SIL Global, Glottolog and Ethnologue, categorize the language into distinct northern and southern varieties, which are further delineated by extensive sub-dialectal variation. In terms of morphosyntactic structure, core lexicon and diachronic development, the Zaza language demonstrates a close linguistic affiliation with Tati, Talysh, Sangsari, Semnani, Mazandarani and Gilaki. Furthermore, the language exhibits significant grammatical affinities with Parthian and Bactrian, two ancient and extinct Iranian languages spoken in antiquity. 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.