Zazaki

Zazaki is an Iranic language of the Northwestern branch, spoken by the Zazaki people mainly in eastern Turkey. It is considered a distinct language by linguists, though it shares historical ties with Kurdish varieties and other Northwestern Iranian languages. The language comprises several dialects and is not always mutually intelligible across them.

The two largest dialect groups are Northern Zazaki (often called Kirmanjki) and Southern Zazaki (Dimili or Dımıli). There are also regional variations within these groups. Zazaki is primarily spoken in provinces such as Tunceli (Dersim), Erzincan, Bingöl, and Diyarbakır, with smaller communities in neighboring areas. A substantial Zazaki-speaking diaspora has formed in Europe, especially Germany, but also in Sweden, the Netherlands, and France. Estimates of fluent and partial speakers generally place the number in the range of about 1.5 to 2 million people.

Writing and standardization have used a Latin-based script since the early 20th century, though orthographic conventions vary by dialect and region. There is no single nationwide standard, and local publications, education initiatives, and media promote different conventions. Zazaki features typical Indo-Iranian phonology and grammar, including agglutinative morphology and a subject–object–verb word order, with postpositional marking.

In Turkey, Zazaki is not an official language, and its use in formal education is limited and varies by policy and locality. The language maintains a vibrant cultural presence through oral literature, music, folk traditions, and increasingly through written and digital media, contributing to Zazaki identity among speakers and communities both in Turkey and abroad.