Harzandi dialect

Harzani
Harzani
Harzandi
Native to	Iran
Native speakers	36,000 (2021)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Northwestern II Tatic Tati Harzani; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Kilit;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hrz
Glottolog	harz1239
ELP	Harzani

Harzandi or Harzani (Tati: هرزندی، هرزنی) is a dialect of the Tati language,^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] spoken in the northern regions of the East Azarbaijan province of Iran. It is strictly an oral language, and a descendant of the Old Azeri language that has long been extinct as a result of the diffusion of Turkish in the area.^[6] Harzandi has many common linguistic features with both Talysh and Zaza and was positioned between the Talysh and Zaza.^[7]

General Information

Harzani Tati is considered an endangered language with a little less than 30,000 speakers in present day.^[8] Its speakers principally reside in the rural district of Harzand, particularly in the village known as Galin Qayah. Harzani is also present in the neighboring villages of Babratein and Dash Harzand.^[6]

As of now, Harzani has not been formally recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and thus receives no government support.^[9]

Language Features

Source:^[9]

Like other languages and dialects of the Iranian language family, Harzani follows a subject–object–verb (SOV) word order. It has nine vowels, and shares a consonant inventory with Persian. It further exhibits a split-ergative case system: its present tense is structured to follow nominative-accusative patterning, while its past tense follows ergative-absolutive.

One characteristic that distinguishes Harzani from related Northwestern Iranian languages is its change from an intervocalic /d/ to an /r/.^[3] It also has a tendency to lengthen its vowels. For instance, it has the closed vowel /oe/.

Nouns and Pronouns

Nouns and pronouns in Harzani do not reflect grammatical gender, but they do express case. Nouns, in particular, encode two cases: direct and oblique case, the first of which is not rendered morphologically, but the second is by attaching a suffix. Meanwhile, personal pronouns have three cases: direct, oblique, and possessive.

Verbs

Verbs in Harzani are inflected for present tense and past tense. Information concerning person and number is reflected in suffixes that attach to these two verb stems. Modal and aspectual information is expressed using prefixes.

Numeral System

Part of Harzani's counting system is as follows:^[10]

1.	i	11.	doh-o-i	21.	vist-o-i	40.	t͡ʃel
2.	de	12.	doh-o-de / dozde	22.	vist-o-de	50.	pind͡ʒe
3.	here	13.	doh-o-here	23.	vist-o-heri	60.	ʃeʃt
4.	t͡ʃö	14.	doh-o-t͡ʃö / t͡ʃördæ	24.	vist-o-t͡ʃö	70.	hæftö
5.	pind͡ʒ	15.	doh-o-pind͡ʒ / puzæ	25.	vist-o-pind͡ʒ	80.	hæʃtö
6.	ʃoʃ	16.	doh-o-ʃoʃ	26.	vist-o-ʃoʃ	90.	soj-i-doh-kim
7.	hoft	17.	doh-o-hoft	27.	vist-o-hoft	100.	soj / sæ
8.	hæft	18.	doh-o-hæft / hæʒdæ	28.	vist-o-hæft	200.	de sæ
9.	nov	19.	doh-o-nov	29.	vist-o-nov	1000.	hæzo
10.	doh	20.	vist	30.	si	2000.	de-hæzo

Sample Words

arina Friday^[3]

ruzare 'west'

ruz 'sun'

parare 'below'

parpe 'above'

-are 'under'

oev (öv) 'water'

voer 'wind'

hoev 'sister'

isbaa 'dog'

References

^ Harzani at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^ Kārang, A. A. 1954: Tāti va Harzani. Tabriz: Esma’il Va’ezpur.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Hening Tati".
^ Tati Language (An Introduction), Professor Ehsan Yarshater.
^ Tati group (Tati-Talyshi); Donald Stilo (1981)
^ ^a ^b Karimzadeh, J. 1994: "The Verbal Constructions in Azari (Harzani Dialect)." Master's thesis, Tarbiat Modarres University.
^ Henning, Walter Bruno (1955). The Ancient Language of Azerbaijan. Austin & Sons. pp. 174–175.
^ Harzani at Ethnologue (17th Edition, 2014)]
^ ^a ^b Harzani Archived 2014-05-02 at the Wayback Machine at Languages of the World (LLOW)
^ [1] Archived 2014-05-02 at the Wayback Machine at Eugene Chan's Catalog of the World's Numeral Systems

External links

Harzani at the Endangered Languages Project
Sample of Harzani on YouTube