Semnani language
| Semnani | |
|---|---|
| سمنی زفون Semani zefön | |
| Region | Iran |
| Ethnicity | Semnani |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | smy |
| Glottolog | semn1249 |
| ELP | Semnani |
 Semnani is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[1] | |
Semnani (سمنانی زفون, Semani zefön) is the main language of the Semnan province of Iran and has several branches. The language belongs to the Northwestern branch of the Western Iranian languages and is spoken in south of the Caspian Sea.
Semnani, similar to other Caspian languages, bears some resemblance to the Old Iranian Median language and was influenced by Parthian in a later process.[2][3]
Classification
[edit]Glottolog classifies the Semnani language within the Semnani-Biyabuneki subgroup of Northwestern Iranian languages[4] and classifies nearby languages, such as Sangsari, Lasgerdi, Sorkhei and Aftari within another subgroup, the Komisenian subgroup.[5]
Semnani is linguistically closely related to Zaza, spoken in Anatolia [6][7][8] and Gurani, spoken by pockets in northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran.[9] Jost Gippert suggests that "that there is an inter-related connection among (northern) Zāzāki, Semnāni, and Gorāni based on the shared archaic features of the languages".[9]
Phonology
[edit]Consonants
[edit]| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | (ŋ) | |||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | q | ʔ | |||
| Affricate | tʃ dʒ | |||||||
| Fricative | f v | θ | s z | ʃ ʒ | x ɣ | h | ||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||
| Trill | (r) | |||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w |
(Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Allophones are in parentheses.)
Grammar
[edit]![[icon]](/newspapers?url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (July 2026) |
Grammatical gender has been extensively preserved in Semnani, Sangsari, Zaza and various Tati dialects. Semnani along with Zaza and Tati dialects, is distinguished within Western Iranian by marking grammatical gender on verbs, representing a highly idiosyncratic typological feature. These languages preserve the morphological expressions of grammatical gender across direct and oblique cases, singular and plural numbers and the copula.[10][11][12][8]
Syntax
[edit]Subjects in Semnani must have gender agreement with the verb in their immediate clause.[13]
Notes
[edit]- ↑ "Atlas of the world's languages in danger". unesdoc.unesco.org. p. 46. Retrieved 2025-12-21.
- ↑ Habib Borjian: . In: . Nr. 2. Brill, 2009
- ↑ Agnes, Korn. "A partial tree of Central Iranian: A new look at Iranian subphyla". Indogermanische Forschungen. 121 (1): 14.
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). "Semnani-Biyabuneki". Glottolog . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). "Komisenian". Glottolog . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ Asatrian, Garnik; Gevorgian, K. H. (1988). "Zāzā Miscellany: Notes on some religious customs and institutions". ACTA IRANICA. Leiden: Brill. p. 501.
- ↑ Asatrian, Garnik; Gevorgian, K. H. (1988). W. Sundermann, W.; Duchesne-Guillemin, J.; Vahman, F. (eds.). "Zāzā Miscellany: Notes on some religious customs and institutions". Acta Iranica: Encyclopédie Permanente des Études Iraniennes. 12 (2): 501.
- 1 2 Hassanzadeh-Nodehi, Ramin (2025). Towards a grammar of the Semnāni language (PhD thesis). Sapienza – Università di Roma.
- 1 2 Gippert, Jost (2008). "Zur dialektalen Stellung des Zazaki". Die Sprache. 47 (1): 103.
- ↑ Selcan, Zülfü (1998). Grammatik der Zaza-Sprache Nord-Dialekt (Dersim-Dialekt) (in German). Berlin: Wissenschaft & Technik Verlag. p. 55. ISBN 3-928943-96-0.
- ↑ Borjian, Habib (2026). "How Many Languages Are spoken in Semnan Area?: Typology and Origins of Komisenian Languages". In Korangy, Alireza; Khoshsirat, Zia (eds.). Caspian Languages and Linguistics: Eight Essays. Singapore: Springer Singapore. p. 24.
- ↑ Gippert, Jost (2008). "Zur dialektalen Stellung des Zazaki". Die Sprache. 47 (1): 90–91.
- ↑ Rezapour, Ebrahim (2015). "Word order in Semnani language based on language typology". IQBQ. 6 (5): 169–190.
Bibliography
[edit]Pierre Lecoq. 1989. "Les dialectes caspiens et les dialectes du nord-ouest de l'Iran," Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Ed. Rüdiger Schmitt. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. Pages 296–314.
 | This Indo-European languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
 | This Iran-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |