Zaza–Gorani languages

Speakers

The Zaza language is the ancestral language of Zazas and the Zaza people are traditionally considered to be descendants of the Daylamites, a medieval martial society indigenous to Northern Iran who progressively expanded their presence into Anatolia during the medieval period. The Gorani dialects, on the other hand, are spoken by Gorans (Shabaks, Bajalans) and it is hypothesized within historical linguistics that the Gorani-speaking communities underwent a collective displacement from the Caspian basin to their current geographic localities during an undocumented period of early history. According to some, most of their speakers consider themselves ethnic Kurds. However, many Zazas and Gorans oppose it and emphasize their own separate identity distinct from the Kurds.

Criticism

Despite the some similarities, there are significant linguistic differences between the Zaza and Gurani languages. Due to these differences, there is no generally accepted view that the Zaza and Gurani languages together form a Zaza-Gorani group on their own in contrast to other Northwestern language groups. The significant linguistic differences between the Zaza and Gorani languages were first noted by Karl Hadank, the first linguist to linguistically study and analyze the Zaza language. Hadank, in the Zâzâ und Gûrânî section of his prominent work, Mundarten der Zâzâ, demonstrated significant linguistic differences between Zaza and Gorani, including important phonological differences, differences and deviations in tense structures, conjugation systems and verbal particles and in glossaries and gender, the very clear gender declension in Zaza, including verb conjugations in contrast to the almost complete absence of gender in Gurani, in prefixs and suffixs, the absence of determinative suffixes in Zaza in contrast to Gorani's explicit use of them, Gorani's characteristic prepositions that Zazaca does not possess. Linguistic features that are assumed to unite Zaza and Gorani are also found in languages and dialects such as Semnani, Tati, Balochi, Talysh and Gilaki. Zaza, shows obvious parallels to Caspian languages (Iranian languages of the Caspian region) that Gurani lacks. Therefore, it has been noted multiple times that there is quite insufficient evidence to substantiate the Zaza-Gorani subgroup, as is often assumed, existing similarities do not imply that Zaza and Gorani ever formed a historical unit and no unifying characteristics have been found from Zaza and the Gorani group to demonstrate that they constitute a group on their own in contrast to other Northwestern language groups.