The Zazaki Alphabet

Zazaki (also known as Zaza, Dimili, or Kirmanjki) is a Northwest Iranian language spoken by approximately 1.5–3 million people primarily in eastern Turkey. It belongs to the Zaza-Gorani branch of the Northwest Iranian language family, within the broader Indo-Iranian family. Zazaki is spoken mainly in the provinces of Tunceli (Dersim), Bingöl, Erzincan, and Elazığ in the eastern Anatolian region of Turkey.

Despite being spoken by a community that also includes many Kurdish speakers, Zazaki is linguistically distinct from Kurdish. Zazaki and Kurdish are separate branches of Northwest Iranian — Zazaki belongs to the Zaza-Gorani branch, while Kurdish dialects (Kurmanji and Sorani) belong to a different subgroup. Zazaki's closest living relative is Gorani (also called Gurani), spoken in Kurdistan Region, Iraq and in Iran.

Estimates of the Zazaki speaker population vary considerably. Most estimates place the total number at approximately 1.5 to 3 million speakers, though some higher estimates of 4 million or more have been proposed. The uncertainty arises because no official census in Turkey has distinguished Zazaki speakers from Kurdish speakers, as Zazaki is often categorised together with Kurdish in surveys.

The majority of Zazaki speakers live in the eastern Turkish provinces of Tunceli (Dersim), Bingöl, Erzincan, Elazığ, Muş, and Diyarbakır. A significant diaspora community also exists in western Turkish cities (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir) and in Western Europe, particularly in Germany. Most Zazaki speakers are bilingual or multilingual, speaking Turkish and often Kurmanji Kurdish alongside Zazaki.

Zazaki and Kurdish are distinct languages within the Northwest Iranian branch of the Iranian language family — they are not the same language and not mutually intelligible. Zazaki belongs to the Zaza-Gorani branch, while Kurdish (both Kurmanji and Sorani) belongs to a different Northwest Iranian subgroup. Their most recent common ancestor diverged thousands of years ago.

The confusion between Zazaki and Kurdish arises from geography and social circumstances: Zazaki speakers have historically lived in a region also populated by Kurdish speakers, and the two communities have had extensive cultural contact. Many Zazaki speakers are also fluent in Kurmanji Kurdish and/or Turkish. Some Zazaki speakers identify culturally as Kurds while speaking a linguistically distinct language. Linguistically, Zazaki shares its closest affiliation not with Kurdish but with Gorani — a language spoken in Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan that is itself distinct from the Kurdish dialects — forming the Zaza-Gorani branch.

The Zaza-Gorani branch (also written Zaza-Gorani, or sometimes called Northwest Iranian Zaza-Gorani) is a subgroup of the Northwest Iranian language family consisting of two closely related languages: Zazaki (spoken in eastern Turkey) and Gorani (also called Gurani, spoken in Kurdistan Region of Iraq and in Iranian Kurdistan).

The Zaza-Gorani branch is notable for preserving several archaic Iranian features that distinguish it from the Kurdish dialects and from Persian. These include the retention of the Old Iranian bilabial /w/ (written W w in Zazaki and Gorani Latin scripts), distinctive vowel systems with length contrasts (reflected in Zazaki by the circumflex letters Ê, Î, Û), and morphological patterns that reflect an older stratum of Northwest Iranian. Linguists regard Zaza-Gorani as a well-defined branch within Northwest Iranian that is distinct from both Kurdish and Caspian languages.

The status of Zazaki is debated. While it has a relatively large speaker population (estimates of 1.5–3 million), it faces significant pressures that make its long-term vitality uncertain. The main pressures are from Turkish (the only official language of Turkey, dominating education, government, and media) and from Kurmanji Kurdish (a larger minority language with greater institutional support and a stronger written tradition).

Zazaki has historically had limited official recognition in Turkey, and access to Zazaki-medium education is very limited. Intergenerational transmission is weaker in urban areas than in rural communities. In recent decades, Zazaki cultural activists and scholars have worked to standardise the Latin alphabet, produce publications, and develop educational materials to strengthen the language. The language has two main dialect groups — Northern Zazaki (Kirmanjki) and Southern Zazaki (Dimli) — and some differences in the written standard reflect these dialect differences.

The standardised Zazaki Latin alphabet is distinctive for several features reflecting Northwest Iranian phonological characteristics. Key distinctive elements include: the circumflex vowels Ê ê (/ɛ/), Î î (/iː/), and Û û (/uː/), which represent phonemically significant vowel contrasts not found in Turkish orthography; the letter C c representing /dʒ/ (not /k/ or /s/ as in European languages); and W w representing the bilabial approximant /w/, preserved from Old Iranian.

Other distinctive features: Ç ç = /tʃ/, J j = /ʒ/, Ş ş = /ʃ/, Q q = /q/ (uvular stop), and X x = /x/ (velar fricative like "ch" in "loch"). The paired distinction between C c (/dʒ/) and Ç ç (/tʃ/), and between J j (/ʒ/) and Ş ş (/ʃ/), reflects the affricate and sibilant system of Zazaki inherited from the Northwest Iranian tradition of the Zaza-Gorani branch.