The Mazanderani (Tabari) language
 
Group Iranian (with Avestan, Parthian etc.), Northwest Iranian (with Baluchi, Kurdish etc.)
Geography & History Mazanderan is a province in northern Iran, east to Gilan and south to the Caspian. In the 10th century the Arabic geographers name this region Tabaristan, with its capital Sari. This means that Mazanderani speakers had their own independent state once. At that time their language was called Tabari in which poetry and literature was written. Today's native speakers of the language use Persian widely as the second tongue for official communication and as the written language, to the number of documents in Mazanderani is quite reduced.
Writing Arabic based alphabet (Tabari), Persian script (Mazanderani)
Close Contacts Persian, Kurdish, Azerbaijani are the closest neighbours. Local dialects of Shamerzadi and Welatru are very close to Mazanderani in structure, but their speakers do not consider themselves Mazanderani people and believe their languages are independent.
Picture Gunbad-i Qabus Tomb Tower
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