Mazanderani language

Mazandarani
Mazandarani
مازِرونی‎ Mazeruni; تَبَری Tabari
	Mazanderani (Mazeruni) written in Nastaliq script. (مازِرونی)
Native to	Iran (Province of Mazandaran and parts of the provinces of Alborz, Tehran, Qazvin, Semnan and Golestan)
Region	South coast of the Caspian Sea
Ethnicity	Mazanderanis
Native speakers	1.35 million (2023)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Caspian Mazanderani-Shahmirzadi Mazandarani; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Gorgani-Mazandarani (East); Katuli-Mazandarani (East); Tabari-Mazandarani (Center); Kojuri-Mazandarani (West); Kelarestaqi-Mazandarani (West); Gilaki-Mazandarani (West); Galeshi-Mazandarani (South); Taleqani-Mazandarani (South); Shahmirzadi (South); Ilikaei (South); Qasrani (South);
Writing system	Persian alphabet
Official status
Regulated by	None; the Linguistic faculty of Mazandaran University officially gathers materials and resources about the language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; mzn – Mazandarani; srz – Shahmirzadi
Glottolog	maza1305 Mazanderani–Shahmirzadi
ELP	Shahmirzadi
	Areas where Mazandarani is spoken as the mother tongue

Mazandarani (Mazanderani: مازِرونی, Mazeruni; also called Mazani (مازنی) or Tabari (تبری); also called Taveri, Mazeruni, Tati, Geleki and Galeshi) is an Iranian language of the Northwestern branch spoken by the Mazanderani people. As of 2023, there were 1.35 million native speakers. As a member of the Northwestern branch (the northern branch of Western Iranian), etymologically speaking, it is rather closely related to Gilaki and also related to Persian, which belongs to the Southwestern branch. Though the Mazani and Persian languages have both influenced each other to a great extent, both are independent languages with different origins in the Iranian plateau.

Mazandarani is closely related to Gilaki, and the two languages have similar vocabularies. The Gilaki and Mazandarani languages (but not other Iranian languages) share certain typological features with Caucasian languages (specifically the non-Indo-European South Caucasian languages), reflecting the history, ethnic identity, and close relatedness to the Caucasus region and Caucasian peoples of Mazandaranis and Gilak people.