History of the Zaza people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The first mention of the word Zaza appears on the Behistun Inscription. The text of the inscription is a statement by Darius I of Persia. In the inscription Darius says, “there (is) a town Zazana by name along the Euphrates…” [1]. However, the connection between the Zaza people and the town Zazana referred by Darius I of Persia is questionable.
It is generally believed that the Zazas immigrated to their modern day homeland from the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. Some Zazas use the word Dimli (Daylami) to describe their ethnic identity. The word Dimli (Daylami) also describes a region of Gilan Province in today’s Iran. The Zazaki Language also show similarities with Gilaki, Mazanderani and others spoken by the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.
[edit] Paul Ludwig’s Study
A German linguist Paul Ludwig’s study on Zazaki Language draws four conclusions about Zaza's history and language: [2]. According to him:
1. In the ancient times (Late 2nd millennium B.C. approx.) there was a continuum of closely related Northwestern Iranian dialects spoken from the northwest to the northeast of present Iran.
2. Later but still in pre-Achaemenian times, the forefathers of the Kurds and Baluchis of today were the first split off to move south and southeast respectively. Possibly Zazaki may still have spoken at this period around the ancient region of Daylam south of Caspian Sea.
3. Centuries later, maybe during the rise of the Parthians, and the accompanying movement of various tribes from the ancient province of Parthia, the Goran and Zaza tribes made their home in northern Mesopotamia forming furthermost western link chain of Northwestern Iranian people.
4. Centuries later, maybe during the Sasanian period, all Northwestern dialects influenced and superseded by Middle Persian. In the west Zazaki was driven more to the north and northwest by Kurdish, but still remained in contact northern chain of Northwest dialects (Azari, Talysi, Semangani, Mazanderani, Gilaki) for some time.
[edit] Zazaki and Parthian Language
According to another study conducted by Jost Gibbert, an Iranolog from Frankfurt University, Zazaki and Parthian, an extinct middle Iranian language, shows quite similarities [3]. According to him, Zazaki’s roots probably come from Parthian because Zazaki phonetically, morphologically, and lexically shows interesting similarities with Parthian Language.
