Zaza (endonym: Zazakî, Dimlî, Dimilkî, Kirmanckî, Kirdkî, or Zonê ma, lit.'Our language')[4][5] is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey by the Zazas, who are mostly considered as Kurds, and in many cases identify as such.[6][7][8] The language is a part of the Zaza–Gorani language group of the northwestern group of the Iranian branch. The glossonym Zaza originated as a pejorative.[9] According to Ethnologue, Zaza is spoken by around 1.48 million people, and the language is considered threatened due to a declining number of speakers, with many shifting to Turkish.[1] Nevins, however, puts the number of Zaza speakers between two and three million.[10]
^Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Sperl, Stefan (7 May 2015). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. Routledge. ISBN9781138869745.
^Arakelova, Victoria (1999). "The Zaza People as a New Ethno-Political Factor in the Region". Iran & the Caucasus. 3/4: 397–408. doi:10.1163/157338499X00335. JSTOR4030804.
^Anand, Pranav; Nevins, Andrew (2004). "Shifty Operators in Changing Contexts". In Young, Robert B. (ed.). Proceedings of the 14th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference held May 14–16, 2004, at Northwestern University. Vol. 14. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. p. 36. doi:10.3765/salt.v14i0.2913.